Thread: 5 Things We Learned

Big Woot has been a pleasant surprise this season. Kinda makes Shea look like a terrible draft pick. But who could have predicted this

Originally Posted by Boochee Man

Big Woot has been a pleasant surprise this season. Kinda makes Shea look like a terrible draft pick. But who could have predicted this

Wootton should be competing for a starting spot next year. Shea needs to hit the weight room hard this off-season.

I was gonna use this as a springboard for my comments as well.

1) Despite the losses of late and his seeming inability to beat the Packers the McCaskey's truly like Lovie as the Bears HC and it's also plainly obvious his players respect him and are willing to play hard for him AND go to bat for him when the chips are down. These are the factors that will create a problem should Phil Emery decide it's time to move on from the Lovie Smith era.

Looking over a list of the potential replacements with any degree of success as NFL coaches I think Phil Emery is gonna see the same thing I do. The cupboard is pretty bare. So any realistic change for the better would most likely mean following the trend set by SF and bringing in the best the college ranks have to offer. If that happens it means either a wholesale turnover in player personnel within a fairly short period of time or a wait of another year or two for that fix to begin working. We may get lucky like SF did by bringing in a guy like Chip Kelley or David Shaw and then again all we may get is a change with roughly the same results. Hiring a college coach with no NFL experience is a huge gamble and I'm not certain Emery is willing to risk it. Remember, Jim Harbaugh was an once a very good NFL QB and his brother is a very successful NFL coach. The same can't be said about guys like Shaw or Kelley.

As bitter as the pill may be for us to swallow as Bears fans, some of us whom have never been huge fans of Lovie's approach to Bears football, he may still be the best choice to coach the Bears in 2013. There was a point in this season when the team was close to pushing itself over the top of that hill it seems to run into each year but then came the Houston game, the injury to Cutler, and with it the beginning of a total offensive collapse. I don't think Cutler has been 100% ever since but he's really one of the least of our problems offensively. For me a bigger problem was how unprepared our $3.5 mil #2 was to take over the offense and if I was Phil Emery I'd be mightily pissed off about that.

If the Bears had anything that even vaguely resembled a half way decent offense at least two and more than likely three of those five losses could have been wins and we'd be 11-3 right now. Even yesterdays game was winnable if the offense had been able to produce more than a singular TD once again. No NFL team can win consistently averaging just 11 points per game on offense. Today Lovie has come out and defended his coaches again and states that he won't make any changes. If there is anything that should be moved to the top of the list when Emery sits down with Lovie and they do a post season evaluation it's Lovie's incredible stubbornness and refusal to make changes when they are so obviously needed. This is just the latest in a very long list of similar poor decisions of his and if anything gets him fired it will be this.

Facts are facts and the facts as we all see them is that Lovie seems to be incapable of hiring an OC who can devise, coach up, and put any kind of a consistently successful offense on the field. Mike Tice is a 4th in a list of failures that began with Terry Shea and it's really questionable who was worse. Frankly I'd say Tice because he has Cutler while Shea had to content himself with Quinn, Hutchinson, and Krenzel (ouch). So.......without question Tice has to go but will Lovie be willing to do that or even be willing to let Emery do it for him and allow Emery to make the decision on who becomes the new OC should Lovie be kept on to coach in 2013.

I don't believe there's a soul alive who doesn't recognize this is what needs to be done but I think many of us question whether or not Lovie will agree to it. I may be wrong but this is what it may come down to as far as Lovie staying on or he and his staff being let go. If he continues to be supportive of Tice after the season has finished then I think he's gonna make it very tough on Phil Emery to allow him to stay. I think Phil Emery knows a lot more about offensive football and offensive talent than Lovie Smith does and I can't see him in anyway being in favor of keeping a guy who totally mishandled an offense that he personally stocked with some top grade talent. And this doesn't even take into consideration Tice's assurances that he could run his offense behind the lineman he chose and protect Cutler better this year. Among all of his other promises that didn't happen either did it?

I'll just state what I have elsewhere. Fix this offense and you go along way towards returning the Bears to respectability so who do you hire to do it? If Lovie stays on without an extension it will be very difficult to find a good OC who will come into that situation so Bates becomes the most logical choice since he's already under contract. But, there is one other possibility I can see that Emery might explore. Should SD let Norv Turner go I think there's a small chance Emery might approach him for the job. Emery is certainly familiar with him from his time in KC and he's already shown some interest in players from the AFC West and I think that will continue.

I'll just finish this part by saying that Turner has the credentials needed to do the job and he has plenty of experience working with a talented but sometimes inconsistent QB/WR duo. He also recognizes the value of a great receiving TE in his offense and if there is anyone who can get the mileage we should be getting out of a RB duo like Forte and Bush he'd be high on my list. It's a long shot I admit but if we go looking outside of the current staff for a replacement for Tice who stands the best chance of turning this offense around very quickly with a minimal amount of turnover in personnel then Norv Turner would probably be a guy to look at.

Time to go. I'm gonna comment on the rest of these five things later on.

