AZ54

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.

You are the first one to blast Emery for keeping Briggs around. He's taken a ton of heat for letting Urlacher go and I felt that was the right decision. Letting go of Briggs at the same time I don't think was warranted as Briggs was still productive. After his injury last season he never returned to form. Could have cut him in the offseason I suppose but we had nobody at LB. Same goes for DJ Williams. I think he was brought back for depth and experience and to compete for a starting job. Bostic nor SMC didn't step up and that left an opening for Williams to start. I don't know who we'd have had replace him but for sure this season I haven't been a big fan of how he has player or worked off the field. SMC is the 4th LB on the roster. With Briggs out, Williams out, do we go with Sharpton? IMO that's a draw and I'd rather have SMC out to continue to get experience. Who were you looking to get in place of Briggs and Williams?

That's what I was thinking…Coach P has been a head coach. Plus he's not the touchy-feely type and we need someone to bring some direction to this roster right now. However, if you fire Trestman (in part because of Kromer-gate) you can't put Kromer in charge of the offense. That won't fly with the players and would make the owners look even worse. Behind those two I don't think there is anyone who can run the offense. I think we're stuck with Trestman for 2 weeks. Consider the coaching staff gone. I think the more important early decision is about Emery. They need to let him know if he's staying now. If they let this drag on, or worse, decide several weeks into the offseason, then it drags out the head coaching search. We must be in the HC mix early because it's not just head coaches but good assistants we want as well. If we have to do a GM search in front of that then we better start it now. I think Emery stays in part because of the financial hit, however, he's also done some good things to go along with the bad. I'm 100% on board with Harbaugh being brought in. I wanted him back when he was at Stanford even before the national press talked about him. He hasn't done everything right in SF but coaches learn and improve their ways too. Even if he doesn't change, I'd live with 3 years of what the 49ers did prior to this season. They'd be in the playoff hunt again this year if they weren't missing some key players on defense. Dumb luck doesn't get you that deep in the playoffs three years straight.

I read that article yesterday and felt the same way. Emery was very much watching what happened (post Kromer-gate) and how the team responded to this incident. Getting away from his first draft that was horrible I think Emery has brought in some good players and found them at all levels from 1st Rd (Kyle Long - Pro Bowl) to UDFA's who appear to have a future with the team (Christian Jones, and maybe Al Louis-Jean). ESPN had a short segment on what's wrong with the Bears. Bill Polian said some interesting things about our defense: "They have to decide what they are. Are they a 2-gap or a 1-gap scheme up front? Are they zone coverage or man? He said when he watches film it seems like too often players are doing a mixture of schemes and that's why players look either lost or out of position.

How has he mis-scouted our internal talent? Is that all about Cutler? Or are you upset he brought back Tillman for another year? Signed Jennings to a new deal? Slausson to a new deal? Kept Briggs around? Signed Marshall to an extension? Should we have cut Paea before his fourth season? Should Emery not have signed Forte to his new deal? Garza's one year deal?

The first test post Kromer-gate is a big fat F. Not so much that we lost but the entire offense is lost out there. No passion, no energy. Too many missed assignments including a couple worthless blocks from Matt Forte. Cutler never had his head in the game, looked completely disheartened throughout. Everyone will blame Cutler but I doubt I could find anyone here who would enjoy going to work if their boss said they are or should not part of the future to the entire world. It was incumbent on Trestman to fix that and he failed.

Would have been hard not to win Bad Bears Bingo 3 or 4 times during this course of this game.

