2023-24 NFL Season Thread

[Tony]

1 minute ago, Kyyle23 said:

When Kaepernick was at his absolute best, he had defenses on a string and they had no idea what he was going to be doing.  The bears had a small run of that last year and that caught all of our attention.  Justin has to find that, the quality that makes defenses pause.

If I'm the Chiefs or Broncos, at this point, I have no fear Fields is going to run all over me. It doesn't seem like that's in the Bears gameplan at all. And that's an issue. 

[Kyyle23]

2 minutes ago, Tony said:

If I'm the Chiefs or Broncos, at this point, I have no fear Fields is going to run all over me. It doesn't seem like that's in the Bears gameplan at all. And that's an issue. 

The game plan on Sunday fell apart in the second drive when they forced Velus Jones into the game and the entire defense followed him and blew up the play.  It’s like they script as much as they can and if the script goes sideways they have no idea what to do

[Balta1701]

2 minutes ago, Kyyle23 said:

The game plan on Sunday fell apart in the second drive when they forced Velus Jones into the game and the entire defense followed him and blew up the play.  It’s like they script as much as they can and if the script goes sideways they have no idea what to do

Different part of the game but boy is this an example of where the play calling is making us go wtf...

[The Beast]

What if the Bears modeled plays after an offense for someone like this guy? 

Forget the screens, work on boot legs, play action, use running plays and passes towards the middle to keep teams guessing. Throw in some designed runs and take advantage of his speed. Make him more dynamic and unleash him as a player rather than do whatever the play calls are trying to achieve right now. 

[Kyyle23]

15 minutes ago, Balta1701 said:

Different part of the game but boy is this an example of where the play calling is making us go wtf...

You know when Justin threw that pick, he was thinking “they know this play we ran it twice just now”

[bigruss]

39 minutes ago, Tony said:

This is correct. Poles created a situation with the Carolina trade to give them a somewhat easy "out" if Fields isn't the guy they want him to be. 

The situation becomes exponentially easier if Fields DOES end up being the guy, as you'll have two first rounders to plug holes instead of using both to get your next QB, but they have options and capital to do what needs to be done.  

They may not even have to trade to get the #1 pick lol

[nitetrain8601]

2 hours ago, Balta1701 said:

First of all, they traded away the #1 pick on a big gamble that "Fields was the guy". So you better find a way to put together a system that works for him.

Second, offenses change all the bloody time. Many teams have to run different offenses if their backup QB comes in, because their starter often has skills that the backup doesn't have. Offenses change when teams change coordinators. Offenses change in the offseason.

The idea that the Bears have an incredible offense that's been in place for 10 years and which has performed so well it shouldn't be adapted to Fields...is Nuts?

No, they traded the #1 pick because

1. They knew they didn't know what they had in Fields or the offense due to lack of pieces around him

2. The QB crop was considered weak with heavily flawed prospects

3. They were able to obtain not only quality assets, but multiply those assets from one

4. This year's QB class is considered really strong with 2 guys who would go #1 in any draft who play the QB position

 

Offense changes when you have to bring the backup QB in, only if that team has contender aspirations. The Bears are not a contender. Heck, before JF showed us what he had this year, the Bears were considered a fringe playoff team at best. There's no reason to change the offense which means changing schemes, changing development work for the rest of the offense because a guy cannot process the field. And yes, offenses change when new coordinators come in. Why? Because the new coordinator knows how to run their offense, not something else. Getsy is not a new coordinator, he's trying to implement his philosophies. Just last year, he was getting praise and being talked up as a potential HC candidate down the line. Now, because Justin struggles, it's because Getsy suddenly forgot what offense is? That's ridiculous.

Martz, Getsy, Nagy, whether you like them or not, are professional OCs who all know that you have to be able to pass the ball in the NFL to win. Getsy and Nagy have struggled to get JF to read a field or throw with any anticipation. 

What's nuts is wanting to change an offense for the 6th time in 10 years and blaming the OC as if the players to run the offense are enough. That's asinine to me. 

Can't wait for next week's game asking the Bears to play "Bear football" and run the ball 100 times, then complain two weeks later when teams see it coming and they can't get more than 100 yards of total offense.  

