DABEARSDABOMB

I think you have to do your homework and analysis, but you can't always predict correctly (but fully agree that they should have a better track record than you / I). Look at Aaron Hernandez and the Patriots. They are clearly experts and totally missed a murderer. I think the thing I like about someone like Ballard, not only can he spot talent, but he also can understand or at least have a better appreciation for what can be coached vs. what can't and i think his previous track record makes him a better candidate to be able to work well with coaches and be closer aligned. I think the best organizations have strong relationships throughout (especially that GM / HC relationship). The scouting and identifying talent is just one part of the job and Ballard seems to have a lot of the other intangibles (to go along with the ability to scout). I think it is in those intangibles that the Bears completely missed the boat in Emery / Trestman. In neither case were they incompetent people, they just lacked certain qualities necessary in being a head coach / GM. I don't question their overall football intelligence at all (although I do somewhat question Trestman's ability to adjust to the current NFL as the fact we couldn't find a way to beat a zone defense just baffled me).

One thing to think about...whomever we hire, we have to be patient with. We can't be an organization who fires another GM quickly (or another head coach in 2 years). We have to give that person the rope to literally hang themselves. That means the GM gets 2 attempts at a coach (so if he misses, he gets another shot) and the coach gets 3 years. If you don't, you quickly enter Browns / Raiders territory and that is a tough territory to get away from (as literally you won't be able to attract top talents because they won't believe they get a fair shot). PS: I think the whole cluster that happened at Halas this year was total justification to make the moves that were made (and we know I was preaching for it from week 5). However, that means more than ever, we have to get this next one right cause this time, no matter how bad you screw it up, you can't have this quick of an axe, imo. Good news is, I think Ballard is going to be a really good hire. Very charismatic, bright, great background. Type of guy you want meeting with players when trying to sign a FA and the type of guy who understands what can be coached and what can't be coached and really how to coach too, which I think helps so much from a talent evaluation perspective as well as the right traits to look for in coaching candidates.

To be frank, the only one that you should blame him on in that list is Emery. He hired the football person and should have had better outside parties helping him and ownership in that process. Emery hired Trestman and Emery said the Cutler contract is the right deal. I don't want our ownership group or Ted Phillips telling our GM no on football related decisions. If you wanted him to veto the Trestman hire or the Cutler signing, that would be him interfering himself in football related decisions, which is exactly what we don't want.

Evidently Frazier is the DC of the Bucs working with Lovie. He's probably not going to leave Lovie to take the Bears gig.

Singletary was a free agent. Last job he had was working as an assistant with Frazier in Minnesota. Singletary should not be a DC. I have no problem in having him come in and work with our linebackers / be on our sidelines, but anything more than that is too much for the Samurai.

Agree; His bigger whiffs were Mark Bradley (ACL injuries IIRC) and someone else I can't recall. All that said, you are going to have whiffs in the GM business, you just need to have more hits and preferably the occasional home run. They also gave him significant credit for some of the big free agent signings the Bears made in the Angelo era (i.e,. guys like Ruben Brown, etc that we added to our line which were low cost, big impact moves).

I think part of it is there is a disconnect between what the McCaskey's ask Ted to do and what the public asks him to do and the ownership group does a very poor job of communicating that, thus Phillips gets a lot of undo blame. Phillips, by all accounts, is very good from the business side, he just needs to stay on the business / financial side and away from football decisions which it appears is going to be the case by all accounts. I just don't think we will see the McCaskey's make some public scene about it. That isn't there way of handling things and it probably isn't the way you want to treat someone who, in there eyes, has been a very loyal and valuable employee (and you have to remember...this is the families livelihood and he has managed the economics of it extremely well in their eyes). By the way, thanks for sharing what GG said. Great to hear. His articles and insights are always really good, imo. He, along with Mannelly, seemed to have the best reports / scoops as to what was going on in the lockeroom with the Bears this past season and what was going wrong and why.

If the reports coming out of the lockeroom are true in regards to Marshall, than I have zero problem moving him. I think you need to set the right tone with all these new people and a Marshall move could be a good way to do it (and also demonstrate the...hey, we are in control message that needs to be sent). And I don't think anyone should be coddling Cutler. At this point, we need to hope he has learned a valuable lesson from his benching and he needs to know he needs to earn his job just like everyone and anyone else.

I just love the snippets I've heard from his guys and see how he handled some significant adversity on the defensive side of the football in Arizona while still excelling.

Was that Greg Gabriel?

And I'm not one to suggest hiring former Bear players as coaches, but if the Bears were to go down the path of hiring an offensive minded head coach (or for that matter Toub), I would be very interested in bringing Frazier in as our DC. I figure it is a relatively realistic option as well (vs. say Rex Ryan, who clearly would be a dream but probably not happening). Anyone else have particular people in mind for the DC position?

I am a Bowles / Toub / Shanny fine with me kind of guy. I kind of prefer Bowles / Toub but Shanny has something about him as well. I just don't want Jay thinking we are catering to him, etc. That said, Shanny was about the only guy to make Jake the Snake and RG III look good so it isn't as if he only had success with Elway. Yeah, his superbowls came with him, but he made the playoffs with a few other QB's as well. I also think the idea of having Shanny and Kubiak on the offensive side is great, but the question is, could we lure Rex Ryan to be our DC? What a man can dream. If that was the lineup of the staff, I'd be all for Shanny haha.

