AZ54

I think Allen stays. Houston and Young both coming off injuries leaves us with Bass, Washington and ….? Houston I think will be back too. At this point there is no value in the discussion because we don't know what scheme our new coach is going to use. If we go 3-4 on D then what value does Jared Allen have? Houston OTOH can play DE. Stay 4-3 and the opposite is true. I do agree that Jared Allen is not a full-time player. He'd be more effective with less snaps and his leadership will be needed on a young roster this offseason. Not worth the contract we signed him to but we still have to field a team and I believe veterans like Allen help a young team compete much quicker than you will see under a full rebuilding project. I don't care to see Peanut back. I think his body is done. DJ Wiliam's body is done with football too. Nobody knows when SMC is on the field so nobody will know if SMC leaves. Now that Bostic and Jones seem to have learned how to play we need to get a proper MLB on the roster and fix both safety positions and the D is ok. Greatness will never come until we get a pass rush and I think that is 2-3 years away.

Yes but can they get off the bus running?

I finally got a chance to see the press conference. His statement went beyond "she's pissed off." He clarified that "she is fed up with mediocrity and she expects and demands better." Add in that George or Ted said that "they didn't look at this from the money standpoint…just what is the right thing to do." This sure feels like a different message being sent throughout the organization right now than what I've seen or heard over the last couple decades. The owners not only want to win they want the Bears toughness and pride back. Separate from the press conference thoughts …. organizations often move in the opposite direction from where they've been. For example: Detroit under Jim Schwartz was tough, cocky, undisciplined let's go fight approach. They go get Jim Caldwell who has the opposite approach. We are a soft team. The comments from George, and his comments from what Virginia said, tells me we are going after a coach who wants a physical team both on offense and defense.

We have assistant coaches I like. Hoke, who I liked back when he was with Lovie. I think Reggie Herring has done a good job coaching LBs with improvement from Bostic and especially Jones. Even SMC, while not making enough plays improved during the season. Pasqualoni kept our Dline competent with two rookies, a guy off the street in Dunn filling in for Ratliff, Paea's best season by far, improvement in Washington, and Willie Young had his best season ever too. I'm not going to lose sleep if those guys leave but I think it's a decision the next HC should make.

He shot himself so badly he'll be taking on water for years. Still I liked what he did with fixing the Oline. Time to move on.

I agree there. Probably most decisive moves the ownership has made in three decades. If you are old like me you remember what happened in the early 1980s. Emery was George's first hire and it didn't go well. Let's hope his 3 years running things have helped him gain perspective on what we need in the next GM.

NFL Network reported it too. Looks like Phillips is staying. Gotta believe Trestman and company are gone now too. Can't make the same mistake forcing a new GM to keep existing coaching staff.

I believe he has earned the opportunity to compete for a starting position. We're a bad team and nothing should get handed to anyone. I like his chances to win that competition and it looks like long term he'll end up being a stud LB for us.

I felt the same…maybe not the pick itself but he mandated the position we drafted for.

The biggest issue, and really the only issue listed in that article is that Phillips made a deal with the City of Chicago to keep the Bears in Soldier Field. I live in Arizona and don't much care if the Bears had left the city to play in the suburbs but I do like the nostalgia of the team still playing in the city at that venue. Jerry Jones was way ahead of the entire league when he got his own Pepsi and other sponsorships. Jerry Jones also struggled a lot (his words) trying to find the money to fund his palace and I'm suspicious of the "profit" they list in that article for the stadium. Let's take Forbes at their word and give Jerry $12mil in profit each year on his $1B investment for a rate of 1.2%. That is a horrible return on your investment. Much of that profit comes from parking fees where Jones also leads the league at $60-$75 per game, maybe that's $5mil in parking fees for the season. I'm not certain but Soldier parking appears to be roughly half of that ( I took a cab to last game two years ago). Are we asking the Bears to raise parking prices to make more profit? Fans here are already boycotting games. Raise ticket prices? IMO the article is woefully short of details on the financial side but they are right on one thing. If we build a consistent winner the franchise value will increase significantly the same way it happened in New England.

