adam

Well how is that Trestman guy working out, lol. Just kidding.

I would say any of these teams would at least consider him: NYJ, BUF, JAX, TB, ARZ, WSH, STL, TEN, and MIN.

1. OAK 1-11 2. JAX 2-10 3. TEN 2-10 4. NYJ 2-10* 5. TB 2-10 6. WAS 3-9 7. NYG 3-9 8. CAR 3-8-1 9. NO 5-7 10. STL 5-7 11. MIN 5-7 12. CHI 5-7 13. HOU 6-6 An interesting note assuming Miami wins tonight, no teams will have 4 wins, and only Houston will have 6. This pretty much locks us into picks 9-12 as CAR, WAS, or NYG would have to win 3 out of 4 just to reach 6 wins (and we have tougher SoS than all of them anyway). Houston has the easiest remaining schedule, so I figure they will end with 8-9 wins. So that essentially leaves STL, MIN, and the loser between ATL and NO. NO has a super easy schedule and will end up with at least 8 wins to win their division. #9 MIN - NYJ, @DET, @MIA, CHI = 6-10 (win against MIA) #10 CHI - DAL, DET, NO, @MIN = 6-10 (win against MIN) #11 ATL - @GB, PIT, @NO, CAR = 7-9 (wins against PIT, CAR) #12 STL - @WAS, ARZ, NYG, @SEA = 7-9 (wins against WAS, NYG) Even with 2x wins, we really won't do any worse than #12. So 9 to 12th it is.

Emery inherited Cutler, and made some nice moves to add playmakers (Marshall trade, Alshon, Long draft, Bennett signing) around him. Not much changed, so he brought in Trestman to "fix" Cutler. I believe that Trestman's pitch for fixing Cutler was why Emery went with him. After last season, it looked like we were primed for an awesome offensive display this year. So with the belief that things would be better, I think Emery "bought in" to Trestman and an improved Cutler and locked him up. Then this season happened, and now he looks like an ass for that ridiculous contract. Trestman has lost all his backers (Gannon, Young, etc) and seems like he is just finishing out his time. In the end, I think Trestman and Cutler get one more year, and if they don't produce, ie. playoff berth, both will be gone after next season. However, to show some action, Tucker and DeCam are gone in about a month.

Here are the names I mentioned in the other thread: 1. Pep Hamilton, Indy OC, former Bears QB Coach 2. Teryl Austin, Det DC, #1 Defense, Division knowledge, we don't have to face him 3. Bob Sutton, KC DC, Great Defense, works with Reid 4. Todd Bowles, ARZ DC, Great Defense, works with Arians 5. Tom Clements, GB OC, Great Offense, Division knowledge, we don't have to face him 6. Pat Shurmur, PHI OC, Great uptempo offense, football genes 7. Adam Gase, Den OC, questionable due to Manning, and probably too young, but similar to McDaniels without the baggage I am not really impressed with Darrell Bevell and Seattle's offense. If not for Beast Mode and an opportunistic Russell Wilson, that offense would be terrible. Also, I really think we need a Defensive-minded Head Coach as the offense seems to be built around the QB anyway (most great offenses have great QBs). I would take Harbaugh in a heartbeat, but that SF offense looks about as bad as ours right now.

MIN, STL, and HOU all helping the cause right now. Wins for them will really help our draft position.

If he is willing to play for $1-2 million, someone will pick him up.

Watch, Cutler will get a phantom injury (groin, high ankle sprain) in the next 2 weeks and Clausen will play out the season and win out for us to get us to 7-9. You heard it here first.

I don't buy it. All teams have injuries, and some even had bigger injuries than ours and still have winning records. Cleveland did not have their top player (Gordon) for 10 games and lost their perennial Pro Bowl Center a month ago and they still win games. I could go on and on. Bostic, Greene, and SMC should not get fooled by Play Action after their 2nd and 3rd years in the league. The stats you listed are deceiving for the Cardinals and Ravens because those teams have good to great defenses and are playing with a lead so teams will inherently pass more and get garbage time yards. Look at a better stat like QB Passer Rating Against. Teams with an opponent QB Rating over 100: 1. NYJ 109.4 2. WAS 103.5 3. CHI 101.1 4. OAK 100.0 5. TB 100.0 6. JAX 99.1 I just listed JAX to show how bad the teams are in that list. Besides us, those other 5 teams have 9 combined wins. We have allowed a league high (which is bad) 40.8% of 1st Downs when passing. That means teams get a 1st Down 41 out of every 100 pass attempts (not completions). If you count completions, they get a first down 41 out of every 66 completions (62% of the time). That is beyond bad. So teams didn't run because they didn't have to. Once you are over 50% in that second value, you can run once (if you want to), then pass on 2nd and 3rd Down, and you will have a first down almost every time. Our Defensive Line is actually pretty good, but our LB Corps and Defensive Backfield has to be the worst in the league. Like I have said in almost every game thread, our defense doesn't actually cover anyone. On every play 2-3 receivers are wide open and we are guarding empty space. Sometimes we even double that open space.

