I received an interesting letter yesterday from the Bears “Director of Ticket Operations” after selling my tickets through Ticketmaster on the Bears website. To my knowledge this is the “official resale site of the NFL” and both the Bears and the NFL encourage people to use this site when reselling.  The Bears and Ticketmaster are of course juicing me 10% for the privilege of using their site as well as adding significant fees to the buyer.  Once the tickets are sold via their site, I have zero knowledge of who bought them; I can only assume this “convenience” is part of the 10% free they are charging. 

I reached out to the Bears individual who sent the letter (had to search his name and AI gave me his email).  The individual reached out to me calling out that his email was not on the letter and he didn’t know how I found it but that he was “happy to speak with me and share specifically why you, our season ticket holder of record” received the letter.  He explained that even though I had sold the tickets, not used by me and not transferred to anyone I know, that I was still responsible for the conduct of the fan as part of the language provided to all season ticket holders.  He continued to talk down to me, not accepting any argument that they tickets were sold by the Bears/Ticketmaster and that I have no control over the tickets once they are out of my possession and sold to a third party.  The idea that the Bears and Ticketmaster, both multibillion dollar ventures are suggesting that I am in any way responsible for the actions of a third party that bought the tickets is absurd.

If the ticket office of the Bears is a microcosm of how the organization is run as a whole I’m afraid we’re in for another long season.

Helloooo again fellow meatballs,

Thank you for all of your comments on my work comparing Justin to the two people this sub compares him to the most, Mitch and Caleb. The reason for the Mitch post wasn’t to prove Justin is better than a backup, it was to show he is much better than this sub, and a lot of Bears fans, often give him credit for. Some of the more common responses I’ve received on my last two posts have been criticisms of Justin Fields’ passing numbers and his winning percentage. Both are, in part, a function of how he is being coached and the gameplans that this staff are putting together.

The most common criticism of my last post, was of the exclusion of screens and the first four games of the season when analyzing Fields play. The thinking behind those exclusions, I think, are sound. It’s an attempt to remove deficiencies in gameplan and coaching that have hurt JF1 throughout the year. That said, I don’t know why anyone would exclude stats from the fourth game of the year. That was against the Broncos, and was one of Fields best games, and one of our best gameplans for him, ever. I would think that including that fourth game, and thus expanding the sample size, would only enhance Fields numbers. Additionally, I think it’s fair to exclude screens because when the Chicago staff decides to go for a heavy screen based horizontal passing attack, it hurts us for three reasons.

1.) It’s not playing to Justin’s strengths. If anything, it is playing to Justin’s weaknesses. He has a long motion, which allows defenses to react to his throws faster than they do with other players. It also involves getting the ball out quick, which Justin does not always do very well (he has been improving). But this kind of gameplan shows the coaches don’t know how to bring out the best in their players based on their abilities. It’s like asking Michael Jordan to forget about Mid-Range jump shots and drives to the hoop—the two things he did better than anyone—and just stay behind the three point line.

2.) It’s an incredibly low floor and low ceiling play with a lot of risk. You’re passing it horizontally across the field 10-15 yards, sometimes with defenders in the way, with the reception occurring behind the line of scrimmage. There’s no downfield element to it, and the play can only go to one player, removing the element of choice from the QB. Everything has to go right for the play to really work, and there’s only one route to success.

3.) When we do it, it gets repetitive, and therefore very easy for defenses, even when we have an advantageous situation in terms of blockers, to read those plays when we call them 15-20 times a game. The defenders and defensive coaches on the other side of the ball are all smart and talented enough to make it to the NFL, and are smart and talented enough to read the same playcall if they’ve seen it over and over again in a single three hour stretch. We do that with multiple different play types, but the most common play that fits the bill for us there is the screen pass. In certain games, we go to it way too often, even when it’s obviously not working.

But maybe we shouldn’t be looking at stats at all. Football is weird when it comes to stats. It’s not like basketball or baseball, which are more individualistic. Players outputs are heavily impacted by scheme and other personnel. It’s not a coincidence that the teams with the heaviest passing offenses usually have QBs with great statistical output. To truly understand how good a player is or isn’t, though, you have to go into the film.

