Steve Smith

[madlithuanian]

Well said...

 

Yes, it is hard to evaluate all these things as fans and we will never know what factors are most influential to the success or failure of our team.

 

Now some of the players you mentioned had to play out of a necessity and luckily they were able to contribute as rookies. The former coaches put a lot of unproven young players in positions to fail and often was detrimental to the team. Examples like believing Hester was a number one receiver or having an athletic but unpolished Webb, a 7th round rookie starting at RT / LT for 2 seasons until Trestman cut him. Actually, Urlacher was initially brought in to play outside LB after being a safety/LB rover hybrid player in college known as the LOBO. Url did pretty bad his first year at OLB, but they got it right and he was able to transition by his second and third years as a good to great MLB. Hopefully, we will say similar things about Bostic, Greene and SMC. Conte showed some nice skill his first year but his confidence was crushed last year as the DL was ineffective he could not handle the pressure. CC still may be salvageable with an improved DL and good coaching.

 

I am not sure Tucker should have returned either especially if many think it is often easier for rookie lineman and defense players to contribute earlier than a WR for example. Excuses aside the defense was absolutely hammered with injuries last year. With that said if the "D" does not improve this year especially with the new position coached Tucker will be gone.

 

Lovie was a very good coach for the Bears however it was time for a change. Lovie and JA's downfall was that they appeared to be unwilling to adapt to the changes in the NFL and were all in with their systems. After the SB loss and without good depth on either side of the ball their window eventually closed with this team. As far as Emery, I actually like almost all of his free agent signings including DJ Williams, Anderson, Ratliff, Slauson, Bushrod and the trading for B-Marshall. These guys are all capable starters when healthy. If anything, Emery has proven to be good at brining in solid free agents and has success early in his tenure at drafting offensive players and thus far we know his defensive draft picks have not provided much return yet. Although it still is too early to provide a final grade in Bostic, SMC, Greene, Washington etc. I think most liked that he was addressing the LB position last year in the draft. Trestman has also had some up and downs in his first year with regards to game management but I expect that to improve.