DABEARSDABOMB

I wouldn't want him as a GM, but involving him in the front office is a brilliant idea and would be a great move.

He'd be more than solid. He'd be phenomenal. I think Rex can be a good HC, he just needs to get a Gary Kubiak or someone of that ilk as his OC to come with him. Bottom line he needs to be able to hire the right guy who he can trust and have a front office who will help ensure that coordinator / assistant HC gets paid.

Runner up a half dozen or so times. I don't know how much it was more on him not having time to prepare for his interviews or what. He's extremely bright and has a great background. The laziness rumors that were out there (Hub was original source I believe), pertained to his preparation for interviews and how focused he was on the next job (not on how he handles his current position). Basically, he's so focused on what he does day to day, that he doesn't spend near the time preparing himself for other opportunities, which I can understand (I worked in a profession for a long time that took 80+ hours a week of work, etc, and when clients needed something you jumped...it was always hard to make time to look at other opportunities because the second you focused a bit on yourself, your performance in your current role could take a hit, etc). Note: Hub Arkush was on the radio last week and commented that the Ross reports were misinterpreted to mean he was lazy on the job, instead of him not necessarily being very proactive in terms of the interview preparation / interview process. Evidently he is very comfortable in New York.

I thought he did a good job in Buffalo but I don't like the way he ultimately exited and don't think he's anyone that you run and jump at. I think there are better candidates out there. Let him go to the Jets.

I think we will interview Ryan before making a decision, but agree with you, that it won't be until we have a GM. We are focusing on the guys who you kind of have to line up to first.

If we don't meet with these guys now, than we pretty much have no shot with them. If we meet with them now and they make it to the superbowl, we can than meet with them again during the bye week (with our hired GM there). If not, you have to wait until after the superbowl. It really makes total sense.

The real question is, how much does it happen with other teams too. And I agree with you that he is in that next tier and you can win with him if you have a good team around him. I also think it is absurd to take a QB who is more turnover prone and ask him to drop back 50 times a game while rarely handing the football off. That was just absurd and put the QB in even worse position.

I think it turns out on the field. He just isn't a born leader and the combination of him and a head coach who wasn't, along with some difficult personalities, made for a horrific combination.

The question I have is who are these miscommunications on? Are they all because of inept coaching? Or are they also because of a QB who can't get on the same page with his players, etc. I think we were very undisciplined and a lot of that fell on Trestman but you can't ignore your leader. Poor coaching or not, I don't see near the miscommunications from a lot of the other QB's in the league. Yes, they have had more experience with systems, etc, but after so many years of seeing it, I wonder how much of this is on Jay. That is a rhetorical question as none of us know that answer. We aren't observing the practices and ultimately we don't know what the play call was and what the read was, either. We just don't have that sort of information. I was a Jay apologist for years and I still think all of the points were valid during that time. However, with as large of a sample size that is out there, I think if he had more "upstairs", we wouldn't see these issues. As Dilfer has said, some of the mistakes Jay makes, a high school QB would have been able to figure out.

Gamble and Ballard (along with DeCosta) are widely viewed as the three top GM candidates in the league. Getting any of the three would be the right move on paper. How it works out, who the hell knows. I really like Ballard's combination of scouting and coaching experience but also like Gamble's background as well. I would be curious what the issues were in Philly and I am sure he will be prepared to discuss that in any interview. However, if our consultant ultimately doesn't recommend him / add him to the list, I would obviously ask if I were the Bears brass and see why he isn't on there so that I understood and may meet with him and have Ernie meet with him, but the move I am making, while I have to be comfortable with it (if I'm in McCaskey's chair), I also want to make darn sure my adviser is also on board.

Clearly my top choice as well, unfortunately, he isn't going to leave his gig for another place. I respect him for it and understand it. He's in a known situation, paid well, and will get to grab the reigns of a franchise where he is comfortable with all of the people (and he has a timeline or is pretty aware of the timeline). To leave that for unfamiliar pastures when you have all of that isn't necessarily a wise choice.

