Lucky Luciano

we don't need to go any further than this. QB was a HUGE need at this time and getting a franchise qb instead of hester along with the two first round picks we gave up to get him later there is no doubt about it. whether the clowns we had running the offense could have taught cutler anything is another matter.

i'm sorry, but the overall 8th pick in the draft for any special teams player is not a good deal even if we are going to use 20/20 hindsight. if i were using hindsight, as in this case, i would pick a primo qb, de, or cb. a player who is a game changer on every down and not just on change of possession.

i have no problems with the cutler trade, but... 2003 we trade down out of the top 5 in the 1st round and get haynes and grossman? 2006 we traded out of the 1st round to get daniel manning? our first pick a raw safety nobody ever heard of when we had chris harris and mike brown? look up our starting offensive line. a thousand year old r. brown at LG, a one knee'd LG in garza, a RG in t. metcalf, a LT in tait who is playing out of position at extremely average play, a DINOSAUR in fred miller at RT. and we trade down to get a project free safety????? 2009 we trade down in the 2nd round, our FIRST pick because of the cutler trade, and end up with gilbert and melton when our offensive line is even worse than in 2005????? so the guy we gave up two 1st round picks for has absolutely nobody to block for him?? that is not insane? 2010 again we trade our FIRST pick in the draft, we have NO 1st rounder, a 2nd round pick for a defensive player who was benched after 3-5 years in the league???? again while our FRANCHISE qb is being beaten to near death because we couldn't block a junior varsity high school defensive line? just these instances alone would get a completely incompetent GM fired, yet we give him our vote of confidence? as far as j. peppers goes... we drafted 8 DE's and 6 DT's over angies tenure in chicago. if angelo could draft any talent after EIGHT years on the defensive line we wouldn't have needed to get him.

pretty misleading in a lot of areas. it's fine that hester moved up but in reality nobody in their right mind would draft a special teams player in the top 10 (or in the 2nd round for that matter) unless it was angelo. also us being ranked 18th doesn't even come close to how poorly we drafted/traded away first day picks or chose quality/any players at positions we needed. what's jeff fisher doing these days? wouldn't he be a nice addition if we sent sweaty teddy packing?

i agree totally. if the guy is a good RT let him PLAY right tackle. keeerist, didn't we learn anything from john tait?? we wasted his entire above average career as a RT in chicago playing him out of position!!! now we just need a good guard in the 2nd or 3rd round and pick up that CB asouhmuga, or whatever his name is, in free agency and this would be one of the better drafts/offseasons on paper in decades.

you don't see what? and what exactly does that mean? that if i care about where this franchise is going and if i don't agree on how they are getting there then why bother watching? i'm sorry but isn't WINNING what this is all about? if this is just some ice cream social to pass the time on sunday afternoons like it seems to some then i agree, it's time to stop wasting my time watching and spend my weekends having tea and some smashing games of croquet on the lawn. huh? 1. "building" is when you have talent and add pieces for depth? i guess i never heard that before. what does that mean and how does that relate to us? 2. "rebuilding" is needed when you have no talent? one half of our entire offense, the OL, is the worst in the entire nfl. this is the portion that makes ALL of the other offensive pieces work and we could have used 5 out of 5 players there last season along with a FB/TE who actually could block. on defense we need at least one and probably two DT's, one upgrade at DE, one healthy strongside LB, one or two safeties and two CB's. this doesn't even account for quality depth behind any of the starters on this entire team. how deprived of talent do you need to be for you to believe rebuilding is in order? doesn't any of this concern you? in my estimation you have to look forward to be able to run a franchise successfully. because of poor drafting for so long we are completely depleted of young talent that we need to replace key players (example urlacher or kreutz) in the near future. it's only common sense to figure that even if you draft good ball players, which we DON'T, it will take them 2-3 years to grasp the system and be able to contribute the full amount of whatever talent they have. we have NOTHING on the bench that i can see that fills those needs.

exaggerations and assumptions? whatever. i don't know where you come up with us being set for quality starting players. the point is we NEED rebuilding. you couldn't build a team strickly through free agency in the past (george allen tried it) and you certainly can't build one to last in these days of the salary cap. i posted this in a previous post and i certainly don't see anything since that has changed... CB - none are very good. peanut is aging and quite frankly hasn't been a good CB for some time (although he would have been an excellent safety). that means we need 2. is there any depth on this roster you could say is good enough to start for any real good team in the nfl? S - d. manning is consistantly average at best. wright? an unknown at this time, c. harris?. safety, especially free safety, is a very important key when running the defense we currently do. we need at LEAST one very good one and maybe even a very good strong safety to boot. LB - all three starters are 30 + years old. who on this roster is qualified to be a starter behind them? DL - both DE's are 30+. one DT, adams, is 30+. tommy harris is done. so what depth is there currently on our roster to replace any of them as sure starters? OL - kreutz is 33. who else is worth anything on this starting roster? maybe c. williams in the future? at what position? we need in essence 2 tackles, 1 guard and a center. FB - mamu is over 30 that comes out to 14 key starters who are aging or suck who need to be replaced within the next 1-4 years. i want to emphisize this... 14 key STARTERS who will need to be replaced over the next 1 to 4 years due to AGE and/or quality. this is also assuming that our wide receiver corp will even be worth a dam and we don't have to replace some or all of them too. unless we draft 'quality' starters in every round for two years straight we are going to be in one hell of a mess in the near future and not unlike when wanny left 11 years ago.