For one, if they were going to do that the time to do it was on day one or two when this leaked out. It's not as if Trestman couldn't simply step in and be the OC for the last 3 games anyway. So then, why go through this media storm if you don't have to? All you have to do is read this thread to know what the fan base feels. At least the majority of the fan base. I know I'm far less emotional over this than pretty much everything I've read here. I can't really say why that is either but it can be the result of the industry I've worked in for 20 years and maybe some Air Force background. Or maybe I'm just tuning out a bad season. Like any organization you keep someone who has screwed up around because you still feel it makes the organization better. Since he is still here I suspect Kromer has a lot of respect in the organization for what he's done with our Oline the last couple seasons. I share that sentiment especially this year with all the injuries. His comments on Cutler may have been so emotional in part because he felt that he was defending his Oline which has come under fire recently for the poor running game. That doesn't make it right and what he did was clearly the wrong way to handle things. The other factor for me is that I think the ownership is set on giving Trestman a 3rd season. I said when Pasqualoni was hired that I felt he was the backup plan for Tucker. We have no such plan or talent in place on the offensive side. Will the ownership, or Emery, setup a hot-seat coach who already has a DC on a 1 yr deal with an OC on a 1yr deal? If you are going to do that you might as well fire everyone now. From ownership's standpoint I think they want to stay the course another season with Trestman. Maybe I'm less emotional because I know it takes a lot of pressure to make a diamond. The question is will the mold break under pressure or will it hold. Most will say the mold just broke but I've seen numerous contentious situations that ended up working out very well long term once everyone got it all out on the table. It's not easy and takes good leadership to wade through those waters. Either way you'll never get there without the pressure and it's on max right now.

I'd be very surprised if Kromer is gone.

I'm not surprised to see DJ Williams on IR. His career is over. I applaud the move to sign a FB. I like having a FB on the roster and I think it helped our running game last year. It's a bit late but at least indicates we are looking at this for next season. http://chicagosuntimes.com/sports/bears-li...njured-reserve/

I wouldn't mind having DLP back next year. He was largely let go from the Saints because he couldn't run block. He did ok with us. De La Puente = From or Of the Bridge

Is he our starting center next year? Groy filled in decently for Ola last week once he got the first series jitters out of the way. Looking at his background and knowing he played FB at one point for Wisconsin which means he has to have some athleticism. Garza just doesn't move his feet as well as he used to and I think we need to address the center position this offseason. Taylor Boggs hasn't cracked the lineup and with all the injuries we've had there were plenty of opportunities to do so. Groy gets a 3 game tryout. http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/footb...1208-story.html

Just wondering if anyone here would make that deal and if so, why? I'm pretty sure up until Oct 1st of this year the answer was heck yeah. Now I doubt that's true. Outside of Mariota the QBs in the draft aren't that great. We know Snyder won't worry about taking on Cutler's contract and much like the Bears he needs to, or always wants to, do something to quickly turn his team around. For all his faults, Cutler will make their team better and likely much better than any of the rookie QBs they can draft. On our part it's the same…we're not going to be in a position to grab a good QB although we can take someone who needs a season or two to develop. I think this would all depend on if we felt ok if Clausen were our starter. In other words, we would let the Clausen and RGIII compete to be the starter. I don't know what has happened to RGIII. Right now he looks completely lost on the field. There is no discounting his physical talents but we've heard that for years about another QB. For sure RGIII needs a change of scenery and probably needs to step back from the spotlight and just go to work. I don't know that our offense under Trestman is a good fit for him.

If true then I think the choices of Hoke or Pasqualoni make sense. Personally I prefer Pasqualoni simply for his overall experience. I also like the idea of bringing in Rex Ryan but he'd do that only if 1) he didn't have a shot at another HC job (I think he will but you never know) and 2) that we'd commit to interviewing him for the HC job should it become available in another year. As others have stated, why is this suddenly out there? We have now set things up so that anything Tucker says is disregarded. That is no way to run any organization because people will just sit back and wait for the change to take place. There is no reason to worry about their own performance as Tucker will take the fall for all that goes wrong. I don't believe this is Emery's style at all and so it is not coming from him. Trestman? He's in enough trouble as it is I can't see him doing something to further upset his standing with Emery. If not them then who? As with all things I think we should look at who stands to prosper if a change is made. Ownership is one party who could "prosper" from this because they want to keep their fan base happy. Coaches also could prosper. This will be looked at as a 1 yr job so we likely won't get a decent DC to come in and take over. A guy like the ones mentioned (Pasqualoni, Hoke) might think they could prosper better if they were named the interim coach for the last few games and got a shot to show what they can do as a DC. That would be a huge gamble on their part if Emery found out they leaked this to the media but then again, they could figure that any new DC might just fire them too so what do they have to lose. Players are another group and for similar reasons. They might want to get rid of the D we're running for the last few games so they can show they can play better and keep their jobs next season. I doubt this as Rappoport wouldn't have phrased his words the way he did if this was the case. IMO…most likely is Pasqualoni or someone in the ownership. Similar comments about Cutler make me think this is all coming from ownership.

