CrackerDog

You make a good a point. It could be a variety of things. Without actually being at camp and being able to analyze each throw, I have no clue whether I should be concerned about his picks or not. In practice. (Think Alan Iverson when you read that last line.) I'm concerned about having a new offense, period. New coaching staffs don't tend to have winning records. And with our line still having question marks on it, yeah, I'm concerned that Nerdman's Flying Circus is going to blow up. Well, that and you have to have a coaching staff truly committed to those plays which I never felt Lovie was. Not sure if it was balls or something else. Historically the play would be called, we'd practically telegraph it, and then it would fail and we wouldn't see anything like it for the rest of the month.

I once wrote, in my early days of being an internet football expert (and Packers Troll) that I'd be happy if their team bus crashed. I'd jump for joy if an asteroid landed on Lambeau, etc. I've grown since then... But I can't help but smile when I read stories like this. Is it wrong?

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap100000022...ofter-last-year It was said in a positive way in that he's saying he so much better this year. The article linked above is pretty good. But in the video in that article, about 1:10 in, they mention that Cutler said "Not everyone on the team has bought into Trestman yet." I'm not sure what the context was but that's horrible if true. Let me know if you've heard discussions about Cutler's comment and what, if anything, explains it.

Technically he was better than average as his teams were above 500 (the average coach is 500) and his D was often in the top level of the league (points). His ST's always excelled as well although that credit may belong to others... Mediocre is an unfair word to apply to Lovie. As to the O, I'm not sure how anyone can blame Smith for having run the offenses he had to run with shitty QB's, in general. I do blame him for his part in choosing the OC's we've had with Cutler at QB but I was pretty excited with the Martz hire when it happened. The lack of depth on the O Line may have been Lovie's fault if he was constantly in Angelo's ear about drafting D. I'm not sure anyone will ever know the level of influence Smith had on JA's picks. Regardless, it was JA's job to ignore Smith if he thought other areas needed attention and let's be honest, the OL was neglected for years under Angelo. He wasn't a great coach on game day. That's fairly clear. But he had his teams ready at all times, they overachieved on many occasions and disappointed a few times too. He's a class guy and I wish him all the best. I thought he deserved another year as I don't recall any HC being fired for a 10-6 season, ever. But, he's gone and I don't feel too bad about it either. What does that tell you? I sure hope Trestman surpasses Lovie in every important category, especially W's. No matter what, the Bears are my team and I'm going to root for their success even if I disagree (in this case mildly) with individual decisions.

I didn't think he deserved to get fired after last season either but I've moved on (as I think you have) and I'm hopeful that the new staff puts a product on the field we can be proud of. Like Lovie's style or not, I think most people thought the team represented the city well and they were proud of their Bears during Lovie's time here. He was a class guy with a few flaws. Flaws that drove some people here crazy. As to "Why did they hire Trestman?" I think you don't get to that question until after they decide to fire Lovie. So that's why it's important in the scheme of things. I've liked his candor thus far, I think the team is responding to him on the practice field, he seems to have a lot of energy... Based on what I've seen so far, I'm mildly impressed. I hope the answer to your question is given on the field, with Wins. That's the only important reason to hire a coach. And as of today, we don't have anything but anecdotal evidence to go by. We'll have a little more next Friday with the real "answers" coming on opening day and thereafter.

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap100000022...red-lovie-smith It was all about Jay.

The more likely case, IMO, is they realize Webb sucks and he needs as much time as possible at ONE spot. They don't want to confuse the poor dumb bastard.

I think anything negative about the Packers is Bears related and belongs on this site! http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1720418...s-training-camp

I'm talking about the overall number of early camp injuries rather than this specific one. Let's hope that doesn't continue and that Bushrod's is minor.

I hope that inspires you to try harder.

