Does it really matter who the head coach is the next few years?

At this point I'm not sure we can beat a college team. Realistically, it's time for a change at HC.

Yes, Lovie has been our 3rd winningest coach in history, but we need to do better. A couple playoffs in 10 years and a superbowl loss with the talent on this team is sickening. And it's not just that we lose, it's how we lose. I don't mind losing too much if we play well and lose. But we don't, we are completely out-coached and outplayed in our losses. Gameplans are suspect, playcalling is horrendous, suspect gametime adjustments, clock management/red flags/timeouts are all poorly handled, accountability/Lovie's doghouse are not properly used, continuous random shuffling of personnel positions has ruined several careers, we are not ready for games, and we play poorly. The woefully inadequate handling of the OC position over the years has been downright criminal. The list goes on.

Now I understand some of this has to do with injuries and limited talent supplied by the infamous Angler, but year after year it's the same thing. I will never forget how sick to my stomach I was during the Superbowl game when Urlacher was standing on the field, frustrated, wondering what the heck the coaches were doing. It was plain as day the game was out of control and there was no direction - no leadership. This year's losses were the same. We played well enough and should have beaten the packers, the seahawks and the texans. The 49ers completely outclassed us both in the meeting room and on the field. The vikings loss was mostly due to poor play, but I also blame coaching for not lighting a fire against a lesser, one-dimensional team.

On the good side, we have a good defense. I like how we swarm to the ball and create turnovers. Lovie seems like a good guy. He doesn't play games with the players in the media. But that's not enough.

IMO, Lovie needs to go. I think we can keep Marinelli. Toub can stick. Pretty much the rest of the coaching staff needs to be replaced. Tice - gone. Bates - gone. Drake - gone. Yes, Cutler needs to learn ANOTHER new offense. It's telling when your entire offense depends on one guy. For a few years it was Forte, now it's Marshal. It is just wrong to have to rely on the hope that your rookie receiver will come back from injury to help get the offense going.

As far as the players, we have a lot of FAs. Some of them will go. We need to sign Melton long term, Wootton may be worth a long term also. Peppers and Tillman are getting old and need replacement. Urlacher needs immediate replacement. He may be back for one year, but unless his issues are only an injured knee that might heal over the off-season, he is done. We need another solid interior D-lineman, maybe two. We need two left-side OLs and a center. We need another quality corner. Probably another good receiver. Two decent tight ends. Yes, I'll say it, trade Hester if we can get value (although I doubt other teams see value in him now).

To answer the OP question, yes. It matters who the head coach is the next few years. We need a guy to take this team to the next level. We need a guy who can build a team and can identify problems and address them early. A guy who can pick a good OC. I don't know who that guy is, but Emery better be hunting now.

I'm glad this board was down yesterday. I was too depressed to read this kind of thing. Another late season implosion and whil ewe cant forget the great first half to the season, a name as big and proud as Chicago Bears shouldn't have to put up with continued mediocrity. I'm too down on it all to be anything other than knee'jerk reaction right now but the mentality at the coaching level needs to change and I still feel we are out-coached too often. I want a damn O-line too. Cutler is the best QB we have had in my lifetime and the guy is taking an epic beating every darn year. He's a tough mofo and deserves a hell of a lot of credit that he doesnt get from the media for keeping on getting up from the beatdowns he has dished out to him but he cant carry on forever getting destroyed like he does.

depressing stuff

The better younger talent on this team is on O : JC , BM , MF , AJ . While there's still just enough time for these younger guys to make something playoff worthy out of their careers , fire the defense minded HC and all of his over-rated cronys - and go with a HC who knows O , will bring along with him a competent OC . Of course this won't work w/o a totally revamped O-line but you do what you gotta do . Go to work on it .

The defense first approach has been tried , it didn't work , and the name players on that side of the ball are now too old to rebuild around .

Sticking with this regime will be nothing but a waste of MORE time . That's my .02 ... and this opinion ain't changin .

Yes if you are talking offense // please get someone who can use the players we have and put more than one td per game//why isn't hester's speed used on more posts etc. The dinks are for hb's hester is a wes welker type player//use matt as a receiver he can actually catch the ball school is over jobs are on the line //have two speeds for the game hurry up regular // geez can bates please call the plays//i'm a nobody and i can come up with more than pass to marshal get excited on the side lines have some fun//you guys play like you are in a retirement village

Emery may be a 3-4 guy and if he wants this here, it does matter. Smith will not play a 3-4

There are not enough eye-roll gifs available to express my reaction to the original post. Yes, it does matter.

