BearFan PHX

I think Emery is doing scouting too. When these candidates come to interview, they talk about offensive philosophy. They say what they would do with the Bears. This way Emery gets lots of really well qualified consultants, for free. He also learns how these people think, and makes relationships. It's a pretty smart thing to do. I don't think he is seriously interested in actually hiring all of these people, but what he's doing is pretty smart if you ask me. And yeah, we can't discount the possibility that someone unexpected blows him away. It's unlikely tho, and even so there's lots of avlue in doing it this way beyond just finding a head coach. Let him gather information. It's good for us!

I dunno who all the qualified coaches out there are, and I'm inclined to get behind whoever Emery hires, but I'll say this. I'd sure like to have Chuckie. I've been saying for a couple years now that Lovie's team reminds me of Dungy's Tampa Bay Teams of the 90s. It'd be interesting to see what Gruden could do with our offensive pieces. We do have some pretty damned good skill position players on Offense. We need someone to put them in the right places. I want Chuckie!

I don't believe Phil Emery would have taken the job unless he had the ability to hire a new coach. Until I see otherwise, I'm assuming Emery has the decision, and to me that means Lovie is gone.

OK Guys, let's give Emery the benefit of the doubt until he proves us wrong. Last year he was basically given the keys to the Bears with one caveat, "you gotta keep Lovie for the 2012 Season" Ok he did that. And in good faith, he gave Lovie the tools he'd need. I think the judgement on Lovie is obvious, we ALL see it. He's not an awful coach, he's probably a top 15 coach, but he's not the man to take us to winning a Super Bowl. Emery HAS to see that. You gotta figure the Emery has a plan for what he wants to do. I think he has a coach in mind, or a kind of coach, and I think that he gave Lovie a real chance to show him what he's got. Let's give Emery a chance to show us what he's got. I think Lovie is gone.

That's right! We "control our own destiny." GO BEARS!

You can only trade him now. Next year he will be a free agent. If we got a 2 for him I'd be THRILLED.

LOL that he wrote this. If so, he has an even more lucrative career heading up a PR firm waiting for him after he's done with football. Hahaha

This is the closest I've EVER seen to optimism from you TT hahaha

When they say we play a Tampa 2 or a Cover 2 they really arent talking about our coverages. THey really mean we are a ONE GAP defense, in other words, get into your gap and upfield. This means all three LBs and a safety have run gaps they are responsible for. In a system where you have big DTs eating space and LBs flowing, thats a TWO GAP defense, meaning the DL holds his position and plays the run on both sides of him (2 gaps). Warren Sapp was a one gapper, undersized and active. That's what they mean when they call us that, not the coverages we use.

Excellent post, I agree with everything you've said. One other point, after watching our QBs take so much abuse, we tend to focus on pass protection. I haven't seen any running lanes either.

We keep hearing how penetration from the DT position is the engine that makes Lovie's One Gap system work. Don't we need a Warren Sapp?

I think the biggest question, and no one is talking about it, is whether we have anything at the DT position.

Forte's deal is significantly below Adrian Foster and Sean McCoy's deal, and pretty much in line with Marshawn Lynch's deal. The Bears ended up with only a 7% increase on salary from their original offer, and a 20% increase on guaranteed money, keeping the 4 year deal they wanted. The deal represents less than he would have gotten had they franchised him all four years. To contrast, Forte was asking for a 33% increase in salary from the Bears' original offer, and a 33% increase in guaranteed money too. Mostly this was due to a 5 year deal instead of a 4 year deal. It seems like they really weren't that far apart, except for the length of the deal. Emery did well. Forte was treated fairly, and we don't need to be on the line for his contract after 4 years. Now to the real issue with this team that no one is talking about - do we have ANYTHING at DT?

True but I think the argument is that they don't have the need at DT that we do, and TH is a 4th DT at this point. Also, he has experience in our system and connections to the locker room. Maybe he's just not good enough, but there are reasons his value to us might be a little higher than to another team, so to simply say other teams passed isn't enough. If you think he just doesn't have it to beat out our other options at #4 DT, meager as they are, then that's a different story.

AH I get it TD. you calculate the odds green bay wins em all (.8 x .8 x .8 x .8) as 41% which leaves 59% that the Bears win at least one. Thanks for that!

