AZ54

For KC defenses are trying to limit big plays. Average separation for KC receivers at time of completion is first in the league at 3.8 yards.

Who was Ed Sprinkle? He was the man who brought smash mouth defense to Bears football (literally).

I thought we wanted Mitch to read defenses? I for one prefer to have him hit his plant foot and do one of two things: Throw or know he needs to move on to his second read. I'd also like him to have enough time in the pocket to do that.

Jason taught me well.

Very good point. Pace definitely can and will move on regardless of money if he thinks it's the right thing to do. One difference for Leno is that he's not a bad locker room guy.

Glad to see Jimbo earn the invite. I'll admit I gotta find some highlights of Sprinkle.

A bit of research about DeFilippo's stint as an OC... it didn't go so well even with his star pupil. DeFillipo may yet end up a good OC but he might not have been ready for the role. Leading an entire offensive unit with all the various position groups, and their coaches, is a lot different from being a QB coach. Most coaching careers go this route. I'm happy to have him in this role because he knows the system which means he's able to coach Trubisky from day one whereas Ragone had to go through offensive boot camp with Nagy. https://www.forbes.com/sites/debbitaylor/2020/01/13/jaguars-part-ways-with-offensive-coordinator-john-defilippo/#5b73a2245c79 DeFilippo joined the Jaguars last January before coveted free agent quarterback Nick Foles was signed by the team last March. Before coming to Jacksonville, DeFilippo was the Minnesota Vikings offensive coordinator until he was let go in December of 2018. Prior to that he was the Philadelphia Eagles quarterbacks’ coach who helped the team win Super Bowl LII. Foles notably earned Super Bowl LII honors that year. The two were reunited in Jacksonville but Foles suffered a Week 1 injury and later when healthy he was unable to lead the Jaguars into the win column. He was 0-6 as a starter. Rookie Gardner Minshew would finish the season as the starter with a 6-6 record while starting. Head coach Doug Marrone has left the position open for 2020.

Pace can throw everything at Andrew Luck as far as I'm concerned. I'm pretty sure he'd take one look at the Oline Trubisky was behind and happily stay in retirement.

I think we'll have enough money to do one big FA signing. Who do y'all want? https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/free-agents/ My money is on Austin Hooper. It will be expensive. Spotrac has his estimated contract at $10mil/yr. We will have no choice but to hope Burton recovers for 2020 but if not, long term it'll be Hooper and someone else. Another long shot pipe dream would be Chris Jones DE KC who I wanted in the draft. I'd pay him and line him up with Hicks. Forget the edge rush issues with Floyd because Hicks, Goldman, Jones, and Mack would wreck Olines. We'd have Nichols and Williams as backups and maybe we can hang onto RRH.

Zero chance I'm not fixing the Oline this offseason (were I the GM ). You can scan through my past posts and see I was one of the first here calling out the Oline, or even asking for Kyle Long to get benched.

Or they could all be in the Superbowl. We were 8-8 with absolute worst Oline play in the NFL, subpar QB play for the first half of the year, and a lot of key defensive injuries. This isn't that hard to fix.

From what little I can find Lazor has a very good history of getting QBs to play well. Let's hope that trend continues. In this case do we keep Ragone? If that's why this guy is here, and it should be, I say Ragone must go for the new OC to have greater influence on Mitch.

We could really use a speed WR to stretch the field but I have to agree fixing the TE position if the first priority. We can get some production from our existing WRs. We got no production from our TEs.

What he said.

Suddenly having coached Tannehil is a positive. I wonder if people are updating their resumes across the league.

Up to the minute scouting!

The NFL and media have fallen in love with the passing game in recent years but this year the playoffs are proving that you can still win by running the ball. The Titans have taken down the Patriots and Ravens behind a middling QB, a strong running game/Oline, and a strong defense. We have two of those pieces. FWIW the Ravens got to the 1 seed by running. We all know we need the Oline fixed but we also must find a good RB to compliment Montgomery. A RB with some speed. Then we need someone to call the running plays.

Based on what Watson did in his playoff game likely in the exact same place. He was horrible and only pulled out a win by running in the 4th quarter. He has one of the top 3 WRs in the NFL at his disposal and still struggled to read coverages and hit the open man.

Floyd

With Leno the money is spent either way so if he can't perform well (again) and someone else can we have to go that down that path. Money is one thing, losing games is another. IIRC Daniels went back to school last year in the spring to finish his degree. Kudos to him for that BUT he wasn't in the training facility improving his craft. Maybe he felt working out at Iowa was all he needed. To be fair they produce good Oline players but as a young player switching positions he needed to be studying. Hopefully he can correct these issues with improved focus on his job.

Interesting tidbit about our new TE coach. What I like is that Nagy is bringing in successful NFL experience with both his Oline and TE coaching hires. I said he needed to get rid of "yes men" and hire people who will challenge him. FWIW Clancy also worked with Shurmur in Minn so Nagy now has two offensive coaches with ties to Shurmur. Maybe he isn't done yet although it's odd to hire these two ahead of the OC it could be we're in final negotiations with Shurmur and this was just one of the pieces he wanted. https://www.chicagobears.com/news/bears-hire-clancy-barone-as-tight-ends-coach "As a tight ends coach, Barone has had four players voted to the Pro Bowl with four different teams: the Falcons’ Alge Crumpler, the Chargers’ Antonio Gates, the Broncos’ Julius Thomas and the Vikings’ Kyle Rudolph." On the other hand, there's this connection... "Barone worked at Eastern Illinois when Bears general manager Ryan Pace played defensive end at the school. Barone, who doubled as EIU’s recruiting coordinator, was quoted about what he saw from Pace as a high school player in a story in the Mattoon (Ill.) Journal Gazette on March 5, 1995, saying: “He showed good toughness on film. He was quick and a good athlete.”

If this new Oline coach can get his players to know who to block on every play they will be much improved even with the same talent. Keep in mind we're coming from deep down in the Mariana Trench in terms of Oline play, long way to go but that would be step 1.

We are not in position to draft Trubisky's replacement this year. We might find a suitable short-term replacement in someone like Alex Smith if his price drops way, way, down. Meaning I'd pay him backup money only. Mariota is not the answer. That's why i say regardless of what you think about Trubisky or his 2021 replacement the best thing to do this offseason is build the best supporting cast roster possible. If Trubisky fails in a dream world you follow what KC did and in 2021 trade up/whatever and draft the next QB who goes right into a completely ready Offensive unit. If Trubisky succeeds you still did the right thing by building the roster to best compete in the playoffs. This is the way.

When Nagy arrived the RPO was the latest fad and it was supposed to be a small complimentary piece of the offense. It is not that hard to defend and now that defenses have seen it for 2 years they know what to read and how to handle it. Our Oline couldn't block much of anything. It was so bad so often that it had to be poor communication/coaching. I don't care if we keep it in the offense and use it as a very small part of the offense as it was intended to be. It does force a defense to practice for it but it also has to be something the OC knows when to call. If we went away from it that wouldn't bother me one bit if it reduced what the Oline/QB/RB/WR have to practice so we can get better at executing plays. We need to get good at something on offense.

List of top offensive needs and not one lists "play caller". Nothing Nagy did worked last year from Oline, RB, QB, and most WRs. I literally put OC at the top of the list. Nagy actually managed to get his QB to perform worse than he finished the previous season. Any discussion that doesn't acknowledge that weakness is just worthless IMO.