BearFan2000

And that's been stated multiple times from him and others yet some will never accept that. It sounds to me many went into this conference assuming he's been brought into be Ted's yes man, puppet, or whatever. And listened to the conference from that perspective so any hint of that becomes proof of that predetermined opinion and thus fact. Personally it's a jaded way to look at this. Bears have failed in the past, have made a mess of things, thus it will never change, thus they have screwed this up. I think it's early to assume as fact and ignore anything to the contrary. The proof will be in how he does his job, and he has yet to fail but some are acting like that's inevitable. To that I may ask why bother following this if you can't allow the possibility of this change being a positive one? Pace may be the right guy he may not but give someone a chance to succeed before assuming failure. Personally I've seen things that indicate that the Bears realize the status quo isn't going to cut it and that change, real change is needed. Perhaps they finally becoming self aware and realize change was needed. Firing Trestman after two years is a no brainer to us and most of the football world, but in the past the Bears would have drug that out, the Bears firing a HC after two seasons is virtually unheard of. Firing a GM after 3 is also a huge change. How many of us during this past season thought there might be the usual sacrificial lamb to "satisfy the the masses" while avoiding real change till it's painfully obvious it's needed. I for one am encouraged by what George has done and is doing. They recognized that change needed to happen for the good of the team and had the stones to make the change. Rather than allow the team to sink further and recognize that with Emery and Trestman in charge this team was reaching new lows and that doing nothing was not acceptable. I see things that indicate there is a change in how things are done so I'm willing to give it a chance.

That's where it's good to hear him talk in an interview and then see how he does his job going forward. I see a lot being read into what little was said in the presser. His tone change when talking about leaning on Ernie vs leaning on Ted and George. may mean something it may not. But I think assuming that by merely mentioning ted and leaning on him and then concluding same old same old. May be bias based on negative expectations. Pace has never hired a head coach, never been involved in the hiring of one, but the other guys have and that is a big decision. There is a difference in leaning on someone as in blindly trusting them to tell you what to do and leaning on them as in respect to hearing their thoughts. If I were in his shoes having never made a big decision like this and this is a huge decision, it would be foolish not to take into consideration the thoughts and opinions of those in the interviews, but the decision at the end of the day is his to make. And as long as that's the case I'm fine with it. I know we've seen a lot of failure and a lot of bad here in the running of this team. But sometimes we can get so jaded that we look for any hint of past failure and in a sense look for reasons to be dissapointed or unhappy, rather than look for the good and give this a chance to work before assuming failure. just my 2 cents.

IMO those who claim to have "inside knowledge" about what was said, not said, done or not done in the interview process should be taken with a grain of salt and shouldn't be the basis to love or hate this hire. I put more stock in opinions formed based on his track record, resume, and information that is knowable. We weren't in the interview, and neither were some of these "sources" Reality is every hire of a GM/HC, etc. anywhere is going to come with people claiming to be in the know either flinging mud or picking the roses. Some are motivated by friendship, bitterness, or whatever. There will always be speculation, and people looking for dirt, or looking for reasons to like a hire. Personally what matters most is if he can do the job and do it well and get this team headed in the right direction. And that we won't know right away. I'm not going to dismiss the guy just cause I don't know much about him, or because he wasn't who I thought was going to be hired. Which I think is where some of the negativity comes from feeling we were thrown a curve when all the "speculation" seemed to point to Ballard. I'm willing to give the guy a fair shake. Now if 2-3 years down the line I see no improvement or the Bears sink deeper into the abyss then he will have earned our distrust.

It sounds like he had worked his way up the ranks including director of pro personnel the past couple seasons for the Saints. It sounds to me like he has the chops to be a good GM and the background in a winning organization. He is young at 37 to be a GM but that could be a positive by bringing fresh energy and perspective to the Bears. I totally thought it'd be Ballard and honestly don't know much about Pace, so I'm mentally redirecting my thoughts to learn who this guy is. I'm willing to give him a fair shake. Other than their struggles this season the Saints have been in the hunt and have really turned things around. I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and I'm glad we did indeed hire GM first and he will have the say in the HC hire. Didn't want to see us make the same mistake again saddling a GM with a coach he did not pick.

And when there's lack of information people and media will speculate. There's always those that claim they know "someone close" or "someone inside" till it's announced we won't know for sure.