[Kyyle23]

No, I don’t have to give Nagy credit for being an OC when he had that job taken away from him the game before the bears hired him.  That guy was an abject disaster with Justin and anything he did with him should be tossed out 

[nitetrain8601]

47 minutes ago, The Beast said:

What if the Bears modeled plays after an offense for someone like this guy? 

Forget the screens, work on boot legs, play action, use running plays and passes towards the middle to keep teams guessing. Throw in some designed runs and take advantage of his speed. Make him more dynamic and unleash him as a player rather than do whatever the play calls are trying to achieve right now. 

But why? If that way is not going to win you a Super Bowl or even get you into the playoffs, and he's not your guy because he can't play your offense, why would you do that?

 

Also, one of the biggest issues is that Fields cannot throw to the middle of the field. He's unable to read whether a guy is open or not. Heck DJ waved his hands a few times on Sunday when wide open and JF still couldn't see him open. Albert Breer I believe on ESPN Radio this morning was saying, your best hope without sacrificing the offense is to run more play action and speed up the offense overall. That's when JF was at his best in college. He struggled at OSU too his final year there up until the final few weeks of the season when the coaching did that. 

[nitetrain8601]

3 minutes ago, Kyyle23 said:

No, I don’t have to give Nagy credit for being an OC when he had that job taken away from him the game before the bears hired him.  That guy was an abject disaster with Justin and anything he did with him should be tossed out 

It's not just Nagy. It's Getsy, it's Martz as well who turned Joey Harrington into a productive player. 

 

Everyone rather find the flaw in the coaching and OC instead of the player when it's evident, the one thing they all have in common is the player. 

[LittleHurtCG]

1 hour ago, Tony said:

If I'm the Chiefs or Broncos, at this point, I have no fear Fields is going to run all over me. It doesn't seem like that's in the Bears gameplan at all. And that's an issue. 

NFL defenses also adjust. Green Bay and Tampa both did excellent jobs on not breaking containment. Sure, the Bears should run Fields a bit more. However, not sure what the plan for Bears will be when defenses get better at taking that away. At some point, the dude needs to get better at dropping back and throwing the ball downfield. JF is now in year 3. How does he improve as a pocket passer if he isn't getting reps in? 

8 minutes ago, nitetrain8601 said:

But why? If that way is not going to win you a Super Bowl or even get you into the playoffs, and he's not your guy because he can't play your offense, why would you do that?

 

Also, one of the biggest issues is that Fields cannot throw to the middle of the field. He's unable to read whether a guy is open or not. Heck DJ waved his hands a few times on Sunday when wide open and JF still couldn't see him open. Albert Breer I believe on ESPN Radio this morning was saying, your best hope without sacrificing the offense is to run more play action and speed up the offense overall. That's when JF was at his best in college. He struggled at OSU too his final year there up until the final few weeks of the season when the coaching did that. 

I guess people are saying that the Bears totally need to scrap their offense and run an offense full of RPOs, misdirection, and bootlegs. Basically a college style offense in the NFL since Fields isn't making progress throwing the football. I'm sure that is going to work out great. The NFL is full of Super Bowl teams where the QB had more rushing yards than passing yards lol. 

[Kyyle23]

12 minutes ago, nitetrain8601 said:

It's not just Nagy. It's Getsy, it's Martz as well who turned Joey Harrington into a productive player. 

 

Everyone rather find the flaw in the coaching and OC instead of the player when it's evident, the one thing they all have in common is the player. 

Getsy is really the only one that matters right now.  Nagy tried to force a bad offense meant for Andy Dalton(lmao).  Martz never coached him and even said on his score call ins that he likes fields and doesn’t know what they are doing with him

[LittleHurtCG]

16 minutes ago, nitetrain8601 said:

It's not just Nagy. It's Getsy, it's Martz as well who turned Joey Harrington into a productive player. 

 

Everyone rather find the flaw in the coaching and OC instead of the player when it's evident, the one thing they all have in common is the player. 

It can be a combination of poor coaching and a flawed player. Unfortunately, it seems like the Bears may have both. 

