Category: Green Bay Packers

Change for the Sake of Change? Not in Green Bay.

Tyler Dunne the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel thinks the few Green Bay offseason moves they made were all about purging themselves of the memory of their meltdown against the Seahawks:

“First, in emotionless, necessary succession, the team rid itself of memories from that game. Shawn Slocum. Brandon Bostick. Brad Jones. Retaining any of the three, even if their body-of-work performance justified it, would’ve only served as daily reminders of that Jan. 18 nightmare in Seattle. The head coach himself gave up play-calling duties.

“One reason Green Bay’s dreadful special teams reached the point of no return was, possibly, his lack of involvement. So [head coach Mike] McCarthy swallowed his pride.

“No, the Packers didn’t make a Julius Peppers-sized signing that would’ve re-energized the faction of fans still moping. They have, however, done plenty to cleanse itself of the recent NFC championship meltdown.”

Purging aside, Green Bay annually runs the risk of becoming stale by simply resigning veterans with little or no turnover. The signing of Peppers arguably provided a spark for the team but this year, perhaps more was required. Are these changes enough? We’ll find out.

Is Mike Wallace the Final Piece of the Vikings Puzzle?

Mark Craig at the Minneapolis Star-Tribune wonders whether the Vikings signing Mike Wallace was a good idea:

“For a guy who scored 60 million bucks a couple of years ago, Mike Wallace sure sounds like he spends way too much time complaining.

“He complained about Todd Haley’s offense at the end of his four-year stint in Pittsburgh. He complained often about his role while cashing $27.1 million worth of Dolphins checks the past two years. Heck, there were reports that then-Dolphins General Manager Jeff Ireland had to escort a visibly angry Wallace off the field after he caught one pass for 15 yards in a 23-10 win over the Browns. And that was after his FIRST game as a Dolphin!

“And, yes, not surprisingly, there are now reports that he’s not too happy about trading in South Beach for Eastern Eden Prairie. I’m sure the Dolphins were chuckling about that possibility when they traded for Saints deep threat Kenny Stills and were looking for places to send Wallace on a one-way go route.

“So if you were to ask me what I think about Wallace joining the Vikings, I’d have to say, ‘I’ll let you know.’ I’ll let him determine whether he’ll be the No. 1 receiver the Vikings covet for Teddy Bridgewater’s next step or a moody malcontent who threatens to be a drag on the second-year quarterback’s promising progression.”

I’ve a sneaking suspicion that this signing is going to work out pretty well for both the Vikings and Wallace. Wide receivers are a different breed and sometimes diva behavior comes the the territory.  Head coach Mike Zimmer isn’t the kind of guy who is going to put up with much nonsense. Wallace is going to find himself fitting into the middle of quite a bit more structure and discipline than he likely had with the Dolphins under Joe Philbin.

Wallace was a star with the Steelers. He averaged yards 19.4 yards per catch as a rookie in 2009 and increased that number to 21.0 in his second season. But his performance plummeted with the Dolphins and that could be a concern.

I’m inclined to cut Wallace a break here. He was stuck with one of the worst deep throwing quarterbacks in the league in Ryan Tannehill in Miami and, as a result, the Dolphins rarely threw the long ball, Wallace’s specialty. The guess here is that he’ll do considerably better with Bridgewater in Norv Turner‘s offense. All in all this could be an opportunity to revive his career and I’m sure he knows that.

You have to like the direction that the Vikings are headed in. With Wallace to boost the passing game and the likely (in my opinion) return of Adrian Peterson, they are going to be a problem for everyone in the NFC North. With the Detroit defense falling apart up front and very possibly in the midst of a similar transition to the 3-4 to what the Bears are undergoing, they look like the primary challengers to the Packer’s dominance of the division in 2015.

The Bears Reasonable Approach to Free Agency and Other Points of View

Bears

  • Brad Biggs at the Chicago Tribune gives the details of the Bears first three free agent signings of 2015. The interested observer will note that each of these contracts is about as front-loaded as you could make them. None has a great deal of guaranteed money past the second year.

These signings look like the type that are meant to allow maximum flexibility once the prospects which they will supposedly be developing come into their own. They’re also meant to spend the 2015 cap space that the Bears have available essentially as quickly as possible. The Bears definitely aren’t looking to buy a championship anymore. At least not this year. Hopefully they’ll leave some room to negotiate an extension with Alshon Jeffery and possibly Matt Forte. I understand the reluctance to extend Forte yet another deal at his age but he’s been very healthy and he’s still the most productive all around player this team has.

  • Speaking of Forte, Rich Campbell at the Chicago Tribune asks (and answers) the following question:

    “Now that Jay Cutler has been named the starter, how can the Bears prop him up?

    “Pace and new coach John Fox have hammered the importance of a strong running game and good defense.”

    Continuing the theme of how the offense is changing, Biggs makes some good points:

    “[Eddie] Royal gives [offensive coordinator Adam] Gase a receiver who can run option routes and crossing routes and be an underneath target as part of a combination. He can be in the flat when [Alshon] Jeffery is running a curl or corner route. Royal can be lined up tight to the alignment with Martellus Bennett, who can run high with Royal running low. They are two-level reads for Cutler the Bears didn’t have last year.”

    Yeah, sure, I get it. And with a running game you can add play action. Before you know it, you have a big boy NFL offense.

    The question is, “do the Bears have the personnel to run one?”. Campbell calls adding a running attack a “quick fix” because the Bears have Forte but I’m thinking the Bears aren’t going to be able to do this without doing some serious shuffling along the offensive line. The one thing former Bears head coach Marc Trestman didn’t do was emphasize things that he didn’t think his players could do. I think they didn’t run the ball more is because he didn’t think they could block it.

    The new blocking scheme will add an interesting wrinkle here and its possible that the finesse blockers the Bears have up front will do better with it. We’ll see.

  • On a related note, Biggs is reporting that the Bears are making a run at Dolphins free agent center Samson Satele. I’m a little iffy on whether this would be a clear upgrade or not. Satele is a smallish center who had a reasonably good start to 2014 but his performance apparently fell off late in the year. Satele is younger than current Bears center Roberto Garza and if the Bears sign him, Garza might move to right guard and kick Kyle Long to the outside at left tackle.

Center Stefen Wisniewski is being considered by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Seahawks per Kevin Patra at NFL.com. I thought maybe the Bears would make a run at him but there’s no apparent interest.

  • Adam L. Jahns at the Chicago Sun-Times reports the excitement that Bears head coach John Fox felt when he watched quarterback Jimmy Clausen‘s snaps last year:

    “So I’ve seen a guy that’s matured. I watched his one start [and] a lot of preseason snaps that he was involved in, and I’ve seen him grow as a quarterback.”

    Whatever else you think of former Bears head coach Marc Trestman, he seems to have been a pretty good quarterbacks coach. You have to wonder if Clausen will regress under new quarterbacks coach Dowell Loggains. Some will recall that Loggains pushed for the Browns to draft Johnny Manziel over Teddy Bridgewater, then coached him to some of the most miserable quarterback play the league has ever seen. The Browns apparently fired him for it.

