BearFan2000

That does speak volumes that he in all the turmoil that is the Browns he was the one constant that just kept doing his job and doing it well. I would bet too that Nagy reached out to Toub possibly in part to gauge interest in Toub coming back here and to get his input, he's worked with Dave so I'm sure was glad to make some recommendations.

That makes sense one thing to keep in mind Nagy is planning on calling the plays on offense at least to start with, so getting an OC who may need to adapt to the NFL game some can do that here. Nagy brings with him his own version of the WCO with understanding of Reid's WCO, and with Helfrich can add some of the spread offense concepts to form a unique hybrid WCO that takes can utilize the best of the three styles that is versatile that gives us flexibility to adapt our game plan more to our opponent's defense. At any rate our offense should be less bland/predictable than it was with Low Gains at the helm. Depending on how we address the WR group this offseason and what that looks like heading into next year will be a big factor in just how versatile this offense could be with Nagy and Helfrich running it.

Agree and It's wise to keep our options open should Vic not stay. I think he'd be a good hire in that scenario. I too don't want us to switch back to a 4-3. Not because I'm that big of a fan of the 3-4 but for the reason you mentioned, the D is currently built for a 3-4, switching back will set the D back. Ideally getting Vic back would be my first choice because he knows our guys, they know him, and they know his system it would provide continuity and stability. That said Bettcher would be a good hire. He's done a good job with the Cardinals D and being a 3-4 guy he can build on the foundation Fangio has built. I'm sure there will be other names to come up. The delay may be partly due to Vic waiting to see if he gets any more HC interview opportunities before agreeing to stay. From his perspective he would have more opportunities if his returning as DC here were reportedly a done deal. I could partly explain the ambiguity on whether he'll stay or go. If he truly wants a HC gig he's going to want to be "available" till that window closes. The Bears may not want to wait that out though.

It sure would be awesome if we not only retained Fangio but also managed to bring back Toub. It would require Reid being ok with Toub leaving which wouldn't be impossible but highly unlikely. I don't see Reid letting go his OC and ST coaches and having to restock. Reid can call plays on offense so finding an OC for him won't be as hard. But Toub is special the guy brings special teams magic wherever he goes. That's a rare thing and I'm sure Reid is aware of how valuable great special teams are. That said if Pace were to pull this off that would be a tremendous start to the offseason. Edit: should have read the Coaching staff thread first lol Tabor it is.

I remember hearing as well that Fangio would like to stay and continue to develop the defense here. Vic takes a lot pride and ownership in his defense and he's invested 3 years in working with this Bears defense. Not that any of this or any other rumors mean he'll be back next year. But I do think the Bears would like to have him stay, and I think given the right circumstances he'd stay. I personally hope we can keep him, and if not bring in someone who can build on what he's done here.

Like others here the move to extend was most importantly to give any would be candidates the sense of stability knowing if they sign a three year deal with the Bears they will have the same GM in place during that time, and the added stability that should they be successful here and it comes to extensions that the Bears could extend both for the same number of years to continue that stability. When Fox and Pace were brought in their contracts both ran out after 2018. What this move indicates is that the Bears believe in Pace's vision and want to give him more time, but they don't feel Fox is the right coach to realize that vision. We can debate whether the Bears are right in thinking this and more blame goes to Fox than Pace, or the other way around, or both equally culpable for the lack of success on the field. Personally I think Fox is a decent coach but not the kind of coach that will a team to the next level. While it doesn't show in wins/losses I feel like the team is in a better position become the winning team we want than it was the day Tresman and Emery were fired. I feel there is plenty of blame to go around. Fox's in game coaching and loyalty to a bad OC, coupled with the teams apparent lack of preparedness on game day, reflects on his staff's ability to prepare and coach this team. Pace I feel has shown the ability to generally draft well (something that has plagued this team prior to his arival), no GM will get every pick right but we are getting production from his picks. His FA additions have been very hit or miss, with seemingly more miss than hit. He's preferred however to sign players to deals that are relatively low risk to the team. The down side of that is more impactful FA could be brought if they got more long term security. The other factor is the injuries and the last three years especially have been plagued with injuries at an alarming rate. That could partly be on Fox who's staff includes the strength and conditioning coaches. Something is not right with our ability to keep players healthy and till we fix that it will be a major hinderance to who ever our coach/GM is. On the injury topic, something I think also plays a factor is how the CBA works concerning how teams can practice, number of padded practices, what they can and can't do. Football is a violent game, and if your body isn't conditioned to take the hits I have to think that effects the body's reaction to those hits on game day. Limiting the physicality of practices in order to preserve players for game day, may be counter productive. What I feel is the bottom line in all this or at least a major part of this revolves around Trubisky. We have failed for decades to find that franchise QB who can lead the team rather than just plod along and manage it. I think the Bears believe in Trubiskey to the point where they want to give Pace a chance to build a team around him, and bring in the coach that he feels will maximize his potential to be that long awaited franchise QB to take this team to the promised land. Right or wrong Pace's job, the next head coaches job, and Trubisky's job hinges on getting this ship righted. It's a lot of pressure to put on a young QB and time will tell if it was warranted.

