AZ54

There is enough film on Ego and Sutton for coaches to get a feel for what they can do. Nonetheless they were rookies and still learning on the job. Having watched Sutton his entire career at ASU I can tell you that the dramatic weight gain, and sudden weight loss for the Bears before camp, hurt his quickness. Let him stay around 290lbs and put him at DE in 3-4 and he'll be a good player for us. Ego went to the draft very young and still has a lot to learn but I think he'll be a solid player for us. He doesn't move well but that's a plus when he's at NT in a 3-4 should we go that way. FWIW I see us being just fine in a 3-4 with existing Dline such as Paea/Sutton at DE and Ferguson at NT. Need to add more talent of course but they can all play those positions well enough to be effective.

Yes, have to think this is one that can get done very quickly. What is there for Fox to ask him about? I'd say this is more about Gase coming to interview the Bears and see what the environment is like versus the usual Bears interviewing him.

If we're going to a 3-4 scheme then sitting at #7 provides a couple good options for OLB. Better options IMO than what we'd see for 4-3 DE at that pick.

This is Elway's upgrade?

Having anyone who can hit on our defense would be an upgrade, even if some cross the line.

Always injured his body seems to be saying his time in the NFL is over. If we keep him that's ok but at this point I prefer we move on because $2mil is a lot for a part time player. I expect the Bears will be slow to make some decisions on who gets cut as to not tip our hand on what we are doing heading into the draft.

This is very surprising to me.

That is great news. Welcome to Arizona.

Manning doesn't start over with a new offense. When he came to Denver he brought the same offense with him that he ran in Indy. Kubiak may bring some new wrinkles but there is no way they are starting over from scratch. This setup in Denver has disaster written all over it. Kubiak appears to be coming in just hoping he can win a Superbowl ring with Peyton. If they win a Superbowl do you really think Kubiak wants to stick around for the rebuilding after Manning retires? Fox was let go because there was no passion on the team in the playoffs but what is Kubiak's record in the playoffs? They rebuilt that defense in Denver last year with some of the best FAs and it still didn't work. It just seems like Elway is completely handing the keys to Peyton Manning and are bringing in guys who will let him do what he wants.

Yes, because people gain experience in their jobs as their career advances. Any way you look at it Fangio is now highly regarded around the league. For someone, anyone, in that category to take over as a coordinator for the Bears is a huge change.

Great players more often than not have a tough time being coaches so no don't see it happening. Average or below average players more often seem to make excellent coaches as those guys had to play well without the physical talent others had. I'd have to think for a bit but I'd bet the league is full of coaches who were average or below average players like Sean Payton and John Fox. It's seems rare to find a Hall of Fame player like Ditka who became a great coach. Besides all that, I don't want him coaching us because right now I prefer the route we're going down with experienced coaches. I don't know if Fox and Co. will win a Superbowl for us but this feels like the fastest path to getting a respectable playoff team on the field.

I don't expect a decision on Jay until we get the entire front office and coaching staff together and they decide on the long term plan at QB. If Cutler remains on the roster, which is a strong possibility, I'm certain there will be a long term plan to trade for or draft a QB for the future. This regime is not going to come out and call Cutler elite like Emery did. I wouldn't be surprised to see Fox say the QBs, whoever they are, will compete for the starting job this year. I only caught the last part of it but the press conference was funny because everyone was tiptoeing around using Cutler's name while speaking about the "QB position". FWIW…Fox seems like a guy we can just head down to the bar with and grab a beer and talk football, or anything. He does not pretend to be the smartest man in the room and admits he does not have all the answers, especially when it comes to the personnel side. In fact he said he has no time to wear two hats regarding personnel decisions so Pace is the man bringing in the talent for this team.

Probably disagreeing because I think it's pointless to worry about a personnel guy having a better PR person working for him.