    It’s still a quarterback driven league. I don’t think its a coincidence that the Packers coaching staff is always loaded with former quarterbacks coaches. You have to wonder if the Bears have the support on staff that’s needed to maximize what they can get out of theirs.

  • Hub Arkush at chicagofootball.com has personal experience with new Bears safety Antrel Rolle and says that we can expect him to be a vocal leader in the locker room that they’ve been missing.
  • Campbell continues to speculate about where the pieces are going to fit on defense:

    “Jeremiah Ratliff and Ego Ferguson project as nose tackles in the 3-4, so the need to draft Washington’s Danny Shelton, for example, is smaller than how much a top-flight edge-rush prospect could help.

    “Jon Bostic stands out as a leading candidate for playing time at inside linebacker, but few others do. And the Bears still are searching for big-bodied 3-4 defensive ends.”

    An awful lot of this depends upon what type of 3-4 the Bears decide to play. If its the classic, 2-gap type then I’m not entirely convinced that Ratliff won’t play defensive end. Certainly he’ll play a great deal of outside linebacker but Houston will probably see a great deal of time there. They’ll probably also try Will Sutton there.

    In any case, I’m saying that defensive line is one of, if not the top, needs that the Bears have. I’m also going to say that I’d hate to see the Bears pass on Shelton, especially to take an edge rusher where the Bears have all kinds of options. My gut tells me Shelton’s a player with that rare and possibly necessary body type and, especially if Ratliff plays more end, they’re going to want a good nose guard.

Elsewhere

  • Ben Goessling at ESPN on the Vikings acquisition of wide receiver Mike Wallace and the release of Greg Jennings:

    “Wallace seemed like a good fit for Norv Turner’s vertical passing game, more so than a 32-year-old Jennings did, but Jennings still was an effective enough slot receiver, a fine route-runner and a trusted adviser for younger wideouts that it looked like he could return in 2015. All that wasn’t worth $11 million in cap space to the Vikings, though, especially when they could save $6 million by releasing him.”

    “Wallace is no sure thing, either, after his relationship with the coaching staff fractured in Miami, but he’s three years younger, a few tenths in the 40-yard dash faster and a better schematic match for what the Vikings are doing now. “

    No, Wallace certainly isn’t a sure thing. But the odds are that Vikings offensive coordinator Norv Turner will find a better way to use him to his abilities than they did in Miami. On the other hand, Turner had an obvious problem with Jennings, opting to call receiver Charles Johnson the best on the team after the season “by far”. So that’s addition by subtraction there.

    Its hard not to like what’s going on in Minnesota right now. You wonder in quarterback Teddy Bridgewater‘s second season if they aren’t going to be ready to contend with the Packers. Again via Goessling:

    “‘I think you saw the receivers did some good things last year, but you saw us start evolving in the offense, because it’s the first year in the system, too,’ general manager Rick Spielman said Friday night, after the Vikings treated free-agent defensive end Michael Johnson to dinner. ‘And you saw how much more comfortable Teddy was, especially down the stretch. And they start developing that chemistry. Now, getting another big-play potential threat, as our young guys continue to develop, that’s kind of the direction we wanted to go.’ “

    Bottom line, the Vikings are worth watching.

  • Goessling also comments on the Adrian Peterson situation:

    “[A]s I understand it, the relationship between Peterson and the team might not even be the biggest concern at this point. The running back went, in very short order, from being a beloved figure in Minnesota to a pariah, as sponsors retreated and legislators heaped scorn on the Vikings for their initial decision to play Peterson following his indictment for child injury charges. He was stung by a Minneapolis Star Tribune investigation into his past, and claimed it did not take into account Peterson’s steps to clean up both his personal life and financial misappropriations in his charitable foundation. And he certainly heard the people — fans, media members and public figures alike — who called for the Vikings to end their relationship with him. It’s important to note all of these events are down the river from Peterson’s initial actions. His excessive discipline of his son initiated this, and Peterson has expressed regret for his actions in several interviews.”

    People are generally the same everywhere but the people of the state of Minnesota tend to be odder birds than most. Its a reasonably liberal state with strong notions of right and wrong. Its easy to believe that they were particularly hard on Peterson. Maybe too hard.

    Heaven knows its nice to see a fan base that doesn’t just roll over and forgive every action just because it was perpetrated by a star athlete. But Minnesota may be one of the few areas in the country that will never forgive Peterson no matter how sorry he is. I still think he’ll be back there. But its possible that he’ll eventually conclude that he has to force himself into a friendlier situation.

  • One of the free agents to keep an eye on in the secondary free agent market is Tramon Williams. The Packers already lost Davon House to Jacksonville and Rob Demovsky at ESPN says that they’d like to have Williams back. But at age 32 there’s a limit to what they’re going to offer him.

Williams is a possibility for the Bears but they’ve probably got their corners set with Tim Jennings on one side and Kyle Fuller on the other. And if they were going to sign a corner of a certain age it might as well be Charles Tillman.

  • Dan Hanzus at NFL.com points out that when it rains, it pours:

    “This time last year, [Jadeveon] Clowney was on top of the world. A college hero, combine wonder and soon-to-be No. 1 overall pick in the NFL draft. Since then there’s been a hernia surgery, concussion and two knee surgeries that have put his career in jeopardy. And now this …

    “SportsRadio 610 has learned that Clowney was bitten by teammate D.J. Swearinger‘s pit bull last week. Police records obtained describe a bite to Clowney’s right arm that sent him to a Pearland emergency room. The incident occurred in the early morning of March 4th.”

  • Hanzus also notes that there were 11 people in the Dolphins photo when Ndamukong Suh signed his contract and none of them was named Joe Philbin. It turned out that Philbin was in the gallery “probably next to some schlub columnist who calls for his firing on a weekly basis. It’s just a matter of time before Joe’s desk is in the basement.”
  • According to Michael Rothstein at ESPN there’s a distinct possibility that the Lions will be moving to the 3-4 defense this year. Even with new defensive tackle Haloti Ngata (who might fit a 304 better) the Lions are desperately short of tackles on the roster who are signed for 2015.
  • The more I read about Colorado State quarterback Garrett Grayson, the more I wonder if he’s the guy the Bears (or someone else) trades back into the first round to get. From Sharon Katz at ESPN.
  • TMZ is claiming to have video of Seattle runningback Marshawn Lynch in a scuffle outside of a San Francisco bar.
  • Rumors persist that Chip Kelly acquired Sam Bradford as a bargaining chip to get to a position to draft Marcus Mariota. This time its Josina Anderson at ESPN doing the reporting:

    I still don’t think he can make it high enough into the draft order to pull it off (if he actually is trying at all).

  • The Giants are getting desperate for safety help now that Rolle has signed with the Bears. There isn’t much out there. Via Josh Alper at profootballtalk.com.
  • Mike Reiss at ESPN considers the alternatives for New England now that Reggie Bush has signed with San Francisco. I’d worry less about that and more about the potential absence of Vince Wilfork in the middle if I were them. Good nose tackles for that defense don’t grow on trees, something that the Bears might want to remember as they switch to the 3-4.