I never get the dislike for Ted Philips. The guy runs franchise for the owners but has no day-to-day football operations oversight. I really don't care who he gets to run the concessions at Soldier Field, or what he charges for parking, or who advertises with the team. If it's hate because he signed Emery as GM after Angelo? I guess I get that but we weren't always a horrible team under JA and Lovie. We did got to a Superbowl. Then again, I'm not as down on Emery as everyone else is. I see him bringing in two Pro Bowl WRs when we hadn't had one in a decade. Pro Bowl OG. Re-signing a Pro Bowl RB. First draft sucked but the last two I see starters (Fuller, Long, Bostic, Mills?); future starters or at least solid rotation players (Ferguson, Sutton, Wilson); and a few that look like they'll be decent backups (Greene, Carey, and Washington, and maybe Leno). Don't see much from Fales or Vereen down the road. In the last two drafts I think our depth has improved but it's all very young and inexperienced. Free Agency hasn't been all bad either: Slausson, Bushrod, Young, Martellus, McCown, DLP, Ola, UDFAs -- Al Louis-Jean and Christian Jones. Houston is not looking so good right now, neither is Allen but Allen has played well just not great and not up to the contract we signed him to. So, as I see it, all roads of hatred lead back to Cutler and his contract. Philips approved it (I don't think he was involved other than to say how much cash on hand we had). Emery devised it. Trestman supported it. Trestman and coaches went behind Cutler's back to complain about him and here we are today. There is a clear disconnect though between GM and coaches regarding Cutler so something, or everything, is going to give. I'm patiently waiting for the show to begin and I agree, it could reach all levels. I'm on board with Rex Ryan as HC. If nothing else I'll get to smile when I watch his press conferences. I'd be very interested in who he wants to bring in as OC. He has the clout to bring in a big name too IMO. I still like Todd Bowles too. I'm not sure he's ready but word is he's going to get a few phone calls this offseason so it's probably this year or next he gets a shot at HC.

If it's a cash deal with no or little bonus I don't care. We could always cut him. At this point it's insurance for what someone said is not a strong a draft for OC. IIRC with his years in the league there is a significant cap hit reduction so the 1.5mil is not what the cap hit is. That'll show up next week on some sites. Let him compete for the job don't hand it to him like we did with Briggs this past season. I have no issues with competition. Now bring in some competition.

Interesting thoughts thanks for posting it. As far as Trestman knowing offense like crazy: We still gotta call running plays. That softness just carries over to the game plans. I'm not missing Peppers at all. Allen has replaced his lack of edge rush equally well for about $5mil less (this is not a compliment). That at least brought in Willie Young and Ratliff who were the best FA pickups on defense.

Merry Christmas and happy holidays for all as you celebrate this special time with friends and family.

It has been a great run. This offseason things will settle down and we'll all look back at the great memories Briggs and Urlacher gave us over the years.

Not sure why it doesn't matter who replaces him when you ask how we came to this conclusion. If the discussion is about replacing him or not it does matter what the other options are. You don't want physical traits either. You just want to know where he excels. I don't think he excels at anything except that he is physically tough. I've seen him take a lot of hard hits, one from Suh in particular comes to mind, and get back in the huddle. Beyond that I think he's good at a lot of things.

1 game and rightfully so. http://espn.go.com/chicago/nfl/story/_/id/...ed-one-game-pay

Clausen looked good considering it was his first crack at it. Take away that veneer and OTOH the offense looked the same. Clausen should have been picked off in the end zone. We had the INT late in the game….not a whole lot different than how many of our last drives end when Cutler is the QB. Now whatever Clausen did to get Tucker to play aggressive man coverage on the corners...I like that. We know what Clausen did (or couldn't do in the passing game) to get Trestman to call more running plays. But that begs the question: If it's a lack of productive QB play that drove him to call those runs why wasn't that done when Cutler was under center and playing poorly? Where's Chucky? I want to know if it's Clausen's fault we had false starts? Or dropped passes? That was Jeffrey's worst game since we drafted him and had he played as he normally does Clausen may have looked like a good.