Which is not really anything new here. The Bears have for a long time now had some of the weirdest and most awkward press conferences, it leaves the power structure ambiguous. None of us want or care to see Ted up there ever, but when the team makes any major move or announcement it usually starts with Ted giving his usual BS, George usually has a bit to say, and the GM and coach (when we have one) are often pushed to the back more than they should. Even if Pace is running the show from a personal and staff standpoint it gives the feeling he's handcuffed or has limited control despite the lip service that it's his call on the coaching search. Every time we change coaches or coach/GM, we have this PR mess. The Bears just don't do this part of the process well. We as fans can just hope that Pace is unhindered in the search, and that he can bring in the right coach to take this team to back to winning football. If he does that all will be forgotten. But for the time being we have cautious optimism, hoping this time we get it right, but aware of how the Bears have failed to get this right in the past.

Starting with the question, I say no to Fisher. Trading one mediocre retread coach for another doesn't stand to help our team grow. Fisher is very similar to Fox in many ways. I'm personally not in favor of hiring another retread. I would rather look for an up and coming coach, either a guy who's ready to take that HC step or one who's early in his HC career who'd be a good fit here. I know the fear is getting someone who'd be in over his head. Like Trestman, Jauron, etc. Something that I've been thinking about and it may not be realistic but what if we were to bring in an up and coming OC who'd like a shot at HC. Part of the deal for him would be that at years end Fox will be let go and he will have had a year to audition in the sense of how he fits with the team, players, management etc. He would potentially have the inside track to replacing Fox. With the out that if he wouldn't be a fit it becomes a 1 year deal. Another plus could be that he'd have a year working alongside Fangio and some of the other coaches and would have an idea of who he'd want to keep from this staff to the next.

Add to that I enjoyed watching the Packers lose yesterday. Rodgers with 3 picks and the offense with 4 turnovers to end their playoff hopes. This is probably the best Vikings team they've had in a long time. I feel like they have as good a shot as anyone to make it to the SB along with the Rams. I wouldn't count Philly out though Foles has done a good job taking over for Wentz. At least in the NFC it's nice to see some new blood in the playoff hunt. In the AFC it's hard not to expect the Pats to be the fav to represent in the SB but they've shown some chinks in the armor of late. It's hard to root for anyone when our Bears aren't in the mix though.

Coaching has been bad, but part of the issue with the penalties can be attributed to the musical chairs we've been playing on the OL. It takes an OL time together to gel and really work together well. When the line is constantly being shuffled for whatever reason you lose continuity which I do think effects the line's overall discipline, and definitely lowers it's effectiveness. As a lineman when the guy next to you or on either side of you changes a lot, it makes you have to think more than just play cause you haven't developed a trust or familiarity. It makes it more a line 5 individuals rather than a unit of 5 players. It effects your focus at leas on some level. I think this has played a part in issues with dumb penalties on our line. Not saying it's a large part because we do have repeat offenders who are frequently killing drives. And coaching does make a difference too as we have team wide discipline issues that are killing this team. One of the things that Pace must try to fix is stabilizing the offensive line. If our offense is going to find consistent success it has to start up front.

That's the thing that comes to mind about throwing for 10 yards or so on 3rd down when it's 3rd and longer and we're not converting. Converting third downs is far more important. Far to often on 3rd down our WR's routes come short of the sticks. Deafness will give that to you all day and come up to make the stop to force the punt/FG. But the positive of this is his accuracy has been good especially lately. If we can cut out the negatives on the earlier downs that keep putting us in third and long. The offense needs to get better at staying on schedule, giving us more 3rd and manageable. I like the links and it's a good read, there is hope for better days. Successful and consistent offenses don't put themselves in holes regularly. We just aren't good enough to constantly overcome negative plays on 1st and 2nd down. Just proof we need a better more disciplined line, and better weapons. It'll be interesting to see in these last games to see if our offense is able to build on last weeks success.

