Bears4Ever_34

It was very brief. I believe Cutler was only there with him for a couple of weeks/months before he got traded.

Will Muschamp's offense sucks. If you're going after college coaches, the top 3 should be both of the Kelly's and Bill Obrien. 3 guys that know offense.

That's really the only negative about either guy, but I still think you would be doing yourself a disservice if you didn't go out and interview either one. They are one of the top two coaches in college football, and Kelly took over for a program that was desperate just to get noticed again, and not only did he accomplish that, he's taken them to the BCS National Championship game. I like the way he commands himself with the media and his players. You want to talk about a man that exudes confidence, look at him. If you are looking to get better offensively, why wouldn't you want to interview Chip? I understand the obvious concerns over him, but as I've been saying, it can't hurt to sit down and have a talk with a guy. I don't think so. Kyle has been calling the offensive plays in Washington since he got there, and has 9 years of coaching experience in Tampa and Houston before he started coaching with his dad. Obviously Cutler has familiarity with a Shannahan system, and the way they run the ball is extremely intriguing. Keep in mind, Thomas came from an offense that also didn't teach the route tree at Georgia Tech. He came from a running team in college, and then essentially fell right into a Tim Tebow designed offense that almost never threw the ball. I can't even imagine the jump in going from that offense to an offense lead by Peyton Manning. Then, like I said, having had the experience to work with Peyton Manning will only help McCoy as a coach. It's like going to graduate school. Arians and Clements are both older candidates. I have a hard time envisioning either one having the kind of energy that Phil is asking for his HC to have. I also don't really like the fact that Clements has never called a single play in GB. His only opportunity to do that came in Buffalo where he was fired within a year. There's not a lot to go off of.

Unless the new head coach has a preference for the Cover 2, you're probably going to see a change in scheme. That's what happens when you make a change at head coach. You can't worry about what happened in the past because it's about moving forward and molding together your own team with your own vision. The stars on your defense are all old and dated. It would be the wrong decision, in my opinion, to stick with the same system. Those old guys aren't going to be around for much longer, and then what do you have? They're better off making the change now, and going through a 1-2 year transition period, if that, to whatever defense they want to run.

McCoy Shannahan Gruden Greg Roman Brian Kelly Chip Kelly Bill Obrien McCoy and Shannahan would be my top 2 guys you have to interview. I'm all about having an offensive minded HC that is an innovator. I also want somebody that have had success at making his quarterback's better. McCoy had a hand in making Jake Delhomme and Kyle Orton look like pro bowlers for a couple years, and even changed his offense in the middle of the season for Tim Tebow. Some people are going to hold it against him that he's working with Peyton Manning, who's really the coordinator of the offense, but my counter argument to that would be that McCoy will be better for it, having had that experience of working with one of the best of all time. It is only going to help him. What Kyle Shannahan is doing in Washington is pretty remarkable. Lot of people are going to knock him for having a uniquely talented quarterback to run his offense, but I would ask you this-- How many coordinators would have the smarts and the creativity to take a lot of the plays the man ran in college and integrate them into his own playbook? There's only about 4 other guys that have shown this ability. Greg Roman, Darrell Bevel, Rob Chudzinski, and Mike McCoy. Some of the other guys I think are must interviews, which include Brian Kelly, Chip Kelly, and Bill Obrien. I've said that I think you'd have to completely change the roster to fit Chip Kelly's scheme, but you would certainly be doing yourself a disservice if you didn't allow him to interview and learn some things about him.

I wonder if Emery is going to look at Rick Dennison-- Cutler's old OC from his Denver days when he put up those huge numbers with Marshall. He is currently now the coordinator for the Houston Texans.

Pete Carmichael is interviewing with Emery right now.

Dis guy's got da fire and da passion.

It's not going to be a re-build until they cut ties with Cutler, which doesn't seem like it's going to happen at least for another year. Maybe down the road, but I didn't get that sense listening to Emery's press conference. He basically said they will try and build upon what they already have to get better as a club. Re-tooling would be the word I would use.

Ogletree, the ILB from Georgia would be great if they took an OL in the 2nd round.

He said they didn't have the personnel right now to run a traditional 3-4 with a nose tackle in a 2 gap scheme. The question at hand is whether or not they would have the personnel to run the one gap scheme that doesn't call for big ends or a nose tackle, which would seem to fit us better between the two styles.

My final thoughts on Lovie: He's a good but not great head coach. Very good teacher, poor talent evaluator. He should be commended for garnering the player's respect and always seeming to have control in the locker room. He does all the things the right way. The main issue with Lovie is the obvious. He never had a clue about offense. Too many failed coordinator hirings, not enough productive. That ultimately is what got him fired, along with missing the playoffs 5 out of 6 years. Do I think he will get another gig elsewhere right away? Yes I do. But at the end of the day Emery made the decision that he wasn't the right fit for the type of team he envisions having; meaning a team that can consistently contend year in and year out, while finding the right balance between offense/defense. The Bears can't be in the bottom half of the league in offense anymore if you want to win a Superbowl. Hopefully this new guy will be able to do that. I wish Lovie the best, and appreciate the memories of the Superbowl win from 06 that I believe we would have won if Tommie Harris and Mike Brown had been healthy.

