Bear(ing) the News – A Chicago Bears Blog

• John Mullin had some interesting things to say about the Bears current status on offense:

“As last season spiraled down from its 7-1 start into a series of disappointing losses, communications in and around the offense reached a point where backup quarterback Josh McCown was pressed into the role of liaison between quarterback Jay Cutler and then-coordinator Mike Tice, a source told CSNChicago.com.”

“’I was just talking to McCown this morning and one of the things we said is it’s so cool to come to work where it’s not one of those things where it’s dreadful,” wide receiver Brandon Marshall said this week.

“‘And it’s not just coach [Marc] Trestman and the new guys here. It’s just the organization, period. When you could come in and just do what you’re supposed to do and you don’t have to worry about all of the other fluff and the business side of things, it’s cool.’

“It was cool last offseason when Jeremy Bates was brought in as quarterbacks coach, having worked with Cutler and Marshall in Denver. And cool with Cutler when the Mike Martz tenure began. A key to the franchise future, short-term and even longer-term, is achieving a more lasting ‘cool.'”

• Those Bear fans who prefer a rosy outlook are going to love this ESPN article from former scout Gary Horton, who describes what to expect from the new Bears offense. He positively gushes about new head coach Marc Trestmen:

Trestman is a very cerebral guy and this will be a thinking man’s offense with amazing attention to detail and meticulous preparation — something he’ll demand from his players and assistants as well. They will be challenged to outwork their opponents each week and their mental approach to the game will be a key to their success. He will call offensive plays — one of his big strengths — he will work very closely with offensive coordinator Aaron Kromer and QB coach Matt Cavanaugh, and he will sit in all of the QB meetings. But that’s not simply to preside over the proceedings.

• Dan Pompei answers your questions:

Who will have the most targets after Brandon Marshall — another WR or Martellus Bennett? — @eddygchitown, from Twitter

I think opposing defenses may dictate that to a degree. If they try to take away Bennett, it will be [Alshon] Jeffery. If they try to take away Jeffery, it will be Bennett. But if defenses focus all of their attention on Marshall and the run game, which they may have to frequently do, both Bennett and Jeffery will get plenty of opportunities. In that case, I would suspect Jeffery would be the second leading receiver on the team. Bennett had a career year in 2012 and was the third leading receiver on the Giants behind Victor Cruz and Hakeem Nicks. I could see a similar scenario playing out with the Bears.

Just as the development of Bears defensive end **Shea McClellin** will be the single biggest key to the Bears performance on defense this year, the development of Jeffery will largely determine what the offense will accomplish. Defense will do exactly as Pompei says. They’ll take away Marshall first (if they can), then running back **Matt Forte**. I’m not holding my breath on Bennett and his one big season with the Giants being a huge factor. Its Jeffery who is going to have to come through with big yardage against single coverage.

How the Bears go in 2013 is going to be all about the success of the 2012 draft.

• Here is another of the many good questions Pompei answered this week:

I read your piece on the Bears new strength coach, and how the focus is now on explosiveness rather than sustainability and player protection. Are we in for another training camp like Lovie Smith‘s first, with hamstrings popping on every drill? The strongest players in the world won’t help you if they’re on the sideline nursing a pull. One of the Bears strengths in recent years was their relative lack of non-contact soft tissue injuries. Is Phil Emery just changing everything for the sake of change? Are the players really buying into something that will likely shorten careers? — Mark Early, Arlington, Va.

If muscle pulls are the result of the new strength program, it will be a disaster. But I can assure you special attention is being paid to proper form and injury avoidance. And the team is using the same nutritional program that was used under previous strength coach Rusty Jones. It’s not like what Mike Clark is doing never has been done before. Many of his methods have been used in football programs for decades, going back to the 1970s when weight training became widely accepted. Clark wouldn’t have lasted 35 years as a strength coach and have been inducted into the USA Strength and Conditioning Coaches Hall of Fame if all he did was invite injury. Many teams have gotten outstanding results with similar philosophies. But it certainly is something worth monitoring.

Darned right it is. I remember those days as well as the questioner and it wasn’t fun. Player health is one of the biggest determining factors for team success in the NFL. USA Strength and Conditioning Coaches Hall of Fame or not I, too, fear that we’ll see significantly more hamstring pulls this year.

• Dan Pompei at the Chicago Tribune on Bears tight end Fendi Onobun:

“If there is a question on him, it is blocking. Onobun acknowledges that has been “the least natural thing” for him.”

‘It’s a work in progress,” Onobun said. “I’m a willing blocker. It’s just that it hasn’t been one of my strong suits. But it’s definitely improving.'”\

“Onobun isn’t on the Bears to block any more than Nate Robinson was on the Bulls to rebound. Onobun is on the Bears to do with Gonzalez, Gates and Graham do for their teams — catch passes.”

That’s way too soft. He’ll never catch any passes with a cornerback covering him in a defense that isn’t afraid the Bears will run with Fendi as an extra blocker. That’s a fact.

So my take is that this guy better work like hell to make blocking his “natural thing” or he won’t be in the league.

• Football Outsider‘s Rivers McCown absolutely nails it with this analysis of the Bears as he reviews the post-draft NFC North:

“But the unpopular weakness still remains. When we pointed to wide receiver as a major flaw for the current Bears early in the offseason, it was to the consternation of a lot of Bears fans who saw the offensive line as being the larger issue. The problem is that Jay Cutler is a see-it, throw-it passer. He’s still a solid quarterback, but he’s never thrown receivers open on a consistent basis. That amplifies the Bears receiving problems, and while scheming can create the occasional big play for Devin Hester, Eric Weems, or Earl Bennett, they can’t defeat man coverage often enough to benefit Cutler. While the jury is still out on Alshon Jeffery, he also wasn’t able to beat man coverage often enough last season to help out much. That means a lot of targets are going to be headed to Brandon Marshall and Bennett. Both of them performed competently in the face of that last season, but it’s certainly not the most efficient way to build an offense.”