No to Sanchez, he's making the same mistakes. We might as well see what Clausen can do before jumping on the Sanchez bandwagon.

Sadly, I have to start looking at how we fix this mess in the offseason or the emotions of these losses will really make me depressed. I've said fixing the pass rush is the top priority for us in the offseason. Safety is in the mix too. However, what if the value isn't there when we pick in the 1st Rd? When you draft early in the first I think it's imperative that you grab a blue chip player period regardless of needs. If that blue chip player fits a need all the better but regardless, you always take the elite player when the opportunity presents itself. Draft Tek has us picking a LT, Andrus Peat, from Stanford. I know they are using computer simulations but still it got me to thinking. LT2 once said there is only one way to get a franchise LT and that is to draft one. I don't know anything about this guy but if this scenario plays out would our best move be to draft a franchise LT? If, as many here think will happen, this coaching staff and roster will end up in total upheaval either this offseason or next then why not? Even in the short term it won't hurt the offense. This moves Bushrod over to RT and kicks Mills to backup OT/OG. That's some pretty good bookends at OT and depth on our roster and then you have two very good OG in Slausson/Long. I'd do it especially considering we may be looking for our next QB in the 2016 draft.

People ripped him for his rant but I think he was right and has the right passion for the game. We're going to miss that.

I hate the Cowboys and their fans are arrogant. With that out of the way… Offensive line…is the Michael Ola experiment over? He's been alright for us but we've bounced him all over the place and tonight he just fell flat on his face. I don't know if he was injured or just got pulled for bad play. All I know is that suddenly there is #79 Ryan Groy out there at LG. It seemed that pass protection was better with Groy out there and the offense was more productive with him out there but I'll have to re-watch the game. Run blocking…just hit or miss with more misses than hits. RB….Forte with no excuse for his fumble. I like Matt, classy guy, works hard, but at some point it would be nice to see our RB make the first defender miss. I remember years ago that was the common refrain on the board for our RBs yet Forte gets a pass on that expectation. It doesn't matter if it's a DB or LB he will be tackled. I want to see more of Carey. He's not fast but he's much quicker around the LOS, mix it up a bit. I'm not looking to get rid of Forte but next year we need to put some effort into getting another good RB, no more of the high dollar Michael Bush end-of-career types either. WRs…Marquess Wilson is definitely quicker than either Marshall/Jeffrey as seen on one slant pass, we need that on field. With Marshall likely going to IR he's going to get his chance to show us what he can do and he needs to show more than what we saw tonight. Jeffrey was his usual steady self finishing with 95yds and 1 TD. Martellus Bennett played well and it was nice to see us go in his direction a lot. Wish we'd done more of that in some other games but despite that he might finish the season as a 1000 yd receiver. QB…Cutler had a good game IMO. I see articles out there faulting him for the lack of points early but he's not running the football. He's not blocking and more importantly he's not playing defense. When he got time he was effective. Forced a pass into the end zone at the end of the game. Defense…Dline no pressure most of the night. Nothing up the middle whatsoever. A few times we got something off the edge but on one key play Willie Young took a bad angle on Romo ending up in a broken play for a TD. Is Jared Allen even playing? Yes he's out there. Overall the Dline was manhandled all night. Cowboys have one of the best Olines in the league and we still need a couple more pieces to get our Dline where it needs to be. LBs…John Bostic you have been around too long to be making basic fundamental errors. He was in great coverage of the TE on the 3rd and 15 play and runs step for step with him but right at the first down line Whitten stops and turns to his left to look back at Romo. Bostic turns right and looks at Romo. While his back was turned Romo threw it behind Bostic for the 1st down. Anyone who played high school sports like basketball or even soccer knows you don't take your eyes off the man you are covering. SMC…does ok when plays come at him he holds his ground even against some Oline blocks but he's not reading things and getting into the gaps to make plays for a loss. In fact none of the LBs did in this game, they just wait for the play to get to them. In Bostic's case waiting in his gap would be a good thing. The closing speed of SMC on Murray and tackle on that one outlet pass near the sideline was excellent. Christian Jones belongs on the football field. His athleticism and closing speed standout. He's making plenty of mistakes too but just give him the game experience now. DBs…same day different…no... same results. Stay in the soft zone outside leverage where the LBs are supposed to be in the underneath inside leverage except no LBs are there and on deeper routes safeties are always late to the show. These guys (Fuller, Jennings) would be ok for 2-3 sec if we went man or more press coverage but with no pass rush we won't be covering anybody for 4-5 seconds. Coaching…we have many threads covering this.

