What's your Panic-o-Meter at?

[UOK]

Hoge & Jahns had a good idea for the level of panic for different subjects as regarding the Bears. Curious to see yours. Feel free to add another category.

1 - not panicked at all
10 - OH MY GOD NOOOO

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OFFENSIVE LINE: 10 - This is a five alarm fire that needs immediate change, emergency-levels of change. The team should be looking into starting guys like Bill Murray, Doug Kramer, Matt Pryor, or even rushing Kiran Amegadjie into action. They need at minimum to upgrade at C and RG, and at most need to seriously consider the quality of play they're getting out of Darnell Wright and Braxton Jones. This. Shit. Is. Awful.

CALEB WILLIAMS: 6.5 - This is probably high-ish, but Caleb looks like he's lost out there. He's overthrowing the hell out of guys routinely, isn't reading a defense pre-snap, his receivers throw up their hands pre-snap because they can't hear/don't understand the audibles he's calling out, and there's delay of game penalties now, in addition to interceptions cropping up. He's off to maybe the worst possible start we could've imagined. Not the extent that I believe he's a fraud, but to the degree where the writing is on the wall that the Bears are once again failing a promising quarterback.

SHANE WALDRON: 9 - I have no idea what Waldron's trying to accomplish. The horizontal offense is fucking abysmal. He's clearly not getting through to his roster and the results through two games are historically inept. This is bad, folks. Real bad.

MATT EBERFLUS: 5 - His defense is clearly responding and through two games has been near-dominant, particularly in the second half. The bigger issue is that he's looking at firing his OC this offseason, assuming Poles doesn't fire the staff at year's end, and that's unacceptable.

ROME ODUNZE: 3 - Odunze's had a bad start, but there's too many issues with the OL, the coordinator, and Williams struggles to put Odunze's lack of involvement/execution solely upon his head. For now. Clock's ticking, though. Show us something, young man.

[Z Bear]

Waldron - 10: It looks like a high school spread offense out there
O-line - 10: Chris Morgan appears to be the worst line coach/run game coordinator in football, no clue why he was retained for Waldron. The players all look worse than they did last year.

The rest are minimal, can't blame the QB with the coordinator and line looking like a hot pile of runny dog shit.

[makaur]

Here's what I said before drafting Caleb Williams...

"If you don't have an offensive line, it doesn't matter who your skill guys are."

Therefore, my Panic-o-Meter will always be at a 10 until they fix the OLine. You can't sign a few turds and expect the OLine to be solid. This is going to be a painful season for Caleb and I won't be surprised if he finishes on IR.

[wab]

OL - maybe an 8: It's still early and they have time to fix it. They have faced two incredibly talented defensive lines in a row. I'm probably worried more about individual players than the line as a whole. Davis obviously, but Wright's pass blocking has been almost non-existent. I feel like the whole OL problem is a communication issue and not so much a talent issue though, so I have hope.

Waldron - like a 6: Hard to call plays when there are so many mistakes. OL missing assignments, WRs dropping touchdowns, RBs not getting upfield...etc.

Williams - 3: People said all along that the Stroud baseline was going to disappoint people, and here we are. He was incredible in the first quarter, but he got beat up pretty bad after that.

Eberflus - 5: His defense is lights out and he's gotten better about adjustments, but whoever is advising him on challenges needs to stop doing that.

WR/TE/RB - 7: I know it's going to take a minute for these guys to gel, but they need to hurry.

[Otis Day]

Here's what I said before drafting Caleb Williams...

"If you don't have an offensive line, it doesn't matter who your skill guys are."

Therefore, my Panic-o-Meter will always be at a 10 until they fix the OLine. You can't sign a few turds and expect the OLine to be solid. This is going to be a painful season for Caleb and I won't be surprised if he finishes on IR.

Exactly. It is kind of like buying a brand new car (Williams) with no transmission (OL) in it. Poles as a former OL has sucked donkey dick with regard to putting a competent OL togeter. Coach Morgan has to take some heat. They are not picking up anything and look overmatched.

Panic meter for the entire team I guess would be a 10 even though I was not expecting playoffs.

Panic meter for Williams is maybe a 5. A QB can't do shit without a competent OC and OL.

Get rid of Davis, flat out, cut his ass now. No one on the roster can be worse.