Here are 4 excellent points (one is from Soul) that I agree with 100%

2. The offensive line needs a complete overhaul: You can't fix everything in one offseason. But when Jay Cutler has time to throw the football, he is a pretty good NFL quarterback. The Bears need to roll up their sleeves and try to solve this mess up front, regardless of whether or not there is coaching change.

Facts are facts and the facts as we all see them is that Lovie seems to be incapable of hiring an OC who can devise, coach up, and put any kind of a consistently successful offense on the field. Mike Tice is a 4th in a list of failures that began with Terry Shea and it's really questionable who was worse. Frankly I'd say Tice because he has Cutler while Shea had to content himself with Quinn, Hutchinson, and Krenzel (ouch).

Let Hester focus on the return game, where I thought he showed a spark on Sunday on both kickoff return and punt. And if you have to use Hester for a couple of snaps on offense: send him deep. For the life of me, I'll never understand why the Bears just don't let Hester spring a double-move on a defensive back and run down the field. Asking him to break off his route at a certain spot or asking him to read where Cutler is going; it's a recipe for disaster.

The defense didn't fold: There is no reason for the Bears' defense to hang its collective head. If you hold Aaron Rodgers and that explosive Packers' offense to 21 points, then you are doing something right.

To continue.

2) There is a lot of work to be done upfront but I think it has to start with the coaching. For the most part on the whole the line regressed over the course of the year which is somewhat the opposite of last year when we went through that winning streak and gave up just five sacks in five games. Whatever blocking scheme is being run these guys aren't "getting it" and the job isn't getting done.

There is some talent there but not nearly enough. It was a tough break losing Louis who I think we playing at a Pro Bowl level. Webb may have improved slightly but only enough to confirm that he's not the LT of the future by any stretch of the imagination. Garza seems as if he just doesn't have it anymore and his play regressed this year too. LG was a merry go round of one abomination after another and that I lay directly at Tice's size "whatevers" for ever shifting CWill away from that spot to begin with. He was no All Pro LG but he was sure a hell of a lot better than anyone else who tried to fill that spot this year.

My real concern is with Gabe Carimi as well. This is not the kid we drafted. He stunk up the place way too often to be trusted as a starter. The most puzzling thing to me is the way he's been manhandled and pushed around all year. He was a shadow of the player he was in college. I suppose for now we can chalk it up to a slow recovery from that knee injury and simply not having the time to get into "football shape" but I hope I'm not just whistling in the dark when I say that. Another year like this one and he will be the biggest OT bust the Bears have had since Stan Thomas. Even Webb outplayed him.

So what do we do? Well for one thing we get ourselves as good a LT as we can afford. I think it's highly unlikely that Clady will ever leave Denver now that Manning is in town and Jake Long seems both expensive and risky since his play hasn't been all that good lately. Bushrod remains a possibility especially if the Saints continue to have any cap issues but maybe the guy Emery will target will be Branden Albert from KC. You have to figure that he's the guy Emery would be most familiar with. At any rate right now those two seem to be the most likely prospects. With Cutler's mobility and ability to roll out we don't necessarily need an All Pro LT. I'd settle for a Blake Brockermeyer type in a NY minute and I think that's basically what Albert or Bushrod could offer. A decent combination of run and pass blocking.

So where does that leave us. Well it gives us three guys competing for RT and one Swing OT spot. Scott has been serviceable at RT, Webb still has a year to go on his rookie deal and somehow Carimi just has to show more than he did this year of he may end up being odd man out. That's the direction I'd head in as far as our OTs are concerned. We have no time or even an opportunity to draft a LT next spring. The help has to come from FA and at a price we can afford to pay.

It now looks like we'll be in a little better spot to draft a very good lineman but not a LT. I don't know that much about the college crop yet so many prospects names will evade me but some have mentioned a guy like Barrett Strong who can play both OG or OC as a possibility as a mid to late 1st round pick. IMHO someone like that would be a wise choice since both LG and OC should definitely be upgraded. A pick like that in competition with EWill, Garza and Brown may get us an OC/LG combo we can live with. Of course this assumes Lance Louis returns to his pre-injury from with no problems. It also assumes we get an OC with a blocking scheme these guys can actually execute week in and week out!

Other than that Emery and his scouts should scouring both the colleges and pro rosters for other talent who can be brought in to compete. I believe it should be made clear in the offseason that not one position on that line is won before next years training camp. I'd get as many bodies with as much talent as possible signed to that 80 or 90 man roster and get the best combination in place as early in the preseason as possible. No matter how much talent is there they still need to be playing with a good scheme and learning to play it as a unit.

So if I'm Emery AFTER I house clean the offensive staff and hire a new OC and whatever other coaching spots need filling on that side of the ball I start finding the lineman I need to run an offense behind. Until that's done this offense won't improve no matter who's running it. Vince Lombardi couldn't have won with that bunch playing the way they did.

And to continue again.