[Balta1701]

51 minutes ago, LittleHurtCG said:

NFL defenses also adjust. Green Bay and Tampa both did excellent jobs on not breaking containment. Sure, the Bears should run Fields a bit more. However, not sure what the plan for Bears will be when defenses get better at taking that away. At some point, the dude needs to get better at dropping back and throwing the ball downfield. JF is now in year 3. How does he improve as a pocket passer if he isn't getting reps in? 

I guess people are saying that the Bears totally need to scrap their offense and run an offense full of RPOs, misdirection, and bootlegs. Basically a college style offense in the NFL since Fields isn't making progress throwing the football. I'm sure that is going to work out great. The NFL is full of Super Bowl teams where the QB had more rushing yards than passing yards lol. 

Look, no one is saying that Fields hasn't been part of the problem. He is definitely holding the ball too long. People have identified specific plays where he has had time, people have been open, and he's been unwilling to make the throw. No one. understands what is going on in his head right now but it's not a good place. If it isn't fixed, then he will struggle to be an average level QB.

At the same time, it is also equally true that the coaching has been a part of the problem. There are multiple layers to this - bad and plain dumb play calling - in week 1 my video was "What the Hell was this play, he rolls out and there are no WRs on this side of the field", in week 2 the video was "exact same screen pass called 3 times in a row 3rd one turns into a pick". These are just blatant. We are seeing the problem in the stats - lack of designed runs, lack of rollouts which we know can be effective with him and which will impact the way the defense is defending them, lack of plans designed to give a WR a chance to make a play downfield.

Now here's the hard part - how much does the coaching staff influence what is going on in Justin Fields's head right now? He seems to be in a worse spot than he was last year, has he done something wrong or has the coaching staff gotten into his head somehow? If it's the latter, what happens when this same franchise gets another QB next year, if they're already unable to take advantage of this QB's skills and to put him in a position to grow?

[lostfan]

 

[lostfan]

It's the celebration after with his back turned to the refs immediately throwing two flags that really sells this for me. He genuinely thought he had a sack but Goff had gotten rid of the ball like 17 minutes ago

 

[caulfield12]

4 hours ago, nitetrain8601 said:

No, they traded the #1 pick because

1. They knew they didn't know what they had in Fields or the offense due to lack of pieces around him

2. The QB crop was considered weak with heavily flawed prospects

3. They were able to obtain not only quality assets, but multiply those assets from one

4. This year's QB class is considered really strong with 2 guys who would go #1 in any draft who play the QB position

 

Offense changes when you have to bring the backup QB in, only if that team has contender aspirations. The Bears are not a contender. Heck, before JF showed us what he had this year, the Bears were considered a fringe playoff team at best. There's no reason to change the offense which means changing schemes, changing development work for the rest of the offense because a guy cannot process the field. And yes, offenses change when new coordinators come in. Why? Because the new coordinator knows how to run their offense, not something else. Getsy is not a new coordinator, he's trying to implement his philosophies. Just last year, he was getting praise and being talked up as a potential HC candidate down the line. Now, because Justin struggles, it's because Getsy suddenly forgot what offense is? That's ridiculous.

Martz, Getsy, Nagy, whether you like them or not, are professional OCs who all know that you have to be able to pass the ball in the NFL to win. Getsy and Nagy have struggled to get JF to read a field or throw with any anticipation. 

What's nuts is wanting to change an offense for the 6th time in 10 years and blaming the OC as if the players to run the offense are enough. That's asinine to me. 

Can't wait for next week's game asking the Bears to play "Bear football" and run the ball 100 times, then complain two weeks later when teams see it coming and they can't get more than 100 yards of total offense.  

Maye just has never added up to the sum of all his parts...and one can never really trust that UNC team to show up in big games.

Williams or just for now.

Ewers and now Deion's son are potentially 3/4 at this point.

McCarthy around QB5?

 

Young is looking too undersized for now with Carolina...he is more of a precision passer than a Josh Allen type and that only works in a scheme perfectly aligned with his talents.

[Balta1701]

 

 

[lostfan]

2 minutes ago, Balta1701 said:

 

Yeah, *worst case* that's 1st and goal. If he can't see that throw to make there's no helping him, this wasn't even some complex throw where you had to know coverages or anything. Now, granted, he was never *this* bad before, but still. Why is he just freezing up? What's happening in his head?

