Alaskan Grizzly

Fair question and a good one. You’d think me being a Lovie-acolyte the answer would be obvious but...comparing his relationship with Fox I’d say he probably would have kept Fox if he had managed to turn the program around in 2-3 years like he’s done before. But he didn’t so off he went. Thing is, Lovie stayed above .500 quite a bit more than he didn’t so I’d have to think Pace might have given him some sort of one year more and prove it deal.

Lovie did win Coach of the Year early on. And I’d be interested to see the defenses go head to head. If you pitted this current offense against Lovies best D and Lovies best offense against this current D then shredding by each respective D would probably occur. As far as Jason’s passion (some call arrogance), Id say cut him some slack. Many have gotten pissed over the years by a few of us being portrayed as negative all the time. When really we’re just voicing our opinion. He and I knocked it around a few times in the past primarily over Olinemen but after time found some common ground. Maybe that puts me in the minority but nevertheless that’s what makes this “Talkbears”. Gotta have topics to talk about, controversial or no, to make it a “Talk” site. *Edit: I do have to admit that some of the exchanges between Cracker Dog and Jason over the years were pretty funny.

To be fair, for a supposed “expert” Kiper has made plenty of errors on his judgement. Look up links to Kiper and Ki-Jana Carter, Mike Williams, Ryan Leaf, Davi Carr, JeMarcus Russell, Andre Ware and Akili Smith just to name a few. And the whole Nagys 12-4 vs Jason’s 0-0 record thing gets old after awhile. If that were a standard then the Bears may well still have had Lovie as their HC. He was 10-6 the year he was fired after all. And until then was the third winningest Bears coach after Halas and Ditka. (for the record I hope Nagy passes them all up). That being said and realizing I’m setting myself up for a flaming, Ive found a new hero in Stu Gotz from the Dan Le Betard show. Heelarious!

That’s my thought too. Personally not a fan of Millers either...that being said... Still think the team needs to address S/NB with Skrine as the primary choice. Although McManis showed some promise in the role at limited play.

I’m a big fan of Wims too, no doubt. Ridley makes some sense (at least to me) given Nagy needing more tools. And I think there were rumors last year that Pace tried to trade up to get Riley’s brother but went with Wims instead.

I like Mongos suggestion of Deionte Thompson (S - Alabama) and/or Riley Ridley (WR - Georgia) brother of Calvin.

I was about to say ‘you mean that receiver we used to have on the team a few years ago’? (And he wasn’t all that bad). But realized the one you’re talking about has an I in his name; Deionte (like neon Deion with a -te ending)... my answers is YES!!!! Safety from Bama?? I’m co-signing!

And??? Without any spoilers how was it? My wife has it on our calendar as a Mother’s Day event.

Meh from me too. Taking into consideration some of the critique of Howard after the trade a few weeks ago I’m trying to see where the team gained. In the highlight film above I may have missed it but I didn’t see him catch one pass out of the backfield and it seemed a majority of his runs were in the 1-3 holes. He wasn’t particularly fast at choosing his running lanes either. In just pure draft comparisons alone; Montgomery ran the 40 in 4.63 had 15 reps on the bench a 28.5 inch vertical and 121 inch broad jump. He had a a draft prospect grade of 5.8. Howard’s measurables were 4.59 / 40 (I think done during pro day), 16 reps, a 34 inch vertical and 122 inch broad jump ending up with a 6.1 prospect grade. To me it seems we downgraded a hair in the deal. I thought their goal was versatility and I don’t feel that happening with this guy.

You don’t actually believe that do you? I actually have a lot more faith in Nagy that he could figure it out.

Can’t the Bears just offer the three kickers currently on the roster for Gould? Let SF sort out if any of them will be good.

I gotta think this is some sort of Karma thing for Lynch bamboozling Pace into trading up one spot to get Trubiksy a few years back.

Hey Bill I sure hope you don’t get banned. With this group I don’t see it happening, they’re a solid bunch. Your recollection of Chet made me think of one of my favorite ‘straight talkers’ from yesterday; that guy Art Donovan. I’d be willing to bet Art and Chet are selling out the Pealy Gate comedy club.

Hey, I’m sold. A Bama defensive back and a guy named Singletary? Heck ya. Highlights of Thompson makes him out to be a true SS and is a thumper to boot. Since both Jackson and Dix are more coverage safeties, maybe one of them could move to CB someday...if the Bears were able to convince both to stay...at a reasonable cost?

Or are/were Nagy and Fangio good with the pieces they were given? Hmmm....

This x2 And I like the idea of adding a ‘Singletary’ back to the team if only for nostalgic reasons.