cowher in 15 years made the playoffs in 10 of those years. cowher had THREE losing seasons in FIFTEEN YEARS and one superbowl ring!!!

yea, and maybe more than a few have forgotten it took us FOUR years after a superbowl loss and a complete non-injury season to even GET in the playoffs where we beat one team, the mighty 7-9 seahawks, to even get a chance to lose the nfc title game. just for the record, do you know how many teams over the last THIRTY YEARS never made the playoffs once in three years after a superbowl appearance? three. 1) the 1998 atlanta falcons under HC reeves 2) the 2002 oakland raiders (who have sucked ever since 2002 with the knucklehead owner/gm al davis running the show) under callahan, turner, shell, kiffin, kiffen/cable, cable. 3) drum roll..... the 2006 chicago bears under lovie smith, jerry angelo and ted phillips. that said, one playoff game every 4 years is enough for you to be happy with our system of deadbeats running this franchise? whining? is that what looking at the possibilities of improving our franchise to become a top competitor is, is whining? the mccaskey's must really love fans like you who just pay the money and shut up. "percentage wise" is how you want to evaluate and compare coaches and players? by reading stats off of a page of numbers is the only way you know how to decide whether someone can coach or play football? me, i like to use my own eyes and throw in some brain usage to go along with what is in print. cowher and fisher can both coach players because i have seen them both do it. there was a fantastic turnover of players in pitt in which they let numerous good players go in free agency yet continued to put quality players on the field to replace them. this doesn't even include the large number of assistant coaches he put together over the years due to attrition. the same can be said for fisher in tenn. he has had many players lost to free agency and poor drafts from his gm yet he continues to get the MOST out of whatever players he is forced to field. can you say that about lovie? who has he made better? how has his game time decisions improved? how about his assistant coaching choices? how many coaches have been fired by him/angie yet the core of the problems that caused them to be fired never goes away. how far off is this team from getting back to the big game? i don't know, you tell me. with a completely healthy team we beat 3 teams this last season with winning records. the packers, who beat us 2 out of 3 times last year including knocking us out of the playoffs and are favorites to win the division THIS year, the eagles, and the jets. so where is this great improvement for next season coming from? who have we drafted that is waiting on our roster to step in and improve what we saw last season? oh that's right, we don't have ANY previous draft picks that could step in and start on any other team in the nfl but ours. is free agency again our solution or is it that you now for some reason have faith that our GM will draft even average players now that can play other positions besides special teams? sorry bub but that ain't whining, that's reality!!! hmmmm.... let's look at the modern era of football, like the FORTY FIVE YEARS the superbowl has been in existence, and we have one superbowl ring and one loss. yea, that's "pretty damn good". "man crushes"? is that some kind of alaska thing or is that just nonsense babble from someone suffering from cabin fever and not having had a date without 4 legs for the last 5 months?

isn't that bigamy?

three years isn't that long? that is about the amount of time a new coach coming into the nfl gets to accomplish something before he is fired if he fails. this also gives a mandate for the worst GM in football memory to stick around for another 3 years and pile drive this franchise into the ground with a lack of talent. oh, and don't worry teddy boy, the outstanding job you have done as our president means your job is safe too. as you say it's not that surprising. that concludes us from entering into the hunt for a quality veteran coach. so once again we don't have to worry about paying out the big bucks for a cowher or fisher type as they will already be gone and if the lovie boat sinks we can hire some nobody for peanuts yet again. our reward for incompetence and mediocrity shines a light on the business/sports world for all to see that this mom and pop franchise is run and governed by greedy fools.

