Bears
- Bears head coach John Fox doesn’t like to go into specifics. So its significant that even he concedes in this interview with John Mullin at csnchicago.com that things may be a little rough early in the season:
“Truth be told, everybody breaks the season down into four quarters. Our first four games, and a little preseason, there’ll be a learning curve. Whenever you have a new staff, it’s just not as well-oiled early. Going back to both places I’ve been [Carolina, Denver], it didn’t start great. By the time you finish that first year, then it consistently gets better because you have some core players that know your system.
“It doesn’t happen overnight, even from just the learning curve. Forget about the ability level; it’s knowing and understanding the system.”
- Patrick Finley at the Chicago Sun-Times interviews Bears president/CEO Ted Phillips:
“Phillips said [general manager candidate Chris] Ballard didn’t want the Bears to restructure their front office. Phillips characterized the power structure as the same as last season. Pace, who controls the roster, brought in at least 30 football-operations staffers during the offseason.”
Its a funny statement because rumors at the time said exactly the opposite – that Ballard, as a previous employee, saw all of the flaws in the structure and wanted to change it. I would guess that the truth is probably somewhere in between. Ballard probably wanted to fire the “wrong people”.
- Most reporters, Hub Arkush at chicagofootball.com amongst them, think that there’s no way new offensive guard Patrick Omameh will learn the offense quick enough to start against the Packers. I’m not so sure but either way I think he’ll be starting soon.
Omameh started at guard for the Bucs and even though he was part of a line that gave up 52 sacks, the Buccaneers obviously didn’t think that he was the biggest part of the problem. They already had Logan Mankins starting on the left and drafted Ali Marpet in the second round this year so they tried to move Omameh to tackle.
If the Bears were happy starting Vlad Ducasse at guard, they’d have moved Kyle Long to tackle a long time ago. Don’t rule out Charles Leno starting a game at right tackle instead.
Elsewhere
- Hard to believe that playing for Bill Belichick and the Patriots “not fun”.
- This might be the most disgusting thing I’ve seen in sports.
One Final Thought
Back to Mullin’s interview with Fox, who wasn’t all doom and gloom as he gives you a glimpse into the kind of thinking that he’s using to instill confidence into a team that gave up 55 points to the Packers last year:
“It’s back to people. I tell guys, ‘I’m not spending eight hours a day with [jerks]. And I don’t expect you to, either.’ When those come up, I’m runnin’ them out. Because it’s people. If you have all oars in the water and don’t have ‘anchors,’ you’ve got a chance – I don’t care what your talent level is.”
“People ask me about last year. Hell, I don’t know about last year. I say: You’ve got a rearview mirror. You glance at it to see what’s behind you and learn from it. But you spend all your time looking in the rearview mirror and not out the windshield, you’re going to wreck. We need to be looking ahead, not behind, except glancing to learn from it. “
The over-under on wins for the Bears in Vegas is 6.5 wins. I think that’s certainly in the ballpark as I’ve been predicting about 6 wins. Media gambling experts are taking the over.
I think one thing is certain. The Bears are going to be live underdogs, especially late in the year. If your fandom can survive the start of the season, there may be a payoff waiting for you at the end.