They should have never benched him to begin with. The guy has been the ultimate team player and class act through all the ups and downs. As a football fan what they did was inexcusable especially benching him to start Geno freaking smith. Seriously? Not a Giants fan but Eli deserves better. He was not the problem. The problem is no line, no WR's, no run game, and bad coaching... wait a sec. That sounds eerily familiar.

Agree, I love me some D but when your offense gets your QB killed down after down and you go 3 and out or turn over the ball with regularity it won't matter how good your D is they will wear down as the game goes on as they're on the field most of the game and often put in bad positions. A dominant D can keep you in games but at some point your offense has to do something. Right now we don't even have an offense that can sustain drives very often for our D to actually rest.

pathetic peformances all around. Defense only playing on 1st and second down, and resting on 3rd. It's embarrassing watching us get them into 3rd and medium to long and not coming up with a stop. If SF had any decent red zone offense we'd have gotten blown out by a 1 win team in our house.... The score only makes this game look close. 15-14 and it could have been 35-14. With only 7 of our 14 coming from the offense. We are getting outclassed weakly/yearly. Earlier in the year when we were saying in games with our D and run game. I was of the mindset to elevate Fangio to head coach and have him bring in an OC and DC to keep continuity. But even with the injuries on D there should be more production out of the talent we have left. I'm not sure anyone on our staff are the kind that can get the most out of our players. It's easy to coach when you have all stars like Vic had in SF and Fox had in Denver. I'm also tired of the retread coaches. We need to go after up and coming coaching talent. After looking more into Shaw I would really like to see him or someone like him come in and shake things up. Pace has one shot this offseason to fix the coaching issues that have plagued us or it's time to clean house again. I'm sick of this once proud franchise spinning it's wheels constantly having to change coaches/GMs because we can't right the ship. We are becoming the Browns.

My thoughts exactly. I'm tired of Fox and Logains hindering this team. Fangio has been the bright spot of this coaching staff and it shows on the field with our D showing major improvement in his time here. He has HC aspirations. Offer him HC position, can fox and the rest of the staff. Let Fangio bring in a likeminded DC to maintain the progress and continuity in his system. Then bring in a real NFL offensive Coordinator. I think if we make him HC and with it a respectable contract of decent length it would make his job filling out a staff easier. Vic is well respected in the coaching community.

Not sure if I care to look into the timeline for sure but does make me question how much his faking the injury coinciding with Rodgers going down and with him the Packers hopes of going anywhere this year. The timing of him playing up a possibly fake shoulder injury that he was looking into getting surgery leading the packers to cut him for not disclosing the "injury," only to be immediately claimed off waivers by the Pats and suits up days later with not even so much as a shoulder harness or seemingly any precautions that you normally see with such a "serious injury." Bennet is a tool, just like his brother. The only injury Martellus suffers is hurt ego, and not even surgery can fix that. It's very ironic that this episode lead him to be cut from a Packers team going nowhere and signed onto a team with legit SB aspirations.

Pats claimed him off waivers so now he's back in NE.

It's a far cry from smokin' Jay's "don't care" attitude. I like it. We finally have a QB with some kahunas and leadership. Seeing good things on the field as he's developing. I think this is why the team seemed to rally around him in preseason it's like they got new life when he'd come in. A QB must take command of the huddle and the offense. Get your teammates to believe in you and trust in your leadership is huge. Your teammates play for you, and they fight for you.

No doubt they will attack with blitzes from all angles, Trubisky will see that from here on out till he and the offense can prove they can beat it and use that aggressiveness to our advantage. Need to run more screens, this could be a way to get Cohen more involved and get him in open space with blockers in front. Like that video posted in another thread about hot reads there are plays where there is no hot called at the line or not in the play design. It's little things we can do with play design and reads that can help Trubisky out. I think we can take advantage of the Bulaga injury. We've watched our D grow in confidence and swagger. This unit is finding it's stride and keeping us in game against high scoring offenses like GB used to be with Rodgers. I think we can get after Hundley and make his day miserable. I can see us forcing turnovers that will help our offense.

he is fun to watch. Reminds me of a shorter Hester with better hands. If we can figure out how to utilize him to maximize his talent ala Sproles he could be a game changer for us. I cringe when we try to use him as a between the tackles RB cause that is not his game. Get him in space at the second level and he's dangerous. We need to use play design to get him free. He's still learning that not every play needs to be a home run. If it's not there take what the D gives you.