judging a head coach who has been in charge of a team for 7 years is not discounting anything quickly. as far as martz, in reality he came into this system with known flaws that no other franchise in the nfl would accept besides us. as it stands, i am not calling for martz’s *head at this time as i have seen adjustments and changes in philosophy (some certainly not soon enough though) in how he calls a game. i also understand the limitations he is forced to work with in regards to inferior offensive talent especially in our offensive line and receiving corp that no coach could overcome. this is one reason why he gets a bye for now and hope from him in our future. that said, on whose shoulders do these limitations martz is working with fall on? without a doubt mamu the nonblocking whale, an extra lineman tight end he lobbied for, but who else? how many years has it taken our head coach to understand just how bad this offensive line is/was? 2004 year 1: when lovie took over he had an offensive line of LT quasim mitchell, LG combo of ruben brown and metcalf, RG a combo of oft injured tucker, gandy and edwards. the only good and consistant linemen were RT tait and C kreutz. throw in WR’s d. terrel and tate. 2005 year 2: we move a pro-bowl caliber RT to play average at LT, at LG we continue with the aging stop gap r. brown and bring in an average at best LG utility replacement, garza, who has serious knee problems, RG we start the mighty metcalf, and bring in a stop gap end-of-career RT in f. miller to replace a very good RT in tait. we now have moose, m. bradley, barrian and j. gage as our WR corp. 2006 year 3: LT is tait a waste of talent at this position, LG near the end of the line r. brown, RG - exit horrible metcalf and plug in garza (who played LG) to a new position he never played before, enter stop-gap RT dinosaur f. miller. moose and barrian as our WR corp. 2007 year 4: LT is tait a very highly paid aging very good RT is still playing average and out of position, old and injured LG r. brown is sharing starts with the mighty metcalf and a utility RIGHT TACKLE st. clair who has never played on the left side let alone guard (it appears none of our reserves including 4th rd. pick beekman is better than a one armed brown), RG is still our new to the right side average garza, RT is still grandfather head case f. miller whose skills are becoming non-existant. 2008 year 5: LT is st. clair a right tackle we moved to left guard in 2007 who has never played left tackle (while our #1 pick for LT c. williams is on IR from a known back condition), beekman a 2nd year RIGHT guard is plugged in at LG, garza, a LG, is still starting starting at RG, RT tait is moved back to his original position we aquired him for except by now he is too old to do the job. we now sport the mighty WR set of – r. davis, d. hester, brandon lloyd, and an over the hill marty booker. 2009 year 6: LT is o. pace and when he sucks we move c. williams to LT, LG - is frank ohmy who played in 1 game in 2 years in atlanta before being waived. and played in 2 games at LT in carolina because of injury to a regular starter (this a guy angie gave a $14mil contract to), RG is garza, RT is our #1 draft pick c. williams a LT we now start at RT in his rookie debut. williams later replaces an injured waste of o. pace at LT and is replaced at RT by shaffer. WR set of – knox, hester, and bennet. 2010 year 7: LT is frank ohmy who failed miserably at left guard, LG is c. williams our #1 pick left tackle whose play is bad to say the least, RG is an average garza who is spelled by l. louis an ’09 7th round pick because of injury, RT is web a 7th round rookie. our WR set is knox and hester and throw in bennet. the menageri of the mess above is even beyond keystone cops confused comedy and if a defensive minded HC couldn’t see problems with that talent he has serious problems. our troubles have been obvious even to novices of the game since tait, miller and ruben brown. there are many more things involved in the quality of a coach than win/loss records. how well does he coach the players he is forced to field. do players develope better under him and his staff? can he adjust his scheme and philosophies to the personnel he is forced to field do to free agency, injuries or poor draft choices? these are just some of the important questions that need answers when judging the merits of coaching talent. in my opinion, lovie will not or is incapable of changing anything no matter who he is forced to play. i also don’t see players under him getting better and in many instances are played out of position. 1. in my opinion he has NOT “overall done a good job with the bears”. i really can’t think of any player who has become better because of lovie’s coaching. even d. manning who supposedly was under lovie’s wing last season showed little or no improvement. 2. his “mellow” sideline demeaner means nothing to me. what does mean a lot to me is a coach who is involved gameday to work with his coaching staff and players to address tactics, problems and performance that arise during a game and NOT necessarily waiting until halftime or the next tuesday to do so. i don’t see it in lovie. unless someone that attends games is seeing more than what they show lovie doing on the sidelines it appears to me he is in observer mode without much input. i rarely or never see him discussing tactics or performance with any coordinators OR players on the sideline when something is clearly not working. i also want to mention that lovie’s gameday “decisions” are not only questionable but horrible in my opinion. his use of the clock, especially within the 2 min. warning, is plain terrible. his timeouts called are inconsistant and untimely. his challenges quite frankly challenges the mind as to why he does or doesn’t throw a flag which again falls into the timeout catagory. even being a defensive minded coach shouldn’t he be getting his OC to focus on getting the plays in in a timely manner instead of burning timeouts needlessly as we have seen for years? these items alone are very meaningful on gameday and should not be as difficult as this team makes them. 3. whether or not players love playing for him is really not a concern. if it was, dick jauron would still be coaching in chicago. 4. to rebuild or not to rebuild, that is the question... doesn’t it come down to the overall body of work whether you want to replace a coaching staff? does he hold his players accountable? does he hold his coaching staff accountable? where has the improvement or lack thereof come from? how long did it take to impliment needed changes? how did our head coaches decisions effect not only the results we see now but results in the past and the future direction of this team? the reality is our head coach has done a poor job managing even the portion of this team he supposedly knows best which is defense. he has fired one good coordinator and hired an incompetant crony in babich to take over. it then took him TWO YEARS to demote him when the world could see the failure after 2 months! he then proceeded to place himself in position as DC in which his entire concept of a defense was solely on his shoulders and this philosophy again failed. instead of maybe changing tactics or the way his defenses are run he again hires another crony to replace himself who is basically a mirror image. this results in the same weaknesses we witnessed the day he arrived in chicago without any real hope for change. myself, i find it extremely odd that anyone would want to extend his contract when it is not necessary. wasn’t extending wanny and jauron a lesson learned? also... i don’t believe after watching this team under lovie’s control for 7 years is a quick, snap decision. am i saying just fire him without any consideration for who is going to fill his shoes? no. but, if there were a better coach out there we COULD hire then the answer is yes (we should have replaced everyone last january and we could have saved ourselves another 3-8 years of failure. you mention we will have another 3-4 year wait under a new regime. maybe so, but if it is a *better coach isn’t it worth it to do it now instead of wasting another 3+ years of a lovie extension PLUS the 3-4 years you say it will take us to get up to speed? aren’t we ahead by nearly a decade to cut bait now instead of later? doesn’t keeping lovie in the fold also mean we have the ‘if they are going to fire me next year i will just say i am retiring’, jerry angelo one of the worst gm’s maybe in the history of pro football to look forward to while lovie burns up yet another contract extension? don’t we continue in the ted phillips reign to nowhere? where else but chicago do we reward failure with job security, raises and extensions? *many don’t agree with me but i will state jeff fisher is better, bill cowher is better and shanny was/is better, just off the top of my head. NOTE: sorry for the bit of delay on the reply to your post. it's a slow time of year and i just got busy with other stuff and worked on this off and on for a while.