What the Bears need is a franchise QB. Get one of those and the rest of what you do looks a lot better to outside observers. Take that away from the franchises being discussed and the one that really stands out is Baltimore. The guy calling the shots there is Ozzie Newsome and he learned his craft working for Belichick in Cleveland. The other constant those franchises have is stability in the organization and it's one thing the Rooney's have emphasized in Pittsburgh. They ride out the rebuilding storm with their head coaches. Likewise Green Bay has been consistent with their offense, at least in terms of the system. When you have that stability it's easier for new players to get up to speed because veterans know all the details and it's easier for a player like Matt Flynn to look good. Their defense has flipped around a few times and that's where they usually struggle. When you think about it, Green Bay usually enters the offseason focused on fixing their D yet for all that attention they can't get it done, at least consistently to a top 10 unit which, if you focus that many resources on it, should get there. Aaron Rodgers makes people overlook that no differently that Tom Brady makes people overlook defensive issues in New England.

At this point I'd prefer to take the true ballhawk FS Holliman. Ballhawking FS are great to have especially in a pass happy league. Then I went and watched his 3 INT game against Boston College http://draftbreakdown.com/video/gerod-holl...n-college-2014/ Now I wouldn't draft him until the middle rounds. He's soft, not a football player, takes casual angles on tackles, often doesn't hustle in pursuit. I can forgive some of the bad coverage lapses he had that gave up a couple TDs because he doesn't have a lot of experience. He does not like to hit and this is at the college level, can't imagine how he'll hold up in the NFL. If he were elite athletically then some of that can be overlooked but I don't see anything that says he's in that category. Collins might not be as fluid in coverage but he's still good at it (nice one-handed INT) and he's the better football player IMO. He is far more physical than Holliman and more prepared to tackle a RB in the hole or in space than Collins. Plus he'll hit a WR who is going after a catch. http://draftbreakdown.com/video/landon-col...s-florida-2014/

I know stats in the NFL are deceiving and of course there are dozens of ways to breakdown what is happening. I don't take that much time to dig around and explore it but your data on passing defense validates things. Run defense is there most of the time, pass defense is not. If we can get a solid pass rush we'll survive but beyond 3 seconds no way. Of those teams with injuries how many a playing 10 rookies or 2nd year players on defense? When Briggs reported to camp out of shape his poor play was inevitable. I expected we'd be a competitive team but given how things have gone, including injuries to Briggs (ribs earlier in the year), I don't mind throwing all the young guys out there and advocated for that weeks ago. It's frustrating at times to live with the mistakes but even without the injuries on defense this roster is not going deep into the playoffs. Let's just go into full rebuilding mode and see what we've got with the young guys now so we know what to do in the offseason. I am one of few, maybe very few, but I like our young LBs (SMC, Jones, Bostic) and I think in time they will become a good unit. I see good signs in each game, and more frequently within the games. Jones was completely lost earlier in the year, now he is finding his way to the right spot about half the time. Bostic too has improved in both run support and pass coverage but his pass route recognition is still slow. SMC has improved as well around the LOS. Hopefully we continue to see improvement in LBs coverage over the next four games. My expectations for improvement are lower for the DBs. I'm not sold on Vereen as our future FS, in fact I like Conte much better but he can't stay healthy. We really need a Mike Brown type of a leader at safety on this roster. Brown wasn't the best athlete but his smarts and leadership in getting other players lined up made up for that. Find a leader who is fast and physical in tackling would be even better. Fuller I think will become another Tillman type of player for us. Behind him Al Louis-Jean? Hurst?