It is great and I think it is a similar situation (with a couple twists). I think for one hand, the familiarity Ballard has with our ownership group and structure is huge. The known is typically better than the fear of unknown. On the flipside, I also think the Bears position probably offers the most personell control. He can pick his coach and have full say where as in Philly Chip Kelly has greater control and it appears the Jets are headed down a similar path with Maronne.

PS: I don't believe for a second we have offered the position. I think we have told him he is our preferred candidate, potentially or that has been leaked but offered, I doubt it. I do think, if the interview goes as planned (and it is probably more of a, we meet with others and we want to hear your thoughts...when it really is, we met with others and you are our guy). We will offer him the job tonight / tomorrow and the new GM will be in place very fast. To be frank, if this does happen, this is different than pretty much every other positional search I remember the Bears taking. Historically, we have been the anti-nimble organization when it comes to these things.

Ernie job was to also tell them what they didn't know and what they didn't consider. Ballard is largely regarded as the top candidate out there. There are 3 GM positions available and he appears most interested in ours. I think that is fantastic. I also think this reports are a little premature. I think Ernie and the Bears brass talked, Ernie knows all of this candidates pretty much (and has interviewed most of them in the past so has a good idea either way). Probably said, I lean towards Ballard but I want you guys to meet these other guys, after we meet with everyone, we can finalize the decision. Happens all the time (both in the NFL and Business) and it isn't a bad thing to do.

Fantastic. Their is a rumor that we have offered Ballard the job. I find it BS, unless of course we have interviewed him. Very clear that he's our top choice and that we are his top choice. I am excited but want to hold back that excitement till it is confirmed, haha.

Yet if you follow Vegas odds, JJ Watt doesn't have near the factor on the line than an elite QB. It isn't even close. It is something like 2-3 points. Even guys like Gronk in his prime, wasn't more than a couple points where as a Peyton Manning might be a 14 point impact on a line.

Wasn't that more the Bears can't think they have someone until he has accepted our offer. Didn't we do something like schedule a press conference prior to his acceptance and that rubbed him the wrong way so he passed and than we moved on to Jauron?

It very well might be that he has concerns over certain structural matters in New York. It isn't like he has the job in Chicago yet. He can think he has it but bottom line, until the process is over and he is extended an offer, he doesn't have the job.

Greene and SMC won't even be on the team next year and Bostic has been pretty questionable as well. Jones is about the only thing I'd project and even than we are talking about a guy who was undrafted. Our LB corps is pathetic.

By and large, I don't like the idea of Bama DB's. Saban has a knack for scheming around them to put them at their very best. He knows their weaknesses incredibly well and can typically limit their exposure in the collegiate game. That isn't the case in the NFL where you are going against far more talented players. Too high of a bust rate, imo, out of Bama DB's for this very reason. That isn't to say there aren't good ones their, its just harder to identify through film the good ones from the not so good ones.

I guarantee they interview him and they clearly have a comfort level (which is so key in the grand scheme of things). I still think Bowles is a guy they'll put the press on, but it will probably be too late and it will take a heck of a sell job by Ballard, imo. I think Bowles is pretty much signed, sealed and delivered to the Falcons. I think once Ballard is in, we'll see him potentially branch out to some other guys who he might be comfortable with as well (on top of the existing list). I expect that it will be at that time, that you might see some experienced coaches brought in. Right now i think the Bears are focused on the hot assistants and at least having connections with them as timing is a little more critical in their regards, especially for teams still in the playoffs. Accorsi and Polian are both very high on Ballard. I also think the most interesting part of these young coaching candidates is who they have tabbed to be their coordinators.

Take it for what it is worth. Clearly the Bears and Ballard are interested. I think the Bears are lined up to meet with Ballard on Wednesday and are meeting with some other GM candidates today / tomorrow. My guess is by Friday Bears will introduce their new GM, if not sooner.

I think the issue is, as Dilfer / Steve Young have pointed out, by all accounts, he's smart and doing everything right Monday - Saturday. However, in game situations, he doesn't display the in-game smarts. I think it is more that his quick-twitch reflex decision is not smart where as his film decision is smart. By all accounts the last two years he has really changed how he has handled his business (prior to that he didn't do what it took on Monday - Saturday and relied more on his pure skills)...however, the results on the field haven't necessarily translated. Could it...certainly, but I think the better question is, whether we are comfortable with Jay in the lockeroom and who he is and are okay managing him. If you do that, I think you have a guy that on the right team is a top 5-10 QB. If you don't, than sure, he could spiral out and be a 15-20 QB. How the Bears handled him this past year and what happened with Trestman was just an utter disaster though. I've heard numerous people talk about how you could call every play the Bears would run from the press box, based upon the formation, distance, and downs. That is truly pathetic and that is 1000% on our coaches. I also think the crappy oline played a part but I also think we ruined Jay by not investing in his protection early in his career. By the time we did it, he had already been ruined by years of running for his life (kind of like how the Texans ruined David Carr).

I agree; Lovie had a lot of the right skills as a HC, however, one skill that he seriously lacked was the ability to spot / hire the right guy on the offensive side of the ball. I think part of this might have been situations he essentially put himself in (whether it was short leashes with certain coordinators / situations he was in because he was viewed as a lame duck, etc). Bottom line, he had a long time and whiffed on a lot of OC's. I also think the reason we consistently saw the offensive side of the ball ignored was because Lovie had significant say in terms of who we drafted / signed, basically to the point where he had final say on roster decisions (despite having a GM on board). That might have ultimately been what did Lovie in because with the right investment in an oline, Jay / Martz might have ended up working out.