Thread: Bears QB Coach Likely Christensen

Originally Posted by soulman

Effectively Christensen is being demoted so if this is the guy Lovie wants then someone needs to do a selling job on him and make him an offer he can't refuse. They need to start looking into guys who actually want to come to Chicago and then put what it takes together to get one. All this screwing around is getting nowhere.

That's the point and like 09 will have trouble finding candidates due to the fact it could be a one and done deal if the season happens to tank, Emery could clean house and put his own people in place. Phillips mentioned Emery will have Lovie for the 2012 season but unless a deal was struck between them during the hiring process the way I took Phillips speech was after 2012 will be up to Emery. Surely Phillips knew of this possibility when he decided to keep Lovie since he had just seen what happened just 2 years ago when they had to settle on Martz due to no one else really wanting what essentially could have turned out to be a 1 year deal. Dysfunction at it's finest and who really wants to be a part of "Mediocrity by Design." I guess we will see as I think the success of the offense or at least the passing portion of it hinges on this hire.

Originally Posted by GSH Monsters

That's the point and like 09 will have trouble finding candidates due to the fact it could be a one and done deal if the season happens to tank, Emery could clean house and put his own people in place. Phillips mentioned Emery will have Lovie for the 2012 season but unless a deal was struck between them during the hiring process the way I took Phillips speech was after 2012 will be up to Emery. Surely Phillips knew of this possibility when he decided to keep Lovie since he had just seen what happened just 2 years ago when they had to settle on Martz due to no one else really wanting what essentially could have turned out to be a 1 year deal. Dysfunction at it's finest and who really wants to be a part of "Mediocrity by Design." I guess we will see as I think the success of the offense or at least the passing portion of it hinges on this hire.

It be interesting to see how Tice and Christensen, if indeed he's the new guy at QB Coach/Passing Coordinator, work in concert. You're talking two completely different backgrounds and different philosophies. Tice likes to control the line of scrimmage by running the ball, while Christensen is a passing guru. I hope there isn't any friction or a clash of egos involving the two.

Christensen sounds like a very solid choice. It will be a great proving ground for him with much of the work/burden laid w/Tice. The guy could just come in like plain vanilla pudding (Dags words) and he will look leagues better than Martz 7 step no audible BS.

Originally Posted by bearsinhouston

Well, fancy meeting you here 40!

Welcome to the club! I think you'll like it here pretty well. We cuss like sailors and have fruitful debates, sometimes agreeing while other times not, but I don't think you will hardly a time when things get ugly unless you go into The Bar Scene. (OCCASIONALLY, though, there are heated arguments on here that get out of hand, but cooler heads usually prevail.)

Originally Posted by 405134

I always thought the Martz hire was an odd hire. His style just didn't fit in with Lovie's philosophy. He, like Crowton, was trying to run a wild offensive pass first and ask questions second, offense for a GM and HC that wanted to win with defense and "getting off the bus running". I think Tice is a much better fit (if it proves out that he is a good strategist). So, in my mind, the Bears will finally have a staff and system that is all on the same page. Whether it works or not, that remains to be seen but I have a great deal of hope that it might.

I wasn't really watching the Bears at the time Gary Crowton called the offensive plays, but I remember what he was like in college. He was a player and eventually head coach at BYU, had some success there after the legendary La Vell Edwards retired, and also spent time as LSU's offensive coordinator. Anyone with half a brain would realize that coaching at a school like BYU would make someone pass happy, and that was the case with Crowton. He seemed to slow down a bit on his pass first mentality when he was at LSU although he did coach Jamarcus Russell during his time with the Fightin' Tigers. Coach Les Miles runs the ball more than he passes, so it's no wonder why, after Russell moved on to the NFL, Crowton left. He is currently the offensive coordinator for the University of Maryland.

Looking back on this season for the Bears, or really the past two seasons, Mike Martz was at his most successful when Lovie and Tice had a couple of "come to Jesus" meetings with him regarding his handling of the offense. We didn't, in either 2010 or 2011, have the offensive line that it would have taken to properly run "The Greatest Show on Turf" offense, nor did we have the receivers. What we did (and do still) have were both a great quarterback in Jay Cutler and one of the very best running backs in the NFL in Matt Forte. When Martz finally got the clue to utilize Forte's special talents to the offense's advantage, we excelled. We went to The NFC Championship Game in '10 and could have done so again in '11 had that fucking moron Jerry Angelo provided this team with the depth at QB, RB, and WR that it needed.

I'm hoping that Phil Emery will have more common sense and take that same approach to when we go to draft the players we need and signing free agents. This is a make-or-break year for the Bears. I think Emery is smart and will see that he has a golden opportunity to really strike people's fancies with his high-regarded and rigorous attention to detail and total recall of facts and figures about football players.

Originally Posted by short faced bear

Christensen sounds like a very solid choice. It will be a great proving ground for him with much of the work/burden laid w/Tice. The guy could just come in like plain vanilla pudding (Dags words) and he will look leagues better than Martz 7 step no audible BS.

Yes, I agree. The only thing we will have to worry about is whether or not there will be an ego trip between Tice and either Christensen or whoever else we decide to sign to be our QB/Passing Coordinator coach. While Christensen will have control of the passing game, he will ultimately have to answer to Tice. Let's hope there are no squabbles over play calls.