AZ54

He may have the worst record but his teams are far better prepared than what Trestman was putting on the field. As soon as he had to rely on Trubisky this year, and that was pretty much right after we all saw game 1 of the preseason with Glennon, he was set to lose his job. He's not a perfect coach, they don't exist but he has changed the culture of this team and players are still playing hard out there late in this season. That was clearly not the case when Trestman was in his last four games as our HC. I was too young to remember much about the Gibron era. We lost, a lot. That much I remember but it seems like we at least had a hard hitting defense even if they couldn't really stop anyone. That was actually when I started to become a football fan and to this day I still love a hard hitting defense. It is interesting to look back at history a bit. I still feel like Fox has put together a much better foundation that what Gibron or Trestman left behind. Those guys left complete rebuilds, not just from a talent level as the GM is involved there as well, but also from a locker room leadership view point. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abe_Gibron "It was initially thought that Gibron would make good on his promise to deliver a championship to Chicago; he was regarded as one of the best line coaches in the game. However, he inherited a Bears team in the midst of a generational transition.[2] Running back Gale Sayers, who had anchored Chicago's offense during the mid- to late-1960s, had suffered two knee injuries and was forced to retire during training camp in 1972.[2] Star linebacker Dick Butkus was also hobbled by knee injuries and had to retire nine games into the 1973 season.[2] Quarterback Bobby Douglass ran for 968 yards in 1972, setting an NFL record for quarterbacks, but passed for only 1,246 yards.[2] In his three seasons, the Bears compiled an 11–30–1 record, finishing last in the NFC Central each time.[2][46][47][48] His .268 winning percentage is the worst for a non-interim coach in Bears history.[49] Gibron was fired two days after the final game of the 1974 NFL season.[50] Halas hired Jim Finks as the Bears' general manager in 1974 to formulate a new strategy following the 4–10 record the Bears compiled in Gibron's last season.[2] Chicago had the fourth overall pick in the 1975 NFL Draft, using it to select future all-time rushing leader Walter Payton.[2]

I've been around long enough to know Fox is not the worst coach in Bears history but we only have to go back to the Trestman to prove that wrong. I can't remember much about our coaches from the 1970's and there's a reason for that. Anyway. Here is one rumor that is sure to spark a lot of interest including mine. He's an excellent coach and I think the organization requirements of special teams with all the changes year after year demonstrate that he is an excellent administrator. It can't be easy to always bring in new talent so quickly into your group and succeed. http://www.thetenyardline.com/2017/12/22/f...interview-list/ Who would he bring in as coordinators? One thing is for sure, over the years he's seen a lot of good and bad so I think he has a grasp on what he'd need to be successful.

He'll be back. He has a lot of work cutout coming back off this torn labrum, very painful rehab work, but there's no reason to think that will hinder him in the least in the job he does. I'm guessing the ankle gets some cleanup work to improve flexibility and movement. But again, he's an OG he'll be back and playing well.

He's still a dog but he can't hunt anymore. Time to move on.

I'd love to see him back. He brings an energy to our D with his hits that has been missing. He was a full participant in practice Wed and no longer listed on the injury report on Thursday so it appears we'll see him this week. I'd cut Demps this offseason and gladly give his money to Amos on a nice contract extension. We have built a good defense and need to start securing some pieces for the longer term while the price is reasonable. The Safety tandem of Amos and Jackson I think can become a long term fixture for the Bears. Right now after one good season I don't think we'd need huge guarantees here so Pace can minimize the long term risk. Eddie Goldman is another player I'd like to see get an extension this offseason. Then Pace has the middle of the D set for a couple years while he works on to shore up the edges. http://www.chicagobears.com/team/injury-report.html