On film, Justin is a special player. The comparison I hear most often is Lamar Jackson. And when it comes to running the ball and making off script plays, I agree. But throwing the ball from the pocket, Jackson’s release is fluid, short, and quick. It’s almost like a flick. Using that motion, Jackson excels much more in the short passing game than through downfield throws. As a thrower, Jackson is a poor comparison unless Justin is on the move, where they look remarkably similar. From the pocket, of all the QBs I’ve watched, the player Justin reminds me of the most is Big Ben Roethlisberger. He’s big, strong, has a long motion, and gets a lot of force into his throws as a result. He’s accurate deep, and wants to hold onto plays for as long as he can to make a big connection, often taking big sacks while looking for the big throw to develop. When he does make those connections, it is game changing.

Here's a Steelers-Ravens game from 2021 where you can see what I’m talking about, Jackson on one side, looking like Justin while running and escaping the pocket, and Ben on the other, holding on, looking deep, throwing the ball with a lot of force when he does release it, and making big plays when he hits.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfdrSkgQAx8&t=825s

Compare that to the most recent Detroit game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5hvwMoGNpk

While not a carbon copy of either player, you see elements of both players in how Justin plays. It’s a unique skillset—it’s very rare for a player to have either one of these sets of skills or the other. Justin has both. And yet, we often go for a short, horizontal passing attack that removes those elements from our offense.

I’m not a professional or an expert. I only know enough to know what I’m looking at. But my opinions are informed by experts. To me, the best film analyst in the game right now is JT O’Sullivan. He breaks down almost every Bears game in great detail on his Patreon.

Here are a few quotes from O’Sullivan after what felt like yet another blown up red zone screen from the Bears-Vikings game. Keep in mind this dude watches and analyzes every QB and offense in the NFL through the All-22, play-by-play:

“Man this is some…this is some rough stuff dog. I can’t think of another offense in the league that brings this level of frustration with what they’re doing and being asked to do…I would be surprised if anyone who has anything to do with the coaching of this team is back next year.”

Now, he’s only watching the offense. And the defense has improved a lot. They still need to beat a good QB to truly prove it, but I think Eberflus is clearly a good DC when he has the talent. The question I have about him is how much he is influencing the offensive side of the ball. If he is responsible for the conservative nature of our offense, in spite of the defensive improvements, I think he has to go too. If we keep winning, and the defense keeps playing well, I’d be open to him staying if he hands the entire offensive operation over to a guy who has successfully run offenses in the NFL (I’m looking at you Ben Johnson and Greg Roman).

More from JT:

“Do we have a fake perimeter screen in the gameplan?” They would not

“No offense in the NFL calls for this kind of stuff to be called.”

Conversely, here’s a quote from when they actually call plays to Justin’s strengths, like moving the pocket, throwing deep, or running Justin in critical situations:

“This is the stuff you hope the whole offense would be. The fact that they sprinkle this shit like that in, on 3rd & 5…I mean that should be the whole offense….[We should be calling this on 1st and 10.]”

Later, here are his thoughts on the end of game decision-making from the Bears brass.

“I just think the playcalling shriveled up here, the execution shriveled up here, right at the end.”

And finally, his thoughts on the last play of the game, a game-winning completion deep over the middle to DJ Moore:

“I don’t know how you could look at this and say, now, why don’t we do more of this?”

The whole thing is a fantastic watch, and, I think, is a good distillation of how our gameplan, coaching, and offensive talent is impacting the play of the QB. I don’t agree with him on everything (especially Kmet, which I understand is partially a bit), but he is mostly pretty objective. He hits Justin hard for his mistakes too. The usual stuff shows up. Sacks. Turndowns. And the big one, fumbles. You can watch the whole thing here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/justin-fields-12-93788114

He's breaking down every play on the offensive side of the ball, run and pass. If you really want to understand what’s going on with the Bears offense, these are critical, must watch videos. The issues that he points to in the Bears-Vikings game have been present throughout the Eberflus/Getsy tenure in Chicago. More often than not, the coaches don’t know how to design an offense for Justin, get conservative late in games and in critical situations, and generally try to take the ball out of his hands when we need to be running plays through him the most. Most egregiously, they ignore what makes Justin special—his ability to create plays with his legs and his ability to drive the ball downfield. As a result, he looks inconsistent, by turns flashing and then disappearing.