I expected improvement this year, but early on I see regression. This organization cannot keep failing top of the line QBs. I am over this type of shitty football. I should not have to get so damn frustrated watching a game I have no influence over.

[Shadow]

As the Bears played late, I got to watch the Saints play Dallas (wife is a Saints fan).
That young Kubiak guy at OC had them destroying that much vaunted Dallas defense. Parsons was nullified all night.
Saints have a combined 91 points in two games.
Score TDs on their first 6 posessions.
Why can't we have an OC like that?
My panic meter at OC is around a 12 on a scale of 1-10.

[wab]

As the Bears played late, I got to watch the Saints play Dallas (wife is a Saints fan).
That young Kubiak guy at OC had them destroying that much vaunted Dallas defense. Parsons was nullified all night.
Saints have a combined 91 points in two games.
Score TDs on their first 6 posessions.
Why can't we have an OC like that?
My panic meter at OC is around a 12 on a scale of 1-10.

Well...the Bears interviewed Kubiak before hiring Waldron. So....

Here's what I said before drafting Caleb Williams...

"If you don't have an offensive line, it doesn't matter who your skill guys are."

Therefore, my Panic-o-Meter will always be at a 10 until they fix the OLine. You can't sign a few turds and expect the OLine to be solid. This is going to be a painful season for Caleb and I won't be surprised if he finishes on IR.

Exactly. It is kind of like buying a brand new car (Williams) with no transmission (OL) in it. Poles as a former OL has sucked donkey dick with regard to putting a competent OL togeter. Coach Morgan has to take some heat. They are not picking up anything and look overmatched.

Panic meter for the entire team I guess would be a 10 even though I was not expecting playoffs.

Panic meter for Williams is maybe a 5. A QB can't do shit without a competent OC and OL.

Get rid of Davis, flat out, cut his ass now. No one on the roster can be worse.

I expected improvement this year, but early on I see regression. This organization cannot keep failing top of the line QBs. I am over this type of shitty football. I should not have to get so damn frustrated watching a game I have no influence over.

I think one of Poles' greatest strengths is his compassion and the relationships he builds with his players. I also think it might be one of his greatest weaknesses as an evaluator when it comes time to make tough decisions at the top of the roster. Davis and VJJ come to mind. He personally likes those dudes, so maybe his judgement is clouded about them.

[Moriarty]

Fairly high, really


OL 10
It's a 5-alarm fire right now.
Maybe they'll settle in in a few games. Maybe they won't and maybe they'll manage to totally ruin Caleb. What's scary is that - in the past, when they sucked at picking up stunts and blitzes, they still were extremely productive rushing. This iteration has been abysmal drizzling shit at both phases.

Morgan 8
He's not physically out there - but maybe we should try it.

Flus 6.5
I've said for a while that he's done nothing to show that he isn't Lovie v2 and he's been masterful at keeping that streak alive. The failed challenge was a spectacular display of stupid on someone's part. Not having the offense ready to play doesn't fall solely on Waldron's shoulders, when we've seen it 3 straight years.

Caleb 6
I'm worried much more about what the OL does to him, than him being innately lacking.

Waldron 4
It's early and some of the incompetence is definitely not flowing from him.

Odunze 1
Bigger problems and a slow rookie season isn't a big deal. As long as they didn't fuck his knee up, sending him out there.

[dplank]

Nice topic...

OL - 7. I'm really concerned about C and RG obviously and I don't believe we have the talent there to improve a whole lot. The hope for me is Bates gets healthy and takes over at C and settles things down, but I just see too much of what we saw in previous years under Morgan.

QB - 5. My primary concern is the accuracy issues on deep balls. He's not just missing, he's missing by MILES. Sometimes to guys who are wide open. Great QB's aren't supposed to do that even as rookies. They will struggle with reading defenses, the speed of the game, decision making, etc - but they shouldn't be air mailing several passes if they have a truly elite arm. But I'm only at a 5 year due to sample size, but goddammit Bill Billichick is in my head (He's not accurate)

RB - 6. I do not like what I see from Swift. And I really backed that move, so I really expected a lot better. He looks indecisive and out of sync with his line.