Last week was a disaster. I played the guy who has Ezekiel Elliot who again got his suspension put off so instead of him having to scramble for a RB he gets his stud to play. Sunday morning Zach Ertz is ruled out and I have to scramble for a fill in. Then AJ Green does his thing and gets tossed so I'm stuck with 1.6 for him. My opponent had Tyrod Taylor who goes off for probably his best game in years. I had just 3 out of my 9 starters muster double digits and my team didn't even reach 80 points. At 2-7 with just 5 games left, now it's officially a dumpster fire this year. Only way I make the playoffs is to win out and hope only one other team has 7 wins or higher, the top two teams in our league are both sitting at 7-2 and a good 2 games or so ahead of everyone else. The ironic thing is I have the second highest scoring team in the league. I'm hoping I can at least climb from 10th to 7th or higher and qualify for the consolation bracket. In our league the champ gets the 10th pick next year and the winner of the consolation bracket gets the 1st pick. Picks 2-9 are random draw.

It does stink to see him go down with an ACL when he was playing well and providing a spark for that team. From what I can tell he's a good kid so you hate to see it. The NFL is full of unknowns. Had we drafted him perhaps the injury doesn't occur, maybe it happens in preseason maybe later down the road. These are fluky injuries. Perhaps that he had an ACL injury in college played into Paces decision to lock in on Trubisky but it's something that is difficult to predict. There's no question however that Watson was more set up to succeed than Trubisky. Watson came into much better offense. Better weapons, better line, better coaching, etc. Outside of White we're starting no names that would not likely see the field on other teams let alone start. Having Cam and White both out hurts. It's also a little annoying seeing how well Deonte Thompson has done with Buffalo considering we cut him and kept Wheaton who's done nothing.

We literally have nothing to lose by trying out kickers over the bye. What is Santos' health status?

Agree and you hit on one thing that cannot be taught and that is desire and dedication to his craft. I remember them mentioning on the pregame that he was the first guy out on field before the game. You can look at his career to this point and his dedication and preparation are hard to miss. Even when he wasn't the starter at NC he prepared hard like he was so when his number was called he was ready and made plays. He's humble and puts a lot on himself to get better and works hard. That can't be taught you either have that in your character or you don't. On top of being a very talented and mobile QB I believe this will pay off well for him and for us. I can see him being the type of QB who stays hungry despite success rather than someone who'll just rest on his abilities or success. The drive to get better should serve him well. He has much to learn but he seems eager to do so.

It was a gut wrenching loss that given that if a few plays here and there went differently we could have upset the Saints in their house. As it is we held Brees without a TD pass at home that doesn't happen often. We got screwed by the refs on the TD pass and and at least one of the fumbles overturned where you never saw his knee (thought it was supposed to be indisputable visual evidence required to overturn a call). Play calling and execution both hurt us. For all the great things Howard does running the ball he lacks in pass catching ability. The drop he had should have been a walk in TD. The last drive 3rd and 1 and then 4th and 1 and we don't run the ball, I would have more faith at that point at gaining 1 yard on the ground in 2 plays than trying to find a WR who's not velcro'd to a defender. Fox challenging a call that has no shot at being overturned but not challenging the Miller TD or the fumble call earlier. Like others here have said we have 0 margin for error and we make mistakes we can't afford both in coaching and in execution. What I do take away from this game is our D is legit and has kept us in games. They have really found their identity and you can see the confidence and swagger growing on that side of the ball. If we can ever get our offense up to an average or better we can start building something special here. Imagine if we had even a decent scoring offense this team could start to make some serious noise. The positive here is much of the core of our D is fairly young. If we keep infusing youth and playing at this level we could in good shape for years. Then it's up to Pace and company to improve the offense to match the D. I've been impressed with Trubisky we let him play a little more today than we had and you see things in his game that give you hope that we may have finally found a QB to lead an NFL offense. That is exciting, but we need to get him help, in the form of blocking and weapons. This offseason will be crucial. We should get Meredith back, the rest of the season is an audition to see who can emerge and prove that they could be part of the future here. With Miller done for the year and possibly done for his career. Now more than ever we need Shaheen to step up and perform and show us why we spent a 2nd round pick on him. The opportunity is there can he make the most of it now. The overall arrow I feel is pointing up, comparing this team now to year 2 under Dr Doom where we were not only not competitive but looked uninspired. Remember the mess Pace inherited. Halfway through that season I could hardly bring myself to watch anymore. I think we all want a quick turn around and it's hard to be patient it really is because we're so sick of losing. And "rebuilding" can feel more like a label or excuse for losing. But there signs that things may slowly be turning around. If we get better blocking, more weapons, and a dependable kicker to go with this up and coming D we could become a serious contender.