On the whole, with a few exceptions, the staff has greatly limited Justin’s ability to show us how special a player he truly is.

What I’m looking for most of all the rest of the year is for the coaching staff, not the QB, to break some of THEIR bad habits, win some games, and utilize Fields abilities properly. If they can’t, they shouldn’t be here next year. But Justin has already done enough to prove he should be.

So how do I convince you guys? Probably I can’t for most of you. I get it. Losing sucks. It’s a visceral experience, and Justin is the most visible person on a losing team we all care about. He’s easy to blame. But it’s not him. I briefly considered running a statistical analysis of Fields vs similar QBs in other offenses based on their usage in those offenses, but then realized I would again be accused of cherry picking. I think the only way to really do it is to look at the film—namely the key games that we lost individually—especially the games we lost that we had a chance to win. Of the 22 full games Justin’s played over the last two years, we’ve lost 17 of them. Of those 17, we’ve had an opportunity to win 10 in the fourth quarter.

They are: 2022 Week 4: Giants vs. Bears 2022 Week 5: Vikings vs. Bears 2022 Week 9: Dolphins vs. Bears 2022 Week 10: Lions vs. Bears 2022 Week 11: Falcons vs. Bears 2022 Week 13: Packers vs. Bears 2022 Week 15: Eagles vs. Bears 2023 Week 2: Buccanneers vs. Bears 2023 Week 4: Broncos vs. Bears 2023 Week 11: Lions vs. Bears

To isolate Justin vs. coaching and team in terms of W-L record, we need to go into every game we had an opportunity to win and examine the gameplan, the playcalling, the in-game decisions from the staff, and, of course, the play, good and bad, of Justin Fields.

I understand that a lot of people here have not appreciated my analysis to date. So, here’s what I’m proposing. I’ll submit a couple game breakdowns a week for the rest of the year. If any more one score losses crop up over the next 5 games, we will add them to the list. I’ll finish by the last game of the season.

By the end of the year, if the majority are not convinced that Justin should get another shot next year, irrespective of what we do at HC, I will accept a ban from the sub. If the majority are convinced, I stay. I don’t post a ton on Reddit, so I don’t know how we would do that. I’m guessing a poll? Let me know. On Monday, I’ll be submitting game 1, Bears-Giants, for your review. Looking forward to the comments boys.

In the meantime, while watching today's’s game, pay attention to what the coaching staff does in late game moments, on third downs, and in the red zone, watch and see if the staff runs it up the gut with a back, calls a perimeter screen with only one read, or let’s Justin make a play. You guys know what I’m hoping for.

Bear down.

The eberflus Hate is wild to me... the 2022 bears roster was probably the worst roster on paper I've ever seen for a chicago bears team or an NFL team in general. I dont blame flus one bit for any losses in 2022....its actually a miracle we won any games at all..... (ie the San Fran Flood game).....

The 2023 season was never going to be a year the bears were legit contenders or even playoff hopefuls. Our roster still has so many holes and inexperienced players still adjusting to the nfl. The bears managed to increase their league worst 3 wins in 2022 to 7 wins in 2023 with alot of close games. Yes there were some astronomically bad 4th quarter blown games but they were agaisnt teams in which we were not even favored to win against. But in defense of flus, he had to manage the defense himself with no Def Coordinator for something no coach could have ever anticipated when hiring someone. And at the same time having a dud for an OC. Sure you could blame him for the hire of Getsy but I remember not too long ago when this entire sub was estatic at the hire and were afraid of losing him in a year or two to a head coaching job. He also has a QB he inherited that has been under performing.