OC - 9. I'm alarmed, seriously alarmed, by Waldron. I get it's hard to look good when your OL struggles this badly, but where were the adjustments? He kept calling runs out of shotgun, even on short yardage - WTF? The DL was absolutely teeing off out there, where were the slants and screens? Why not line up in a power formation and blast the ball with quick hitting runs, and put those DL back on their heels? Instead he just kept pounding a square peg into a round hole all night long, and that is my biggest concern of all.

[Ditka’s dictaphone]

As the Bears played late, I got to watch the Saints play Dallas (wife is a Saints fan).
That young Kubiak guy at OC had them destroying that much vaunted Dallas defense. Parsons was nullified all night.
Saints have a combined 91 points in two games.
Score TDs on their first 6 posessions.
Why can't we have an OC like that?
My panic meter at OC is around a 12 on a scale of 1-10.

I’m not going to repeat what I’ve posted multiple times, no-one wants to read it again.

I am worried how the Texans and the Titans are suddenly “great teams” when they play the Bears.
The Texans pissed away the number one pick to the tanking Bears 2 seasons ago. They were terrible. The bears weren’t good but most of our defeats were Q4 collapses.
We used that pick for a haul which included the number 1 pick last draft.

So how the hell have the Texans improved enough to get deep in the playoffs last season and the Bears have been bunk and scared of playing the mighty Texans.

What happened?

[wab]

I get calling runs out of the shotgun. Waldron was absolutely doing it to help Williams identify the unblocked defender, of which there were many. This offense also calls for slower developing runs with lots of double teams, so it's more practical to keep Swift (who is incredibly fast and agile) away from the LOS to give him some space so he can see the play/running lanes developing in front of him.

It's also a heavy play action offense, so it helps with selling RPOs and stuff.

BUT... the OL has to do it's job whether it's under center or from the gun. And they didn't.

[malk]

Offensive line - 10. This is petrifying right now. Davis is checked out one way or another, I just can't see how he isn't benched now. Shelton also looks out matched but... Jones, Jenkins and Wright look poor too which leads to the coaching and my panic level is overflowing. Yes we've played against a couple of good fronts but oof, it's at the point where Poles needs to be thinking about spending future capital on a trade.

Williams - 3. He's shown some really good flashes, looks confident back there and has shown some ability to stand in what could only generously be called a pocket. I am genuinely shocked at the quality of his deep balls though, whether it's accuracy, footwork, timing, whatever. He's been badly off and even with the line troubles he's had a good few opportunities now and barely any have come off, what's his longest throw so far? Still, from the 2 games so far his average yards to go is 9.3 and 24.2% of his passing downs have been with 11+ yards for a 1st down. I want to see him in a game where he's under normal NFL pressure rather than constantly running for his life, then I'll re-evaluate my panic-o-meter on the deep balls. Christ, might not be possible this year.

Waldron - ? Some definitely but whilst I hear the calls others here have been making, we're too horizontal, if the line can't block and even when Williams does get a shot downfield he spuffs it... well that screws with your game planning. If it wasn't for the personnel head scratchers he'd be on a fully pass right now, with them I am a bit concerned.

Overall through I'm keeping it together, if the line can just get to poor from utterly awful this defence will win us a lot of games, especially as the defensive line is looking pretty damn good.

[G08]

Overall for the team I'd say I'm at a 4.

OL - 8. It's been two games but I do not like what I've seen, and how the fuck is Bates hurt already? That's deeply concerning. I don't know if these guys are still trying to get used to playing with each other or if they are just overwhelmed with their assignments, but something needs to be corrected. Maybe scale back the offense? I don't know. Same shit different year.

QB - 3. I hate that Caleb is getting hit at a high rate, it's the tried-and-true method to ruin young QBs. This goes back to the OL and play calling. I think he's a tough, driven SOB so he'll fight his way through it, I just hope the light turns on before he gets PTSD.

Waldron - 5. I wonder if they threw too much at the players rather than focus on mastering their core plays. Walter Payton once said you have to have at least one play in your playbook where any time you call it, you can gain four yards. I don't think we have that (WTF happened to our run game?).

Eberflus - 3. I like him as a coach, I think he obviously needs to figure something out to help the offense because we can't keep building teams like it's the 80s or 90s. You need to fucking score points in this league to win, and you need to do it through the air.


I had us at 1-1 through the first two games so I'm not in a panic per se. That being said, the offense needs to take a step against Indy next week.