• Brian Urlacher‘s retirement couldn’t have been a great surprise to anyone. I think what fans really want to know, and what they’ll probably never find out, is if Urlacher made a mistake in turning down the $2 million guaranteed the Bears offered him.  If he just didn’t want to put his body through another season for that, then “No.”  If he really thought he was worth more than that, then “Yes”.

• Think this TV station wishes they’d hired a sports fan to run their ticker? Via CSNChicago.com

• Fred Mitchell at the Chicago Tribune interviews Dick Butkus. He buries some advice for Urlacher in this quote on his stormy relationship with the Bears as he neared retirement:

“‘I hadn’t been exposed to the business world that much,’ Butkus said. ‘Shortly thereafter I learned that (football) was a business. … I never would have been able to do radio if (the Bears) didn’t agree to it. … So it was a business decision. What are you going to do? Get over it. Grow up.'”

Matt Trowbridge at the Rockford Register-Star echoes the thoughts of many Bear fans with this editorial:

“I like [Bears first round pick] Kyle Long. He is an intriguing prospect, with great football genes in Hall of Fame father Howie Long and brother Chris Long, a top-three pick as a defensive end for the St. Louis Rams. He also came at the No. 1 position of need for the Bears the last five years: the offensive line.

“I just don’t like him with the No. 20 overall pick. Not when almost no one else predicted Long would go anywhere in the first round.

“If the Bears wanted Kyle Long, they should have gambled that he would still be available early in the second round, or even late in the first round.”

I’m not so sure.  “Almost no one else” may have had Long going in the first round but he was a late riser.  And “almost everyone” has a bad habit of being wrong.

Kyle’s father Howie, at least, was convinced that Kyle wouldn’t last long past the Bears pick.  Via Adam L. Jahns at the Chicago Sun-Times:

“”I kind of felt like — and I won’t share the two or three teams that were picking after Chicago — but I felt like it was a really good opportunity that Kyle would go between 20-28, 29, without tipping my hand,’ Howie Long said at Halas Hall. ‘But he would have been off the board. … I’ve heard people say they should have traded down and got him in the second round. He wouldn’t have been there.'”

If I was inclined to criticize Bears general manager Phil Emery, it might be for falling in love with one player.  That he so was afraid of losing that player that he wouldn’t even consider a trade down and instead was forced to take him at a spot that might, maybe, have been to high.  Generally speaking, that’s a no, no.  But I don’t really know if that’s what happened.

The key question is, “Was it really too high to take him”?  And the bottom line is that its hard to say what NFL scouts who spend all of their time evaluating prospects and who actually do the job for a living really think.  So I’m inclined to cut Emery some slack here.  I don’t know if Long was the right pick but if he was their guy, I’m glad they took him when they did.

When I was a graduate student, the common saying amongst Information Technology personnel was “No one ever got fired for choosing IBM”.  Looking back on it many years later, I now realize that there’s a lot of truth in that.  So it was very difficult to watch Bears general manager Phil Emery draft offensive lineman Kyle Long Thursday night with the likes of Alec Ogeltree and Sharrif Floyd still on the board.  Conventional wisdom said to run to the podium and snatch one of them.

Maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised.  Conventional wisdom also said not to go to Canada to hire a head coach who hadn’t been in the NFL for half a decade.  Conventional wisdom said to draft David DeCastro last year over Shea McClellin.

It could be that Emery is simply a lot smarter than the rest of the NFL.  I just wish he didn’t feel the need to prove it with every decision he makes.

In any case, my reaction wasn’t uncommon.  As I went to bed Thursday night, I turned on WSCR in time to hear Hub Arkush say this about his reaction to the Long pick:

“I wanted to vomit but I didn’t want to make a mess on the studio floor.”

I didn’t feel that strongly.  But I’m not happy right now.  Perhaps the reason can be encapsulated by this description of second round pick Jon Bostic from NFL scouts as reported by Dan Pompei of the Chicago Tribune:

“ Jon Bostic, Florida, 6-1, 245: Bostic worked out exceptionally well and opened a lot of eyes. But he didn’t play with the same level of athleticism. “He is a little bit more of an athlete than an instinctive player,” one front office man said. “He has to see it to go get it.” He does not get to the ball as well as some of the top middle linebacker prospects. Bostic can run the defense and play all downs. He makes plays inside and outside of the box. He is a strong player who plays physically. He is a solid leader.”

Worked out exceptionally well.  “He’s a little bit more of an athlete than an instinctive player.”  That pretty much sums up the Bears draft so far.

When Emery was hired, the one thing he said that made me feel that the Bears had made the right choice for general manager was that he was going to go strictly by what he saw on tape when evaluating players.  How much tape could he have possibly seen of a first round pick who started only four games?

Emery appears drafting by the numbers.  Like former Bears head coach Dave Wannstedt in the days when the Bears drafted the likes of John Thierry and Alonzo Spellman, Emery appears to be enamored with measurables that can be derived from workouts rather than what he sees in terms of play on the field.  He’s drafting “traits” not football players.

I don’t claim to be an expert.  But in all of the years I’ve been following football, I have never, ever seen this work.  Inevitably you end up like the Raiders did under Al Davis who consistently drafted “size and speed guys”.

You can’t evaluate a draft the day after a general manager makes his picks and I swear I’m not doing it now.  This could all work out and I’ll be the first in the line to join the Phil Emery fan club if it does.

But I don’t like what I see.