DABEARSDABOMB

Browns always had pretty good special teams, didn't they? Or am I mistaken...didn't Tabor spend most of the past 5 or so years as Browns special teams coordinator?

While I would be exstatic with Toub, supposedly there is zero truth to Toub being headed to Chicago. Would be amazing but only way I could maybe see it happening is if he became the Assistant head coach or dare I say it OC. And I could almost argue if he was ever going to try being the OC, this would be the situation since he'd be working for a guy who would be calling the plays, etc (and thus not all the real OC responsibilities would fall on him). Even then I don't see it happening. And in all circumstances Reid would have to be okay. So bottom line, unless Reid is getting let go in KC, Toub isn't coming here. I also saw a report that Reid evidently has a verbal agreement with all of his assistants that if they take another job they aren't allowed to "poach" coaches without his permission and people historically follow that practice. Reid's reputation across the industry is a guy who goes out of his way to help his assistants as they transition into new head coaching gigs (and that includes helping them get good assistants through Reid's vast network, etc). Even Nagy referenced that fact in yesterday's conference where he mentioned he wouldn't let Andy Reid down by failing.

Excellent hire. Another rumor out there that former Oregon Ducks coach Mark Helfrich will be the OC (with Nagy calling plays).

Excellent hire.

Rappaport and someone at Bearreport are reporting that while work is still to be done, belief is Fangio will be DC. Hopefully it gets finalized by the time I'm up tomorrow. Will feel much better having that continuity (and an awesome DC locked back down). Reports are that Nagy put on a full court press for Fangio and that is why we are seeing teams interested in Fangio's services going another direction.

I don't think Fangio wants to a place with an overlord like Beli. He is going to want to work with an offensive minded coach where he can run the defense. It seems like he likes the west coast and might prefer it but also likes Chicago (but you never know what he thinks about it). Niners do have a DC but they wanted him last year and could make the move anyway (to upgrade and maybe then shift their DC to another role).

It really seems that this will come down to the Bears or San Fran (or another west coast team). Key being do Fangio / Nagy see eye-to-eye and if so, I presume Fangio is here. If not, then I presume he's headed west. Fact that he didn't end up going to Green Bay tells me that at a minimum, he wasn't interested in that job and probably at least is somewhat interested in staying with Bears (and Nagy and company just wanted to keep things close to the vest). Could be wrong though.

Definitely.

His answer to the question about whether he called plays in the 2nd half was refreshing. He took full responsible and finished it with and I'll learn from it. He's got this swagger to him. I'm in Socal and I remember last year when the Rams hired Mcvay he was making his interview tour on local sports talk and I happened to catch him and immediately thought, damn, this guy is really bright and gets it. I get that same vibe from Nagy. Can the season start yet haha.

Hopefully they hit the building out the coaching staff with the same swagger and aggression. We are in a great spot compared to other teams who are still looking for a head coach.

Yeah; The aggressive close was great. Also notable that Phillips / McCaskey did not comment at the press conference (a good thing). Nagy has some swagger, that is for sure.

During press conference, Nagy said that him and Fangio talked and they need to reach a decision shortly. Reports are that Gus Bradley might be in play (which would be a shift back to 4-3...albeit his D runs a lot of 3-4 undertone's) and then Pettine was supposedly Nagy's DC that he planned on (prior to him taking the Bears job where Fangio was there). Pettine is interviewing with Packers today. I would bet that one of those 3 guys is our DC.

I like Donatell but I'd rather make a heavy push for Gus Bradley (who is a free agent) and I'd be curious about the Vikings DC that we interviewed (also will be a free agent). Additionally, Petitte would be a very good hire as well.

Exactly...he needs to report to Nagy. No bones about that.

Nagy has to be the boss and that is why I think it is critical that they see eye to eye and determine they can work with each other. It is a great opportunity for Fangio because he'll have a lot of say in the defense (more so then he had under Fox) but at the same time, he still reports into Nagy and they need to have that alignment. Will be interesting to see what happens. Stability on the defense would be nice and I see many reasons this would work better than the Marinelli situation. But we also need to know because good assistants are going to get snatched up.

