BearFan PHX

Im thinking some teams are able to read this and others arent. Some watch how you are under pressure, while others are charmed when you meet them for dinner. I think what it really comes down to is whether you look for a player with production, or someone with traits that you think you can coach up. And this goes along with my theory that Pace and Nagy think they are the smartest guys in the room, and their ego allows them to think things are possible because of their input, that just arent possible. The way Nagy turned a multidimensional NFL offense into a paint by the numbers made me think that Nagy doesnt really understand what it is to be, or even really want to be, the head coach. He wants to be the QB and call the plays. He thought he could move Mitch from the sidelines like a puppet, like a video game with Xs and Os. In fact, this league is about players, and thats where Pace and Nagy have missed.

exactly. Mitch does not have what it takes to be an NFL QB. He seems to be a really nice guy, likeable, humble, hard working. He's married now, still in his 20s, and a multimillionaire - all because the NFL is so desperate for QBs, that they'll make a millionaire out of a kid who only started a few games in college and never had production. Good for Mitch! I wish him well in his future life. I also wish I could get $1.5M for failing at my job as poorly as he failed at his. But that isnt his fault, it's Pace's. If I was foolishly chosen to QB the Bears by Pace I'd have been much musch much worse than Trubisky. And that's not my fault either. I am not an athlete. It's the GMs fault for drafting him.

It feels like Nagy is saying "look if Im going to get fired, Im going to go down swinging with a chance to be an offensive team. Im not gonna ride the D one more year and fail to ground it out." which goes along with "geez, I wasnt even part of taking Trubisky, Id like a chance to prove Im an offensive genius please" And that makes sense, and it is "Be You" for days, but I think he is going to want a better QB, and I dunno how we would get that guy and still build the OL. I'll bet we're going to trade up in the draft into the top ten for a QB tho.

they must think there will be a glut of free agent CBs that have to take cheap one year deals. They probably have a list of acceptable candidates, it probably includes Fuller, and they will make a play for the last or second to last one standing at the lowest price.

he sure is.

excellent point - I hadnt even gotten that far yet. The defense is totally going to want to play hard to save his job now. GEEZ.

yes and yes again. I think the threshold was reached a while ago. and yet it continues. so I think we have to look higher up than just Pace for replacement.

these two are already past the threshold of getting fired, so at this point it's just piling on to the already dismal record LOL I hope we pick a rookie QB, and accidentally choose a really good one.

fair enough, but the point remains, Finks built the 85 team, left, and after that for a long time the McCaskey's made the football decisions without a real GM. Vainisis was there for a couiple of years, but given what happened, one wonders if he really had the reigns. But all that aside, for a couple decades, the McCakseys were playing GM with the team, and that is flabbergasting. And now these same clowns have apparently given Pace and Nagy on the way OUT the right to trade three first round draft picks. That is a massive failure on the part of George McCaskey, in line with decades of failures. If you love this team as I do (and Im sure you do) then you know we have spent a literal lifetime watching these jerks kill our chances of being great. They needed to have fired Nagy and Pace already, and giving them the right to mortgage the future to take huge risks to save their own jobs is a horrible conflict.

I like Hicks a lot too. I think with Goldman back, it opens up Hicks and Mack to be more productive. Hopefully this is RRH's replacement.

totally agree. I am not mad at them for not landing Wilson, in fact I might have thought they gave up too much to save their own butts. But Seattle made that easy for them and us by saying no and avoiding the whole issue. I think they will probably draft a QB in one of the first two rounds of the draft, and I hope they make a good choice.

I would love that.

Thanks for that Connor, I dont actually know who it is other than Ted Phillips who is doing it, but wheoever's choice it was to keep Pace and Nagy this year should no longer have those duties. I know about Phillips, but I didnt know that George had replaced Mike. OK just googled. Yes George. I always thought that guy's name was Mike and it was thre same guy. But that guy, the one with the moustache, he should not be making the decisions.

there will definitely be a lot more decent players available for cheaper short term deals this year, so that is good.

Ive said it before, but it bears repeating. After 1985, the architect of that team, Jim Finks, left to become the GM of the New Orleans Saints. For 20 YEARS thereafter, people like McCaskey ran the Bears like a toy WITHOUT A GM. We were the only team in pro sports that didnt have one, and we didnt have one for 20 years. Do you remember all the draft choices we made that turned into busts? You can thank McCaskey for that. It is incredible. I love this team, I really want them to be good. I can't believe how much Mike McCaskey has ruined us for 35 years.