Torn achilles injuries usually take a full year or more to return to normal, if the player ever returns to normal. Willie might be back early in the year but he won't be the same. I'd say he's a likely candidate for the 6 week PUP list.

It's early in this process. Teams are out there looking for a screaming good deal. We don't have to do anything but sit back and wait because our position does not change between now and March..except for what we do with the organization.

Interesting point. I think he would take a pay cut to stay in Chicago but not with this coaching staff. That would only happen if we brought in someone proven and if Cutler liked him. At this point there can be no discussion of that. His options..stay in Chicago with BMarsh and Jeffrey as his main WRs or get traded to a rebuilding team. I know what I'd prefer.

If Tenn offers their 1st Rd pick for Cutler I'm taking the deal. I do agree we should let things settle before making a decision on a trade and if these coaches are gone then let the next HC decide. There is still plenty of time to get all that done before the draft or during the draft. And where is that draft going to be held? Chicago! What perfect timing for the league and the ratings on that show. If we get a new HC not only should he be involved in the decision to trade Cutler but you also want him involved in the decision in case there are other players involved. We don't know what schemes a new HC wants to run and what players would fit. For now what I care about most is that this is generating some interest. The more rumors the better as far as I'm concerned because if we trade we need max value. I'd be a lot more concerned if there weren't any rumors.

The man who won a Superbowl with Trent Dilfer and drafted the QB to replace Dilfer that ended up getting Billick fired. Can't remember that QBs name.

The point is everyone is blaming Cutler for this mess including, at this point, Trestman because this is the only change he's made based on performance. We've got a lot more cleaning up to do, even on offense, than just Cutler. I'm not supporting Cutler for how he played on Monday night and said he should have been benched. If the HC couldn't see that at halftime but he suddenly felt his backup was the better option the next day something is very wrong. I'm the oddball because I felt Cutler could be our bridge QB until we got the right QB on the roster. I was happy that his contract gave us a way out after 2 and really 3 years. I read somewhere if we don't pay his $10mil roster bonus in March it is an easy out this year, not sure if that's true. We paid for that with a lot up front and I agreed that we paid too much. I thought we could at least have a good offense and rebuild our D so we could compete for a playoff spot for a couple seasons while Trestman had a year or two to find his gem of a QB. That thought is now completely gone. I don't subscribe like others that simply getting rid of Cutler fixes the offense. I don't believe that's the prevailing thought here on this board (we're all too smart) but is among the general fan population. I do believe somebody has to play the QB position and that history says the next man up is almost certainly going to be worse. I've lived through many years of it as a Bears fan and seen many years of it here in Arizona. Even with the Cards most recent signing of Carson Palmer I see so many boneheaded plays similar to Cutler's. Using Cutler as the bridge QB might not have been their plan, maybe it was just mine. I do believe that was a real possibility with the right management, the right coaching, the right play calling. If Trestman didn't like the INTs or mis-reads then maybe he should have called more run-only plays. Now this poorly run coaching staff (no pun intended) has completely blown that option out of the water. There is virtually no way to bring back Cutler to Chicago unless we hire one very head-strong coach who feels like I do that we'd win more having him for another year or two versus starting from scratch. I know that's really impossible now given what has transpired and that only just makes the emotional bitterness last longer. Hope sells more tickets. Anyway, any new HC knows he'll get more time to fix things if he jettison's Cutler. Then it's a complete rebuilding. While everyone celebrates that the wicked witch is gone I'm sitting here wondering what is the new QB plan? In this league nothing else matters. That's not entirely true but close enough to it that players like Andy Dalton get $16mil/yr. I highly doubt it is Clausen. It'll never be Fales, at best he's a Shane Matthews style #2/#3. Do we go the way Pete Carroll did and throw as many darts at it as we can? The wise men who praise him on TV for selecting Russell Wilson in the 3rd Rd ignore the fortune he paid to Charlie Whitehurst that same offseason. The draft doesn't seem deep at QB this year. Do we poach a backup off another team? If so, who is out there that is available and at what cost? Do we grab a guy like Sam Bradford? Do we go back to the Lovie style and just focus on defense first and hope our offense can score 17pts? I was serious when I asked for thoughts about RGIII a week ago.