Oh HEEELLL No! Fisher was done in LA and to be honest it was obvious during his last year or two in StL. I always felt he got the contract extension before the move to LA just as a way for the owner to keep some continuity during all the turmoil. What good HC candidate is going to want to take on a team that is might be about to move to a new city? Fisher stayed with it and got rewarded with some extra cash and then they amicably parted ways. I just think all the years of coaching burned him out and it's way too soon for that fire to be reignited in the way Vermeil did years ago. No to Harbaugh. He'll ruin Trubisky by running too much read-option and taking the easy way out instead of developing him for the long term. It's one thing when you are the early adopter of something new but the NFL always catches up quickly. I'm not in the FireFox mode either. I'm not in the camp that says we must keep him either. I want Pace to make a full evaluation after the season. Weeks ago I felt Tru wasn't improving and that would be the end of it. The last three weeks that has flipped and I've seen improvement in our rookie QB. Not everything is perfect but each week he adds more to game. If that continues I'd rather not break the continuity and just see what we get next year. I'm not as down on Loggains as the rest of the fans because he's found ways to be productive with poor QB play. I think eventually his name rises to the next tier of up and coming NFL HC candidates. It might take him another 5-10 years but I think he'll get there. His offense looks like crap without any WRs but I'm pretty sure nobody could have made this WR corps shine early in the season. Except somehow lately Trubisky's numbers are starting to move in line with real offenses, and that's with the same bad WR corps. We're talking trend line here not worried about the details but we are seeing throws legit starting NFL QBs make. https://www.windycitygridiron.com/2017/12/2...a-play-nfl-2017 Trubisky yards per game: 128, 113, 107, 164, 297, 179, 147, 102 (big red flag here), 271, and 314. I like what Fangio has done with our defense. We're still 8th in total yards allowed per game, and 12th in pts/game given up. That's all while carrying a struggling offense with a rookie QB, and while playing many young players on D. There is a foundation here. Vic is on a 3yr contract so if we want him back we'll likely have to give him a couple years more and risk losing that last year if we move on from the entire staff. I want to see how the team and the rookie QB finish the season before making an evaluation.

I wasn't expecting this surgery but at least he's in good spirits afterwards and on the road to a long offseason of healing. https://chicago.suntimes.com/sports/bears-g...ergoes-surgery/

Unrein's position can certainly be upgraded. The hope is that we see the upgrade come from within between Bullard, and RRH. I think Robertson-Harris has already been productive in just his first season at a new position. Long term I think he has the ability to really step into a starting role. Bullard has had some splash plays as well. Somewhere between the two I think we're ok at DE. FWIW I'd like to keep Unrein as a backup heading into next year. I have no issues with adding competition to this spot but I don't see it as a priority.

Absolutely. I assumed when he was cut he was done for the season. Now we achieved some cap savings with the cut but bringing him back for a deal with little guarantee would be well worth it.

When it comes to the running or passing game we need to get one thing clear: Grasu is really bad. On the flipside of this nobody is talking about the good game Jordan Howard had as a receiver. There's nothing spectacular about 4 rec for 26yards but he caught the ball. If he can develop this part of his game going into next season it will help the team quite a bit.

I'm with you on Eddie Jackson today. Many people focus on the turnovers he's had but I think this was by far his best game as a Bear. It was very encouraging to his growth in both coverage and run support. We may have found our new leader in the secondary. Nobody here seems to like Amos (I do at SS) but I feel like we missed him on many of the run fits today. --- Trubisky laid an egg but this was bound to happen. Team relied on him heavily today. For all those complainers about run-run-pass well today we got pass-run-pass and it didn't work the first two series. There was a bit of talk before the game they were going to open things up a bit for Trubisky and I have no problem with that at all. That's because after last week I think he's ready for it at this point in the season. Do this in his first four outings and we might have seen 3 INTs in the first half. He needs this experience and we've seen a trend where he learns from his mistakes. This will only help him improve during the offseason and there are still some issues with throwing mechanics. Of course I don't like any of the INTs and I wanted to win this game today. Yet there were signs of growth outside that. We saw him effectively use a hard count to get a couple offsides penalties, for the first time that I recall. With the in-game Oline changes he maintained his composure and still kept the offense moving forward in the 2nd half. That's a leadership aspect that I think will serve him well down the road. He was clearly pushing the ball downfield this game and it paid off quite a few times including a 3rd and 18 late in the game. It's in a bits and pieces but I still feel he's improving and I'm looking forward to seeing how he responds in the next game.

...or a CB in Rd 2 makes much more sense IMO.

Get the wrong rookie QB and Beckham will whine his way out of town within a year, two at the max.

If I'm a rookie QB I know I want to throw to someone who has a catch radius like Beckham's, not to mention his ability to get YAC.