For sure, and if this is your plan, then signing Dalton for only one year at a low starter's money makes sense. I think one way or another, they are drafting a QB int he first two picks, and this is definitely one of the scenarios. Getting that big OT is a huge need too.

Oh I think that is very likely. A one year deal for $10M hardly says "we got our guy" and filling giant holes with mid level veterans befopre the draft has always been Pace's MO, and it is a smart one. The questions come when you figure out who to take, whether to trade up or down etc. If Pace had traded for the 2nd pick and taken Mahomes, and he had performed like he did in KC (I know our OL etc but) then wed all say he was a genius. So it really comes down to how you evaluate these players. And we're having Pace choose a QB again, maybe even in his last year, that we will be stuck with for a while, and that will probably cost a bundle of draft picks to get. I suppose the good news is that no one really knows how any of the QBs will actually turn out, so it may be that whoever is GM, this is a bit of a coin flip anyway, so I guess I hope we get lucky. If Pace does trade a bundle of picks, including perhaps next year's number one, and lands on a great QB for the future, then we will be in great shape going forward with or without Pace. But you dont know, and either we think it's totally luck, in which case, who cares, or we think some skill comes into it, and if so, then if you're McCaskey, you've got to have brought in the NEW GM to make this decision. And that is pretty much McCaskey's main function, and i think he blew it. Will it matter? With all the luck involved? Maybe not as much as i think it will, but I'd prefer to have every edge possible when making this decision. If you blow it, it will be even harder to get the right GM, coach and free agents to want to come here. Still, i admit, there is a ton of luck to this, so we might just be OK no matter what. But yes, we are not done at QB this year, or these guys are much much worse than even i think they are LOL

Of course, what Im saying is the Bears are owned by a lot of people and none of them have the input that he does, and I'm just suggesting that he not make football decisions, to be fired from that. They should get a football person to be the president of at least football operations. If the McCaskeys still want their hand in ticket sales, and other business decisions, that's fine. Someone else should be deciding on GM hires (and fires), how many future picks they should be allowed to trade etc etc someone that would have pulled the plug on this earlier, and made a better choice in the first place. Now I know making that choice is risky and not easy, so I understand when even people like Ernie Accorsi whiff on it, but once the results are in, you've got to be able to pull the plug. For example, we are sitting here wondering whether to do something big to get a QB int he draft, and WHICH QB - a decision that will resonate through this franchise for years, and you're putting it in the hands of the guys who screwed it up last time, and still havent recovered from that fiasco, and who will likely be gone after this year anyway. THAT is McCaskey's fault and it is as bad as any decision he could realistically make.

yes, the time to fire these guys has long passed. And it can't stop at Pace, it has to include McCaskey/Phillips. He's (they're?) the one that put us into this situation by hiring and then not firing these bozos.

yeah I hear you. Of course i wish it didnt happen this way, and of course if Nagy proves me wrong I would love that too.

OK I just watched film on Dalton, and he is awful LOL really weak arm, he has to put his whole body into throws and the ball moves slow anyway. I still think we will draft a QB this year.

oh it sure is, on that we can ALL agree.

could be.

totally agree. we are not done at QB this year yet.

I dunno. What i saw was Leno taking the same guy as coward while someone else came free. And it wasnt always a result of some tricky blitz or anything, he just didn't count the number of people correctly. The center points out the Mike, so you just need to count. And it's not a subjective question, if you and someone else are double teaming a DT, and a DE (or OLB in a 3-4) rushes, and Leno just ignores him, that's gonna be a problem, even pee wee league kids learn this and perform it routinely. The amount of mental mistakes is incredible, and then you look at his win percentage when he does engage, which makes him about average on pass protection, and bad on run blocking. I can see why PFF rates him higher. They look at who he is blocking, whether they get in or not. And they dont, because its a double team, and they score thats a win, instead of realizing Leno should have been blocking a different guy altogether and didnt even TOUCH that guy. It was especially apparent on running downs. The reason our rushing average was so low is that unblocked players were making tackles at the LOS. How many times did we see Montgomery with no holes at all, being tackled by someone who wasnt blocked? A lot of times it was leno blocking the wrong guy. Now to give him the benefit of the doubt, maybe it was the zone scheme, and leno is supposed to help and then get off to get the second guy, and maybe Coward's weakness was so bad that leno had to help too much, but either way, Leno rarely cleaned his guy in a running play, and often it was his guy that got the tackle or made the sack. I believe he is worse than his grading shows, becasue the grading system doesnt take blowing your assignment into account, and he did that a lot more than anyone else Ive ever seen.