The Bears are a flawed team, just like every other team. However, this isn't college where it takes 3-4 seasons for coaches to recruit their own talent, play them through rough years and have them contribute as upper classmen. Turnarounds take 1-2 years in the NFL. The Colts were maybe one of the worst teams ever last year. Aside from drafting a great QB, they replaced something like 3/5 of their roster in one offseason. Now they will go to the playoffs. I don't care how old our defense is. There is no reason to think the Bears are doomed and have no chance at making the playoffs the next two years.

I think your using the wrong color paint, we are far from the color black.

I agree we need two or three good O linemen again not top dollar, but good ones and we need to get them in FA not draft them. I don't know if E Williams is our center of the future or not if not we need to draft one. I don't see it costing us a lot of money to find one or two TE in FA that an catch the damn ball. It would be nice to get one more good WR even thou we still have Bennett.

Yes, some of our Defense is getting old and are showing it, but not all of them. But as of today our biggest need is to find a replacement for Urlacher and start drafting to replace some of the other older Defenive players. But the best way to help our Defense over the next couple of years without replacing any more the one or two them, this year, is very simple get what I said in my first paragraph and keep thier old asses off the field.

It won't take a year or two or even three years to over come the Packers, it can be done next year. And we have no need to rebuild anything. We just need to add to what we already have.

As far a Lovie goes, he isn't. There is no reason to replace him or the DC or the ST coach, their not the reason we are in the boat we are. However Tice needs to go and yesterday was too late. He told everyone I can make this O linemen great and I have an explosive offensive to go with them, and neither one has happen.

If you want to paint the the Bears a color it isn't black and it damn sure isn't rosy, but more of a light gray.

Emery isn't going to drop the Offensive needs just to keep the Defense on top. If JA was still here I would be going with a very dark black to paint the Bears.

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Originally Posted by The Benjamin

The Bears are being vastly exposed, and their glaring holes are being made very obvious.

As we know the offensive line (despite playing better recently) is complete crap. We need at least two new linemen on our way to five new blockers. We have one great WR in Marshall, and maybe another good target in Jeffery. Another good WR would be nice. We need a TE because the ones we have might be worse than our problem with the OL. A fullback would be nice a well, though not overly necessary. At least not more than the other woes on the offensive line.

Then we have the defense who is showing their age. They are slowing down, and we need to start bring in guys who can step in when they start going down to injury. The line is looking great, but i think we lack depth (as we do everywhere else). We need a good MLB, and should start looking at some OLBs because Briggs is not getting any younger. Tillman and Jennings are doing good, but who at their replacements? If we lose one of the starters for the season can they be trusted to hold the fort the whole year as opposed to a game? Same with our safeties. They are playing well, but same question about their backups?

How long is it going to take this team to be able to compete with the packers who have no problem dealing with injury? Think it can all be fixed in a year? Two years? Three?

If the Bears miss the playoffs, Lovie likely gets axed, unless Virginia saves him. Who should be the next coach? Should they bring in a great coach to basically just be a place holder and caretaker til we can compete with the best FOR THE WHOLE SEASON? Likely have a few losing seasons the next few years.... keep that in mind. Or bring in an up and commer who wants to get his feet wet?

in the end, will it really matter who coaches the team while trying to rebuild the team?

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Originally Posted by JJ-30

I think your using the wrong color paint, we are far from the color black.

I agree we need two or three good O linemen again not top dollar, but good ones and we need to get them in FA not draft them. I don't know if E Williams is our center of the future or not if not we need to draft one. I don't see it costing us a lot of money to find one or two TE in FA that an catch the damn ball. It would be nice to get one more good WR even thou we still have Bennett.

Yes, some of our Defense is getting old and are showing it, but not all of them. But as of today our biggest need is to find a replacement for Urlacher and start drafting to replace some of the other older Defenive players. But the best way to help our Defense over the next couple of years without replacing any more the one or two them, this year, is very simple get what I said in my first paragraph and keep thier old asses off the field.

It won't take a year or two or even three years to over come the Packers, it can be done next year. And we have no need to rebuild anything. We just need to add to what we already have.

As far a Lovie goes, he isn't. There is no reason to replace him or the DC or the ST coach, their not the reason we are in the boat we are. However Tice needs to go and yesterday was too late. He told everyone I can make this O linemen great and I have an explosive offensive to go with them, and neither one has happen.

If you want to paint the the Bears a color it isn't black and it damn sure isn't rosy, but more of a light gray.

Emery isn't going to drop the Offensive needs just to keep the Defense on top. If JA was still here I would be going with a very dark black to paint the Bears.

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JJ, that's pretty much how I see it too. A lot of this is so very doable in the off season. I want to believe that Emery has the gears to take this team where it needs to go, and to keep it competitive for many years to come. I would like for us to solve the oline problems with a combination of the draft and FA, depending upon what is available in each of these two areas. The beauty of having a solid oline, is that oline players (good ones) usually can play a long long time. So you get a good value for your money. It's a great investment for the Bears to make.