One Final Thought

Gregg Rosenthall at NFL.com considers the Bears to be one of free agency’s losers so far:

“Royal getting $10 million guaranteed was a head scratcher. And Pernell McPhee could be the latest Ravens defender to look a lot different away from Baltimore. It’s also hard to get excited about a team that is so openly ambivalent about its starting quarterback.”

This is a decidedly pessimistic view, of course. Technically Cutler’s situation had nothing to do with free agency. And McPhee could just as easily turn out to be Paul Kruger as Dannell Ellerbe.

Royal fills a gap in the offense. Yeah, it was too much guaranteed money. Apparently the Bears think Royal is Danny Amendola. For all we know he might be but we’ll never find out because Cutler isn’t Tom Brady. Anyway all of that guaranteed money is in the first two years. Which means that if he doesn’t work out the Bears could free themselves of that contract without a cap penalty when they’ve developed a draft pick to replace him.

Personally, I would have been disappointed had the Bears been more aggressive than they were the first week of free agency. This team needs to get younger and start developing prospects rather than overspending and selling out to win immediately. If the last couple years taught us anything its that you can’t buy a championship.

Not the Only Thing. Thank Goodness. And Other Points of View.

Bears

  • The signing of new outside linebacker/defensive lineman Pernell McPhee reminded me ominously of the Lamarr Houston. The description of the versatility of each was so similar it was chilling. But Brad Biggs at the Chicago Tribune put me more at ease as he describes the history of previous Baltimore rejects:

    “Former Ravens Arthur Jones (Colts), Paul Kruger (Browns) and Dannell Ellerbe (Dolphins) all left for big paydays elsewhere the last two years. Total it up and they signed for $108.5 million with $43 million guaranteed on the way out of Baltimore. Ellerbe will reportedly be released in Miami. Jones was a solid player up front for the Colts last year and Kruger followed 41/2 sacks in 2013 with 11 this past season in Cleveland.”

    “Kruger was more than a system player for the Ravens and McPhee, who has terrific size at 6-foot-3, 280 pounds, is a better pass rusher. Kruger can’t put his hand in the dirt and rush like McPhee.”

    Rich Campbell at the Chicago Tribune comforts me a bit as well on this signing by quoting general manager Ryan Pace:

    “‘I don’t think it’s a scheme thing where he’s getting this production — he’s beating his man one on one,’ Pace said at Halas Hall. ‘What’s exciting about him is it might be a tackle, it might be a guard, it might be a center. He’s all over the place winning one-on-one matchups.'”

    We have to hope that he’s more Kruger than Ellerbe. But at least there’s a history of singing these free agents with success and Pace’s reasoning seems sound.

  • Biggs reports that the Bears appear to be playing it smart in free agency, looking for moderately priced bargains. These guys won’t be play makers but they’ll fill holes until the draft can replenish their young talent.
  • Mark Potash at the Chicago Sun-Times when asked if the Bears are rebuilding:

    “They’re rebuilding on the fly, which means they’re reconstructing their defense from the ground up, but still could contend if they stay healthy. Their offense was second in the NFL in points in 2013. They’re missing Brandon Marshall from that equation. But if he’s truly addition by subtraction, the Bears at least have the chance to contend in an NFL where almost every team’s expectations are fluid.”

    I disagree. There’s no way the Bears will contend for anything while transitioning to a 3-4 defense. They have square pegs fitting round holes all over the place and you can’t sign enough free agents to fill all the holes.

    The Bears built false hope amongst the fan base last year that they had a team that could go to the Super Bowl. Here’s hoping this regime is smart enough to control expectations. This team belongs near the bottom of the division next year.

  • Adam L. Jahns at the Chicago Sun-Times responds to “The Bears will fail in free agency if” with this surprising answer:

    “A quality receiver isn’t signed. Brandon Marshall’s production may be overblown, but the Bears still need help at the position. Pace wants to address needs in free agency to allow for taking the best player available in the draft. So it’s best to find a receiver, too, while still addressing the defense.”

    With needs all over the defense, I didn’t expect Jahns to push for an offensive player. But he’s got a point. You could argue that the Bears need two receivers and the odds are that they couldn’t take more than one in the draft.

  • Jeff Dickerson at ESPN passes on the rumor that the Bears have serious interest in Terrance Knighton. Knighton is a classic 2-gap, space eating nose tackle and such a signing would be an indication of what kind of 3-4 defense the Bears plan to run.
  • Rich Campbell at the Chicago Tribune indicates that the bears are in the bidding for center Sefen Wisniewski. Signing him might mean moving Roberto Garza to right guard, Kyle Long to left tackle and Jermon Bushrod to right tackle. That’s a shuffle that will make a lot of Bears fans who have been calling for the Long move happy.

Elsewhere

One Final Thought

David Haugh at the Chicago Tribune didn’t think much of the rumor that the Bears were interested in trading Jay Cutler for 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick

“Kaepernick drove the Niners crazy with the same inconsistency and inaccuracy that defined Cutler’s season. Kaepernick’s contract contains more outs than Cutler’s, but would a team give up draft picks for a starting quarterback without making a commensurate financial commitment? A younger quarterback prone to similar poor judgment would represent change merely for the sake of change, not to mention the draft picks the Bears likely would have to give up in any package for Kaepernick.”

The difference is, of course, that Kaepernick has the mental attitude of a winner and Cutler is the text book definition of a loser.

People in the media defending Cutler over a weak free agent crop is understandable. I don’t agree with it but its understandable. But defending him over a proven winner like Kaepernick is insane.

I think Rick Morrissey at the Chicago Sun-Times probably has the best handle on the situation:

“My head has told me for years that Cutler isn’t the answer for the Bears. My head told me that they should have cut ties with him this week. The argument we’ve been hearing for years – ‘Who are you going to find who’s better than Jay?’’ — isn’t an argument at all. It’s a capitulation. It’s defeatist thinking. It’s spinning your wheels and convincing yourself that you’re getting somewhere.

“If your job is to evaluate football players for a living and you’re confident in your abilities, you should be able to come to two conclusions after putting Cutler on a microscope slide:

“I can’t win with this guy.”

Having said that, Steve Rosenbloom at the Chicago Tribune at least makes me feel a little better about the current regime at Halas Hall, if not about the decision to stick with Cutler in 2015:

“[As] many times as we’ve lived this news conference, the thing that came through this time was the lack of love for Cutler from Pace and Fox.

“That’s a welcome change if they weren’t going to change quarterbacks.

“Past regimes cast Cutler as a franchise quarterback. They marveled at the physical skills and his knowledge of the game. They dreamed big dreams.

“And they got a nightmare.

“A nightmare that will continue with the quarterback who led the NFL in turnovers.

“Pace and [head coach John] Fox, however, sounded more like they were stuck with the $126.7 million quarterback than they won the lottery.”

I’m entering the stage of acceptance over this. The biggest problem is that, if you’re a fan that has any hope at all that the team can quickly turn it around this year, your season is already over in March. It’s not that the Bears can’t win games with Cutler at quarterback – they can. But I think it’s well established now that, for instance, they aren’t going to win a playoff game. Effectively the success of the team will always be capped as long as Cutler is here.

