Day: March 21, 2011

Mike Singletary is a Parent Who Knows How to Do It and Other Points of View

Bears

  • Chicago Tribune columnist Dan Pompei conducted a wide ranging interview with Bears president Ted Phillips.  Phillips told him that the team expects to be able to spend money on free agents when the labor stoppage ends.  We’ll see if that’s still the case if game (and substantial revenue) are lost.
  • Phillips also described what I would consider to be a reasonable attitude toward the new rule changes with respect to kickoff returns:

“There are some aspects to the proposal, including the elimination of the two-man wedge and having all the players except the kicker no more than 5 yards behind the ball, that would be more acceptable than moving the kickoff to the 35.”

Bottom line, the Bears don’t mind making kickoff returns safer.  But they see no reason to cut down on the number of them.  I’ve got a feeling that the Bears won’t be alone in that attitude.

Phillips admitted members of the organization “really haven’t talked to him.”

“Maybe some of the coaches did,” Phillips said. “Now, with the work stoppage, we can’t talk to him. But when the time comes, we’ll sit down with him and see how things are going.”

With months of offseason ahead with no contact, let’s hope that someone did talk to him.

Asked if the Bears would consider trading [quarterback Jay] Cutler, Phillips said, “I mean, no one is untradeable. But we couldn’t be happier with Jay as our QB. He’s our guy. Our organization has never wavered in saying, ‘Jay’s our quarterback, and we’re excited to have him.’”

The last time someone told Cutler that he wasn’t untradeable, he was headed out of town.  Let’s hope he reacts better in his current environment.

  • And Charles Barley is showing up Dez Clark on the golf course:

Elsewhere

“I think we’ve got good people that are going to help them [in] their fundamentals and get them from a technique standpoint. But I’ve got to feel good that they’ve got the leadership qualities and can mesh with some of my thoughts on the quarterback position. My one-on-one time with them, and just being around them is as important to me as what they can do from a pro day or workouts.”

“Good athletes at quarterback don’t always become franchise quarterbacks. For us, we’re looking and hoping to find a franchise quarterback. For us, that’s what we’re looking to find. So my time with him is as important or more important than what we see on tape.”

Always assuming that Frazier actually means what he says, I would agree with Seifert in that I think these comments might be significant in terms of the Vikings attitude towards Auburn quarterback Cam Newton.  In fact, I’d take it further and say that even in the seemingly unlikely event that Newton were to fall to them, they very well might not take him.

  • Mike Florio at profootballtalk.com makes a good point I hadn’t thought of.  H addresses the problems that coaches like Frazier have when it comes to dealing with players who get themselves in trouble during the lockout.  The Vikings have had two incidences, one involving the arrest of cornerback Chris Cook and the other with running back Adrian Peterson comparing the NFL to “modern-day slavery”:

“’Adrian is a great kid, as you guys know,’ Frazier told reporters Sunday while arriving at the Roosevelt Hotel in New Orleans for league meetings.  ‘This is a time where not being able to communicate with the players — it’s hard to form an opinion. . . .  So, you kind of reserve judgment on everything that you see right now . . . all the information that you’re getting is through the media.’”

“Future draft picks, beyond 2011, also can be traded.  But an ominous caveat comes from ESPN’s Chris Mortensen.

“Per Mort, the league has advised teams that any trades of draft picks beyond 2011 will occur ‘at [their] own risk.’

“In other words, there may not be a draft in 2012.”

“Our Rams sources believe it certainly wouldn’t hurt to at least look into adding veteran WRs Plaxico Burress, who has been in prison the last couple of years, and Randy Moss, who played under new offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels in New England. ‘But there are obvious issues with both of them,’ said one team insider. ‘Unlike Michael Vick, who was 28 (nearly 29) when he got out of prison, Burress will be 34 years old (in August). Moss is a bit more intriguing, but it really does seem like he’s no longer a difference maker. He didn’t do anything with the Titans.'”