i can agree with your first statement somewhat. they do have different skillsets. but the main point is this... they are both shutting down one side of the field cutting an offenses weapons in half!!! you HAVE to have at least one corner who can cover man and do it very well no matter what type of system you impliment including the cover 2 and any versions of it. if you don't believe this look at other systems running the cover 2 and especially the colts. you can get away with one weaker side (CB) because you can then give him GOOD safety help without jeporadizing getting burned on the long ball. barber was very good at covering man when the role for him to do so called for it. he could play bump and run coverage and stay with the receiver off the LOS limiting the quick short passing attacks we are constantly under or deep routes without safety help which we are REALLY bad at. one of the reasons he could play zone and jump shorter routes when called was because of the tremendous pass rush the got from his defensive line inside and out. not many if any defenses have an interior line of sapp and mcfarland along with a DE like rice who was quick/fast and could get to the qb while the interior line collapsed the pocket or doubled up sapp. they also had very good linebackers and especially excellent safeties. we don't have anything close to that. that is why a very good cover corner can give our D-line the time it needs to get to the qb as we can cheat safeties to help out our #2 corner even with the 3 step drops. with a player like Asomuga or whatever his name is, we make our entire team better by giving our D-line the time it needs to get to a qb and it also frees up our linebackers to play like they SHOULD be playing making it a kill zone over the middle. it also compensates for the poor safeties we currently have as they can concentrate mostly on one side of the field. one more major plus is our blitzes are now way more effective and less dangerous to impliment. in todays pass oriented rules you must be able to play tight man coverage or fail. this is going to hold true especially in our division with rogers and the wr's that team fields. this is also going to apply to the lions who have a very good qb (if he can stay healthy) along with very good receivers. the vikings can't be far behind if they want to stay competetive in the NORTH.

