My biggest criticism of Poles is how he put together the coaching staff. We can go back and forth if he actually hired and found Flus, or was just given 3 to make the final pick of.

However, all the rest of the staff he approved.

He approved an OC that had never called plays before.

He approved a QB coach who had never worked in the NFL before.

He approved the DC.

He approved as staff that as a whole, didn’t have a capable HC in waiting, on the off chance that he needed to fire Flus or if something unforeseen happened like Flus got sick or something.

He approved letting Flus be DC & HC, and make D play calls.

All of that is weak, and shows the team is right now, in disarray.

He hasn’t been horrible in drafting, but if he took Pickens last draft instead of another DB, maybe we don’t need to trade for Claypool and could have taken Joey Porter with the 1st pick of the 2nd round instead of him going to the Steelers.

Mismanagement of your staff is a fireable offense.

Until the Lions game, I thought there was a very good chance he stayed.

Now I think it’s 50/50

What would Mike Tomlin do with this roster?

Obviously we’ll never know for sure, so let’s not argue about who is right and who is wrong.

I think we would be at worst 6-5 with Tomlin as HC. Possibly 7-4.

For sure, slam-dunk wins are GB week 1, Denver week 4, Detroit week 11

Possible wins - TB week 2, NO week 9

I’m not sure about Minnesota or Chargers

How many elite rosters are there right now? I mean flawless rosters. Even KC has obvious weaknesses. Miami has struggled recently. Denver has surged to a .500 record.

The Eagles might have the best roster construction, and the Lions are good but even they should be on a 2gm losing streak after yesterday’s game.

I’m not defending JF or saying we have an elite defense. I’m just saying a legit HC would have gotten more out of this team.

It would have to broadcast on Comedy Central instead of HBO.

I would say they 100% should have beaten Denver. That would put us at 3-6. Based on how Eberflus prepped the team for week 1 vs Packers (or lack thereof), that game was at least winnable. The fallout from losing vs GB was a clear distraction heading into Tampa.

Momentum in the NFL is underrated. The team was in total disarray heading into KC. We do not beat KC with the roster we have, I’m not saying that at all. However, coming off a beating but still 2-1, the mood would be considerably different than it is being 0-3.

The reason we started so poorly was how little the 1st team played in the pre-season. Anyone saying this is a playoff team is probably wrong. However the NFL is so fluid that anything can happen. Getting into the WC weekend should have been at least on the table.

Look at Cleveland beating the 49ers in week 6. SF was undefeated and Cleveland was starting a QB we determined wasn’t good enough to make our roster. Anything can happen, so if the Bears back into the playoffs, then 60 minutes later we all find out.

This team should not be 2-7.

Both can actually be true.

The coaching staff (Getsy in particular) has called plays that JF has had mixed results with, therefore he isn’t confident that the play will develop as planned.

Fields hasn’t done basic things that should get easy positive gains.

One example of both being true, the 1st play of the Minnesota game. Against a defense that blitzes as often as they do, you should start out by running the ball. Instead they come out 5 wide, no TE, no RB for extra pass pro. This is a bad play to start the game.

However, this was the 1st play of the game, they should have practiced it multiple times against different defensive fronts, so there is no reason for Fields to not know what to do with the ball.