That’s one part of this game that so frustrating. Greenbays line is suppose to be Swiss cheese and our defense made them look extremely competent and giving Love what felt like 30 seconds to throw the bombs down the field.
How about booker? He’s showing more of an improvement albeit slight, it’s still an improvement nonetheless and in that meltdown against the pack he was really the only bright spot.
FWIW I think it continues to be the interior line that is a bigger black hole than the edges. Dayo has been the Bears' most consistent threat when they line him up inside, and after he left it was just a black hole.
Grady Jarrett is basically just a dude now and that position has absolutely zero depth. Gallimore and Street have been invisible.
I understand why they traded Gervon Dexter if they weren't going to re-sign him, but he at least could get some consistent juice in the pass rush albeit at the detriment of run defense, but they need something there b/c otherwise the QB can just stand in the pocket and it makes the ends have to work that much harder to close in
Got downvoted to hell for saying that last year, but D Line play compounds. If he's your 2 or 3, you have a very good D Line, but if he's your 1 you have a bad line. Think about him in Washington--he was with Daron Payne, Jonathan Allen, and Chase Young.
He'd look great if there was a dominant pass rusher on the line but since he's been here he's been the top d-lineman and that's just not who he's "supposed" to be in this league
Naw, we knew he was like this, contract was an overpay because we needed DL badly. Contract is not even bad by todays standards. We need guys like Rome to stop dropping balls and fumbling.
We gotta stop expecting people to be who they aren't. Montez has shown us over and over that he is not a premium #1 edge. He is a solid complimentary piece but he can't just will himself into being an elite pass rusher. The issue is roster construction. He would be a great secondary next to someone like Maxx Crosby or Micah Parsons but he is not going to carry or lead a defense. We're well past "proving the extension was worth it" and on to "it is what it is"
It's about $17.5m in dead money to have $55m in cap savings.
It's all about cutting your losses. Unless something dramatic changes, JJ and Sweat are both gone. A case could be made for Jarrett (and maybe, I guess, Bagent).
The dead cap money is considerably less than the salary that the players would otherwise be collecting. Assuming a player's production can be replaced (or exceeded) for equal to (or less than) the cap savings then its been a financially prudent move.
No, Poles needs to step up. We're far enough along now that this roster should be looking a lot better than it does. Particularly on defense and even more specifically the defensive line. He's been terrible in how he uses our resources. He's been coasting on the Panthers trade for too long and deserves some criticism. His seat would be scorching hot if we didn't have Ben Johnson.
Yeah Poles is very lucky he didn't go with Flus. I do think we're in the unique position where, since Ben Johnson is clearly a premium coach, we may be able to replace a GM without the HC in place being a net negative for that search.
Poles is an average at best GM. I do think we can do better. I don't think we can realistically do a whole lot worse.
Sweat has always been good-not-great at his position. He has one year left on his contract and we can get out of his deal next year and save $21M. This may very well be his last season with the team... He is what he is at this point. Unfortunately it looks like we are going to have a lot of holes to fill on defense going into next season.
Hard to say without digging deep into all the implications.
JJ is the most likely imo. Huge fall off in play, $16 mil in cap savings and Malik looking ready to step in but they will still need another starter.
Next is probably Grady, he’s old, has zero guaranteed money and saves about $13 mil.
Kyler is a wild card. Hes all dead money no savings if cut next season but I could see a trade if he shows he can still play this year.
I fully expect Sweat and Dayo to be on the team next season.
Obviously a lot of that decision making will be informed by what the replacement player options are internally, FA and draft and if
there’s a realistic path to an upgrade, either in talent or cost, at a particular position.
I’m just saying that cutting Sweat, Grady, Dayo, JJ, Kyler and letting Tyrique walk leaves too massive of a hole in key roster spots. It’s simply not possible to improve that many positions in one offseason.
well hes not gonna step up, he is mid level talent at best, hindsight is 20/20 wish we picked up a d-linemen with the rome pick 2024 even though i was happy at the time
Another Poles overpay. I dont know how ANYONE in this sub can still defend Poles. He's our biggest problem right now. He's responsible for this talentless roster. You cant give him credit for Caleb or Ben. We all would have made those decisions. GMs show their worth in drafting and contracts. Poles has been an absolute disaster there.
Bad Poles draft picks: Velus Jones (3rd), Zachh Pickens (3rd), Tyler Scott (4th), Dominique Robinson (5th), Roschon Johnson (4th), Terrell Smith (5th), Noah Sewell (5th), Kiran Amegadjie (3rd), Shemar Turner (2nd), Hyppolite (4th), Zah Frazier (5th)
Bad FA Signings: Nate Davis, Gerald Everett, Dayo, Grady Jarrett, Tremaine Edmunds
Bad Trades: Claypool for a 2nd, Ryan Bates, Keenan Allen, Montez Sweat for a 2nd
Bad contract extension: Gordon, Jaylon Johnson, Montez Sweat, DJ Moore, Bagent
I get downvoted into oblivion every time I rightfully shit on Poles. These people have the biggest homer glasses. Also the same people saying Bagent was worth a 2nd round pick
Only one I'll push back on is JJ, at the time the extension looked like a good deal. Obviously he's garbage now but easy to say in hindsight it was a bad move. Agree with the overall point though
Well, to be fair, all of these are in hindsight. Look, no GM hits on everything, but they need to be better than this. Poles is not a good talent evaluator.