WOW, *buddy ryan is just very good? i have watched ryan's defenses nearly throughout his entire nfl career. in my opinion his approach and tactics changed how the modern nfl was played. if you wanted to argue that **dick lebeau was one of if not the best secondary coach in modern NFL history i could not argue against that with much success. as DC i think he is a very good coach, but the best in NFL modern history? not a chance. bud carson was also a very good DC and also deserves some kudo’s. ============================================ *JAMES BUDDY RYAN NEW YORK JETS - With the AFL's Jets, his and Walt Michaels' defensive game plan was instrumental in holding the NFL's Baltimore Colts to seven points in Super Bowl III and earning Ryan his first Super Bowl ring. Seeing the emphasis that Weeb Ewbank placed on protecting Joe Namath and his fragile knees, Ryan created multiple blitz packages (i.e. the "59 blitz", the "Taco Bell blitz", and the "Cheeseburger blitz") reasoning that the quarterback is the focal point of any offense, and that a defense must attack the offense's strength and centerpiece. ryan was the jets linebackers coach 1968-75. MINNESOTA VIKINGS - 1976-77 - In the mid-1970s Ryan was defensive coordinator of the Minnesota Vikings where he was integral in directing the team's dominating defense. The defensive unit known as the "Purple People Eaters", was heralded for the defensive line's ability to punish rivals. Their motto was to "meet at the quarterback." This unit helped the Vikings to post-season appearances from 1973 to 1978, including three appearances in the Super Bowl. CHICAGO BEARS - 1978-85 - With the Bears, Ryan created the 46 defense, but it wasn't until 1982 that the scheme was perfected. This was due in large part because of Mike Singletary's ability to single-handedly dominate the middle of the field He became a household name of sorts in the mid-1980s. certainly you can't argue his role in the bears quest for a superbowl? in my lifetime i don't ever remember such a dominating defense in the playoffs as we saw in 1985. to completely shutout all of your opponents in the playoffs is a feat i have never even heard of before. top that off as being argued as the best defense in the history of the modern nfl is nothing to sneeze about either. PHILADELPHIA EAGLES - Ultimately Ryan proved that his talent selection was superior to most of the NFL as he groomed play-makers like Andre Waters and Randall Cunningham and drafted Pro Bowlers Seth Joyner, Clyde Simmons, Jerome Brown, Eric Allen, Cris Carter, Fred Barnett, and Keith Jackson. His division crown prediction did not come to fruition in his initial Eagles season but quick rebuilding achieved title glory in 1988, as the team won 10 games and continued to win at least 10 games a season until his departure. also of note... reggie white was drafted 1 year prior to ryan's arrival as head coach and was molded into the player he became by none other than buddy ryan. the eagles defense during this period was nearly as feared as the bears D of the 80’s. HOUSTON OILERS - 1993 - The Ryan-led defense helped propel the Oilers to an 11-game winning streak to end the 1993 regular season, only to be upset by Joe Montana and the Kansas City Chiefs in the Astrodome during the Divisional Round of the playoffs. ryan at this time was the defensive coordinator for the oilers with jeff fisher an understudy having failed as a head coach in philly. in '94 ryan had an altercation (he jacked his jaw) with kevin gilbride. this ended per se’ his time in houston. ARIZONA CARDINALS - After being given a large share of the credit for the success in Houston in 1993, he was named head coach of the Arizona Cardinals in 1994 "On arriving in Phoenix, Buddy Ryan announced, 'You've got a winner in town.'"Also named general manager of the Cardinals, Ryan went 8-8 his first year, but had a 4-12 nosedive the following season, rife with criticism that he ran his two drafts poorly and mishandled Arizona's quarterback situation as a GM. He lasted only two seasons there— where he had a record of 12-20 — before being fired again. He would subsequently retire to his farm in Kentucky, where he breeds race horses. by this time an aging ryan again tried the HC mantle and threw in GM with it hiring his sons as position coaches. it was clearly a mistake and led again to serious strife between his offensive and defensive players. this ended his career after only 2 seasons in arizona and he retired. LEGACY - Ryan was an assistant on three different teams to make the Super Bowl (New York, Chicago, Minnesota). Ryan built his reputation as a defensive specialist and was largely credited with implementing and perfecting the 46 defense. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddy_Ryan **DICK LEBEAU CINCINNATI BENGLES – 1984-91 - in 1984 LeBeau was promoted to be the Bengals defensive coordinator. He did very well, rarely allowing over 30 points in a game to an opponent. In 1984, his first season as defensive coordinator, the Bengals dropped from the top ranked defense in 1983 (when they coordinated by Hank Bullough) to 13th in 1984 and allowed only 339 points all season. In 1985 they dropped from 13th to 22nd but Dick LeBeau's zone blitz scheme was doing very well. The next season, 1986, improved cutting points allowed to 394 and finishing as the 20th ranked defense in the NFL. In 1987 they did even better, cutting the points allowed to 370. In 1988, the Bengals defense ranked 17th in the league, allowing 5,556 yards and 329 points during the regular season. Cincinnati had a superb defensive line, led by pro bowl defensive tackle Tim Krumrie, along with linemen Jim Skow (9.5 sacks), David Grant (5 sacks), and Jason Buck (6 sacks). Pro Bowl defensive backs Eric Thomas and David Fulcher (the world's biggest free safety) combined for 12 interceptions. The team ended up winning the AFC Central Division with a 12–4 record. Bengals lost Super Bowl XXIII against San Francisco 49ers for the second time in franchise history. The following season, 1989, the Bengals defense was 15th in the NFL, an improvement of 2 spots and were in the top half of NFL defenses due to LeBeau's scheme. In 1990 and 1991 the Bengals defense ranked 25th and 28th of 28 teams and the Bengals made a change in defensive coordinators. in cinncy he never broke into the top 10 defensive units. PITTSBURGH STEELERS – 1992-96 – LeBeau was hired by the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1992 as the secondary coach. In 1994, 4 defensive players were called to play in the 1995 Pro Bowl (Kevin Greene, Carnell Lake, Greg Lloyd and Rod Woodson). As a secondary coach Lake and Woodson were heavily influenced by LeBeau. In 1995 LeBeau was promoted to be the defensive coordinator and the 1995 Pittsburgh defense ranked third in the league in total yards allowed after they had finished as the second ranked defense in 1994 in that same category, so the drop off was minimal with LeBeau at the helm. They did allow 327 points in 1995 as opposed to 234 the year before when the Steelers defense was coordinated by Dom Capers, but they got to the Super Bowl in 1995 with a much improved offense. Pro Bowl linebacker Kevin Greene led the team with 9 sacks, while Pro Bowl linebacker Greg Lloyd led the team with 86 tackles. The secondary was led by Pro Bowl defensive backs Carnell Lake and Hall of Famer Rod Woodson. The Steelers lost against the Dallas Cowboys in Super Bowl XXX, making it the third Super Bowl lost for him. again was hired as a secondary coach under dom capers 92-94 and in 95 was promoted to DC. CINNCINATI BENGALS – 1997-99 - In 1997 LeBeau took a lateral move as defensive coordinator of the Cincinnati Bengals. The Bengals defense was 25th in 1996 and in his first year back with the Bengals they only dropped to 28th and allowed just over 400 points. In 1998 they didn't drop at all, remaining 28th in the NFL (of 30 teams) and allowed 452 points. In 1999 the zone blitz scheme began to take hold and although the Bengals defense allowed 460 points, they dropped to 25th on the NFL (out of now 31 teams) an improvement of 3 spots. as DC in cinncinati he never was close to a top ten defense HEAD COACH BENGALS – 2000-02 - Despite LeBeau's considerable defensive coaching talent, his head coaching stint was unsuccessful, and his teams finished 4-9, 6-10 and 2-14, respectively, in his three seasons. His overall record as a head coach stands at 12-33. In 2003 LeBeau was an assistant with the Buffalo Bills. LeBeau then went back to the Steelers in 2004. similar to buddy ryan, the HC job seemed beyond him to become successful. of note: his defense while he was HC never reached the top 10 in any catagory. PITTSBURGH STEELERS – 2004- present - As an assistant coach he is credited with inventing the "Fire Zone" or "zone blitz" defense, which employs unpredictable pass rushes and pass coverage from various players has had good defenses during his tenure as DC in this period but it could also be noted that the steelers have had good+ D’s over the last 20 years. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_LeBeau