Going to Harvard does not mean you are smart. Many people get accepted for a variety of reasons not the least of which is how much money your family has or how connected your family is. We can find proof of the lack of intelligence at the highest levels of our government but you only need to look at this to know how "smart" they are: http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2009...ard-18-billion/ …and then someone else from Harvard decided this was a good thing and put this guy in charge of our nation's economy. I don't really care much about this guy we hired because we have no basis for knowing if a scout or personnel guy is good until they get to a true decision making level. He's a guy Pace has worked with for the last 8 years so he knows him well and he's going to rely on him to setup our scouting department. What we do know from this is that we are going to strongly mimic what the Saints have done in their talent evaluations. Their defensive performance the last few years isn't awe inspiring.

Why do you ignore the fact he was there when they won the Superbowl?

I couldn't script that collapse any better. I can just imagine all the Bears fans and the NFL pundits ripping the Bears for this collapse but we won't hear that because it's the Packers. Poor coaching leaving the center of the field open on the last TD (fire Tucker for that). Poor coaching, poor play, when your blocker attempts to go up and catch the onside kick instead of blocking for Jordy Nelson (fire DeCamillis for that one). Poor play by the highly touted Haha Dix on a hail mary of a lob back across the field to give up a 2pt conversion (cut Conte for that play). Their great run defense (per Troy Aikman and company) gave up 156 yards to Lynch yet when our D does that we suck. 4 INTs and all they could get out of that was 22 pts (Cutler sucks). Two plays inside the 1 yard line and can't run the ball into the end zone (Oline sucks). Packers red zone offense was poor period (need new OC).

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2...ector/21964957/ Pace took him away from New Orleans.

Ignoring Rodgers 2 INTs?

All I can say is... it's about time. http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/colum...117-column.html Fifteen extra minutes in the cold tub Monday morning. Maybe 20. Slowly get in and let that ice water crawl up to your neck. Just try to find some relief for a beaten-down, worn-out body. The day before? Man, downhill collisions in the hole that felt like a train wreck. That was my experience in the NFL the morning after playing John Fox's Panthers teams. I'm talking about old school stuff when you lined up versus those squads. Put on your big boy pads and get ready to hit. You were in for a fight.

True but Gase has several options as either OC, and possibly still as a HC. If I were in a similar situation as Gase, and I know you made a special trip back just to talk to me instead of making a phone call that tells me how high a priority I am on your list.

Or maybe he flew back to talk to Gase?

I agree on your assessment of him reading the defense and I don't think what I've seen will translate to the NFL well at all. However, saying he doesn't want to work for greatness and is dumb for thinking he's ready is wrong IMO. First, why can't he work to improve while he's in the NFL, with better QB coaching? Let's be honest about his college head coach…he did nothing that helped Tebow become an NFL QB. So why stay with that coaching when you are already 22 years old? If he's got any common sense at all he'd know this is the moment where his star is the brightest. He won't be in the national spotlight sitting on the bench next season and then going to the draft. I'd say his performance the last few games will likely earn him at least $1 million and maybe $2 million more on his first NFL contract than what he'd see after next season. Who will know he's improved if he's holding a clipboard? IMO he'd be wrong not taking the extra money that also comes with the opportunity to get the better QB coaching sooner rather than later.

When he was allowed to play he did well. I'm talking about the scheme allowing him to play because too often we sat back in that deep zone and it was horrible. Plus there usually was no underneath coverage from the LBs on the inside routes. He was definitely slowed by the knee injury mid-year and played through a broken hand. Not sure what more you can ask of a player in terms of putting his body on the line for the team. Later in the season he acquitted himself well against Calvin Johnson when allowed to play more man coverage. He wasn't great but your complaints about him echo the same things folks said about Tillman his first year. Most of the people on this board disliked Tillman his first couple seasons. Yes, I've been hanging around here for a long time. Tillman wasn't much appreciated until well into the middle of his career so perhaps you are right, folks won't forget Tillman for many years, but I already think Fuller was a good choice. I'll also add that he outplayed Jennings.

He was arrogant and petty when he was in Detroit. Might have worked with the stars they had in Buffalo but our young defense? Not sure I want to go that route.

Winning a playoff game with Tebow at QB is his best qualification. Losing two divisional playoff games with Peyton Manning, and again this year with all the big FA they signed on defense is his worst qualification. I'm on the fence with this guy but at least we know he won't let the locker room be run like we had with Trestman.