Don't want him and the crap that comes with him. The guy is a 100% turd He has all the tools to be a good QB in the NFL except the one that matters between his ears. The kid is an idiot, he's vince young kinda stupid. This team needs less drama not more. Way too much baggage for a kid that if he ever grows up might develop into a good NFL QB. I'd pass

I don't think we should hold past association with the Bears against either a GM or HC candidate, Ballard is very well thought of in many circles. Just because he has past connections with the Bears doesn't mean same old same old. If he's the best candidate for the job and and get the Bears back on the right track I'm all for it. From what I've heard, read, and seen the Bears are focused on getting the best guys they can. Having a connection previously or not will neither help or hinder a candidate. Just like head coach being a calm guy or a screamer or an offensive guy or a defensive guy mean less than whether or not he can lead players. There is not direct correlation to style or offensive/defensive leaning with success. It's easy to wan the opposite of what you just fired. So having had a calm/quiet coach you might want to think we need a screamer with some fire/passion. This time around does feel different than in the past. In the past the Bears would have allowed Trestman/Emery to hang around long after it was clear they needed to be gone. Firing a head coach after two seasons in Chicago is unheard of, and Emery only there 3 years. Both had 2 years left on their contracts but rather than let bad continue, the Bears made the decision based on what they felt was best for the Bears to right the ship. Whether the guys we hire to be GM and HC pan out and things start turning around remains to be seen but it's clear a change was needed and the George had the stones to make the change.

It'll be the most meaningful football event to take place in Chicago almost 2 years.

I agree, get the best coach we can roster be dammed, get a guy in here who can get the most out of our team not our over paid turnover machine of a QB. Jay is what he is and he is what he always has been, tons of raw tallent and ability, but will never be more than potential. Sure our offense did not play to his strengths but we've seen McCown and even Clausen.... even Jimmy freaking Clausen looked competent running the offense given rarely playing. I feel like if we base who we hire on who we think can get the most out of Jay? We've seen that movie it bombed at the box office. If the Bears decide based on Jay they are handcuffing our search efforts to someone who can sell the McCaskey's that they can fix Jay and get he most out of him. The Bears have tried to build an offense around him and it's just not working. We need to search for the best coach we can find and and he should take the roster as is and work with the GM (if it's Emery or someone new) and decide who he want to keep around and who to get rid of. As many others here I'm sick of this once proud franchise doing some of the most idiotic things when it comes to hiring coaches, and GM's We've tied GM's hands by saying you you've got full control but you will keep the coaching staff currently in place at least one year, to hiring assistant coaches without a Head coach in place or without his say, tying GM or coaches hands on player personel decisions, etc. An earlier topic talked about structure and at any given time it's hard to know which inmate is running this asylum. Point is George needs to have the stones to do what is needed to evaluate this team from ownership right down to water boy. He needs to go through and rebuild the structure with a competent chain of command. If that means get rid of Phillips, Emery, and Trestman's staff and replacing them with a football guy as team president, a proven GM, and a proven coach. And all the people have the authority and power of decision commensurate with their positions. IE coaches answer to head coach, head coach answers to the GM, GM answers to the management. George has some big decisions to make this coming off season, he had the duty of trying to right this ship and get us back on course to return to being the proud franchise that us Bears fans fondly remember.

Which warms my heart cause I can't stand "Johnny Football" and all the hype for a guy who's really not that good.

That's a given. Go Lions! Don't want the pukers to win the division.

10 team PPR league Current lineup: QB Brady @ NYJ RB Forte vs DET RB McCoy @WAS WR Nelson @ TB WR Beckham @ STL TE Olsen vs CLE Flex Hopkins vs BAL K Prater @ CHI Def Bills @ Oak Bench QB STafford @ CHI RB Forsett @ HOU WR H. Douglass @ NO WR Landry vs MIN WR M. Wallace vs MIN Def Packers. While it's be hard to bench Forte or McCoy… I have to admit they both make me nervous. Forte has been underused lately and the offense has been awful. McCoy has struggled much of the year last week 3 TD's got vultured. Do you trust either or both of these guys? I could replace one with Forsett, and drop a D and pick up Asiata, Vareen, or someone else. Also looking iffy for hopkins. If J. Jones misses Douglass could be a good play but so could either of my Dolphins WR's Landry and Wallace The team I'm up against QB Luck @DAL RB Lynch @AZ RB Le'Veon Bell vs KC WR D. Jackson vs PHI WR Maclin @ WAS TE Kelcie @PIT Flex S. Watkins @OAK K Crosby @ TB Def Rams vs NYG

Cutler is as he always has been. He has built a career off of "potential" but reality is that's all he ever will be is unrealized potential. When he's on he's incredibly good, unfortunately that's a rare thing and usually cancelled out and drowned out by his general poor play and brain farts. He is an average to below average QB with moments of greatness that people cling to as hope that those moment become more the norm. The contrast last night between Jay and Drew was stark to say the least and more than once pointed out by the broadcast team in how Jay should sit and watch tape of Brees and then watch tape of himself. He practically does everything a QB is taught not to do. Stares down his targets, third down more often than not will throw medium to deep to a guy well covered but ignore the guy wide open beyond the sticks, his footwork is sloppy and that is making his timing, and accuracy drop significantly, he holds the ball way too long, even when a guy is wide open and will stare at him allowing the d to make a play on the ball or sack him by the time he actually throws.