So now it’s all about watching the team develop. Development of the new schemes on offense and defense. Development and evaluation of new players and old. It’s about learning more and more about the nuances of the game.

Vince Lombardi once said, “Winning isn’t everything. It’s the only thing.” For the Bears, it’s not really too much about winning anymore.

Some Combine Thoughts and Other Points of View

Bears

  • I considered this comment from Adam L. Jahns at the Chicago Sun-Times to be interesting news:

    “The Bears have plenty of defensive holes, but that doesn’t mean Pace and Co. are being narrow-minded.

    “Some offensive lineman at the combine said they were told that the Bears are looking for interior line help.”

    This makes me wonder if many fans are going to get their way and see Kyle Long moved to tackle. They also need a plan for the future at center.

  • And this report from John Mullin at csnchicago.com was interesting as well:

    “As part of their evaluation process for [Bears quarterback Jay] Cutler, the Bears are going beyond the usual video reviews and expected to be reaching out for thoughts from some of the very offensive coaches who lost jobs in part due to Cutler. That group includes coordinators Ron Turner, Mike Martz, Mike Tice and Aaron Kromer, plus former quarterbacks coaches Matt Cavanaugh and Pep Hamilton, now Andrew Luck’s offensive coordinator with the Indianapolis Colts, sources confirmed.”

    I’d love to be a fly on the wall during these conversations. I’d hope that at least a few of these guys would be willing to characterize Cutler as the hopeless loser that he is. But my guess is that most of them will be kinder than they should be. Mullin certainly seems to think that the comments will be more centered around how to get the best out of Cutler but he’s working under the assumption that Cutler will be around next year. I’m not.

Elsewhere

  • I thought this article from Mark Potash at the Chicago Sun-Times was going to be another one of those Jameis Winston Vs. Marcus Mariota columns. It wasn’t. In particular, this point about college quarterbacks who play in spread offenses was interesting:

    “It’s worth noting that two head coaches with stellar reputations for developing quarterbacks had polar opposite views on that subject.

    “‘I think it’s great training,’ the Packers’ [head coach Mike] McCarthy said. ‘There was a time when people felt that shotgun and all this wide-open offense in college would hinder a quarterback playing in the NFL because you had to teach them to get under center. The reality of it is pressure, third-down, key-situational football is the biggest challenge for a young quarterback. And I think these college programs have done an outstanding job of playing wide-open, asking the quarterbacks to do more and I think they’re much better prepared today than when I first got into the league.

    “Arians had a different viewpoint: ‘So many times, you’re evaluating a quarterback who has never called a play in the huddle, never used a snap count,’ [Cardinals head coach Bruce] Arians said. ‘They hold up a card on the sideline, he kicks his foot and throws the ball.

    “‘That ain’t playing quarterback. There’s no leadership involved there. There might be leadership on the bench, but when you get them and they have to use verbiage and they have to spit the verbiage out and change the snap count, they are light years behind.'”

    I find myself siding with McCarthy here. The things that Arians is emphasizing are things that can be taught to a conscientious student that works hard. I don’t think what McCarthy is talking about can.

  • Brad Biggs at the Chicago Tribune documents the many changes to the Packers this off-season. He quotes head coach Mike McCarthy on the matter.

    “When we had the opportunity to win the Super Bowl, I didn’t feel like, ‘Hey, let’s not change anything and keep going.’ I have seen it happen in the past. I have been part of that situation. I think you have to take each and every year and start over.”

    There is a large part of me that wonders if this wasn’t part of the problem for the Bears last year. Offensively I, at least, would have liked to have seen some different people on the line. You have to wonder if the lack of change on that side of the ball didn’t contribute at least a little to the stagnation that we saw there.

  • Baylor quarterback Bryce Petty doesn’t quite get it as he talks about being a college spread quarterback transitioning into a pocket passing league. Via John Mullin at csnchicago.com:

    “‘I am a pocket passer. I want to extend plays, extend plays within the pocket,’ Petty said. ‘That might be a little bit different than most spread quarterbacks who want to run it out of the pocket. For me, I feel like my game can translate easier in that and the fact that I want to play within the pocket and I want to extend plays within the pocket and beat you doing that.'”

    If desire to work out of the pocket was all that counted, there’d be all kinds of first and second day draft picks at the position. It isn’t about desire to extend plays by escaping the pocket. Lots of guys can do that. It’s about movement within the pocket to find throwing lanes while you are surrounded by men who are about 6’6″. It’s about being able to do that and that’s something that no one will know if you can do until you do it. It doesn’t help that most spread quarterbacks aren’t asked to do the other thing that’s absolutely essential – throw with anticipation.

  • Unlike people who have a life, I spend over 20 hours watching combine coverage on the NFL Network.  I don’t hold much with giving a prospect a lot more consideration because of a good combine performance.  But it is a good chance to learn something about the prospects by listening to what analyst Mike Mayock has to say about them. Here are a few observations:
  1. In my opinion there are four impact players at the top of this draft:  Leonard Williams, Winston, Dante Fowler, and Danny Shelton.  Of the four, only Shelton is likely to be there for the Bears.  He’s got a lot of phone booth quicks for his size and its obvious that he might even provide some pass rush.  If you are going to run a base 3-4 of the type that the Patriots run, requiring a big, 2-gapping nose guard, he’s your guy.
  2. Williams reminds me of a shorter version of Julius Peppers.  I consider that to be high praise.  If you listen to his peers, its well deserved.  When the defensive line prospects lined up for a picture, the photographer asked, “Whose going number 1?” in the same joking way that he might ask you or I to “say ‘cheese’”.  All of them pointed to Williams and said, “Leonard”.  That’s an endorsement you can take to the bank.
  3. The two most impressive quarterbacks whose name wasn’t Winston or Mariota were Bryan Bennett and Petty.  You could hear the ball whistle as it left Bennett’s hand and he really appears to be able to spin it.  Petty is what Mayock correctly called a “natural thrower”.  Both look to me like the kinds of guys who have the talent to develop into a starter if they have the right heads for the job.
  4. I was led to believe that one of Winston’s major problems was that his release was too long.  If it was, he solved it.  His release was quicker than Mariota’s.
  5. The tight ends are really supposed to be bad this year and never was that more evident than when you watched them go through the gauntlet drill.  The wide receivers run through this drill at speed and are often fluid, natural pass catchers.  Th tight ends ran through it at half speed and were dropping balls all over.  It was painful.
  6. Several mock drafts now have the Bears taking linebacker Vic Beasley.  Man, I hope not.  My impression of Beasley as I watched him play for Clemson was that he lacked instincts.  I’d hate to see him be taken by the Bears because of a good combine showing.
  7. I was a little insulted as Daniel Jeremiah posted his “franchise fits” for each defensive position group on Sunday.  The Bears should have been on every single list.

One Final Thought

Hub Arkush at chicagofootball.com opines this little piece of inconsistency:

“Justin Houston, Demaryius Thomas, Dez Bryant, Jason Pierre-Paul, Stephen Gostkowski and Charles Clay will be staying in Kansas City, Denver, Dallas, New York, New England and Miami, respectively, as the only players to receive franchise or transition tags this season.