Great post JJ.

Jay Gruden would be an excellent Head Coach.
Ron Rivera as DC and Hue Jackson as OC.

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Originally Posted by JJ-30

I think your using the wrong color paint, we are far from the color black.

I agree we need two or three good O linemen again not top dollar, but good ones and we need to get them in FA not draft them. I don't know if E Williams is our center of the future or not if not we need to draft one. I don't see it costing us a lot of money to find one or two TE in FA that an catch the damn ball. It would be nice to get one more good WR even thou we still have Bennett.

Yes, some of our Defense is getting old and are showing it, but not all of them. But as of today our biggest need is to find a replacement for Urlacher and start drafting to replace some of the other older Defenive players. But the best way to help our Defense over the next couple of years without replacing any more the one or two them, this year, is very simple get what I said in my first paragraph and keep thier old asses off the field.

It won't take a year or two or even three years to over come the Packers, it can be done next year. And we have no need to rebuild anything. We just need to add to what we already have.

As far a Lovie goes, he isn't. There is no reason to replace him or the DC or the ST coach, their not the reason we are in the boat we are. However Tice needs to go and yesterday was too late. He told everyone I can make this O linemen great and I have an explosive offensive to go with them, and neither one has happen.

If you want to paint the the Bears a color it isn't black and it damn sure isn't rosy, but more of a light gray.

Emery isn't going to drop the Offensive needs just to keep the Defense on top. If JA was still here I would be going with a very dark black to paint the Bears.

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JJ this is a given but we also have to pay some attention to who hired him, or promoted would be a better word I guess, and who stuck by him two weeks ago when many of us believed that a change needed to be made. I gotta be honest with you brother. The day he said Tice stays as the play caller is the day I gave up on this season and the results have been just about what I expected.

I'm sorry but Lovie bears the brunt of this teams failures this season and in seasons past and it's inability to adjust to injuries and bad breaks and get back on a winning track after a key loss or two. Since the Bears SB appearance and loss in another big game Lovie has been a .500 coach and this team has the personnel to be better than that. As fans we also deserve better than that too.

Whether it happens or not the handwriting is on the wall. Lovie Smith was hired and given a mission and that mission was to out play the Packers and control the NFCN. He got off to a good start but in the last five years he's failed miserably as far as fulfilling his mission. If this was a military campaign he'd be dead and so would his team. The only way we win this coming Sunday is if the Packers find a way to lose and I don't see that happening. They know how to control their destiny and Lovie does not.

Whether it's this offseason or next makes little difference. The Bears will not become a championship team under Lovie Smith. His defenses are good enough to win early in the season before fatigue and injuries set in but too many of the reserves fail to step up when called on and play the best games of their careers. In certain ways the team is too laid back and willing to accept their fate just as Lovie has become.

This team lacks any "killer instincts" and has no ability any longer to close the deal when the deal needs to be closed. Lovie backed Tice, Tice backed his line and players like Hester and Davis and a few others who have been miserable failures all year long. If it wasn't for Cutler and Marshall we'd have no offense at all. Week after week we hear how they "have to play better" but when have we seen it happen JJ? It hasn't and just like their OC that offense is big on talk and very weak on delivery.

I'd say it's still 50/50 as far as whether or not the powers that be decide to let Lovie finish out his contract or not. If they decide to replace him it won't break my heart and if not I won't be all that upset either. I like Lovie but I do not like the way he handles the team and I'm thoroughly frustrated watching him get out coached by better teams. If he ever had that ability to beat the best he's lost it now.

Tice needs to be let go period and if it was up to me it would be today. He's not been able to coach up a decent line and his handling of the offense has been nothing short of a total disaster. If Lovie does keep his job then Emery needs to declare some mandates and Lovie needs to either accept them or resign as HC.

Promote Bates and let him hire his own offensive staff. Give him free reign over offensive personnel and his own mandate to put an offense on the field that can win games on it's own without the help of the defense. Draft and or sign as FAs the players he needs to complete the picture on that side of the ball and tell Lovie he needs to make due with who he has on the defensive side of the ball. They each have just one year to do this. If it doesn't happen then we start over.

I can take the losses JJ I just can't take the insanity of watching Lovie and his team go about their business the same way every year and watching them fall apart at crunch time. This team has talent but too few players put 100% of theirs on the line every game and that's why we get beat. It's time to weed out the underachievers from the high price tag vets and start playing the young guys and see where that takes us and I do that now too. This season is over and we all know that. It's just that some of us aren't ready to admit it yet.