Fair enough. And just to be clear, I'm right there with you that everyone needs to compete for their job at all times. My only point is there are different ways of doing it. Ditka grabbed a guy by his jersey, threw him on the ground and told him he sucked and he just lost his job to the #2 guy on the depth chart. That was his way of "announcing" a competition. Modern coaches tend to be a little more discrete about it. :-)

If true, and I can't confirm it, how long will it be before all the members here who used to scream about Camp Lovie being too easy start blasting Nerdman's for being too tough?

Yeah, Twig is right, given all the unknowns with this team, this ranking is probably too high. But whatever, it's meaningless. Fact is I'm a Bears fan and I don't know if they'll win 6 or 12 games this season. I have no clue. Mostly I like looking at these rankings for who brings up the rear. I'm pretty sure last year the Colts were probably at or near the bottom...

Dude, your opening post in this thread was clearly taking a shot at others for your perception that they were giving you a hard time about the lack of competition. And fine, if you want to take shots at people, I'm a big boy, go for it. But don't expect not to get it back. The fact is all I did was clarify my position which you misrepresented. Further, I still don't see the fact that Webb is getting all the work on the opening weekend at the position he filled last year as evidence supporting your claim that there isn't currently a competition. There may or may not be. Lastly, I find it impossible to believe, IMPOSSIBLE, that two straight coaching staffs would just give him the spot despite there being better players just sitting around on the sidelines. If there honestly isn't, it's because the talent pool isn't deep enough. It's easy to sit on the internet and say "Give that other guy a chance." because there aren't any consequences for you. But as a coach, if you look at the pieces you have to work with and it's damned obvious to you who the best 5 are, and you have to have one of them, who kinda sucks, ready for opening day... You can't waste time.

Well, "if" the Bears aren't giving him any competition it'll be obvious to me next Friday night at 8 PM. Until then, try not to panic.

Thanks. This seems like one of the "big concerns" about Cutler being able to fit this system. If the Head Nerd is happy, that's a great sign.

It's very likely they both suck.

We'll know something more on all of this next Friday night at about 8 PM. Until then nobody here knows anything about how these coaches have evaluated the talent they have in the O Line. If we see Webb out there for the entire first half, there isn't a competition and they're trying to "coach him up" because they know (feel) he's all they have. If we see other guys rotating into that position then they aren't satisfied with what they've seen in practice and think they might have better options elsewhere. You can't go by one f*%king tweat on the first weekend of camp. Chicken Little Twig may think the sky is falling but I'm not getting my undies in a bunch until these coaches prove themselves, one way or the other.

Did you get a sense that Cutler was checking down his receivers or were they just running set plays? It sounds like he's sharp based on your comments, just wonder if he's running the offense in scrimmages or just hitting the #1 on every play. Not sure how you'd know for sure, just wondering if you got a sense that he was looking one way and then coming back another, etc.

And it'll keep Cutler's head in the game more too. I recall his getting very frustrated over the years with having to wait for plays. Then again, it may look good in practice but we'll have to see it on the field to know for sure. Regardless, this is a positive development.

I, for one, said two things on this: 1.) It was too early to get this excited about a "lack of competition". 2.) If Webb wins the job, despite sucking, it's because we don't have a better option. You never quite came to understand those very clear and logical positions on the matter which you then interpreted as "getting on your case." If Webb continues to suck and nobody we have or can find out there can step up, god save us. This would certainly put a crimp in what Nerdboy wants to do with this offense.

Most of those interference penalties were complete horse shit. But I agree, he'll have a much better season and is a good candidate for this thread. I hope someone like Long steps up and dominates so huge in the O Line that the coaches have no question about his being "the man" for wherever he ends up playing. And someone will have to step up in our linebacking corps, I assume it'll be Lance but if Williams can bounce back from having issues last year, he's a good candidate too. If it isn't him, one of our rooks will need to step up faster than expected or we'll get run on all season.

This may surprise a few folks here but I'm throwing out Jim McMahon! And here I'm saying if Jimmy had Tebow's size he'd have been a lot more durable, I think. That could've added years to his career and maybe championships to the Bears franchise.

LOL! Apparently.

I was hoping you were talking about Rex Grossman. PS. Anyone who participates in this running with the bulls thing is an idiot.