Supposedly the Armstrong interview is happening tonight. I personally didn't see this guy as a legit candidate when his name came out yesterday. This would make the 2nd special teams coordinator that Emery is going to interview. I think he would be a tough sell in Chicago, especially being someone with no NFL offensive background in coaching. I don't think anybody had heard of this man until yesterday, unless you were that familiar with the days going back to Dave Wannstedt when he worked in Chicago. If he winds up being the head coach, I trust Emery to make the right decision until he proves all of us wrong, though I would really not be overly enthused about it. Norv Turner as OC? Meh.. He runs too much of the same stuff Mike Martz does. I wouldn't be that excited about him either. I just want some guy that can come in here as a Head Coach, with an offensive mind, who is innovative. The two guys at the top of my list are still McCoy and Shannahan. Clements was one of the guys I had on my radar too. He's 59 though. He's been praised for his development of Rodgers and Flynn. Some will say it's more McCarthy, but Clements definitely played a vital role in quarterback play. If you hire him he’d have an very good understanding of the Packers and how to beat them, based on what he's seen in practice. Knowing their audibles, so on and so forth.. I don't know Tom Clements, but he wouldn't strike me as an "Energy" guy that Emery has been talking about.

My only problem with Emery's answer on switching to a 3-4 is that in talking about the 2 gap scheme he ran in KC, he also brought up other one gap schemes that he says 'teams call it a 3-4'. Well.. My question is, why couldn't we run a one gap 3-4 then if it meant not having to draft a nose tackle? The difference between one gap and two gap is the former relies more on speed and quickness, which we seem to already have, rather than size and girth required to play in a 2 gap scheme.

Why would you draft an offensive lineman you feel that isn't any better than the ones you currently have now? You don't just draft a position because it's one of your needs. If the right guy isn't there, you don't waste a pick on someone you aren't sold on. That would be the absolute wrong move to make. Last thing, before I end this pointless argument, because it's clear one of us is having trouble understanding the message here. Emery sounds like a man that knows what he's doing. He will ultimately be judged by how well he is able to draft, and whether it translates into winning a lot of football games over the next couple of years. If you disagree with his methodology behind the decisions he makes, that's up to you. I was strongly encouraged by what was said this morning, and I would hope most Bear's fans would be too, based on the wealth of information that he so eloquently laid out there. I have no reason to believe there won't be some pretty significant moves made this offseason to improve all the areas that we seem to be lacking in. If we know one thing after today, we should know that it wasn't for a lack of trying.

It did sound a lot like Jon Gruden. Though I think one could also say it sounded like any young, hungry HC that's out there with an opportunity to interview. I was particularly interested in his comments about the Shannahan's, and while he didn't really get into Kyle specifically, he did mention his name in reference to his dad Mike, who used to call his own plays, and then his next sentence was something like "There still might be some younger guys out there that are coaching in the playoffs that we might want to talk to."

Yeah, Emery mentioned both STATS inc. and PFF as websites he uses often to give him an unbiased view about a player's performance. He said that he met with some of the programmers there that are responsible for putting all this information together. They explained and showed him how they go about viewing tape and how everything is graded out, so he knows exactly what's being evaluated.

I bet Lovie would have been highly interested in Arizona because of that defense with Patrick Peterson and the MLB. Reid makes some sense I guess. He knows Kevin Kolb. I suppose he could reinvigorate that offense to get Larry Fitzgerald the ball more.