Even in games that the Packers were heavy favorites, they did not receive an 80% chance of winning. So, the answers to the entirely hypothetical questions are: 1) The odds of winning each game are 20% or 1 in 5. To calculate the probability of the Bears winning all 4 hypothetical 20% upsets would be .2 x .2 x .2 x .2 = .0016 or 16 hundreths of one percent, also know as 1 in 625. 2) the odds that the bears win one of 4 of those hypothetical 20% upsets is 4 x .2 = .8 or 80%, also known as 4 in 5. Back in the real world, we had better odds than 20% each time, and we did indeed beat the Packers in Chicago on 9/27/10 by a score of 20-17. We lost the other three, and the NFC Championship game to them tho. Damn.

Best post ever.

Cutler, Forte, Marshall, Peppers, Urlachaer (does Marshall count?)

Glad to see that Emery is continuing his predecessor's habit of signing draft picks early. It's reported on the Official Chicago Bears page on facebook: "The Bears have agreed to terms on a 4-year contract with 1st round pick Shea McClellin. Hit 'LIKE' if you're happy that Shea is officially a Bear!"

OK if you put it that way i think we agree. Of course we all want the Bears to do well this year, and if this staff proves to be the magic formula, no one will want to break it up. Also I don't think Emery picked to sabotage Lovie in any way. This pick helps the team today too, again we agree. The only difference we may still have, and I agree it's a slight one, is whether Emery considered in his pick that he wouldn't be painting himself into a corner with this guy. i think that's a valid point and he considered it. That said, a pass rusher works for any scheme, which is sort of saying we're both right. Both that he helps us now, and that it doesn't hurt us if we change schemes next year. We probably agree.

As far as Emery being "all in on Smith" consider that he was hired at a time of crisis in the Bears organization. Removing Martz, promoting OL line coach from within and therefore requiring a Pass Co-ordinator is not normal. Do I hope it works? Sure I do. But you gotta admit that is not a very normal situation in the NFL. The NFL is unstable enough when it comes to security with coaching staffs, and Lovie is on the last year of his deal. Now consider the job of a REAL GM. It's to hire coaches, and get players. Any real GM will want the power to hire his own coach. Remember when this went down? We were all wondering whether Lovie might be fired too? We couldn't even get real OC candidates to interview? The professional coaches int he league saw the instability here. Most of us came to the idea that to get Emery, a professional who has been around for a while and understands this game, he was being told that Lovie had to stay this year and finish his contract, and after that the team would be his. You KNOW Emery has a plan. Whether it's a good one or a bad one, he has one. That's the whole reason he's here. It's his JOB to have a plan. And I think any GM wants to bring in one of his kind of guys at head coach. Now is it possible that Lovie will succeed and force a contract extension with a Championship game appearance or better? Maybe. There's a bunch of talent on this team. We saw how that worked for Jauron too. But you gotta think that Emery is looking to the future and hiring another coach, and from that standpoint, not picking a 1 gap DT type at #1 allows him the flexibility to deal with whatever next year brings. Had he drafted the next Tommie Harris, then I think you could say he's all in on Lovie. Right now, I don't think so.

I said this a few days ago in an earlier post. Emery doesn't have to be trying to get Lovie to fail with a bad pick, but taking someone versatile IS prudent given the unknown nature of Lovie, especially if Emery expects to go get his own coach next year. In other words he doesn't need to make him fail, just to be thinking about his next move. Im SURE Emery was told "you need to keep Lovie this season, after that do what you want"

It's astonishing to me how negative so many posters are being about McClellin. Here's a guy that Mel Kiper had rated 26th best player in the draft overall, and we took him at 19. He's a player most professionals had going in the first round to the Patriots or the Packers - both teams with excellent track records on drafting talent. Personally, the more I read about him, the better I like the pick. So yeah, there's no sure things in the draft, and a wait-and-see attitude is understandable, but the rampant negativity really just looks sophomoric and self important from where I'm standing. Stop making drama, GO BEARS! Sheesh how hard is that to understand?

AMAZING that the FIRST thing you;d think of is race. and this too "The fact of the matter is, when comparing against other players, ethnicity is the first thing people take note of, and whether they like it or not it immediately brings to mind other players of similar background. That is just how the brain works with association and that's all I've been trying to say." That's how YOUR brain works. YOU are a racist. And that makes you an ignorant fool. Now back to the draft please.

Two things. 1) Im not saying Emery did this to help Lovie out the door, just to not paint himself into a corner should that occur. 2) Bears4Ever: the race thing is so dumb it makes you look like a total idiot. You wanna tell me someone came from the projects so they're tough? Fine. But if all you've got is skin tone, then you must be a complete idiot.