True but if you had to make a list of the issues with the Bears franchise, the McCaskeys are pretty far down the list. The "McCaskeys are cheap" argument is one of the most overused and overblown arguments that Bears fans continue to lean on.
Chicago Bears 2024
True but if you had to make a list of the issues with the Bears franchise, the McCaskeys are pretty far down the list. The "McCaskeys are cheap" argument is one of the most overused and overblown arguments that Bears fans continue to lean on.
The results will not change until the ownership does.
Mr. Tibbs
- southeast DuPage
i’ve been saying that for years now
The Galloping Ghost
- Washington, DC
Bears fans, I'm a Washington football team fan and am genuinely interested, where are you in the Caleb vs. Jayden debate?
As a fan of another snake-bitten franchise, I'm already bracing for Jayden to, unfortunately, go the way of RG3 around week 15 or so.
As a fan of another snake-bitten franchise, I'm already bracing for Jayden to, unfortunately, go the way of RG3 around week 15 or so.
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
I thought Jayden deserved a lot of consideration as the #1 pick given that he was considerably better than Caleb or Drake Maye last year. So I feel a little bit vindicated from a scouting perspective.
But it's way, WAY too early to tell what the future holds for the two at this point.
Caleb has been bad though, there is no sugarcoating it.
The Galloping Ghost
- Washington, DC
It's super early and trust me, I'm not spiking the football. Honestly, I don't even care *that* much about the NFL in general at this point. I just realized I had a ton of Bears fans to pose the question to out of curiosity.
Billion-dollar industry? The least-valuable team in the league (Bengals, source: Forbes) is worth $4B. Bears alone are top ten in the league and worth six and a half billion.
Totally agree with your overall point but the actual magnitude is so much greater.
The Bears have had so many moving parts over the last couple years that it’s not really a Caleb-Jayden debate so much as a Caleb-Jayden-Fields-Stroud debate. At this point I think you’ll hear way more Bears fans saying they should have kept Fields instead of drafting Caleb than you’ll hear saying they should have drafted Jayden instead of Caleb.
But the main thing you’ll hear from Bears fans is that the organization is so dysfunctional on so many different levels that none of those qbs or any other are going to succeed until new ownership comes in.
Funny thing is the Bears almost have the opposite ownership problem from Washington’s under Snyder. Instead of having a living parody of an evil Bond villain as owner, we have a have a sweet old lady who inherited the team from her father who founded it, and still runs the franchise like it’s the company team for a little factory town and not the billion dollar corporation that it’s become.
mattcoldagelli
- The Transfer Portal with Do Not Contact Tag
It is hard, if not impossible, to disentangle Caleb from the offense as a whole, which has been in "fireable offense" territory for Waldron and Eberflus.
I think Williams has noticeably improved in each game so far.
I can’t say the same for the rest of the offensive side of the ball.
And if I were the GM, Eberflus wouldn’t have survived losing that time out because he didn’t have the team ready to go for 2 after the 1st TD. Inexcusable.
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
There is some truth to that. There's a way in which the staff seems to have simultaneously too little and too much faith in Caleb, constant sequences of run, run, complicated full-field read 3rd and long pass.
I'd also point out that Ryan Poles has really failed to give Caleb the offensive line he needs, both under-resourcing and bad use of the resources (Nate Davis and Coleman Shelton, good lord).
Still, even beyond all of that, Caleb is missing open throws, failing to find open receivers, and holding onto the ball too long into traffic in the pocket. It's worrying.
The next two games are at home in presumably decent weather against the two teams with the most points allowed in the NFL. Time to take a step here.
He had the 5th fastest release time during the Texans game and still had what 36 pressures in 37 pass attempts. You will miss open receivers when you are uncomfortable. He has gotten better every game so far.
mattcoldagelli
- The Transfer Portal with Do Not Contact Tag
The OL has been so bad that it's a pick-your-poison indictment of the coaching staff and front office: either you couldn't determine how terrible they were, which means you are bad at your job as a talent evaluator/team builder, or you could determine that and couldn't scheme your way around it, which means you are bad at your job as a football strategist.
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
The thing that's really grinding my gears is the way that, as far back as the middle of last season per reporting, the Bears proceeded on the ASSUMPTION that #1 pick Caleb Williams would be a day one ready made plug-and-play top tier QB and strategized around exploiting and maximizing that.
That was an unreasonable assumption. And the #1 pick they have needs development help, but his holdover defensive coach and win-now WR smorgasbord aren't providing it for him. This team makes more sense for Justin Fields than a guy three years removed from high school.
If this team is old and in cap hell when Caleb grows into a star that will be an incredible self-own, even beyond the possibility that they don't develop him well or he's just not good.
Yes, I don’t understand how you don’t have a max protect or other package to protect your young QB given OL struggles, even if it means only sending 2-3 guys out on patterns. Keeping Williams upright has got to be the priority. And even with that conservative play calling, I’m optimistic DJ Moore will find a way to get open.
Fields may not have “it” but I still maintain he never got a chance to develop because he was constantly running for his life. Williams is in the same boat and looks to be developing similar bad habits/footwork. It seems like they’ve learned nothing from the Fields experiment. Meanwhile, Green Bay just keeps on winning no matter who they put under center. Unreal.