let me ask you this... WHY have we had three offensive coordinators/systems in SEVEN YEARS? for that matter why have we had four DEFENSIVE coordinators over this same period??? does that say anything about the abilities of our head coach to be able to put together a staff of his own and evaluate the abilities of these people? look at his choices. the only portion of our entire staff that has had any consistency has been our special teams coach and he never even hired him!!! we have changed coordinators like pairs of socks not to mention the one we had that didn't need changing (in rivera). that doesn't even include position coaches we have gone through like s&%$ through a goose. whose shoulders does this fall on? our coach? our gm? our president? or does it fall on ALL of them? in my opinion fisher does know how to work with a staff. he has worked and played under the best defensive coordinator in history. he has seen how strife and turmoil between coordinators works (gilbride and ryan) and how to avoid it. in fact i'm not even sure he doesn't have the chops to take over phillips job as president!!

in 16 years as head coach he has had only 5 losing season. over the last 12 years he has been to the playoffs 6 times and the superbowl once. over the time he had a good qb in mcnair look at his win/loss record. in that 9 year period there were 4 playoff appearances and actually over mcnairs tenure he was out one season injured and the last season before he left after his career was basically done. add to that the gm let mason their best receiver go to the ravens. even with the idiot vince young he pulled out 2 playoff appearances and one of those was using kerry collins. also, anyone remember justin gage? if that wasn't pulling the best out of an average player i don't know what is. the way i see fisher is similar to cowherd in pittsburgh. both these coaches continually lost good players to free agency and still fielded good teams. to me that is good coaching. think what he could do with cutler over his career even keeping martz or hiring someone he felt is a better OC.