You need a star to sell tickets, even during a rebuild, and none shines brighter than OBJ in New York. I think he stays and everyone else goes.

Impossible to know but sometimes fun to speculate. Sometimes it's depressing. I don't think Kevin White would have helped Glennon simply because Glennon didn't like throwing to him. When I was at the preseason game against the Cardinals Glennon rolled out of the pocket (slowly) and threw right over a wide open Kevin White into triple coverage 15 yards behind him. Cam Meredith OTOH would have helped Glennon quite a bit. Until we got Inman he was the only guy who could get open beyond 10 yards on his own. Of course none of that would help Glennon be more accurate so we'd still see Trubisky on the field but maybe they'd have split the season. This team was more competitive until we lost Zach Miller. It's not like the offense was really good but when he was out there we had more consistency. Look back at the season and how many games we were in up to the end against good teams: Atlanta, New Orleans (partially stolen by idiots in NYC IMO), the vaunted Vikings beat us 20-17 without any ILB left except Christian Jones. On top of that we beat the Steelers and Panthers. People say those were anomalies but then what we were doing being so close in those games against Atlanta, NO, and the Vikings? In the end injuries are why you need depth on the roster. That takes years to build. We're still trying to finish out the top end of the roster let alone the 2nd tier.

Robert Zeglinski on WindyCityGridiron broke down some of Trubisky's plays against the Bengals. While he does a good job there are two that matter the most to me. https://www.windycitygridiron.com/2017/12/1...f-play-nfl-2017 On the 3rd play he shows watch Shaheen block the DE pushing him to the inside a bit. He pushes him far enough inside to allow room for Trubisky to get outside. He also completely sells his role in the play and gets himself wide open as you'll see the LBs drop way back. We end up with an easy 8yd gain. Excellent job by Shaheen and he looks like a veteran in how well he executes the play. Trubisky sees it all unfold early in the play and just waits for Shaheen to slide out. The last play he shows the Bengals bring a CB blitz off the edge and the Oline misses the block. In this case Cincy lines up with 7 players in a zone blitz situation and Trubisky does not know who is coming and who is dropping. Watch Trubisky's head as he quickly turns left and sees the CB, he then rolls out of the pocket to buy time toward where the defenders dropped back into coverage. That's smart, it's the soft spot of the pressure. This was not a designed rollout, the outcome of the play is entirely on Trubisky. In the past he and the Oline have missed CB blitzes like this several times leading to sacks and fumbles. I'm certain their coaches saw that on tape and expected a sack on this play. Instead they gave up 20 yards. These are subtle things that aren't always apparent at first but both rookies are showing some clear growth in their games.

This week is a short one with the Bears playing Sat afternoon. Here's the Tue practice injury report. We may be getting some players back with Goldman, McPhee, and Amos starting to practice in a limited manner. On the flipside we added Shaheen and Kendall Wright but neither appears to be serious. Detroit has some concerns on the Oline. http://www.detroitlions.com/team/custom-injury-report.html

For those who want to relive some more fond memories...(quality is not the best) I don't know how anyone could watch that 10 min clip and then deny him from the Hall of Fame. Better quality here... http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/football/bears/

Had to watch this one more time. If they kicked to him twice we would have won the game.

One of the requirements to become a member of the Hall of Fame is when he was on the field did the player change the way the game was played. Hester absolutely did that. He deserves to be in the Hall of Fame.

Would you renegotiate Sitton's deal? If he stays I think that's what we should do. He's 31, I think we could add 2 years to his deal. Get his contract back down around $5 or 6mil/yr. Gives us a couple seasons to prepare Morgan to take over.

Looking at the prospects I view filling the RT spot as the more likely scenario in this draft. The only top prospect I've seen who is a likely LT is Williams. I'm good with someone like Rankin in the 2nd Rd. I'm not very high on Ferrell, at least not that early. He doesn't move well enough and I think he benefits more from the talent across that Dline than they do from him. He can fill the McPhee role on the edge so there is a spot for him. I can't see Auden Tate lasting until the 5th Rd but getting him there would be a steal.