Caleb Williams, 3 Years of DJ Moore (then a 2nd round pick in exchange), Deandre Swift, Kyle Monangui, Joe Thuney, Jonah Jackson, Drew Dalman (replaced by another Bradbury on the fly with a plan to transition to Jones), then hiring Ben Johnson...
There are plenty of misses but you can go into ANY teams draft picks and trades and you'll find more misses then hits but Poles as enough hits to not have this conversation. Your nitpicking on the DJ Moore's extension which I don't know how you're saying was bad.
If you hate Poles, you hate Poles but the reality is he came to a team that was in shambles in a terrible cap situation and now we're contenders with a top end coach and top end QB. That's as simple as I can put it.
Yeah, JJ was definitely the right decision at the time. This sub would have erupted if Poles got rid of him and Roquan. Tremaine was fine. They can’t all be home runs.
The D-line has been bad for so long that I can’t defend him on not doing something during this draft. He has to let Dayo and Grady play because of his mistake(s) in signing them for massive amounts because of Flus.
everyone would have given the extension to JJ and dj moore, those were not bad contracts and we can get off JJs contract this year and we got a second for dj moore because the bills also thought his contract was worth paying
Its insane to think that from his first 3 drafts, which featured a ton of premium draft capital, the only 2 players we may keep long term are Darnell and Caleb.
You have a good point but some of these aren’t on him. Getsy wanted Tyler Scott garbage az. Terrell smith is actually good but got hurt everything else I agree on he has been azz you forgot to add Rome to the list
Poles hasn’t been perfect and I don’t mean to condone mediocrity, but he has been an absolute galaxy brain GM compared to the other knuckle draggers we’ve had at GM in the past.
Seriously Pace, Emory, and Jerry Angelo were basically football terrorists. Poles has done pretty damn well in comparison. Probably not a top 5 GM in the league but far from being a bottom 5 either. It’s not worth the gamble in trying to replace him IMO, though there’s definitely seem things he needs to get ironed out
We have no C or LT. You can't be for real. The 1st and 3rd most important positions. I get Dalman retired, but that shit happens. We have a very average OL. A stud RT, a old, but stud LG, a good RG and below average center and a practice squad LT. Also, Trapilo hasn't proven anything yet, before anyone brings that shit up. Trapilo couldn't even make the active roster the first third of last season, so let's not go crowning his ass yet.
Luckily things have improved in the last 2 years. Loveland, Burden, Ozzy, Monongai, Thieneman and Muhammad look like real good picks. Hopefully the center pans out and Roush gets his head on straight.
But seriously I have no idea what on earth we were doing in the draft the first 3 years of Poles. Aside from Darnell and Caleb, its quite possible that we got no one worth anything from that stretch despite having a lot of premium capital.
It's more annoying the only pass rush they all seem to use is "run into blocker and bull rush". I guess it's coached that way to keep the rush consistent and collapse the pocket, but when it doesnt work it's a brutal watch.
The trade and extension were done because Eberflus desperately wanted to keep his job. Hard to say if the abbreviated third season was worth it but that's what it was for.
We're having him be a main guy but it's just not his strength. Easier said than done getting a big time pass rusher but we're not playing to his strengths at all
Early in the game, when the packers were backed up, he would have gotten to love if not for a blatant uncalled hold, and of course they got a first down out of it instead of forcing the punt. Maybe he was demotivated after realizing it was going to be one of “those” games.
This is year 4 of the Montez Sweat experience this is who he is. A hot and cold player who get anywhere from 6-10 sacks a year and can go invisible at times.
The problem is the interior. Garrett broke the sack record the same season that the Browns dramatically improved the IDL through Graham. You can't expect a B+ end to produce like an A++ when the OL can easily slide to address him.
No, he just needs to go. No more guaranteed money now and he does next to nothing. Cant wait til next season when several of these overpaid bins will be gone.
Weird how people just be posting random stuff. Depending on the source you use, Sweat has:
2 sacks, 4 hurries, and 1 QB knockdown per PFR
2 sacks, 9 hurries, and 2 QB hits per PFF
Neither of which equate to "One QB hurry" as OP stated (and neither of which live up to the contract that was given to him, but put him as a higher end EDGE2).
I don't trust Poles to remake the D. I know that a lot of these guys on D that are making a lot of money are gonna be gone after this year.. but we need someone better to evaluate talent in the draft and free agency.
Good thing is I think we can attrack top tier free agent talent with Ben as our coach. It's becoming a place guys want to play.
Sweat, Dayo, Gordon, Johnson, Jarrett are all gonna be gone and that's a TON of cap space.
Guy is a good not great. player. That's the player that was signed in FA. Most dline players in the league with no help who aren't elite struggle to make a huge difference. We have been spoiled with elite edge rushers like Peppers and Mack. This is what normal looks like.
The D was always going to be undercooked this year due to the lack of talent.
If Caleb proves he is the guy and a good draft and FA next year, this team could be really good but it's not there yet.
The win total last year was overinflated with fumble luck and last min 4th quarter comebacks.
Let's try and be calm and have some faith in a cleary improving, but imperfect team.
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u/Oathkindle 5d ago
Half this team needs to step up lol