i do not agree with arkush on this. i look at the talent and lack of talent fisher has had to work with over the last 10+ years and i see a coach who in my opinion seems to always get the most out of the players he is forced to work with. in other words he can coach players and they actually get better unlike what we have seen here. he has been in a division that features one of the hottest teams in the entire nfl in mannings colts for over a decade. he has had a poor owner/gm drafting and pushing players he was not willing to work with. he seemed to always have a nucleus of good coordinators around him. i would take jeff fisher in a minute over lovie smith and it has nothing what-so-ever to do with him being a former bear or part of a superbowl team in 85. in fact i believe fisher is one of the few coaches around who i believe is good enough to fire lovie this season and hire.

i couldn't disagree more. everyone seems to believe that a cover corner is somehow wasted in a cover 2 system. that couldn't be more untrue. the best cover 2 system over the last 15+ years was run in tampa where they had a cb who could cover man and in fact was a 5 time all-pro 5 time pro-bowler who was considered a shutdown corner in ronde barber. it is said that we run the cover 2 around 30% of our defensive plays and other types INCLUDING man coverage on the rest. and in my opinion YES we do need an elite cover corner especially in this division if we expect to compete with the packers who have a devastating lineup of wr's and another pro-bowl caliber qb in rogers. the same will go for the lions who also have a young very good qb and a pro-bowl caliber receiver. i also hardly think the vikings are not going to be looking for that franchise qb to stay competetive in this division so we will be in for the fight of our lives over the next 5-10 years for the division title. this is not even considering the best teams in the nfl and their high powered passing offenses who we will have to face in the playoffs or superbowl if we are lucky enough to get that far. i think we have proved that you do need elite corners and very good safeties also if you want to have a chance for superbowl rings. ours are no where near good enough and it showed in numerous important games including the '06 superbowl. even with the best DE in football, or with some of the best interior DT's when harris or even ted washington was around you still need to be able to cover receivers tight off the LOS long enough to even give your superior defensive linemen time to get to the qb. 1-3 step quick drop and passing attacks will eat you alive as we already know for a fact don't we? elite cb's are as rare and hard to find as elite DE's or qb's. what ever asomugha wants we should be willing to pay it unless we want to rely on the same type of nonsense and end results we have run for the last 7+ years. this should be our top free agent priority.

i am not sure of your meaning. why would you 'have' to sign him a year *before his contract is up or let him go? i would think the coaches you mentioned were perfect examples of why you DON'T want to extend a questionable coach still under contract before you have to. do you feel lovie actually deserves a raise and extension considering the previous THREE years? he already is one of the highest paid coaches in the nfl and you yourself said he was overpaid so why would we want to give him an extension and raise again? do you feel lovie will not sign a contract with chicago and do a pardee on us if we wait until his contract is actually up? will he be THAT ungrateful after the dog an pony show of last january in which we SHOULD have fired him, angie, and phillips? even after the cheap b$#@&*$s running this franchise stuck our necks in the noose for another season? if lovie wants to coach somewhere else than chicago IF he deserves an extension next year then by all means lovie, don't let the door hit you where the good lord split you. (in my opinion i would have fired lovie last season and if i could land a better coach this offseason i would fire him anyway.) *in january of '85 the bears extended ditka's contract for 3 years after his initial '82 three year contract expired and this was prior to the SF NFC playoff game for the '84 season. ditka was again offered extended contracts when this one expired. in truth wanny was a big hire and at the time a coup' for chicago. we blew that when we extended the idiot when he clearly didn't deserve it. in jauron we did the same thing that we did/will do with lovie. we extended a contract without having the need to do so. as far as trusting the imbeciles running this franchise to do anything right is a legitimate question. i don't and that is why we SHOULD have fired phillips first, last january, and hired a qualified football mind to run this franchise as president. but what is the alternative if they keep the same failures in place? just stay with what we have when it clearly is an inferior talent making critical decisions that effect the direction of this franchise? it seems that is the consensus from management when clearly NOBODY could say angelo is anywhere close to a good gm when you look at his body of work in the draft. he has done nothing to put quality ball players on the field at any position and left this franchise in a position it will take multiple good drafts to correct. does that mean we should extend him also because we "screwed the pooch" in the past? you are probably right about angie getting canned. this season left him the opening to decide "not to retire" to our dismay. so what do we have to look forward to? 3-4 more years of hit and miss post season crap in my estimation with second rate talent. isn't accepting garbage from our gm also a testement to fire lovie if being a company man supercedes the ability to put the best team on the field? i would also like to state there was a lot of talk (unconfirmed by me) about lovie's involvement choosing draft picks after the superbowl season. if that is true is that not another reason why he should be at the least held in limbo until we 'need' to renew his contract or let him go? i am not one who revered ditka. i believe he was a cog in fink's machine along with *buddy ryan whose weird combination polarized (like the perfect storm if you will) an amazing amount of talent into a superbowl win. i also believe he later squandered a huge amount of talent do to poor coaching (and poor drafts by mikey) after that season in which we should have won multiple superbowls. *i DO believe buddy ryan to be one of, if not the best, defensive coordinator in nfl history. just a poor head coach. muggs halas had just died which was in my opinion the worst thing that could possibly have happened to this franchise in their entire history. it was a pivot point for the bears in the modern era of football. we got ditka because of GSH against finks wishes which later resulted in finks leaving. ryan, a former viking coach, stayed after armstrong left because of his love by key defensive players written campaign. that is how we ended up with ditka/ryan. and yes, ditka was outcoached many times because of many of the attributes lovie smith has. stubborness as you mention and arrogance being key components. finally i want to comment on your following statement: "I have to side with the actual stars of the team when they support his methods of coaching 100%." the stars of this team also said the same thing about dick jauron. many of the same faults jauron had that caused his demise are the same we deal with now in lovie smith. although lovie has improved this season i find it hard to rally behind a coach whose failings he would not correct, let alone accknowledge over a 3 year period, when clearly his system did not work and in truth still will not work the way he runs it.