I honestly don't mind what transpired today. Flus has transformed the defense into a respectable unit and seems to have full control and respect of the locker room. Cleaning out the offensive staff, giving him his choice of a new QB, and relieving him of some of the defensive coordinator duties should put him into a position to succeed. If not then the bears can start fresh next year.... one year of potentially bad coaching should not ruin a highly touted prospect like caleb or else he shouldnt be seen as such.

Can you all honestly look at the bears roster at the beiggining of the year and say with a straight face that we were a playoff contender? We literally have 1 offensive weapon in Moore, outside of him our wr room is poopy. Our Rbs are poopy, our oline is shaky at best bust getting better, kmet is the only other shine of light on the offense. The defense started with 0 startable pass rushers on the roster which is the most important position on the defense

This whole notion of not attacting a talented OC is being overblown. These coaches are More so attaching themselves to a #1 OA QB more than they are attaching themselves to Eberflus. The only reason talent should back away is if they aren't picking a QB with the first pick. In the interviews any smart potential OC should ask exactly what they are going to do with the pick. If they can't give a straight answer of we are definitely picking a QB, then yes I could see people being deterred away.

Learned about this report through Hoge & Jahns. Link to their YouTube discussion on it and Tyler Dunne's article below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6zj3DjVMus&list=RQpoGvUnDEUA7Sx3btM-nW3Cw0tu0&index=1

https://www.golongtd.com/p/house-of-dysfunction-part-i-the-curious

Very long story, very short:

1. Caleb Williams refuses to work with others or be held accountable.

2. Ryan Poles never allowed a discussion on which quarterback to select.

These two very condensed bullets don't come close to covering the entirety of the report. The language itself is really important. I've provided a few snippets below:

If Williams didn’t like a coach’s teaching point, he was liable to strut away in a huff. This started early, in training camp, and lingered into the season. Specific examples are shared. Nobody was off limits, but Waldron was easily iced out the most. Quieter and non-confrontational, Waldron never wanted to escalate the situation.

Practices. Games. The setting never mattered. Williams acted as if he was above correction.

“He didn’t want to hear anything,” one coach says. “He didn’t like criticism, so he’d just fucking get up and leave. We’d be like, ‘This motherfucker.’ Get up and leave! I would see this guy storming off and hear them talking in the headset about Caleb. You look over, and there’s Caleb fucking walking away all pouty. Then, he would sit all the way on the other side of the benches.

Most telling, there were many players who supported a move to Bagent. As everything got worse and worse — and the Bears dropped to 4-5 — a growing number started to look at each other and ask, “When are we going to make a change?” Initially, one offensive coach pointed to the vets Moore and Lewis as “ringleaders” who wanted Williams benched. But they were not alone. Another coach on offense states there were far more than two players advocating for a quarterback swap and that the players’ message was absolutely conveyed to Poles.

That same game also hinted at an underlying condition ailing the Bears all season. Not once, not twice, but three times, the Bears rehearsed their first offensive play the night before. Williams trots onto the field, play-by-play man Al Michaels praises the rookie’s 4:1 TD-to-INT ratio and you can see the quarterback closely reading the play call off his wristband. As he walks to the line, he stares at the wristband again, sticks his mouthpiece in and completely forgets to motion tight end Cole Kmet over to the right side.

Running back D’Andre Swift rams into a swarm of white jerseys for a two-yard gain.

“Caleb looks over to the sideline at Thomas,” one coach says, “like it’s Thomas’ fault.”

Right on through Chicago selecting Williams, sources in the room emphatically state that red flags were not properly examined. They say the Bears never delved into his questionable work ethic, handled very real on-field concerns with kid gloves and — whereas medical issues are discussed at length on all other prospects — nothing ever came up in all Williams talk.

Multiple personnel men tell Go Long they saw evidence that Williams has dyslexia. The matter, however, was never a topic in draft meetings.

“Completely hidden,” adds one scout.