I appreciate the explanation . Yeah I understand (I think) if a player is paid a lot on the front that means bad things if he’s cut too early; like dead money that counts to the salary cap or something rather(?). I have to think that if he was signed to a low cost low risk three year deal there must have been something someone saw that the other two kickers didn’t show. Kinda crazy that only two years ago we were worried about 7-9 positions of need and now it’s really somewhere between 2-3 and the most unstable is the kicker.

A “100+ carry guy”? Where would they find a durable guy like that? Sorry im feeling a bit cynical. In all seriousness though I think Nall might fit the durability role. He’s younger and has done well in the health department so far.

Ah...I’ll be the first to admit I’m not all that keen on contract stuff. But still three years for an unproven when the other two were signed to one year (?) deals makes little sense. Either way, I’m sure it’ll work out.

Funny, I was actually thinking of continuing some discussions on other topics but feared I’d hurt some feelings. Like why on earth did they sign an unproven kicker to 3 years? ?

Well since you’re going to bring Nall into the discussion, and I’m glad you did, ‘yes’ I would certainly hope that he becomes a factor. I was excited by the little I saw of him last year and asked about using him more then and again posed the question earlier this year. You’ll get no argument from me on hoping he is someone we see in the backfield more this year. He’s definitely a forgotten and overlooked piece to the puzzle. As far as the comparison of Blount and Howard; not sure I got the point other than maybe seeing they aren’t all that different (minus the jumping). So to the earlier point I agree with you that is why Pedersen wanted Howard. Which to me again begs the question; if the Eagles could use him why couldn’t the Bears? Maybe Nall in the wings is that answer (mixed in with Howard’s current value and end of contract looming). I think in an earlier series of posts there was discussion about how awesome it would be to see someone like Forte in Nagys offense. Totally agree. Nevertheless, something Forte was also good at was grinding out tough yards too (at least earlier on). *Edit: In looking more at the video for Nall I see that he ran a fair amount of inside zone with both the QB doing RPO from the gun AND while under center. I know your earlier video knocked Howard for some of his inability to run inside zone from the gun. But to be honest I didn’t see a lot of major differences in their playing style when it came to that. Other than the blocking maybe being more effective Nall would look for that 0, 1 or 2 hole and go. Howard’s forte was more the outside zone where he could follow the blockers and let the holes develop; especially in Fox’s time.

Thanks NYC, right back at ya. I agree that the RPO itself isn’t a gimmick. In fact we see more of it because it’s what more colleges are playing (or at least that’s the way I understand it) and makes it an easier transition to the NFL for QBs like Trubiksy. It’s just some of the stuff that Nagy adds to it that are gimmicky; like having Hicks run in a TD, or Sowell catching a TD pass or even Cohen throwing a TD pass. But a like I said earlier, a lot of this is what makes the game fun to watch and play.

I’d almost be willing to take that bet but I also believe they both could be accomplished simultaneously. As an aside; the year that Blount played for Pederson was the fifth productive in his 9(?) year career; getting 766 on the ground. (And that was with a pretty good RB in Ajayi on the team). Blount has only surpassed 1,000 yards twice in his career with a total in the 6,000 yard range. Howard has equalled half that in a third of the time. So really, Pederson ended up with a better player in Howard. The point I was going for on Fox’s success on offense wasn’t about whether Howard did well in it, it was more the idea (or at least the accusation) that the Chicago offense wasn’t successful because of Fox. To me that was more due to the timing because of the QBs he had. Cutler was at the end of his time in Chicago and had sucked, Glennon just plain sucked and Trubisky was a rookie who had a lot to learn. By that, Fox’s offense was very one-dimensional (and predictable) because of Howard being as good as he was/is.

To be fair, Pederson has been to and won a Super Bowl. And he did it with Blount as a player. The year prior to and after he did not. Am I suggesting that Blount was the single reason for their appearance in the SB, no. Just that as you point out, Pederson perhaps wanted Howard as he wanted Blount. And talking about risk, prior to Pederson running it how many had tried running the Philly Special? Nagy didn’t invent gimmicky plays, he’s just evolving it. Actually I think what has made Nagy successful is that he makes watching (and playing) football fun. My wife has always said if she was a coach she would always run trick plays because she likes to be ‘entertained’ and keep the other side guessing. Because of that and the propensity of Nagy to do just that she really likes to watch Bears football. Add that to having players jump on the bandwagon while they too are having fun makes for a good combination. But going back to the Howard discussion; at some point the gimmicky plays are not going to work...not all the time. And that’s when a more traditional player like Howard will factor in. I mean if Nagy can develop plays where defensive lineman can run in a TD or an OL can catch a TD pass, surely he could use a back like Howard?