Poles playing chess while everyone else is playing checkers!

You're right in that we are living a roller coaster.  I can only speak for myself, but in my case I am a pretty emotional fan... and I think that for folks that are crazy about their sports team it is usually like that.  Here are a few of the reasons I have been up-and-down since Poles and Eberflus arrived.

1.  I liked the idea of Poles tearing the team down completely.  But I didn't realize at the time, just how devastating that would impact the next two or three seasons.  Looking back now, I realize that I had no clue.  It was a LOT tougher thing than I grasped at the time.  A total nuke job of the roster has huge consequences - to the point that now I realize why it is seldom done (a scorched earth approach as radical as Poles took on).

2.  Before the season began I was saying here that I expected somewhere between 5 and 8 wins (LOL, depending upon the post... I revisited it today).  Pretty much everyone on this messageboard and on social media predicted this too.  Yet when the team actually delivered on this (we are at 7 wins so far) I realize there were times when I was ready to give up and to jump ship on the coaches and Fields.  Total meatball fan stuff on my part.  

3.  That last half of the season I was so hoping that Fields, the coaches and the team itself - could show some evidence of being a winner.  I wasn't expecting a winning team or playoffs, but just wanted to see SOME evidence the team was on the right track.  This was the bigtime roller coaster because a few of our losses were devastating for a fan to watch, yet the wins were showing this is a team that is ascending... so up and down emotionally.  But I did keep saying several times in countless posts that I wanted to see the entire season in the books before I did a final decision on what I thought of players, coaches and the GM.  We still have 1 game left, but I have seen a lot of evidence that this GM, HC and QB1 are foundational pieces for building 2024 on (with some huge pieces added through the draft and FA this team is a contender... no one can deny that I think now).  I see the evidence that I was hoping to see... that's just "me" personally.  Obviously others will disagree.

4.  At some point the team needs to stop tearing down and, you know, actually BUILD something here.  This "the grass is greener on the other side of the fence" thing hasn't worked out for us these past decades here.  You gotta actually BUILD something rather than just fire people, cut players and tearing down.  That just delivers a crap franchise, and we've lived that here for a long time.  Personally, just speaking for myself here, I want the Bears to start building upon the foundation that they have laid in 2023 (the 1st real year of the rebuild).  We have some really good young talent here including Justin Fields.  I believe Eberflus has proven to be a rare bird in the NFL by showing he is a true leader who can lead men though the fires of hell - the horrific year after a total roster teardown and he weathered a firestorm from sports media and fans.  The guy never wavered.  He was a ROCK through it all.  This group of men LOVE him, believe in him and will follow him.  That is rare stuff I think for a 1st time Head Coach.  And he hasn't even completed 2 seasons here yet (one of which was a tank/teardown season).  Think about that.  Impressive.

So yeah, I've changed my mind a number of times about it all.  But now that we are nearing the end of the season and have more data to evaluate, I don't want to see us tear anything down again.  Build.  Don't risk bringing in a bust QB1 and find out all too late that another team takes JF and laughs all the way to a Super Bowl win, or more.  Wouldn't it be just like the Bears to allow that to happen?  A bird in the hand is better than two in the bush.  The grass is not always greener on the other side of the fence.  We have our guys.  Now.

I'd also like to remind everyone, that in the beginning of the year, when we were talking about our expectations and what the was that Fields and the team needed to hit, I believe it was JABF who cautioned that we were likely going to start slow due to all the new additions to the team. That certainly proved to be the case. We, as a group, were pretty spot on with our assessment of this team.

I agree with this. I would still fire Flus (those three double digit leads blown seal his fate) and I have questions about Fields. Fox--got one year too many (personally I would have fired Fox after the Seattle debacle in year 1), Nagy-- one year too many. I fear Flus is going to get 1 year too many.