[Boris13c]

OFFENSIVE LINE: 10 - we were sold a bill of goods about the quality of the offensive line ... a LT position that is a turnstyle, giving defenders an express ticket to the back of the QB, is not a good thing ... the fucker was clearly holding almost every play and STILL couldn't do his job

SHANE WALDRON : 10 - why does it seem the Bears can hire a highly touted offensive guru, and when he becomes part of the Bears staff, he turns into someone who looks like he is calling an offense for the first time? before the season, Waldron and Eberflus both stressed how important it was to build the offense around Caleb, and protect him so he can execute ... so, what's the deal Waldron? are you really a useless piece of shit who lucked into your job? or do you know what you're doing but just haven't gotten around to it yet? figure it out you asshole ... and abysmal is too complimentary to him UOK

as for the main man, the Flus, I will just agree with UOK :

MATT EBERFLUS: 5 - His defense is clearly responding and through two games has been near-dominant, particularly in the second half. The bigger issue is that he's looking at firing his OC this offseason, assuming Poles doesn't fire the staff at year's end, and that's unacceptable.

[Bears Whiskey Nut]

This was a game I expected us to lose, and by more than we did. That being said;

OL - 9. This has to get unfucked right now. If that means cutting Davis and benching Shelton to send a message, than so be it. I would rather have a OG out there with 70% of the talent and 100% more want-to than Davis's ass right now. Don't care who it is. Nothing else is as important as this.

Shane Waldron - 7. I get what he was trying to do last night. But it wasn't working and he needed to get off of it. The lateral passing game was not working, and the Texans DE's were too fast. He was also limited in what he could call given the relentless blitzing/stunts that Houston was throwing at the Bears. My biggest concern is his choice of personnel. Homer should be getting 0-3 carries a night. Cole Kmet should be getting 5-8 targets at a minimum.

QB - 4. A little concerned with the deep passes. When he's had time, he's been really good for a rookie. Quick, decisive, accurate. Like WAB said, those that were expecting Stroud 2.0 were going to be disappointed.

RB/WR/TE - 3. This is more personnel decisions on the part of Waldron that bothers me, than a talent issue. Caleb still needs more time to gel with his skill players. That was inevitably going to happen.

[spudbear]

Umm, Panic-O-Meter still getting calibrated. Think it'll need a few more games until it's ready.
How many years has us Bears fans wallowed in pitiful offense morasses (yes it's a word)? When is the last time the Bears could safely say they had a top ten OL?

Poles is competing with 31 other teams for playmakers and blockers. The Justin Fields experiment is over but the cost was high. It's going to take some time to build the offense. We finally seem to have some playmakers to go with a strong D. We can all nitpick over Poles mistakes on the OL, but for now we are in the position to having to trust him for the team's long term success.

Nobody likes the pain when the panic-o-meter pegs. I'll still keep my hope for a glorious future. Someday.

[artbest01]

Oline 10. Right now, and it’s early, this is the worst bear offensive line performance wise that I’ve seen in the nearly 50 years I’ve been following the beloved. Past bad olines couldn’t pass block, but we could always count on the running game - including Mitch and Justin’s rookie seasons. This line can’t do anything at this point.

OC - 6. Imo, Waldron doesn’t seem to have a sense of what works and what doesn’t given the personnel he has on hand. For two consecutive weeks, the offense has been disjointed.

Caleb - 5. The glaring inaccuracy on downfield passes, from my amateur perspective, is mental more than physical - like a baseball player going through a hitting slump or a basketball player who can’t buy a basket. I don’t think it’s innate - but I do think it will take awhile to fix.

Chris Morgan - 9 - he’s failing through two games, period

[German Bear]

QB 1
Growing pains are taken into account. But I'm a little disappointed. He has to show progress in the next games.

O Line 10
Wow, what a disappointment. What happened to our running game, which would be so important for our rookie? The fact that the pass block is not convincing is less surprising.

OC7
German Angst

Flus 3
Defensive God is not enough.

Polens 2
He has to admit that a blatantly wrong decision was made here. A trade would now make sense. Perhaps the biggest miscalculation is in Allen instead of an O liner

[Arkansasbear]

On the OL it's a 10, but I have no idea where it needs to be on other aspects as the OL is so bad, I can 't get a feel for where everything else really is.