“Another factor that has made evaluations difficult is the prevalence of spread offenses in college. With the spread, teams typically don’t see as many one-on-one matchups or throwing downfield.

“Said [Bengals defensive backs coach Kevin] Coyle about the evaluation process: ‘The first thing is, can he stay with the receivers and be physical? Does he have the change of direction and able to stay tight on routes? Can they come out of their breaks and explode? You really have to search as you study the tapes. You might go through a game and see only three or four plays.'”

  • The Baltimore Ravens are on the clock at ESPN:

“The guys in the locker room call me the cheapest guy around,” Pitts said with a laugh, “but you have to be wise with your money. You can live a great life and still be careful and still be smart.

“I tell guys, ‘Why do you need that $250,000 car? A Mercedes is a great car, and it’s $85,000. You can afford that on your salary, and what’s that ($250,000) car going to do for you?’ “

[Insert your comment about the NFL labor stoppage here].

One Final Thought

Mike Singletary talks: Bob Sansevere at the St. Paul Pioneer Press listens:

“I think my kids have seen the eyes. They know the look: ‘OK, Daddy is serious.'”

I can only imagine.

Conflicting Comments Make Bears Draft Philosophy Puzzling

As I’ve said, the Dan Pompei interview with Bears president Ted Phillips is providing a lot of food for thought.  Here’s an answer that caught my eye:

“How do you feel about the criticism [general manager Jerry Angelo] sometimes gets?

“Personnel is not an exact science. It takes a little luck. He’d be the first one to tell you we need to do a better job in the early rounds (of the draft), and we do. The flip of that is he’s done a really nice job of finding key players in later rounds and through trades and free agency.”

Sounds reasonable and its more or less true.  But consider this comment made by Angelo to Neil Hayes of the Chicago Sun-Times at the Combine last month.  Hayes asked if there were going to be any changes to the draft philosophy this year:

“”It’s not nuclear Neil. It’s the same. We’ll do some things a little bit differently, we had a change, we looked at the bottom part of the draft and how we wanted to evaluate it differently this year so we made some changes that way… But nothing.”

Phillips says (and I agree) that the Bears success in the draft has been in the later rounds.  So Angelo has apparently decided that’s the part of the draft process that needs to be changed.

Am I missing something here?

Sometimes Its the Smallest Comments That Are the Most Meaningful

We spend a lot of time reading between the lines in newspaper reports when writing for this blog.  That’s especially true during the offseason when news gets a bit more scarce.  So not surprisingly, Dan Pompei‘s interview with Bears President Ted Phillips for the Chicago Tribune provided us with plenty of fodder to go under the microscope.

Sometimes what appear to be little throw in comments tend to get lost in interviews like Pompei’s.  For this post I’d like to highlight one at the end of this answer:

“Was there any thought to extending general manager Jerry Angelo‘s contract?

“He is signed through 2013, which puts him on the same time frame as [head coach] Lovie [Smith]. With three years to go, that’s premature. But he feels total support from the organization, as he should. I’ve been happy with the job he’s done, and I love how he and Lovie get along.”

I like Angelo and as GM’s go the Bears could certainly do worse.  But, as anyone who reads this blog knows, that doesn’t mean I’m always his biggest backer.  That’s why this comment gave me some pleasure.

If there is one critical thing Angelo has going for him its his ability to work effectively with everyone up and down the organization.  Its far from the only necessary thing but it is the first necessary thing if you are going to get things done.  Angelo is a consensus builder and “getting along” with Smith – and everyone else – in an environment where opinions are like [rear end]-holes can’t be easy.

I like the fact that Phillips thought it necessary to bring this up out of nowhere at the end this question.  It shows that its on his mind and, because Pompei didn’t specifically ask him about it, it makes it less likely that its just a politically correct answer given for public consumption without the ring of truth.

I won’t say that it means the organization is healthy.  But it is a good sign that if its not the potential to be so is still there.  Without a good relationship with Lovie Smith, Angelo’s job is hopeless.