This is easily the most entertaining OG highlight film I've ever watched. I know many here are fans of McGlinchey early in the 1st but I see slow feet so I'm less enthusiastic and I think his draft stock will drop as get further into the evaluation process. His neighbor Nelson on the other hand is the only OG I recall seeing slide across the face of the QB late to pick up a blitzing CB/S. He has plenty of power to pancake players as well, which he does over and over in this 2016 highlight film. He's talented enough to be scheme versatile. I'd like to find some 2017 highlights, and of course entire game film, but that will show up soon. My question is where do you value him in the draft? I've seen some reports saying he's one of the top 5 players in the draft, but he's a guard so they don't go top 5. Yes, we need OT help but it's easy to see a scenario where we trade back to 15-20 and some other players we might like (Ridley) are gone. If he's there would you take Nelson? IMO he's got Pro Bowl potential very early in his career and Nelson, Whitehair, and Long would be the best interior blockers in the NFL in 2018. Trubisky will be able to step up in the pocket all day, and the running game with Howard and Cohen??? Josh Sitton has played well but cutting him saves $8mil next year. Should we draft Nelson in the bottom half of Rd 1 if he's best available? Or is it more ... don't care, rather draft best OT available than an OG? Here's a good game to compare McGlinchey and Nelson

https://www.profootballfocus.com/news/pro-3...vations-week-13 Chicago Bears: On his 65 third-down attempts, quarterback Mitchell Trubisky’s average of 9.6 yards per attempt ranks second among 32 starting signal-callers, while his passer rating of 103.7 ranks fourth. Through 13 weeks, he’s the only starting quarterback to have not thrown an interception on any of his third-down pass attempts. ------------------- The sample size is more than big enough to be significant. Then there was this article published before the Bengals game... http://www.thetenyardline.com/2017/12/08/m...-on-third-down/ ------------------- Passing chart against Bengals https://twitter.com/Zack_Pearson/status/939...3530368/photo/1 ------------------- I'm still not sure Bears' fans understood what they witnessed Sun. At least for me it's not something that fits the norm for a Bears QB. On NFL Network the Bears received 1 highlight of Jordan Howard, and then they showed the final score. For comparison about 5min were spent highlighting Brett Hundley come from behind to beat the Browns, and to be fair he had a nice game as well. The information at the links above may define where Trubisky is headed and but they also tell a little about where he's been. It is surprising to see how well he has done on 3rd downs, among the best in the NFL. I watch all of our games and wouldn't have expected that to be true. Then that also begs the question (or blame as some would have it) for why don't we throw more often on first and second downs. On a 3rd down you either make it or you punt, meaning the sack doesn't matter. On 1st and 2nd downs sacks matter...a lot, and make that punt more likely. I think all we need to do is look at his sack percentage and how bad it's been until lately. We can blame receivers in part (some truth there), except those are the same receivers responsible for his 3rd down performance. So it comes back to Trubisky wasn't reading the defense and making quick enough decisions. Fox knew this he they stayed away from putting Trubisky behind the sticks as much as possible, hence all the run-run-pass. https://www.teamrankings.com/nfl/stat/qb-sacked-pct That's team sack percentage. If you look at Trubisky's stats he was at 10%. Some games 25%. In the last few games he's getting sacked around 6% per attempt. The wise man will tell me that it's really sacks per pass play not attempt but I'm not taking the time to add all the numbers for that. Just know that it means the Sack% per dropback is a bit lower than 6%. That rate puts Trubisky right in the middle of the league, in line with MVP candidates Carson Wentz, Tom Brady, and fits in with a host of other name QBs like Newton and Prescott. This means Trubisky is now operating in a more NFL-normal space and we can open up the offense more on 1st and 2nd downs. Add in his good performance on 3rd and long and taking an early sack isn't as much of a drive killer as it might have been earlier in the season. For a QB 3/4 of the way through his first season he's doing some good things. For those focused on "poor coaching" hindering him, I said that appeared to be the case 2 weeks ago after the Philly game. Now after seeing the last two games there is a marked improvement in his performance and that is starting to indicate otherwise. We need the last few data points to make a complete assessment but I don't think the NFL Network (and other media) will be skipping Trubisky's highlights for too much longer. For the first time he'll be seeing a team he's already played against. Should be a great measuring stick to see how far he's come along.