I will continue to say that experience under JA is not a bad thing. JA had a good 5 year run here and than struggled once Lovie got more control (but still made some aggressive moves and helped build a team that made it to the superbowl). Oh and he was given a lot of credit for the Tampa Bay team that was a perennial juggernaut too. Angelo's overall career was extremely successful and to be able to learn from him is not the bad thing that many make it out to be. I'll continue to get ripped for saying it but that is fine.

Harbaugh's success is the reason I'm intrigued with Toub. Not that they are the same people but ST coaches have to deal with the most players on the roster in general and while Toub may not be a specialist in all areas, as long as he has the right philosphy and knows how to appropriate manage people and his staff and obtain the right level of respect and ensure that top notch talent wants to work with him, than he's the right guy. Those are the skills necessary to succeed as a head coach. Being a guru on one side of the ball is nice, but those other skills are far more key, imo.

I wouldn't take Hundley @ 7, but if he was there in 2nd, I'd take him all day long. Hundley's make-up is off the charts. Biggest issue is can he develop. Really didn't see a lot of him this year (in terms of steps forward). However, if you look at his tools he's a better QB than Mariotta in my opinion. Bottom line, only QB worthy of a top 10 pick in this draft is Jamison and that is a major question mark due to his overall make-up.

I am 100% okay with that.

Hundley is extremely intelligent and very talented. Has most of the IQ, but if we take him, we need a legit QB guru to help him with his footwork, etc. None of that Trestman bullshit. I think the Seahawks OC would be a solid fit for Hundley.

I certainly wouldn't take Petty with a high pick. I am completely against taking almost any spread QB very early because I think you are in for a world of hurt getting them developed, etc, unless they are extremely intelligent. I think the biggest thing I look for in a QB is their football IQ and leadership. Obviously they have to have enough arm, but I think it is those other tools that ultimately indicate whether you will succeed at the next level or not.

I like him and I also like their head coach. I think Art Briles would be a great out of the box hire.

It is really simple. Emery interviewed everyone but he also had Marinelli take part in the process. He never delegated the decision to Marinelli, just had other people involved. Haven't you guys ever interviewed at a company where you are interviewed by your future boss (along with other cohorts, etc, sometimes introduced briefly to staff, etc). Happens all the time. Some of you are implying that the Bears gave Marinelli full control. That isn't the case. They just involved him in the process and let him meet potential candidates and asked for his opinion. His opinion isn't what mattered and that was clear at the end of the day. Of course we'd have been better off had it mattered.

I don't think he was in charge of the process, however, they clearly valued his opinion and its too bad no one listened to him. Marinelli has been around the league a long time and is one of the most respected, non head coaches in the business.

Ok...it took the Bears management 10 years to figure out Angelo was bad? Angelo, the same guy who built a franchise that looked to be loaded for a multiple super bowl run (and it might have darn well happened had Harris not been injured). Yes, Angelo struggled his last few years and he failed miserably at reacting quicker to our oline but early on in his tenure he did an exceptional job. Was he responsible for everyone the Bears had on that Super Bowl run, no, but he made a heck of a lot of good moves.

I agree and I would hope if that was whom everyone thought was the right guy and it took making a president, they would do exactly that. To be frank, they already said if they needed to change that structure for the right person, they would be open to it.

Your right, he had done both, but he had a heck of a lot of successes. His big misses were Mark Bradley and Cedric Benson. You list a lot of other guys but not knowing the details, you don't know what Ballard's view was on those guys. You also are going to have misses and Ballard in general had a pretty good track record and has major support. Outside of DeCosta, who is likely not leaving Baltimore, Ballard is arguably the next top candidate in the league.

The general league wide consensus on Ballard is he is probably the top realistic GM candidate. Haven't heard a national pundit who doesn't rave about him. Now we'll leave everything up to Ernie but I don't care if he worked for the bears or not (and I also am not going to handcuff a guy just because he worked for the Bears). The top candidates is the Ravens asst gm, however, he turned us down a couple years ago and I presume he'd do the same now. PS: Ballard wasn't involved in the Bears drafts, he was more a pro scout with the Bears IIRC.

Ballard or DeCosta please.