if we had half a dozen or so games to goI could see firing him now, but at this point we have 2 games left, do we really gain anything? I know in general we are embarrassed as fans and knee jerk reaction is fire all now for the emotional satisfaction but that is only beneficial if you have someone in house who's capable of taking over and can evaluate. For 2 games you'd have an interim coach trying to evaluate players in a system they won't be running next year. Which is why I feel if we would have fired him earlier this season would have made more sense. But that's never been the Bears style, and I can't recall us ever firing a coach in season. Knowing he's getting canned and possibly Emery too is with 2 games left is good enough for me. I would like to see Harbaugh or Rex Ryan. I agree with the point about Cower being out of the NFL too long though it's not like he hasn't been plugged in and tuned in to what's going on. Unlike Trestman who was away from the NFL for almost a decade. I've always enjoyed Cower's insight. It is too bad about Gruden signing long term to ESPN. He certainly has passion and thought he was going to blow a gasket during the game last night with how furious he was getting with practically everything the Bears did, none of which I disagreed with that I can recall. We definitely need someone with passion and someone who will command respect. Should Emery go we need to get someone who knows a thing or two about building an NFL roster to win. I get so tired of waiting for draft day only to see us draft like we're the know it all and can find the gems that no one else sees. Not saying buy into the hype on prospects but I know I'm not the only one sick of the WTF head scratching selections where we have to talk ourselves into not being upset about. For once I'd like to see the draft end and feel like we were one of the teams that had a hell of a draft. In recent memory I can only think of a few players we've drafted that actually have made a solid impact on our team. Jeffery, Long, Fuller (early in the season), Carrey has looked good when he's gotten in the game. I get tired of watching other teams draft impact player after impact player and we get these fools gold guys who are often below average to mediocre at best. I have to admit I'm jealous of the Packers being mostly a home grown team where almost their entire roster was drafted and they supplement occasionally with FA to compliment their team. In contrast the Bears build through FA/trades cause ethey can't draft worth crap.

Same here Bears are my fav team second favorite is who ever is playing the Packers, third fav whoever is playing the cowboys unless it's the Packers in which case I remain neutral cause I can't bring myself to root for either. In our Division I'm rooting for Detroit to take it. I sure can't wait till GB's luck runs out and they return to yearly suckitude they and their fans could stand being humbled. I enjoyed every min of the Packers Bills game for multiple reasons. We have an annoying fantasy owner in our league who likes to brag especially as the #1 seed in our fantasy playoffs got humbled by the #4 seed due to Rodgers and R. Jennings getting re-injured. That set the stage for me as the #2 seed facing off against the #4 seed for the Championship this weekend. Fantasy has been my silver lining this season. Since week 3 I've gone 10-2 and have been dominating the league. But once fantasy is over I'll quickly run out of reason to watch NFL football.

lol yeah you can pretty much start a new round every quarter. I know it's bad when what I see out there no longer makes me furious. We are laughably bad.

Was listening to the score before the pregame and they gave me an idea. Bad Bears Bingo. I made a list of all the typical dumb things the Bears do in a course of a game and made up a bingo card of those things and as I see it happen on screen, I place a bingo chip LOL Might as well find a way to entertain myself while watching this disaster of a football team.

Key being as much as I hate saying this Green Bay knows how to draft. Bears don't. The idea of growing your team through the draft is great but requires good scouting and skilled drafting. Something no one can really accuse the Bears of in quite some time. We've hit on a few here and there but not often enough to build through the draft.

Trade Cutler for RG3? No and why? IMO it'd be like trading one lemon car for another or swapping totaled cars. Neither are worth much. Both are injury prone, have awful mechanics and both inconsistent. No thanks. I'd rather trade Cutler for something that can help us like picks or someone who has potential. Someone might be desperate enough to give us something for Jay. Some team might think they can be the one to harvest Jay's potential.

can't say he has no heart, dude played through a lot of physical issues till he could no longer do so.

