Alaskan Grizzly

Not that he's probably in consideration but seeing Jim Mora (the younger one - currently UCLA HC) mentioned as a HC possibility for other teams. In keeping with the thought of second (or in his case third) chances, similar to Belichick or Carroll he could make a case for a decent comeback. Would he be someone the Bears should consider? He has clout, experience and a little edge. Although my #1 choice continues to be Shannahan. Then maybe Kubiak.

I'd have to echo what a few here have already said and ask why they are doing this without a GM selected? Shouldnt that he something they have some say in? Not sure many true GM candidates are going to want the job with a coach pre-loaded. Sends them the wrong message.

Jason, what happened to having to draft an OLman in one of the first two rounds? You're deafting like Lovie would. What are you softening up?

Thanks Uncle Buck for the kind words. And to all my friends here (yes even you Stinger) all my best in the New Year. I hope 2015 is better to you than 2014.

Then you my friend are on the same page. Everything you said i totally agree with. If Cutler can do it under Shannys tuteledge then great. Just don't wait until near the end of the season to decide that. Shannahan for coach: 2015... And beyond.

Yes as I've said before, I love me some Lovie. All I can say is that when he was let go the team was 10-6. Since then??? Well.

Was that 39 times with X amount of drops or 39 total throws? And interestingly enough Forte had a pretty good game against the #2 defense. Strange how that works when you have a balanced (and successful) attack. I think it was more in tund because Clausen and McCown actually are able to run the offense as opposed to Jay.

Aw cmon, aren't you going to give him credit for drafting Evans in round one and spending beaucoup bucks on Mankins?

Nope. Did you see the last game against Detroit? Clausen was throwing everything; crossing routes, screens mid and some long range shots. Seems most, not all, were clearly drops. And what's more, very few "misreads" from the receivers. Which seemed to plague Cutler...somehow.

I wouldn't want Shanny because of the Cutler connection. In fact not sure that Shannahan would keep Cutler if he didn't think it would work. Im convinced that keeping RG3 was more a Snyder thing than anything. Cousins just said the other day he wanted a trade of RG3 were chosen as the starter. Dont believe for a second that Gruden really believes RG is the answer. At any rate, one thing with Shannahan is I'd like to see him bring someone like his kid in as OC and Rex (or perhaps a Bowles) as DC and when Shannahan decides to hang it up (after multiple playoff appearances) they could have either coordinator take over HC duties. I'm not ready to give the keys to REx yet. Would need to be convinced he's not going to turn the team into a three ring circus again.

No.

Already making plans for the Seahawks game!!!

My money's (and hope) on Shanny. He is what the team needs right now.

FWIW I still think Allen should stay at least one more year. His leadership, we specially with all the changes, is an immeasurable intangible. And this year was a dud due to his having Tucker as DC and illness.

Harbaugh ain't coming to Chicago.

So how many drops by receivers were there again when Clausen was running the O? Jeffery had somethig like 8 himself. And the wicked bit late in the game on Clausen certainly didn't help. The lynchpin for what ills Chicago is/was Cutler. And Emerys signing off on the long term. One of the two has been remedied.

Agreed. Welcome back Jason. Happy New Year. Let the disagreements begin! ?

Not really that funny if you think of it. After watching both McCown and Clausen successfully run Trestmans offense with Lovies knack for defense... Oh and they have the first pick in the draft. Where is Mariotta expected to go draft wise again? See where the pieces fall. I predict wherever Trestman ends up will have one of the top offenses next year.

If nothing else, the difference in tempo of the offense (and some degree the D) should be indicative of having Jay run it vs either McCown last year or Clausen last week. John Gruden was right that all the offensive issues lie on he and Treatman shoulders. Oh well, it's all moot as im sure given today's performance that Trestman will lose his job the minute he sets foot back in Chicago. Z

As far as this game goes, put in Fales....PLEASE.

You should add that for this week we should all collectively be Lions fans. Just cause.

I was thinking the same thing. Especially when given the clue about Houstons practices. McManis would have some insight to the D given he is normally a CB. But undoubtedly a great ST player. I'd agree with LL though (as much as it pains me) that Conte is not a "soft safety". His injuries and play on the field is proof. He sometimes over does it hence the injuries. Granted he never really was good at run support but seemed to have been improving.

I'll say this. Of all the 'available' QBs he's the most potentially capable at carrying a team. Can he do it? Unknown. Will he do it? Also, unknown. He sometimes truly exudes that "don't care" attitude he's so infamously tied to. Take the 2009(?) season when we were one game away from going to the SB again and he hurt his knee. I know he was knocked big time by A LOT of folks about his appearance to quit and sit down at one of the most key moments in his career. He just sat on the sidelines and watched Hanie throw the game away. When you have players like Rivers playing with a blown up knee to keep SD alive and Stafford throwing with a dislocated shoulder, its hard not to question his drive. I think having someone like Shannahan could help in a lot of ways. Shannahan will in fact implement a 'run first' offense. He will also employ a lot of Cutler's stronger skill sets (scrambling and throwing on the run) instead of just saying it. And maybe, just maybe, he'll lure an up and comer in his kid to be the OC and eventually HC should it all work out. Since we are essentially stuck with Cutler for at least one more year, might as well try it.

I saw that you essentially posted this twice so I'm sure you're waiting for a contrarian viewpoint. I'll try to do my best at not sounding like; "I told you so". First and foremost, Cutler has little or no leadership skills. Over the course of his 10 (or so) years he has yet to exude some level of leadership. I'm not talking Peyton Manning or Tom Brady level just Franchise QB level. He's being paid it, should be at least acting the part. Instead, he'd just assume sulk on the sidelines and blame other players for his mistakes. Granted, this year he showed SOME improvement but if only for a little. Secondly, the guy is the highest paid player in the NFL right now. But what do we as a team have to show for it? The only thing he's leading in the NFL right now is turnovers. Obviously someone (Trestman and/or Emery) made a bad analysis on Cutler's abilty to effectively run an offense thusly made a bad choice to pay him as well as they did. Why was not franchise tagging him an option for this year? Why go all in and look foolish one short year later? Mark Schlereth (by the way a graduate from here in Alaska) made some interesting observations regarding Cutler last week while on "Mike and Mike". He compared Jay to Romo and how until this year the two were essentially close duplicates of one another. However they did something different this year with Romo. They reduced his number of throws. Something like 600(ish) per year to around 400 where he's not having as many as '3 and outs' because of the more number of missed passes. Thusly the defense isn't as gassed and can play better. Until this year, Dallas was a perennial 8-8 team for at least the last 3 years. Other things they did was build up the Oline and increase their run ability. (ala DeMarco Murray). If Cutler is opting out of the run on his own, then that is another problem. I used to think that Jay should have been able to audibilize more often. However in seeing him play and hearing others comment about his inability to do it correctly, I don't know that its a good idea. I'm still of the mindset that he gets tunnel vision when he throws sometimes. Especially under pressure. So yes, I expect near perfection from a player being paid to produce it.

And I think since he was hit during the last series and didn't need medical staff on the field, they didn't really have a chance to assess until later. I mean the guy came up wanting to fight and yelling "what the fu#* are you doing?" to Ansah. So it didn't appear at first he was bad off.