I went back and watched the bit on the offensive line discussion again. It seems as though you either didn't listen to the press conference, or you are simply interpreting his message in the wrong way. - Said he needed to take emotion out of it, and remove himself a bit because he's a fan too. - Needed an unbiased eye, which is why he went to Pro Football Focus and STATS INC - Said sometimes the toughest thing to do is to evaluate your own team, because of the emotions involved. - He asked himself, "How can I look at this in an objective way," but still specifically mentioned that they paid attention to their own scouting and coaches grades. - STATS INC reports facts and statistics in a very moneyball way - Mentioned the Bears ranked 26th in pass protection, but wanted to see how that impacted winning, where he then took a look at total disruption % based on every pass attempted. Then asked himself if those numbers meant they had to get better as an OL and is it the sole reason for impacting winning? - Said the 49'ers ranked 25th with a difference of like .10 %, so he can't absolutely say that it's ALL on the offensive line that determined our success or not. - He then looked at different areas; at % of drops. Bears were 22nd. Below the Bears were 6 playoff teams. - Then said the OL has to get better because they can't be in the 20's to be a championship contending team on a consistent basis. - Says sacks and drops are a factor but not the ULTIMATE determining factor. He thinks it comes down to # of playmakers you have compared to the team you are playing. -Then goes and takes us back to the process; evaluated team needs, #1 need was to build around Jay. He needed weapons. Also a complimentary pass rusher, and to get better on the offensive line. Then it becomes a matter of seeing whether those resources are there in the draft and UFA market. - Got his weapon in Brandon Marshall - Looked at the UFA market for offensive tackles.. asked himself "How do I look at that objectively?" - Said they did go after a couple FA OT's, but the 3 best didn't play ball this year. 2 were medical, the other retired (Didn't mention who they were). He was pleased with Scott's performance, giving up zero sacks in 6 starts. Scott was ranked 2nd best on their list of available tackles. Locklear from New York was #1. - Looked at guys that played atleast 33% of team's reps in UFA market that didn't sign back with original team. - Said it's very difficult for a team to give up Offensive Lineman if they have one, and last year there wasn't any Franchise LT's that existed. - In the 2nd round they thought they needed a 2nd receiver that could compliment Marshall, but still looked at some guys who's names I can't spell (Kaleechy, Asomele?) and Mike Adams. They weren't going to give up half their team for Khalil. The only other RT that was taken ahead of them was Schwartz, who went to CLE at 37. He said two tackles were their greatest need on the offensive line. - Asked himself if there was going to be any of the other available tackles that was going to be better than any of the young ones he had already (Webb Carimi). He tried to take the bias out of it and saw there were no LT's available that graded out better than Webb. Only one RT came out better than Gabe, but wasn't by that significant of margin so they decided to go after the play maker in Alshon. I'm not sure how one could be so upset from these comments. He clearly laid out the reasons for why he did what he did, and why the notions of him not looking to fix the offensive line last year were untrue. He did not proclaim Jamarcus Webb or Gabe Carimi as the next great tackle tandem in NFL history. Hell, he went on for 10 minutes talking about how he was basically trying to find their replacements. You can pretend to believe what you want. That's not what was said. They looked at all options that were available to them in free agency and the draft and determined that most of it was crap. There's a better tackle market this year in free agency, and another opportunity in this year's draft. Not everything can be done overnight, which was exactly his point, in case you couldn't figure that out by now.

Only reason for why I wouldn't include Chip Kelly is because I think there would have to be such a drastic overhaul of the roster to fit with the up-tempo scheme he likely would be implementing. The Bears don't have enough fast guys on either side of the ball to make it work right away. Based on what Emery talked about this morning, he didn't sound like a guy that wanted to go through a major rebuilding process. I do like Kelly though, and think he would be a nice addition to a team like the Eagles.

Out of all the in-house candidates that could warrant being a head coach it would be Dave Toub. However, I'm one of those who would prefer we sort of detach ourselves from anybody associated with Lovie.

My personal list is pretty wide open. But the main guys that I'd be most excited about would have to be McCoy, Shannahan, and Jon Gruden. Though I would think about guys like Brian Kelly and Bill Obrien as possible college coaches too, along with many others; Greg Roman for one.

Riiight. Perception is reality for a lot of people. That's why most people aren't General Managers of NFL franchises. Not everything can be measured with an eye test. Especially when it's coming from an eye of an someone that knows nothing about scouting or how to critique it correctly. Again, what Phil said is that he values everything on how it relates towards winning. The offensive line has to get better, but it is not the only reason for the offenses ineptitude. If it was all about pass protection, then there wouldn't be 3 teams rated worse than the Bears that are in the playoffs right now. As for Jamarcus Webb and Carimi. I don't have the luxury of going to Pro football focus or STATS INC that can paint you a bigger picture on how a player is performing, but I do know that Webb only committed 6 penalties this year compared to 13 last year, and only allowed 9 sacks from 14 the year before. Gabe, I don't really have much good that I can say about him, based on the statistics available for free or what I saw on the field. I will differ to the real football aficionados on that one, of which I am not, and neither are you, no matter how great you think your eye is.

He clearly wants somebody that exudes not only confidence, but someone that brings energy and passion to the franchise. I also think he took a little dig at Lovie about getting a coach that represents himself well in the media. I'm excited about the future of the Bears after watching that press conference today. Emery has my full confidence right now, that he can get the job done. The guy obviously knows what he wants and how to go about doing it. Watching him read off statistics on specific players, whether it be in last year's draft, guys on our own team, or guys around the league, he was about as good as you could have possibly imagined. People should be excited that we have a real GM with a plan.

I don't think he said he was relying on one stat to determine the success of a player. What he said was that sometimes it's hard to have an unbiased opinion on a guy that plays for the team you are managing, and having worked with some of the people down at STATS INC and Pro Football Focus, he was able to gather how some of those programmers view tape, and how they go about rating players based on facts and statistics. He trusts their statistics. That doesn't mean he doesn't evaluate the player himself. He specifically mentioned the offensive line needs to get better, but at the same time pointing out that it's important to make sure you weigh these stats with how it impacts winning. The 49'ers are one of the best teams in football, yet they rank worse than the Bears did in terms of pass protection. He was using that as an example to cite that he doesn't feel like it's ALL about how an offensive line performs in that area that determines the outcome of football games. I trust Phil Emery's opinion on Jamarcus Webb and Gabe Carimi a whole lot more than any of us. I happen to think Webb had a better year than most people want to give him credit for. I think he's an easy target and is seen as the scapegoat for the offenses inability to put up points. Emery also mentioned that drops and not utilizing Forte's ability to catch the ball played a huge part in that as well; pretty much took a shot at Mike Tice, and seemed angry just talking about it.