“The biggest impact of those decisions is almost every team is now considering offers for Ndamukong Suh and Devin McCourty, and it would be a real shame if the Bears weren’t in on both.”

Why inconsistent? Here’s what Hub said about the Bears just 2 weeks ago before the announcement that they were going base 3-4 defense. Hub’s point was that the Bears need to rebuild, going younger and relying primarily upon the draft to improve:

“Forget free agency. If they’re staying in a 4-3 long term, they should re-sign Stephen Paea. That’s about it.”

He’s also repeatedly argued that the Bears should keep Cutler essentially because a weak free agent market means Cutler gives them the best chance to win. Since when is that a priority in a rebuilding year? Don’t you start searching now for a replacement rather than wasting a year with a guy you know can’t do the job? Even in a weak market you might catch lightening in a bottle with a guy like Matt Moore. Since when has Brian Hoyer had the chance to play with anything close to the offensive talent the Bears have? In fairness to Hub, other media members have made this argument with similar degrees of inconsistency.

Hub had it right the first time. It’s time to rebuild through the draft and let other teams throw around the stupid money. Given that teams like the Jaguars and the Raiders literally have to spend money to meet the minimum cap requirements, the price for players like Suh and McCourty could be especially insane this year. There will be plenty of players left over to fill gaps in the team after the initial wave of free agency is over.

Why Bears Fans Should Be Thankful. And Other Points of View.

Bears

  • Brad Biggs at the Chicago Tribune answers your questions. Included is the annual call for running back Matt Forte to be traded:

    “I don’t know how much the Bears could get in return for Forte when you consider he’s 29, he’s got 2,260 carries and receptions combined over the past seven seasons and his contract calls for him to be paid $8.2 million this season. Again, I’m not saying he can’t be a valuable performer both as a running back and as a receiver in 2015. I just don’t believe a team would be willing to fork over much to acquire him. Forte’s value is probably greatest to the Bears right now.”

    Every year somebody writes in and calls for Forte to be traded. And every year my answer is the same. Forte is the Bears best player right now. It would be insane to trade him, especially given that they’d never get what he’s worth.

    These are the guys you want to keep.

  • ESPN‘s Kevin Seifert and Matt Williamson rate the top 20 free agents this offseason. See any Bears on that list? That tells you everything you need to know.
  • According to the article, the Bears are estimated to have the tenth most cap space available in the league at roughly $25 million.

Elsewhere

  • Mike McCarthy is giving up play calling duties and by all accounts is going to be more of a CEO-type head coach next season. That’s led to quite a number of new titles on the coaching staff. Via Darin Gantt at profootballtalk.com:

    “They named Tom Clements associate head coach/offense, Edgar Bennett offensive coordinator, Alex Van Pelt quarterbacks/wide receivers coach, Mike Solari assistant offensive line coach.”

    As Gantt notes, throwing an extra position group on Van Pelt’s “a little curious”. The guess here is that McCarthy might be giving up play calling duties and Clements might be the offensive coordinator but that means McCarthy will be spending a lot more time with the quarterbacks, making Van Pelt literally a third wheel (with Clements also being a former quarterbacks coach).

    Rob Demovsky at ESPN says that the shift also means that McCarthy will be spending a lot more time in meetings for both the defense and the special teams. I thought these quotes from McCarthy were interesting:

    “‘And I will spend a lot of time with the special teams. Special teams needs to improve. It’s an area definitely of concern in the past.’

    “McCarthy referred to himself as ‘the third guy in the room now’ when talking about the special teams coaching staff, which includes new coordinator Ron Zook and new assistant Jason Simmons. Zook, who was the assistant last season, replaces Shawn Slocum, who was fired Jan. 30.

    “‘That culture’s going to change in there,’ McCarthy said. ‘I promise you that.’ “

    The Packers special teams were miserable last year. It sounds like McCarthy is going to make sure that there’s going to be a lot more kicking asses and taking names next year.

    I don’t have much doubt that McCarthy is doing the right thing here. It’s long past time for Clements to be a coordinator in more than just name and the best head coaches are the ones that coach the coaches. I think McCarthy will be pretty good at that.

  • I like former Bears and Buccaneers quarterback Josh McCown well enough. But calling him “the best free agent quarterback available” is stretching it. From Michael David Smith at profootballtalk.com.
  • Armando Salguero at the Miami Herald gives this in depth breakdown of the Miami Dolphins as the NFL’s ultimate stagnant team. Its not a pretty picture and it makes you wonder if they won’t be headed towards a complete blow up in a few years as the roster ages with little overall influx of real talent.

One Final Thought

Of course, the Dolphins organization is a well oiled machine compared to the Cleveland Browns. Jason La Canfora paints a picture of unbelievable dysfunction starting with the meddling owner who insisted on drafting Johnny Manziel over the general manager’s preference for both Derek Carr and Teddy Bridgewater.

“The culture in the Browns building is toxic, I’m told. Morale is beyond low. If you can flee, you are fleeing. There is no shortage of individuals throughout that organization who would, like former offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan, get the hell out of there if at all possible. There’s an overwhelming sense of dread about the future and a fear that, come the end of the 2015 season, [owner Jimmy] Haslam will do the one thing he has managed to do with any consistency during his three-season reign — that is, blow up his entire building once again and fire everyone, in essence blaming all but himself for his sweeping failure.”

No matter who you root for in this league most of us can all be glad of one thing: you aren’t a Browns fan. This article is a must read for any fan who needs to feel better about the Bears current situation.

Bears Biggest Need? It Says Linebacker Here. And Other Points of View.

Bears

  • The Bears have re-signed cornerback Al Louis-Jean to a two year contract according to Dan Wiederer at the Chicago Tribune. Louis-Jean will be one of the more interesting players to keep an eye on. He’s got all the tools and got plenty of playing time last year. This coming year will be when we should all be looking for him to take the next big step.
  • Another interesting thing to keep an eye on is whether Bears head coach John Fox will let Brandon Marshall do another season of Inside the NFL. It certainly sounds like Marshall is going to ask him. Via Ed Sherman at the Chicago Tribune.Like most of you, I’d just as soon see Bears players live and breath football with minimal distractions during the season. “Got Tuesday off? Go in and sleep at the facility anyway and tell your wife you’ll have sex with her in February.” That isn’t realistic, of course, and I honestly don’t know what kind of effect this has on Marshall’s play on Sundays.

    I will say this. When you are “the first in this space to do something like this” it probably means that other players thought there was something wrong with doing it. We’ll have to wait and see what Fox thinks.

  • John Mullin at csnchicago.com does a nice job of exploring the draft history of the Bears major front office and coaching personnel. Suffice it to say that Bears general manager Ryan Pace, Fox, and Bears defensive coordinator Vic Fangio all have a history of drafting defense, the consensus need for the Bears at virtually every position. Fox also has offensive tendencies:

    “Where Fox’s predispositions become even more interesting is the commitment to running the football. The Panthers selected running backs in either round 1 or 2 in four of the eight drafts from 2002-2009, including No. 1’s in 2006 (DeAngelo Williams) and 2008 (Jonathan Stewart).”