the biggest need we have is to fire ted phillips AND jerry angelo especially if giving one of the highest paid coaches in the entire NFL an extension is his/their top priority!!! why in the HELL would you even want to consider this when lovie has another year on his contract? especially if you look at his success over the last 4 years since his superbowl appearance. could it be because it takes angie and teddy's jobs out of the line of fire and masks the complete ineptitude of both of these drones? JUST SAY NO!!!!!

in free agency this is THE guy we need more than any other and would make the greatest impact on this teams success. we should have gone after him the last time he was a FA. sign this guy, a #1 cover corner, and our defense can play with anyone for a long time. next sign a 'good' guard or RT if the money is still there. not necessarily a top free agent but a good one if there is one available who can be a 'stop gap' for a freaking high round drafted lineman to get up to speed. if no lineman is available sign a decent WR who is starting on the downside of his career.

if cutler wasn't a pussy he would have cut his own leg off above the knee, tied it off with a tourniquet and duct taped a sideline marker to his leg as a peg and gone back out there. what a wimp!

i don't think i would be this quick to prop them up. they are still horrid in my opinion. they are still not engaging at the LOS even if they play tighter. i want to also add... peanut had a good game against the seahawks. this was because he was lining up against the type of player he was drafted to cover about 8 years ago. a big bodied receiver who was not blazingly quick off the LOS. that is not the norm anymore in todays nfl and certainly not against the packers. most WR's are quick and fast and i still don't believe he or our other CB's can cover those types of receivers well. this is going to be a real tough matchup for our DB's and if we can't figure out how to close the short passing gaps over the middle we could very well be in a lot of trouble.

here is what i would do on the first day... 1st round: we are picking near the bottom no matter what, so a good or better LOT is not likely to be there. if there is a good RT with some real potential and value i take him first. second, if no tackles look like potentially excellent prospects i look at CB next, but ONLY if there is a corner who is a 'cover' corner and NOT a cover 2 prospect. this guy would have to be at a minimum a real 5' 10" or bigger with speed. you are going to have to look for one with the potential this far down in the first to become a #1 corner. if no prospect is available in this mold then look for a guard prospect. at this slot we should be able to find an excellent guard who with little work should become a starter in a short period of time. 2nd round: we again are picking at the bottom so we should look for a right tackle of potential quality (if we did not get one in the previous round). second we should again look at guard even if one was picked in the previous round. there should still be good value for an excellent prospect. if no tackles or guards of quality are available find your excellent quality center for the next 15 years. groom him to replace kruetz AND our long snapper mannelly and throw him in at guard if he can play there until the transition. if no linemen look like excellent prospects then look at a cover corner or SLB as a last resort. 3rd round: if we haven't picked up a quality center this is the time for it. if none of value are available in our slot and if we haven't drafted 2 guards by this time then look again for a very good guard prospect. if none are available then make our pick a free safety who has size and can cover or strong side linebacker.

gotta agree. i couldn't care less if he wants his privacy and NEVER talks to the media. as long as he doesn't beat women, children and dogs or is a rapist, thug or murderer, who really cares what he does or doesn't do? if he gives his job 100% and is reasonably civil with his teammates and not a locker room cancer that's all that counts with me.