[dplank]

Oline 10. Right now, and it’s early, this is the worst bear offensive line performance wise that I’ve seen in the nearly 50 years I’ve been following the beloved. Past bad olines couldn’t pass block, but we could always count on the running game - including Mitch and Justin’s rookie seasons. This line can’t do anything at this point.

OC - 6. Imo, Waldron doesn’t seem to have a sense of what works and what doesn’t given the personnel he has on hand. For two consecutive weeks, the offense has been disjointed.

Caleb - 5. The glaring inaccuracy on downfield passes, from my amateur perspective, is mental more than physical - like a baseball player going through a hitting slump or a basketball player who can’t buy a basket. I don’t think it’s innate - but I do think it will take awhile to fix.

Chris Morgan - 9 - he’s failing through two games, period

I have argued for years Art that the actual run blocking here has not been good, and our run game was almost wholly propped up by JF1. Both with his actual rushing yards, but also with all the attention he drew as a Lamar type QB which just opened everything up for the backs when they got the ball. We are seeing what a traditional rush attack looks like now, and it's straight up awful.

[Moriarty]

Oline 10. Right now, and it’s early, this is the worst bear offensive line performance wise that I’ve seen in the nearly 50 years I’ve been following the beloved. Past bad olines couldn’t pass block, but we could always count on the running game - including Mitch and Justin’s rookie seasons. This line can’t do anything at this point.

OC - 6. Imo, Waldron doesn’t seem to have a sense of what works and what doesn’t given the personnel he has on hand. For two consecutive weeks, the offense has been disjointed.

Caleb - 5. The glaring inaccuracy on downfield passes, from my amateur perspective, is mental more than physical - like a baseball player going through a hitting slump or a basketball player who can’t buy a basket. I don’t think it’s innate - but I do think it will take awhile to fix.

Chris Morgan - 9 - he’s failing through two games, period

I have argued for years Art that the actual run blocking here has not been good, and our run game was almost wholly propped up by JF1. Both with his actual rushing yards, but also with all the attention he drew as a Lamar type QB which just opened everything up for the backs when they got the ball. We are seeing what a traditional rush attack looks like now, and it's straight up awful.

I dunno.
That would explain things, if it were true.

But, for example, last year when Fields was out for 4 games, the rushing attack was still solid (and Monty was gone and Herbert was hurt during that time, too).

[dplank]

Fair point, our OL was playing decent at that point and I have hope ours will improve also like last years unit did. Weak opponents certainly helped

[G08]

Cole Kmet with some insight:

[G08]

DJ ain't happy...

[dplank]

Any lip readers out there? I'm dying to know what he said to Bagent there....I saw it live and was wondering if he said anything to the effect of "wish you were out there"

[wab]

Any lip readers out there? I'm dying to know what he said to Bagent there....I saw it live and was wondering if he said anything to the effect of "wish you were out there"

A friend of mine who is hearing impaired told me he said “yall lied to me”.

[Ditka’s dictaphone]

Any lip readers out there? I'm dying to know what he said to Bagent there....I saw it live and was wondering if he said anything to the effect of "wish you were out there"

A friend of mine who is hearing impaired told me he said “yall lied to me”.

About Caleb’s arm talent?

[dplank]

Any lip readers out there? I'm dying to know what he said to Bagent there....I saw it live and was wondering if he said anything to the effect of "wish you were out there"

A friend of mine who is hearing impaired told me he said “yall lied to me”.

Interesting thx, no idea what that means but I rewatched and sure seems right

[Cartman]

Here's what I said before drafting Caleb Williams...

"If you don't have an offensive line, it doesn't matter who your skill guys are."

Therefore, my Panic-o-Meter will always be at a 10 until they fix the OLine. You can't sign a few turds and expect the OLine to be solid. This is going to be a painful season for Caleb and I won't be surprised if he finishes on IR.

Agreed. I wanted the Bears to trade the 1st pick and keep Fields. Not because Fields is a stud. But because I knew we'd get even more than when we traded the #1 pick back in 2023 to the Panthers. We have so many holes on the offensive line. We could have used those picks to really rebuild our roster. Even if we didn't trade it and still took Caleb, I'm not sure why this teams thinks signing scrubs and backups (like Ryan Bates) is how you protect your most valuable asset.

[Kylo Bearen]

About DJ's level right here.