[CentralChamps21]

If Bears management has decided that they don't care about winning games this season and are going to do everything they can to develop Fields by having him stay in the pocket as much as possible, I'm OK with that. I just need to know that's what they're actually doing.

[lostfan]

Tim Jenkins here says the footwork change they did dramatically slowed down his dropback and processing, so he's playing really slow now, and it's exacerbating everything else.

 

[Balta1701]

14 minutes ago, CentralChamps21 said:

If Bears management has decided that they don't care about winning games this season and are going to do everything they can to develop Fields by having him stay in the pocket as much as possible, I'm OK with that. I just need to know that's what they're actually doing.

If that is what they were doing, then he needs to be at least attempting those throws. Those were well protected and completable passes, and in the upper video he definitely recognizes that those 2 open WRs should be the target. If that was the goal, then what in the world is going on in these games? 

[The Beast]

6 hours ago, nitetrain8601 said:

But why? If that way is not going to win you a Super Bowl or even get you into the playoffs, and he's not your guy because he can't play your offense, why would you do that?

 

Also, one of the biggest issues is that Fields cannot throw to the middle of the field. He's unable to read whether a guy is open or not. Heck DJ waved his hands a few times on Sunday when wide open and JF still couldn't see him open. Albert Breer I believe on ESPN Radio this morning was saying, your best hope without sacrificing the offense is to run more play action and speed up the offense overall. That's when JF was at his best in college. He struggled at OSU too his final year there up until the final few weeks of the season when the coaching did that. 

I’m not saying change the entire offense. I’m saying stop doing the stuff that doesn’t work and play to his strengths. Speed up the offense, speed up his progressions, let him run, do play action, throw on the move and hit receivers in the middle. Who cares if he’s got some Cutler in him and throws a pick? They need to do better than they have on offense, some of which is on Fields but some which is on Getsy.

9 hours ago, nitetrain8601 said:

Again, why would you change the whole offense for a guy you don't believe is the guy. It's not like Fields is even releasing the ball when guys are wide open. If Fields isn't the guy, I'm sorry, you don't change the offense for him. Because you lose a year of development for the guys around him trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. And if you win a few meaningless games, you screw yourself in terms of draft pick and may end up on the outside looking in for your new QB.

 

It would be incredibly stupid to change the offense. 

Even if he’s not the guy, change things up to give the offense a chance. The play calling has been suspect over the last few games. It’s not stupid to change things up if things haven’t been working. Make use of his strengths and see if he can make some throws on the run like Vick did. He’s close to being fast like Vick was. 

5 hours ago, LittleHurtCG said:

NFL defenses also adjust. Green Bay and Tampa both did excellent jobs on not breaking containment. Sure, the Bears should run Fields a bit more. However, not sure what the plan for Bears will be when defenses get better at taking that away. At some point, the dude needs to get better at dropping back and throwing the ball downfield. JF is now in year 3. How does he improve as a pocket passer if he isn't getting reps in? 

I guess people are saying that the Bears totally need to scrap their offense and run an offense full of RPOs, misdirection, and bootlegs. Basically a college style offense in the NFL since Fields isn't making progress throwing the football. I'm sure that is going to work out great. The NFL is full of Super Bowl teams where the QB had more rushing yards than passing yards lol. 

He can pass, he can run, whatever. He just needs to be able to play his game and if he makes mistakes for making some I’ll advised throws or a wrong read, okay, but it’s better than taking a sack or not throwing to someone who is open or is near open. Nobody is saying scrap the offense, instead they should work in plays that play to his strengths IN ADDITION TO Fields working on being better in the pocket.

54 minutes ago, Balta1701 said:

 

 

Thanks for sharing. You have to think the Bears are doing these kinds of things with coaching. I don’t think they are that inept not to.

[Kyyle23]

The Bears need to decide if Williams is gonna be their DC or not, and if he isn’t coming back then it is TIME TO HIRE A NEW DC

[fathom]

37 minutes ago, Kyyle23 said:

The Bears need to decide if Williams is gonna be their DC or not, and if he isn’t coming back then it is TIME TO HIRE A NEW DC

Some cryptic things on Twitter that it’s bad stuff involving him