Yes but we all knew Cutler's deal was a 3 to 7 year deal meaning the team could get out from under it anytime after the 3rd season. It will be interesting to see how we handle this with Clausen already in house. Clausen has the physical talent to play QB in this league, unlike Fales who's arm isn't very strong. I don't see us drafting a QB in Rd 1 with so many other needs but if we go after one in Rd 2 or 3 then the coaches have decided Clausen isn't the answer. All of which brings up the question: At what point will we see Clausen play? Knowing you have that decision to make regarding Cutler or future option, wouldn't you want a better idea of what Clausen can do before you commit such a high pick to a rookie QB?

We can ignore it but it is a factor. This is a young man's game and we've relied on some long in the tooth veterans on defense (Williams, Briggs, Tillman, Ratliff, even Allen). When the next man up is either a rookie or a player in his 2nd year there's a drop off, at least in terms of job knowledge, and it was very visible at times. Despite all that it hasn't been all bad as we are 12th in the league against the run. On the flip side we are 30th against the pass. FWIW the Cardinals are 25th, Panthers 26th, and Ravens 29th against the pass. Fixing the run defense was our number one priority heading into the past off-season and I have to say we made significant improvement. Some of the reason for ranking 12th against the run is due to teams finding it easier to pass but our 2013 defense proved that if it's easy to run teams won't stop doing it so the ranking means something. Sutton, Ferguson, Washington, Fuller, Bostic, Jones, and Vereen will all be better for having this experience. They've all had their rookie moments but off that list Vereen and Washington seem to be the biggest question marks going forward. The rest look like they'll be significant contributors, if not starters, down the road. On offense…Oline for sure injuries impacted things (unless you like Ola at RT) but they never fell apart which is good progress considering where we've been in the past with our Oline. Elsewhere they have no room to hide. Offensive issues typically came down to players not executing and the blame goes around to everyone. Cutler more often than most but everyone had a share in key mistakes throughout the season: Forte fumbled early in year, Marshall key fumble/penalties, Bennett had his two hot-reads that were missed and turned into key INTs.

Glad to see Bears commit to the younger players. Briggs had a phenomenal career for the Bears and I don't think he'll get an offer to play anywhere next season. It's hard to believe his 35 tackles will be enough to impress anyone to pay more than a vet min salary and I don't see Briggs going through the motions for that. His skipping the 1st practice of the season to open a restaurant, not to mention his recent comments about not listening to his coaches during meetings, told the entire league what kind of leader he is…meaning a rebuilding team won't sign him as a backup player to provide locker room leadership. What Emery has done is smart because he frees up another roster spot to bring in a young player, or players if we cut and run, and see what they can do. It also keeps Briggs' attitude out of the LB meeting room and that alone might be the biggest help.

I think Fuller is just fine on the outside but he's still a rookie and learning. He's tough and played through a bum knee yesterday. Everytime I saw him walking around after a play he was limping a little bit. He went at Megatron and lost but he'll learn from it. He also wasn't getting the support he should have had on the inside routes. If he's playing outside technique then there has to be someone assigned to take away that inside slant and that player usually wasn't there. Or, like on the TD throw to Johnson, Fuller was right there on the outside but the FS Vereen was late. According to one article I read Vereen actually pulled up and decided not to hit Johnson on that play.