He was great in his prime, but things went south once Urlacher left. Briggs was not the same and his attitude (and actions) soured on a lot of people. He was a great player and that player will be missed, but he just was not the same player the last two years. Announcing this now is a signal that he will not be back.

With all the recent changes to the league, you just have to look back to our post 2006 Superbowl numbers to see how bad we really have been. From 2007 to this year we are 65-59, just a hair better than .500, and our point differential is +4 in those 124 games. We are 5-12 against GB and 2 of those wins were in 2007 (3-12 since 2008). Basically Forte's entire career we have been average. What a waste. Can you believe Forte has only played in 2 playoff games his entire career? 2012 really hurts because on paper, we had a great team. Looking at overall team ratings, since 1985; 1986, 1988, 2006, and 2012 were our best teams. That 18 year gap from 1988 to 2006 was brutal. Thank god for the Bulls during that run.

Mongo, Definitely needs to start from top down, but if you do that, you can't put any conditions on that move like "Trestman and Tucker stay for another year." You just let Polian work his magic. I think Trestman is over his head as a HC and his play calling is too passive for the NFL. It works in Canada with more players, a bigger field, and different rules, but not in the NFL. I like his attitude and he seems to be a very intelligent guy, but we need a competitor. For Defense, Tucker has to go, we catered to him bringing in just about everything but a great Safety, and the defense is arguably worse than last year. We are dead last in pts allowed and our entire defense seems to be out of sync. I would definitely let Briggs walk, but I would actually bring back Peanut for one more year. Do it the right way. He still can contribute and with fresh legs, who knows, he may be even better than last year. He had a freak injury to an odd muscle, so I would offer him a one-year deal to redeem himself. You know he doesn't want to go out like that. We can't cut Houston, his cap hit is too big next year. Let's chalk it up as a bonehead move. SMC is someone to consider For Special Teams, DeCamworthless needs to be fired already. I think the organization is just keeping him because the season is already lost. We need a new coach, and a couple of ST studs. This phase cannot be overlooked like it was this year. Overall, we under-achieved. I thought on paper we had a top 12-15 team capable of at least competing week in and week out, yet we are 5-6 and have only 1 win against a winning team. TB has 5 losses by 5 or less. ATL has 2 losses by 3 total pts. 6 of OAK losses were by 10 or less. All those teams have worse records than us, but played competitive. 5 of our losses are by 13 or more. That is ridiculous. We were essentially not competitive in 5 games. BLUF: Pay Polian whatever he wants, give him as much control as he desires, an open checkbook, and let him go to work without restrictions.

Fuller seems to be strictly a Slot Corner. He can't handle the bigger receivers like Peanut did. We need a bigger corner. Vereen is also under-sized. We definitely need to get bigger. For the LBs, they are great in run support, but bite every time on play action and didn't handle the screens very well. The D-Line played pretty good for stretches, then disappeared for others. Sutton was mentioned several times. Overall I agree that we are really running a lot of younger players out there, but it is still football and at some point these guys (like Bostic) should get it. Look at Borland in SF, rookie in the middle, in on almost every play.

I just have a feeling that this is going to be brought up at some point. They will point to the injuries on the O-Line to Slauson, Mills, DLP, and Britton, and on the D to Peanut, Briggs, Houston, Conte, Ratliff, Fuller and say that those were the reason this team struggled all year with consistency. I hope not, but I see it coming.

We won the 1st and 3rd quarters! I just don't understand this team. We have a beautifully called and executed first drive. We hold Detroit to a 3 and out, then a FG, and then force a turnover that gives us a 14-3 lead. How do we go from that back to the same old team where every receiver is somehow open on the field and we get no pass rush on defense. Then when we are on offense, no one is open and Cutler has 2 linemen in his face (every freaking play).

I don't want them to lose, but I don't think we win any of the next 3 anyway (DAL, NO, DET). So we will more than likely finish 6-10 (our worst record since 2004), which should land us a top 10 pick.

Willie Young gets a drive saving sack, celebrates, and gets a penalty for roughing the passer. Seriously. We are jinxed.

Now we are getting no pressure and every receiver is open. I just don't get how the Bears leave Fuller isolated on Megatron after 8 catches. Everyone knew that ball was going to him. Crazy to think we had a 14-3 lead and are down 24-14 going into half.

and just like that, our Bears are back. Stafford over 200 yards passing in the half.

Marshall drops one, wasn't long enough for a first down, but would've made it close to FG range.

We are getting pressure, but we need to give Fuller some help as Megatron is open on every play.

Wow Jared Allen is on fire. Great strip sack and recovery. We need a TD.

Yeah, I still don't like the zone, but at least the line is getting some pressure. Two Detroit drives and only a FG is a good start.

We have been asking for this all year, our offense looked unstoppable. Detroit is #1 against the run, so we should've loosened them up a little there.

Defense forces a 3 and out with 2 run stuffs, we get a 15 yard punt return, and the offense scores a TD on a great drive with awesome play calling. What team is this?