I'm really going to be excited if I see Bears agree to 4 yr contract extension with DC Vic Fangio and other defensive assistants (such as Ed D). The fact that we haven't seen a max exodus yet of our defensive coaches is a good sign, but all of this can change starting tomorrow. Hopefully Nagy and Fangio are already chatting to figure out if they are a good fit because it is critical that they get along, share a vision, etc. You can't just let Fangio report into Pace, etc...Nagy has to buy into him since he's the CEO of the coaching staff.

That is the other thing I like. Reid's assistants have in general done well as head coaches. It also is the one thing that scared me about Beliceck...his assistants have generally stunk as head coaches.

Bears appear to be trying really hard to keep Vic. Good sign that none of the defensive assistants have left just yet. Ragone is reportedly staying on as QB coach (which I think is a good thing). Have read a lot of really good things about Ragone. I'm excited about this hire and I also like the pace that Pace moved.

That is most likley the intent and I also believe it is because he is a free agent and he might be on the short list of DC candidates we'd be interested in.

To play devils advocate on Loggains. This year he had no wideouts, a rookie QB (who was extremely raw in terms of rookie QB's) and Glennon. The year before, despite having Cutler (injured most of the year), Barkley, and Hoyer, his offensive ranked 6th in the NFL in yards per play. I agree with AZ, Loggains is not near as bad as others thing, but then again, I'm talking to the person who thinks Fox is the worst coach in franchise history when he clearly isn't. Not even close. Fox is not a bad head coach, period. Is he a great head coach, no, but he's solid and is not going to get in the way of a good roster and in general I'd argue the Bears probably played better then their talent. We maybe lost a game or two we shouldn't have, but we beat quite a few playoff teams this year (and we had no business winning those games) and I really don't think there were many games we lost which we shouldn't have (maybe outside of that Packers game with Hundley). Remember this year we beat Carolina, Baltimore (almost in the playoffs), and Pittsburgh. That is 2 playoff teams and a team who epically choked to not make the playoffs.

Not trying to put you on the spot Grizzly, but I don't understand why do I keep seeing people reference Shaw as a potential OC candidate? He is widely regarded as one of the top 4 or 5 head coaches in all of college football and is on the short list of guys who would be fantastic hires as head coaches in the NFL. He is not leaving his gig at Stanford to become an offensive coordinator in the NFL. Most don't think he'd leave Stanford for a HC job unless you really really threw him some coin. ESPN just had an article out of all their insiders, which asked if they were to hire an NFL head coach (who is not currently employed as an NFL headcoach), who would it be and Shaw was the #2 rated guy they would pick (behind Jim Harbaugh). Interestingly enough McDaniels was 3rd. Note: Shaw is paid $4M a year at Stanford; Fangio is rumord to be one of the 2 or 3 highest paid assistant coaches at around half of that.

To build on this, Cowherd said he had heard that McDaniels was the front-runner in Chicago, Indy, and Giants and that he'll be taking one of those jobs. That said, all speculation. The thought behind Edwards hire definitely fits the narrative that they may want to move fast. Even Pace had made a comment somewhere that he trimmed his initial list so they can be swift and aggressive when they identified their guy. I think they recognize their are a lot of jobs out there and quite frankly a lot of them are pretty attractive and with that, strategy to how you get your target candidate becomes key (since he might be the top guy on a couple other teams lists). I also always think this is a good time for Pace to just get insights on the team and someone from within the division (such as Edwards) should provide good nuggets during the interview on the team. I also go back to the fact that he's a free agent and if we go with an offensive minded head coach, having some dialogue now could smooth the wheels to offering a big contract when said coach becomes a free agent. Same could be said with Defillippo (who is a free agent). The early rumors are that the Bears are going to make a strong push to retain Fangio, which pushes me to think we are going for an offensive guy; That said, I think all of that is premature since we haven't even met with an external coach yet.

Tomorrow the Bears will interview the Vikings DC for the HC job. An interesting note on the Vikings DC is that he is a free agent at the end of the year, so the interview could be just as much about laying the ground work into potentially hiring him as a DC.

Fangio interviewed for the HC job with Pace today.