    I don’t see the Bears drafting a running back that high. But an offensive lineman isn’t out of the realm of possibility if the right guy falls.

  • This has to be one of the most ridiculous Brad Biggs questions I’ve ever read in the Chicago Tribune:

    “With the Titans’ interest in Jay Cutler could there be a possible trade for the Titans’ No. 2 overall pick and take Jameis Winston? — @johnRstruck

    “…But I don’t think there is any scenario in which the Titans (or any other team) offer anything close to the No. 2 overall pick for Cutler. What would be the upside in dealing the second overall pick for a quarterback that will turn 32 this spring and has one career playoff victory? The problem with most imaginary trades that pop up in the mailbox is they rarely consider whether the deal is a value for both sides.”

    What the hell is wrong with you people?

  • Hub Arkush at chicagofootball.com disagrees with my assessment of the quarterback position:

    “I was asked earlier today, which current NFL veteran the Bears should pluck in free agency to challenge Cutler?

    “The answer is none. The last thing the Bears need or want is Cutler on the bench as a $17 million backup. That scenario could create locker-room, huddle and sideline issues even Henry Kissinger wouldn’t want to tackle.”

    Since when is Cuter that popular in the huddle? And what has he ever done to earn that team’s respect? I don’t accept this argument.

    Arkush has a thing for Cutler that I don’t understand. He raved about the fact that they started Jimmy Clausen in week 16 against the Lions despite the fact that Cutler was an absolute mess against the Saints the week before. I don’t know what it is he’s seeing but the Bears have to do whatever they can to find Cutler’s replacement as soon as possible. That includes exploring a free agent market where at least you don’t know the guy isn’t the answer.

    Arkush suggests that the Bears sign Jake Locker or Matt Moore and admits that Locker could possibly be an answer after 2015.

  • Arkush is asked about wide receiver Brandon Marshall‘s future with the team. My initial thought is that the Bears would b crazy to let him go – he’s their best receiver. Once again, Arkush disagrees:

    “If Pace and Fox are able to get an actual retelling of what a disaster that locker room and huddle were last year, and how much of it was because of Marshall, I can’t see how they could bring him back.”

    This time Arkush’s response gives me pause. I’ve seen very little with my own eye that indicates that Marshall shouldn’t be brought back and he certainly did play hard, even when hurt last year. But there’s a lot that can’t be seen by guys like me who aren’t on the spot every day. If Arkush has inside information about how disruptive Marshall was “in the huddle”, then maybe its worth bowing to his superior knowledge.

    There might be a better chance that Marshall will be let go than I initially thought.

  • Arkush also writes a fun article guessing which players will benefit from a potential switch to the 3-4. Some of the names were surprising. Here’s a good example:

    “At 6-foot-4, 256 pounds and quick as a hiccup, David Bass was born to be an outside rush linebacker with serious double-digit sack potential.”

    “Bass is an athlete and a playmaker who needs to play in space but has had a hand stuck on the ground his first two years in the league.”

  • You’ll find another interesting remark from Arkush in the offensive line positional review from csnchicago.com at about the 2:40 mark. Arkush thinks that the way to fix the offensive line is to move Kyle Long to left tackle, Jermon Bushrod to right tackle and to go out and find a right guard:

    There’s something to be said for this though I still like the philosophy of being strong up the middle to keep a clean pocket for the quarterback to step up into.

  • Barry Rozner at the Chicago Daily Herald nails the question of whether Jay Cutler should be a Bear next year:

    “Conventional wisdom, however, suggests the Bears will keep Cutler for at least one more season for several reasons, not the least of which is that they won’t find a better option to play the position in 2015.”

    “Cutler’s base salary for 2014 and 2015 became guaranteed last March, to the tune of $38 million. That money is already spent. Gone. Written off, much like the 2014 campaign when the Bears lost to Miami and fell to 3-4.

    “Cutler gets another $10 million guaranteed on March 12 and the final $6 million would be locked in around the same time next year.”

    “Or — if math isn’t your thing — $48 million for two years sounds so much better than $38 million for one.

    “Go ahead, you might as well laugh if the alternative is weeping.

    “While you’re pondering the genius of Phil Emery for handing that deal to Cutler, and George McCaskey and Ted Phillips for approving it, what do you really gain by spending that next $10 million?]

    “Yeah, see? This is where the trouble begins.”

    The answer is nothing. Nothing more than a wasted year spent with Cutler rather than in finding his replacement. Could they find anyone better? Probably not. But you don’t know that. Not if you don’t try.

  • How bad are the Bears prospects? Former NFL scout Matt Williamson, now at ESPN, rates each team in terns of the amount of talent aged 25 and under. The Bears rank 31st out of 32 teams, behind only the Redskins. Williamson highlights this pair as one of the Bears best 5:

    “Will Sutton, DT (23): Sutton is an undersized 3-technique defensive tackle who relies on leverage and quickness and can be mauled by bigger offensive linemen and double-teams. He was just OK as a rookie.

    “Ego Ferguson, DT (23): Ferguson played many fewer snaps than Sutton and is more of a nose-tackle type than a penetrator. Ferguson also has been underwhelming overall. It is a bad sign for the Bears that these two defensive tackles rank among the team’s best young prospects.”

    When asked about this article on the Football Today podcast, Williamson emphasized how shacked he was that the Bears were so depleted of good, young NFL talent.

  • Todd McShay‘s got a mock draft out and I think he’s making some sense this year. He has the Bears drafting Washington defensive tackle Danny Shelton:

    “Analysis: It’s unclear what scheme new head coach John Fox and new defensive coordinator Vic Fangio plan to run in Chicago — my guess is they’ll use something of a hybrid front — but if they plan to play any 3-4, they’ll need some capable bodies. Lamarr Houston and Will Sutton are best at penetrating and disrupting, and their strongest point-of-attack D-lineman, Stephen Paea, is a free agent. Shelton would provide a versatile, big body along the interior, as he commands double-teams against the run and can push the pocket as a pass-rusher. [Oregon defensive end] Arik Armstead is another option here, and the Bears also need help at safety and linebacker. But what will they do at the QB position?”

    Nose tackle makes a lot of sense for any team that is planning to play any 3-4, even in a hybrid scheme. Arguably Ferguson could provide some help here but the Bears would be wise to plan on drafting one anyway. You can’t have too many. The Bears also have a need at offensive tackle that is under rated nationally. Iowa’s Brandon Scherff is a possibility.

    Any way they go the Bears are going to get a good player here.

    McShay has Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota going #6 to the Jets but it wouldn’t surprise me in the least if he dropped further than that. Mariota hasn’t shown he can throw with anticipation from the pocket and, while that doesn’t mean he can’t do it, like Johnny Manziel last year, teams are going to be wary about drafting him too high.

  • Mike Imrem at the Chicago Daily Herald grasps at straws in an effort to make Bears fans feel better.

Elsewhere

  • Plans for the NFL draft in April are beginning to take shape. For once the city is scheduling something that I don’t mind seeing life downtown disrupted for. Via Jared S. Hopkins at the Chicago Tribune

One Final Thought

Csnchicago.com reviews the Bears linebacker position from 2014.