3) The defense is still very effective when it's healthy and when it doesn't need to spend over 35 minutes per game on the field every Sunday for 16 weeks. The toughest opponent for them isn't Aaron Rodgers or Jim Harbaugh and his 49er's it the Bears own offense. Jeff Dickerson is 100% correct when he points out the Bears offensive deficiencies. I'd have to say that no other team in the NFL is as good at beating the Bears as their own offense is. No other team I've watched has come up with as many and varied ways to shoot themselves in the foot offensively and fuck over great defensive efforts than the Bears have. Lovie shouldn't just fire Tice he should shoot him between the eyes right now and save us another weeks worth of grief.

The main focus as far as the defense is concerned is and should continue to be the gradual replacement of it's aging stars. So far both Angelo and Emery have done a fairly good job of drafting young talent and also sifting through UFAs and the waiver wire to find depth, guys who can handle being rotated at different positions, and new starters to replace the old. If we can keep doing this successfully the Bears should still be able to keep the defense playing well.

Let's look at the bright spots. Two guys who really came on strong on the line this year were Wootton and Melton. Wootton has 7 sacks, numerous pressures and hits and has forced a couple of fumbles. Melton has really upped his game this year as far as his play against the run in addition to getting 6 sacks and consistent pressure up the middle. He was missed last Sunday. Paea has been a little inconsistent at NT. He's made some great plays but because of his size he has trouble with double team blocks. If the Bears were to make one improvement inside it would be to find a bigger NT to rotate with Paea. We've been using Collins and Okoye in the rotation but they're even lighter than Paea. I'm talking about a 315-325lb guy who can move as well as stack when he has to. Toe isn't too bad at that but he's been hurt and inactive most of the year.

LB is where we really need to focus our attention as far as the draft goes. If Urlacher returns it's plain that his best days are fading. Unless the years rest to recoup allows him to get some of his speed and mobility back he simply won't be the player he was. But then half of Urlacher is still better than all of most anyone else we have. Next to an interior OLineman and inside LB has to be high on our list come draft day. Forget signing a FA. That doesn't work in Chicago. Unless we could somehow get Patrick Willis we need to draft our next MLB. Roach tries but falls far short and it weakens the SLB spot when we have to move him. Hayes is a decent WLB but not a good SLB. So draft a kid who can challenge at SLB for now and prepare him to take over at MLB. If Lovie stays Urlacher will be back and if not I have my doubts. So however you look at it the need is there now.

For the first time in many years the defensive backfield looks pretty good. There's talent, decent depth, and except for Peanut there's also youth. I think Peanut is kind of ageless like Woodson anyway. He's such a smart and effective player that IMO he'll find a way to stick around for quite a while longer. He and Jennings should both be selected to the Pro Bowl this year. Moore got toasted by Cobb on Sunday but he's still a decent NB most games and we could do worse than Hayden. Bowman and McManis have been STeams stars and provide some depth if needed. The play at Safety has improved although it's still a little inconsistent at times but it's improving and we have Hardin coming back and Walters playing fairly well in reserve.

The needs here are nowhere near as great as they are on the offensive line and at TE. A couple of smart picks or a FA upgrade or two and we keep on rolling for at least a little while longer. McClellin is also a wild card in this whole thing. With the emergence of Wootton he's no longer needed as a starting LDE and Pep isn't ready to hang it up just yet either so it's up to Marinelli (if Lovie stays) to keep finding ways to use his play making strengths. They have him listed at 260lbs but looking at him I have my doubts he's playing at that weight. If he could add some muscle in the offseason and still keep his weight around a true 260-265lbs I think he could become even more effective. And it's possible they may make a LB out of him yet.

And continue again.

4) Hell yes return Hester to what he does best.....returns. He's a HOF return specialist and a HOShame WR. Every year for six years we've heard stories about how great he is in camp and then the season comes along and pfftttt. Bad routes, bad hands, and also bad returns because he's thinking too much about his role in the offense.

There never was a "Hester Package". I mean after all this time we all knew what that should look like as well as or better than Tice did and we didn't see it. He needs two things and two things only. Patty cake routes like slants or curls where he can sit down between defenders, get the ball with space around him to maneuver and make people miss or the deep ball. Post route, fly, double move up the sideline and that's it......finite. Anything else that requires thought or adjustment on his part doesn't work. No receiver on the Bears has had more passes intended for him picked off than Hester has. That's a stat the Bears never bring up. He's a huge risk to throw to and don't think Cutler doesn't know it.

Basically the problem should be solved next year if we can keep Marshall, Jeffery and Bennett healthy and start using someone like Sanz who can run precise routes and know how to work a zone to get open. It was a total waste to have that kid around this year and not use him. This kid Joe Anderson looked good on STeams and caught some nice passes in the preseason. We may have the next Victor Cruz or Wes Welker sitting inactive or on the PS and not even know it because year after year we try to make Hester a WR. It's lipstick on a pig and just more of the same insanity we've watched forever. No other team in the league would have pursued this course of action unsuccessfully for this long.

I think he has one maybe two more years left as a top return man. Let him focus on that and only that. How long has it been since he's broken a tight game open with a big return. That's another area of non-offensive scoring we've come to depend on to help win games and we're not getting it because we're misusing the best tool we've got to get that job done.