Saving Caleb - Chicago's "serial mismanagement" of QBs.

Caleb Williams has shown, a few times now, that he can be an above average NFL QB. He hasn't shown me enough that he can be elite (Top 5). He can read defenses better, and extend plays better, than either Mitch or Justin.

His rookie season is crashing and burning because:

1) The OL is a total disaster. We have one guy on the line, Wright, and the other four are pitiful.

2) Waldron's offense does not work. The formations telegraph everything we're going to do.

3) We do not utilize Kmet enough. TE is the safety blanket for a QB; especially a rookie one. Kmet needs to be getting a half dozen receptions per game.

4) We do not have a running game. Swift is feast or famine. We do not have a guy who grinds out 3 to 4 yards per carry that can be relied upon to convert 3rd and short.

5) Eberflus is a loser. He is not a leader in the locker room and now apparently we have culture problems. He also does not have any experience in developing a QB.

I think Caleb, medium term, is going to be fine. It is plainly obvious the OL and HC need to be fixed. We have all the resources in the world to fix the OL.

The big question is will Poles fire his buddy Eberflus and bring in somebody that can be a leader and develop Caleb.

That is the bottom-line.  ^^^

The Bears have fired a small army of GM's and HC's over the past few decades.  That's easy.  But they have been totally inept hiring a good head coach.  And the jury is still out on Poles being the long term GM guy (he could be, or he could be a bust too).  

Caleb Williams is a very special talent and maybe the best QB the Bears have drafted since Sid Luckman in the 1939 draft that happened 85 years ago... 85 drafts ago.  I have the feeling the franchise is capable of blowing this priceless opportunity.  They finally having a great young QB to develop.  But the Bears need a head coach and OC who can truly develop a quarterback and build a powerful offense here in Chicago.  And they horribly whiffed on putting a solid offensive line in front of Caleb too... not only for his pass protection so he CAN develop, but also to provide a solid run game that can also help in a young QB's development. 

It is crazy difficult getting an elite franchise quarterback in the NFL.  We've had one drop in our lap here.  A "once-in-85-years" thing here in Chicago.  Is Ryan Poles up to the task?  We will see.  It will cost real money to get a top HC here.  Yes, even the best rookie, HC's are going to cost $$$ to get then to take this job with the McCaskey's track record of franchise woes and failures.  And they'll need to out-bid other franchises (a number of them) who will do most anything to get one of the top coaching candidates.    

I do feel bad for Matt Eberflus because he does seem like a good defensive coordinator and a good guy.  I don't like to see anyone lose their job.  But he doesn't seem a good fit... maybe he would be a lot better off personally in a job that is a better fit for him.  He may be a whole lot happier and less-stressed as a DC.  I wish him well.

 

I agree with you on the circumstances of how Flus got here.  But the other finalist was Dan Quinn, an experienced HC who had already taken a team to the SB.  Poles chose Flus instead and (apparently) he got a 5 year contract.  WHY?  Seems like that was unnecessary knowing it was a full rebuild and Flus was just a little-know DC at the time with no prior HC experience.  

As far as year 3, my feelings are well known that it should never have happened given the CW draft pick you knew you were making.  But now that it has, I would add that Flus is on his 3rd OC in 2.5 seasons and his first one has already been fired twice.  

Geez, Poles sure put a lot of faith in the Waldron hiring and it came back to bite him the ass.  It was absolutely ESSENTIAL to nail that OC hire last winter if you were gonna stick with Flus and end entrust CW to him.  Instead it was an epic fail.

I don't get it either.

But we can't deny reality.  When the season first got going the CHGO guys were panning his press appearances in strong terms.  I put little stock in that initially as I figured it was just media guys complaining they weren't getting enough juicy content.  Since then we have heard a litany of complaints from players about his lack of authoritative command.  We also saw him repeatedly misusing personnel and having weird personnel packages that clearly were not working.  His goofball play calling, especially in the red zone, has been obvious to everyone.  And to top it off, he hasn't been able to get CW going that way Kingsbury has with Daniels.

As I have said here a bunch of times before, it has looked as though Waldron just met his players last week and had no idea how to use them most effectively, despite having plenty of film from last year (Moore, Kmet, Herbert).  

The guy simply sucked at his job.  I have no idea WHY, but he really did suck.