Many people will say that safety was the Bears worst defensive position last year but I would argue that the linebackers might have that distinction. They were absolutely wretched. The biggest problem is that they played with no instincts whatsoever. Though coaching might bear some responsibility for this my tendency is to believe that it was largely the fault of former general manager Phil Emery, who I think had a tendency to draft athletes rather than players.

It’s going to be interesting to see where new GM Pace goes in his first NFL draft. Unfortunately there aren’t many pure linebackers in the top 50 players though some of the “defensive ends” might be better as outside linebackers in a 3-4. Don’t rule out the linebacker position if there’s anybody at all available that deserves the spot. The linebackers are the beating heart of your defense, especially in the 3-4, and the Bears certainly lacked both talent and heart last year.

Updated: Typical Cutler. And Other Points of View.

Bears

  • Rich Campbell at the Chicago Tribune interviews former Bears consultant Ernie Accorsi.

    “Then, the two coordinators, I was thrilled when I saw that we got those two guys. That’s really the beginnings of a great staff, right there.”

    That “we” is significant, I think. Accorsi must have liked the work he did here. He identifies himself with the organization even though technically his job is done. That bodes well for the Bears future with a young GM that will undoubtedly need some advice every once in a while.

    This is a great, wide-ranging interview, by the way. A lot can be learned about football from Accorsi’s thought processes. This section on how Bears general manager Ryan Pace came to be on his radar is a good example:

    “I always look at who’s making the player personnel decisions on a team, and do they have players they’re getting in the middle rounds they’re winning with? You have to do that today. You only have seven picks, and the draft is still your lifeblood.

    “‘And I look at the Steelers — that’s why I think (GM) Kevin Colbert is so good. They have third-, fourth-, fifth-, sixth-round draft choices that they’re winning in the playoffs with every year. And New Orleans rebuilt that team in a hurry, and that’s how they rebuilt it. Listen, (quarterback Drew) Brees was a big pickup and all. That’s fine. But you look all through that line, and you have players playing all through those two lineups that they picked in the middle or lower rounds. So, on paper, I thought, ‘Someone has to be making the right decisions here.'”

  • Former Bears returner Devin Hester needs to speak for himself:

    “The city of Chicago knows and disagrees with the situation they made. For a guy like Brian Urlacher, probably one of the top three or five names that ever played in Chicago — for his career to end like that, that’s tough.”

    I did not disagree with the way that Urlacher exited. Though we were all sad to see him go, he was given a fair offer and turned it down. Notably, no one else signed him and, as far as anyone knows, no one offered him anywhere near what the Bears did.

    Having said that, I look back on Hester’s exit with some regret. We’ll never know what kind of receiver he would have made here. He’s not a big “go up and get it” guy and he had a quarterback who was unable or flat out unwilling to throw to him. I think he could speak for the city of Chicago if he said we all wish him well in Atlanta.

  • These Tribune polls have been around for some time now and I’m rarely surprised at the results. Nor did which asks “Should the Bears tell Brandon Marshall not to do ‘Inside the NFL‘ next season?” did. Almost 90% of you said “yes”. There’s no actual direct benefit to Bears fans to Marshall being on. So the logical, selfish response would ordinarily be “yes”.Probably most of the voters assumed Marshall wouldn’t be around in Chicago so it wouldn’t matter anyway. There’s been a ground swell against Marshall since the season ended amongst both fans and media. His locker room outburst early in the season didn’t help but I’m sure most of it is lack of production in what was a miserable season.

    Don’t hold your breath thinking that Marshall will be gone. He was playing hurt most of the year and he’s one of the few players on the team that I thought played with the talent, the guts and the desire of a winner. I’m confident that I’m not the only one who knows it and I’m reasonably certain he’ll be back whether he’s on Inside the NFL or not.

  • Lance Briggs comments on the Bears coaching situation:

    “‘John [Fox], I think, he’s the right man for the job,’ Briggs said. ‘I’ve seen John over the years. He’s had a lot of success in the NFL. He understands the NFL. He’s a football coach.’

    “And former coach Marc Trestman?

    “‘Some things worked. Some things don’t,’ Briggs said. ‘Marc is a good man. I wish him all the success over in Baltimore. It just was what it was.'”

    Give Briggs credit. Since his last contract negotiation was over he’s usually said all of the right things. I just wish he’d done the right things more often.

  • Brad Biggs at the Chicago Tribune on new Bears defensive coordinator Vic Fangio:

    “After joining the 49ers following a year at Stanford under Jim Harbaugh, Fangio waited until he saw his players in person after the 2011 lockout to make major decisions with his defense. That meant the plan didn’t unfold until after he had seen them on the practice field beginning in late July. Fangio didn’t want to have his opinion of players potentially shaped from film of them in a different scheme with different coaches. He waited to see the talent personally, plugged in players in the right spots and the 49ers’ defense took off immediately.”

    Assuming that we’re looking at a hybrid scheme, it looks like Bears defenders are going to have a lot to learn very quickly this year. Over the last decade, Bears players have basically been asked to play one basic position one way and do it extremely well. This is going to be a lot different. It should be interesting to see how well they adapt.

Elsewhere

  • For those who care the NFL’s full statement Friday about the ongoing “inflate-gate” investigation cane be found here.
  • Hub Arkush at chicagofootball.com tells you exactly why I dislike Seattle coach Pete Carroll:

    “[Bill] Belichick was found to have violated league rules in “Spygate” and was fined $500,000, and the Patriots lost a first-round draft choice. Now he is implicated — although not charged — in the deflated footballs incident, and many are calling him a cheater.

    “Carroll built a dynasty at USC and then had it all wiped out by findings of rampant rules violations while he skipped town just ahead of the posse to take the Seattle job.

    “Asked about that on media day, Carroll responded he never talks about it because he still thinks the NCAA was wrong. Mmm huh.

    “Earlier this season Seattle was fined over $300,000 and docked two 2015 minicamp practices due to Carroll overseeing illegal practices this past summer.

    “I guess they’re both cheaters, but only the Patriots coach is being branded with the scarlet C this week. Is that because Belichick has won so much more than Carroll, or because Carroll is so much more media friendly?”

    Probably both. But neither excuses it.

One Final Thought

One has to wonder how the Bears expect Cutler to run an offense when this is what happens at home with the kids when Kristin Cavallari is away. Cavallari had apparently just arrived at the airport when this exchange took place:

Screen-Shot-2015-01-26-at-8.53.56-AM

Jaxon is 2 and Camden is 8 months old.

[Edit 2/1/15: After getting some comments from friends on this post it occurs to me that I need to point out that I am, indeed, joking.

My sister in law was pregnant with twins (they would have been her third and fourth child) and my mother was going on about how much fun it was. My father turned to me and said, “She doesn’t remember. You were three, your brother was two and we had newborn twins. There were evening where all I could do was shut the door, sit on on the bed and put my head in my hands.”

Don’t worry. I don’t like Cutler but I wouldn’t blame him for this.]

