Thread: ESPN Chicago's list of 16 candidates for the Bears HC position

Hi guys, I'm back! After a short sabbatical from this site due to feeling non-clinical depression as a result of the Bears poor play on offense, I decided that it was high time I come back and contribute some posts. We can start talking the draft here soon, but first thing's first - the merciful firing of Lovie Smith.

This had to happen. If the Bears had lucked up and made the playoffs due to the Packers winning yesterday against Minnesota rather than the other way around, I think we would be in for some hard times next year. Lovie honestly believed that Mike Tice was doing a good job -- this was so obvious because he refused to make any changes in the offensive coaching pecking order when it became clear that against most any good defenses, we struggled to put up two touchdowns a game. This has been a pattern of Lovie Smith-coached teams for the past nine seasons. In 2005, the offense only averaged scoring 16 points a game, but won the division because the defense only gave up 12 points per game; much of the scoring was either set up or actually done by the defense or special teams. In 2006, the team scored about 26 points per game, but that was largely attributed to the number of turnovers returned for touchdowns and, of course, Hester's kick returns. When the defense wasn't dominant, the Bears sucked. In 2010, the defense did what it had to do enough to guide a porous Bears offense that scored about 20 points per game to a division title and the NFC Championship Game. However, even this year with the excellence of the defense, the offense was as bad as it had ever been under Lovie Smith. You can credit Mike Tice for costing Lovie his job.

Now, we have to talk about who will replace Lovie. Personally, if I were Phil Emery, I'd put my pride aside and hire Bill Cowher. If I were George McCaskey, I would hire Bill Cowher as both the head coach and as Vice President of Player Personnel or whatever it is that you call it. That way, Cowher can have nearly equal say in what player personnel decisions are made. I trust that Bill Cowher knows a thing or two about building great teams. He turned Pittsburgh into a perennial contender in the AFC during his career as well as coaching them to two Super Bowls, winning one of them. His offensive philosophy is the same as the man whom he replaced in Pittsburgh in 1992, Chuck Noll -- run to set up the pass. That has always been the style of offense Chicago football teams have thrived with since the days of George Halas and the Single Wing offense, followed by the T-Formation and later the more traditional Pro Set/Split Backs backfield. Too often during Lovie Smith's tenure did the Bears not consistently run the ball with authority. This year was no different. To succeed in Chicago, the team needs to run its offense more like Ed Hughes did in 1985 and have the team rush for 160-180 yards per game while the passing game puts up nearly 220-230 passing yards. Jay Cutler doesn't need to pass for more than 4,000 yards for this team to become an offensive juggernaut. If we can run a ball-control offense based on off tackle and between-the-tackle runs that set up playaction passes, we'll be good to go.

Defensively, this league has gone crazy over the 3-4, and while the Bears have traditionally always run some variant of the 4-3, whether it be the 46, Man Coverage, or Cover 2, it may be time to take a page out of the Green Bay Packers book and start running the 3-4. Bill Cowher always had one of the very best defensive units in the NFL, particularly when he had Dick LeBeau running what is known as the Zone Blitz scheme. If we can get a defense that's like that, our sack totals will increase and we will be stuffing the run with as much or more authority than we did under Lovie Smith's Cover 2 4-3 system. This would most likely mean that the Bears would have to go into a mode of rebuilding, getting rid of many of the players who have played so well for us over the years on defense, but we all knew that this mode of rebuilding would be happening sooner than later, especially as these studs we have like Urlacher, Briggs, Tillman, and Peppers age out of the league. It may take a few years, but getting someone like Cowher to rebuild this team in concert with Phil Emery would be the smartest thing for this franchise to do.

Originally Posted by gopherguy22

Tony Dungy would be my first choice.

Dungy is already committed to working for the NFL on discipline matters.

No college coaches period. We need an guy with experience designing and running an NFL offense with a proven track record and McCoy and Arians are at the top of that list. I hope whoever Emery chooses that he'll keep Toub around in some capacity.