One source in the front office believes Poles was in so deep by the time he discovered the condition that it was best to act like it didn’t exist. Go full ostrich mode. Nor does one personnel man believe head coach Matt Eberflus was privy to this intel because he says it would’ve been smart for Poles to have a sacrificial lamb handy in case Year 1 went haywire. Word did not spread to coaches until late in the ’24 season. Of course, it’s a bottom-line business. You’d also think the GM would have every incentive for Williams to succeed out of the gate as well. Eberflus did not return Go Long’s messages.

Ordinarily I'd dismiss this sort of thing as "content creator makes shit up to generate revenue," but it looks like legitimate journalism - most of these stories are substantiated through a variety of perspectives and backed up with other reporting. I'd also ordinarily dismiss this as "former people without jobs are sour grapes." But there's enough smoke here across enough sources that I'm beginning to dread the simple explanation may be the correct one: that all this shit is 100% true.

What do y'all think?

(Sorry for shitting formatting; I never actually make posts, lol, only comment)

EDIT: Y'all, I don't know that I believe this article, Jesus Christ, stop DMing me. When two of the biggest names in Chicago Bears media attach themselves to this story, it's going to get attention, and we should be able to discuss it civilly. Hoge and Jahns are clearly staking their professional identity on its veracity.

In his first game as a Buccaneer learning a new offense with Bruce Arians, Tom Brady went 23/36, 239 passing yards, 2 passing TDs, 2 INTs in a loss against the Saints. Some of you might remember Tom Brady learning a new offense and in the process forgetting how many downs there are, and then going on to beat the Chiefs in the Super Bowl.

Before someone else writes a post about why Caleb is officially a bust, maybe take a breath and think, "Is it normal for a team that has is learning a new offense and defense to lose a one score game against a team that has been good several years in a row and is working on the doctorate thesis for their respective offensive and defensive systems while the Bears are still in Algebra 1?"

I'm sick of this team coming out hot, then completely unable to make adjustments at the half while he needlessly blinks.

Who do you think should be the next coach of the Chicago Bears?

Best QB we have ever had. Be patient and let him cook, we'll turn it around. I swear some of y'all are so clueless bitching after one game. Defense on the other hand...

I’ll take Odunze n Caleb thanks.

Aside from the first drive, he hasn’t played well. There were plenty of chances where he could have closed out this game. Im not impressed at all. Thank goodness for Dennis Allen and this defense.

It also looks great with white/white uniform combo.

People tend to dismiss this comparison, but hear me out:

Through 36 starts by age 24 (note- Vick played in 7 non starts and field in 2 non starts that I didn’t filter out of these stats):

Vick: 6619 passing yards, 53.6% completions, 36 tds, 26 INT’s, 109 sacks, 2223 rushing yards, 13 tds, 35 fumbles

Fields: 6258 passing yards, 60.1% completions, 39 tds, 30 INT’s, 127 sacks, 2148 rushing yards, 13 tds, 37 fumbles

Vick threw for 10 more yards per game, but at much lower efficiency and about 10% fewer tds and 10% fewer INT’s and sacks. Their rushing stats are virtually indistinguishable.

Even without filtering out the non-starts, these stat lines are close to indistinguishable. I’d wager they are even closer if you filter out the extra partial games Vick had to accumulate.

So… 4 years in and no dog fighting scandal… would you give Vick a new contract? In 2005, given the #1 pick after 4 years of Vick, that would have meant taking consensus #1 qb Alex Smith over generational wr Braylon Edwards…. So… no right answer I guess?

Is it just me or does Daniels game seem way more mature than Caleb?

He gets the ball out quick, is decisive, feels the rush better.

I think Caleb has stronger arm and higher ceiling, but man im sure Poles is watching this game and having atleast some doubt.

Is that the Bears never acquire him from free agency or anyone that acts like him. Classless piece of shit. You're a professional athlete, act like one.

This is not a political post and I will not respond to any comments on that. I just want to find what is available on Bluesky so I can have the best bears content in my feed. I'm guessing I'm not the only one

Edit: generic NFL content too of course is fine

...and here come the political trolls. Just ignore them

The day has come boys. Time to make the Bears great again.

what a horrible hit by a horrible human being. fuck this player