Seeing it all today. Blaming Cutler for the Bears defense giving up 50pts. Cutler's fault because John Gruden (who couldn't find another coaching job after the way he ruined the Bucs) said it is Cutler's job to make sure guys like J'Marcus Webb know the snap count. Really? Must be same reason two WRs have a false start too. I'm sure it was his fault Groy and Forte chose to block nobody on a blitz on Monday night. Sorry but folks are flat out venting about everything this team has done wrong and focusing it all on one guy. So too are the coaches now. Cutler struggles to overcome criticism that is obvious to the world but statements that he is outworked by "Marshall" is based on what? The extra effort he put in the get clausen up to speed when he was signed late? He struggles to be patient and he kills the team with turnovers. Yes we overpaid for him but I don't think by 25% maybe more like 15% as I think he belongs in the Andy Dalton category at around $16mil/yr: You can win with them but won't win because of them. McCown has a similar setup in Tampa and has failed equally badly, if not worse. He was trending down as the Bears QB once teams got a read on how he was running the offense. I don't see anything that says we'd be much better off with him. Maybe a win, two max, but a playoff team? I've been sitting back and watching how Trestman handles tough times and now with benching Cutler this way I absolutely want Trestman gone. We know Kromer has been the leaker behind the Cutler rumors the last month or so. He didn't discipline Kromer at all but instead had him go public with a full apology. He has now gone full circle in stating (through his actions) that Cutler was the problem. I said it right after the game, it was Trestman's responsibility to get Cutler's head in the game and he clearly did nothing to make Cutler feel like he was the QB for now and the future. People will laugh and say why should he sugar coat it. After Kromer-gate you have to go out of your way to do that even if fans and others will criticize you for doing so. That's what being the leader means. At the other end of the spectrum I see Bruce Arians telling the world his team can win a Superbowl with Drew Stanton and Stanton is far worse than Cutler. Don't think reporters didn't chuckle when they heard that but he stood his ground and said it again. We all know Arians knows reality but he's managing his players. Another story and perhaps the better example although I can't remember who said this last week: Mike Holmgren when he decided to trade for Favre knew everyone in the organization was not on board but Holmgren told them all... This is it, we're going forward with this guy and everyone here has to help make him successful. If you don't like it get over it and support him or move on. I assume since he wasn't coddling his coaches about their feelings he also was tough on Favre. It's not that benching Cutler wasn't warranted after how he played but it would have been far better to pull him in the 2nd half of the game and let Clausen finish it out, or as stated by others, pull him in the middle of the other games when he played poorly. It was obvious from the first play against the Saints he didn't want to be out there, especially at a home game (IMO). Now doing this after rumors of the HC being fired reeks of the same petulance everyone here criticizes Cutler for. It's still the right thing to do if Cutler's heart isn't into it. Why wasn't Briggs benched when his heart wasn't into it and he showed up to training camp out of shape? I'd have dropped Briggs down the roster right then instead Trestman coddled him. Now that we see everyone ready to pack their bags we might as well see what we have in Clausen because at this point we have zero options for next year. I don't think Clausen will make Forte pick up a blitz better, or Ryan Groy (who was ok when he knew who to block). I can't see him helping Garza hold a block, or getting our young LBs to figure out that a screen pass is coming. We'll still be a bad team. I still feel Cutler is a QB you can win with (not because of) but now we're headed back to the QB merry-go-round. Yes, the coaches have to manage him but every team in the NFL, with rare exception, has to do that with their QB. Watch, we'll end up drafting Jameis Winston as the next head-case to play QB for us. Winston is talented enough to be the first pick overall but he's got enough baggage to fall to us. Ken Whisenhunt was a great coach when he had Kurt Warner starting but he couldn't make the decision to start him until the end of training camp. This is the toughest position to draft, coach, and play period. There is no more pivotal position in all of professional sports. Get it right and you are a good coach and GM for a decade. Get it wrong and…someone better be calling Mike Holmgren because he's gotten it right far more than he's gotten it wrong.