Managing Expectations and Other Points of View

Bears

  • Dan Wiederer at the Chicago Tribune reports this nugget:

    “[New Bears head coach John] Fox asserted Monday that one of his biggest attractions to the Bears job was to work for a storied franchise in a city that oozes football passion. And in that vein, he made it clear he intends to soon connect with several Bears icons, singling out Brian Urlacher and Mike Ditka.”

    “Said team President Ted Phillips: ‘It says that he understands our history and the tradition and making sure the great players that we’ve had in our past are still important today.'”

    Yeah. What it says is that he’s smart enough to know what ownership wants to hear.

    “Fox also took note of the franchise’s lone Lombardi Trophy, displayed in the Halas Hall lobby to commemorate the Bears’ 1985 Super Bowl triumph.

    “‘That trophy,’ Fox said, ‘is kind of lonely out there.'”

    Its notable that George McCaskey actually uses that very phrase to describe the trophy when he takes people on personal tours of the facility.

    The McCaskeys take the history of the franchise very seriously and they were pretty close to Urlacher. They probably weren’t happy that Emery managed to anger Urlacher in the way the franchise parted company with him.

  • Steve Rosenbloom at the Chicago Tribune comments on another thing that Fox said that caught my ear:

    “‘Football is a combative, physical game,’ new Bears coach John Fox offered in his plain-spoken manner. ‘It takes combative, physical people.’

    “Party’s over. Get tough or get out.”

    That fits with what we’ve heard. Looks like the Bears are going to be a lot more physical if Fox has anything to say about it.

  • With the hiring of Vic Fangio as defensive coordinator, the media has begun speculating about what personnel changes will be needed to run a 3-4 defense. This article from Brad Biggs at the Chicago Tribune is typical. The Bears don’t’ have much in the way of personnel that match up with a 3-4 scheme. But, as Biggs points out, they needed a lot of defensive personnel anyway. Nevertheless, they’ll be throwing away a number of good defensive linemen like Jared Allen that don’t fit the scheme well. This could lengthen the rebuilding process quite a bit. It will be interesting to hear what the players have to say about the change.Having said that, Fangio has shown himself to be versatile and virtually everyone agrees that even under the best of conditions he’d run a hybrid defense which shows its fair share of 40 fronts. They cold simply run a lot more of those looks the first couple years as they make the necessary personnel changes. That would be my guess as to what we’re in store for.
  • Via Patrick Finley at the Chicago Sun-Times the Bears have hired Josh Lucas as Director of Player Personnel. Lucas spent the last 10 seasons with the Saints, scouting the South region for the last two seasons.I hate to once again be the voice of pessimism here but Pace is going to have to look outside the New Orleans organization at some point to get the best people. He’s worked for one organization his whole career. I’d sure feel better about him if I thought he was better connected.

    My understanding is that consultant Ernie Accorsi‘s job was over when Fox was hired. I’d feel better if he was still around advising Pace.

  • The Bears new special teams coordinator is Jeff Rogers. Which probably means nothing to you at this point other than his name isn’t Joe DeCamillis. Via Mullin.
  • The Colts can only block the Bears from interviewing Rob Chudzinski for one more week. Via Darin Gantt at profootballtalk.com

Elsewhere

  • Those of you who are considering betting on the Super Bowl should think about this tidbit from Kevin Seifert at ESPN:

    “There is one initial tidbit to consider in advance of a Seahawks-Patriots Super Bowl, which will be refereed by Bill Vinovich. (That’s according to multiple reports, including one from ESPN rules analyst Jim Daopoulos.) Since Vinovich returned to the referee role in 2012 after recovering from heart problems, he has been assigned five Seahawks games. Seattle is 5-0 in those games, including three victories by at least 20 points. “

  • I felt really bad for the Packers defense after their overtime playoff loss to the Seahawks. The Packers flat out outplayed Seattle for 56 minutes of regulation time and the Packer defense in particular played testicles out. They were all in, playing cover-0 for a good part of the game.I actually had the Packers picked to win. I’d heard that the Seahawks were “loose” last week to the point where you wouldn’t even have known they had a conference championship game coming up. They took the Packers lightly and, even though they lost, the Packers gave them all they could handle. The game was a joy to watch.
  • Michael David Smith at profootballtalk.com passes on the news that Tony Verna, inventor of instant replay, has died:

    “It wasn’t easy. Verna told the Pacific Standard in 2013 that prior to that 1963 Army-Navy Game, networks needed about 15 minutes to cue up a film and show a play for a second time. To do it in 15 seconds required an innovative approach that featured some fits and starts and setbacks including vacuum tubes burning out and a replay having to be scrapped because the film they used had previously been used to record an I Love Lucy episode and Lucille Ball’s face could still be seen superimposed over the football field.

    Needless to say it wasn’t posted to the Internet.

One Final Thought

Wiederer quotes Fox:

“I’ve always been of the (mindset) of understate, overproduce. I’ve never predicted records. If I could do that I’d be at a race track somewhere.”

I’d say that’s the smart play. You could argue that high expectations – those of the fans, media and, especially, the players, were the biggest thing that killed the 2014 Bears. Remember “Cutler for MVP?”. It was a joke.

I think expecting to win is a good thing. But there are too many factors that can derail a team that isn’t as good as it thinks it is to allow such things to get out of hand. The Bears had a Super Bowl or bust mentality last year that was, in retrospect, only appropriate for the Super Bowl runner up. They hadn’t done anything, yet.

Jay Cutler Gone or Less Relevant? Either Way the Bears Are Better.

I couldn’t agree more with what John Mullin at csnchicago.com writes here:

“The Seattle Seahawks are going to a second consecutive Super Bowl with a quarterback they didn’t need. The New England Patriots are going to their sixth with one that they didn’t need, either. And therein lies a draft lesson for the Bears, who don’t need a quarterback right now, assuming that GM Ryan Pace, coach John Fox and whoever their new offensive coordinator is decide that a $15.5-million devil you know is better than one you don’t.”

Let’s add that the Packers went to the NFC Championship game with a firt round quarterback that they didn’t need.

If I’m Ryan Pace, I’m not wasting time with quarterback Jay Cutler, the devil I know. I’m starting my search for the right guy now. Even if it’s with a suspect player, its still someone you don’t know isn’t the guy. But even if he doesn’t do that, he should be looking for a quarterback to start in the future for this team in the draft – and not just in the bottom rounds.

Unfortunately I’m not Pace. So I think its more likely that this scenario laid out by Rick Morrissey at the Chicago Sun-Times will play out:

“The guess is here is that there won’t be any takers for Cutler’s fat contract and that he’ll remain a Bear. Fox will rely more on running back Matt Forte and tell Cutler to knock it off with the stupid turnovers. The offense will be geared with that in mind. Cutler will go from the highest-paid quarterback of 2014 to the highest-paid game manager of 2015.”

I dno’t think he’ll exactly be a game manager. Fox acknowledged during his press conference that you won’t win if you can’t pass, especially on third down. But there’s little doubt in my mind that if Cutler stays, he’ll be de-emphasized in the offense. The more the better as far as I’m concerned and I know I’m not alone.