No don't rest Forte, I need him for my fantasy playoff run he can rest in week 17 lol

Many of us were fooled, I remember when his name came up I didn't even know who he was and him being a canadian league coach I thought it was a joke. Now I wish it was. I'll admit that through the process I came to like the idea. An offensive coach that was sold as an aggressive coach, a guy who many touted as a QB guru, I for one fell for it and started drinking the kool-aid that perhaps finally the Bears had their ducks in a row. Even was willing to write off the D's bad year last year as new coaching staff, lots of injuries, etc. The offense was one of the top scoring offenses in the league last year so along with many here and in Bears nation felt that another year in the system and the offense should remain potent and even take steps to get better. With the additions made on the D through FA and draft fell that if our D could get to even average. This could be a special year. But then reality set in…. Offensively I think we're more inept than we were before Trestman was brought in. Jay looks no more fundamentally sound than he was before. Sure some stats will say his game has improved but stats don't show the true picture. For an offensive guru/QB whisperer, we have seen an offense that plays scared till it's too late in a game and the hole is too deep. Situational play calling makes no sense and our lack of discipline puts us behind the 8 ball almost every drive. Can't count how many drives have gone in reverse. Dumb repeated sideline WR screens that fool no one. How many times has this series of events happened: 1st down sidline WR screen for short yardage or loss, 2nd down and long handoff for a couple, 3rd down false start or holding or both on consecutive 3rd downs. 3rd and long poorly executed pass play or we hand it off again. 4th down punt. There is no sense of urgency or apparent plan. There's no rhyme or reason on when we run, when we throw short, or when we pass long other than it seems like in each situation we call the wrong type of play for that situation. We were sold fools gold. Defensively our expectations weren't very high even with the additions because there was serious reason to doubt Tucker was fit to be a DC. What the injuries we've had has done has led us to field one of the most inexperienced and youngest D's I won't use that as an excuse, because what I see week in and week out, is poor fundamentals, players out of place, over running things, taking bad angles and just a look of general confusion. In a rebuilding of the D and that is what we have here, I see little to build on. That goes to drafting and roster management. And goes to coaches not having their players ready, and it goes to players themselves not playing well. What you look for is progress, young players getting better, I don't see that. In fact I see the opposite here. I see players regressing. Special teams needs little mention as they have sucked last year and this year. Losing Dave Toub killed our special teams. Every game proves that we need someone who knows what he's doing coaching this group. True we lost Hester and really don't have anyone returning kicks that scares anyone. But lets' be honest Hester's career is waining. Hindsight is always 20/20 it's clear now that Trestman was the wrong call. He may be a nice guy, but he is way in over his head as a head coach in the NFL. I remember a few weeks back or so on the Score forget which show, but they read off trestman's resume' season by season noting offensive ranking and QB stats etc. There was a definite pattern. First year there would be good results but every successive season there was regression, followed by him getting fired. As a coach in college and pros I think there was one place he lasted 3 years everywhere else he was fired after 2. Then came the Canadian team and he stuck as head coach for 5 years and his team won grey cups. Up north is different. Different game, different rules, different type of players. In Canada the players aren't multi million dollar egos but rather are lower paid and more so playing for the love of the game than worrying about wanting the be the highest paid at their position. Is he an offensive guru? Is he a QB whisperer? Sure his offenses and QB's put up big numbers early on in each of his stints. But you could also argue that quite often he took over situations where the talent was there. One could argue a lot of his success was due in part to inherited talent, rather than talent he developed. Another thing is what's new has the best chance to be effective on offense because no one has film on that offense. The longer you have a system in place the more film on it and the more defenses adapt. That is when you need to step up your game and be creative, and work to stay ahead of the curve. Status quo may work initially but pretty soon the curve passes you by and if you don't adapt things will fizzle out. That is what I see happening here and that is the pattern that has followed Trestman throughout his coaching career.

and there we have it, the obligatory Cutler pick to complete the debacle

we don't have special teams…. we have special ed. This whole team rides the short bus

I'm still a bit miffed about the sequence of events from the play that forte fumbled on to the TD for Dallas. 1. The play forte fumbled on, one of the Dallas D-lineman jumped offsides, so it should have been an offsides/free play. We'd accept the penalty negating the fumble. 2. That TD pass was not a TD. His knee hit then the ball contacted the pylon should have been down at the 1/2 yard line. They reviewed it and still blew the call. Now the TD was inevitable wether the gave it to Beasly or if it would have been first and goal at the 1/2 yard line. What miffed me is that I have Forte on my fantasy team and that fumble cost me points, and my opponent this week has Romo and that gave him a long TD pass…. had it been correctly called they'd have probably ran it in for the score. I'm only watching this game because of the fantasy implication for my team. I don't see us winning more than 1 game the rest of the year. As I type this Jeffery just got a TD pass, but even with that we are in the 4th Quarter and have only mustered 13 points. How pathetic can we get. Dallas is not a defensive juggernaught. But then again the weakest D in the league would probably look formidable against our unimaginative, predictable, impotent offense.