I get that I’m asking an extremely subjective question but I’m curious how people view his impact on 2023 CB play.
Well, they also sucked in 2021 and 2022. So probably as much as it was Aubrey Pleasant’s.
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The CB room is an overrated Sutton and a bunch of nobodies. Literally. UDFAs, guys who got picked up off the street, and ST level players. You can polish a turd all you want, but it’s still a turd.
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I really buy the idea that Sutton was playing hurt the last quarter of the season. There’s no other explanation for a solid player to become that bad that quickly.
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Looking at the talent at that position I don’t know how much blame we can really put on the coaching. Our #1 cb played in what…one game? So then the #2 was forced to play single coverage on superstar wideouts and we had Vildor and Jerry on the opposite side. Not sure if that was ever going to be a recipe for great success
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I blame Brad, Dan & AG.
Our defensive scheme puts WAY too much pressure on CB’s, the one area of the team we are seriously lacking in talent.
We saw multiple guys have career games against us this season. If our defense was “average”, we’d be in the game on Sunday.
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Jacobs undrafted. 2 torn acl’s
Moseley 2 torn ACL’s
Vildor was a practice squad callup into full time starter.
Gilmore 170 pound undrafted corner
Hard for me to blame the corner coach with the above talent.
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Quick scores compared to long sustained drives running the ball will only help our time of possesion! (sarcasm alert)
Just asking… How do you know that we wouldn’t have been torched in other ways, even more severely, had we adjusted our scheme to help subpar players? Are we far worse against the run if we do that? I guess I will refer to the guys that got us to the NFC championship game, have decades of experience, not only playing but coaching, and live this shit 24 / 7.
Also, would it put us in a worse position next year if we are running a scheme that isn’t really our scheme? Think when we can plug guys into the CB spots and the other nine guys are already used to playing in the system that we ran in 2023. I understand adjusting to the players you have available, but there’s something to be said about running and understanding the same scheme year after year after year.
He doesn’t. It’s all conjecture.
To the OP’s post: Bly appears to not be very good at teaching. I doubt he will be back next year…or at least have a diminish role.
Sutton being the best by far yet pretty avg at best says alot. It’s hard to judge a coach when your best player is mid level # 2 and everyone else would have trouble making a good roster.
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The same would be true of Aaron Glenn.
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If Moseley and CJGJ played all season. We probably are having a very different conversation.
But 2 of the main free agent DB’s we added barely played all season. That was 14 million bucks we got almost nothing from.
Them playing would surely have helped Sutton a lot.
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How much of it was the pass rush? Or lack there of a consistent rush.
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It could be scheme, it could be coaching, it could be talent.
The argument for talent is that Vildor wasn’t even worth being number 4 on the Bears depth chart and he beat out Jacobs to start for us. Sutton was the no 2 in Pittsburgh and looked better in their scheme with more talent around him.
The argument for scheme is that we sold out to defend the run which was always going to leave the DBs more exposed in the pass game.
The argument for coaching is that Glenn and Bly were both Pro Bowl CBs, and you simply can’t coach your own raw talent into someone else.
It’s probably a little bit of all three.
The latest coaching move might not even be a judgement on Bly, maybe he’s suggested that he wants to go back to college or has a personal issue or is being moved within the organisation into another role.
It’s impossible to know and guessing isn’t helpful.
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Agreed. A #2 CB who has an injured foot, and is forced into playing the #1 role, is a recipe for disaster. I was pretty critical of him for a while, but the dude was falling down on plays just trying to make cuts without any contact. There had to be something going on with him.
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Well sheesh, sorry to be so unhelpful…
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Stop being so Curious. 
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Hurt or not, he still had to cover for 4 seconds or more. That makes it impossible to stay with a Probowl WR.
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As to why I asked:
1:) you couldn’t find a single UNC football fan that would go to bat over the coaching job he did there.
2:) I remember several times in game threads other posters making comments like, “why was Sutton playing outside leverage there when he has safety help to the inside?” I’m paraphrasing a bit but I know that several posters had questions about veteran players making routine mistakes like that.
3.) he wasn’t the sort of ex-player I’d target to teach fundamentals focused CB play. Bly was basically Walmart brand Prime. He was great at bating QBs and just had an unusual instinct for when to jump a route. I don’t think that profile is either easily taught or what you want to hang your hats on. Townsend is much more of the mid rounder, grinder type that you’d expect to see in coaching. Perhaps there is not there here but I just found Bly’s profile to be a bit unique.
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