adam

What also is confusing is that other reports had said that the new coaching candidates were informed that Marinelli was part of the deal to have him not on the team anyway is baffling. Seems like not much has changed since the McGinnis non-hiring (who ended up going 17-40 with the Cards, lol).

I don't know if this was mentioned elsewhere, but I like the idea of getting as much professional assistance as possible. This looks promising, and since this panel was just formed, we obviously did not use it last time. http://espn.go.com/blog/chicago/bears/post...or-new-gm-coach

Probably a joke from Emery on the way out.

Absolutely, but it doesn't sound like Marinelli was just sitting in the room when Emery was doing the interviews. It sounds like Emery narrowed down the final candidates to then have Marinelli provide his input, and then not use it, which is the odd part for me. Why do a final interview using Marinelli only to choose the one candidate that Marinelli didn't like?

Who is asking permission, and how are they doing this without a GM? https://twitter.com/RapSheet/status/550042898096336896

This is from the Mullin article, it clearly states that Emery had Marinelli interview the three finalists: http://www.csnchicago.com/bears/bears-make...e-gm-phil-emery

Those picks are sickening to look at. Especially the 2nd and 3rd rounders. For the GM pick, I hope it is done soon too because this is the time where non playoff teams get the edge in off season prep. We are losing valuable time.

I know this has been discussed before, but may be news to some: http://www.sbnation.com/2014/12/30/7467853...li-bruce-arians Basically Marinelli was in charge of interviewing new HCs, Arians was first choice, Bevell 2nd, and Trestman a distant 3rd. Emery went against Rod's recommendation and the rest is history.

Tucker is gone, they just didn't even want to acknowledge his existence, and DeCamilis is also gone. Those two alone were additions by subtraction. With Accorsi on board to at least find a competent GM, we are already better off heading into the off season. We also go into 2015 in a better cap situation than this year with the 10th biggest cap space available (and potential for more if we do some cutting/trading). If we somehow trade Cutler with no cap hit, we would move to the 2nd biggest available cap (only less than OAK). Either way, we are in a pretty good position cap-wise as well. Then you add the #7 and #39 picks, with the draft in Chicago, and we are really setting ourselves up for an exciting off season.

Did Kromer have another position on the staff other than OC that would warrant his own announcement like Asst. HC?

If the money is a roster bonus then it would be dead money for that year if we cut him. So with 12.5 in dead money he is a Bear in 2015.

Houston would be a 3.9 in dead money, and SMC would be 1.9. The others are not under contract for 2015. Paea is a UFA and should be brought back.

https://twitter.com/dan_bernstein/status/54...0221842432?s=01

Welcome back man.

This is huge. The entire football operations side has been cleaned out from top to bottom and we have the 7th pick with the draft in Chicago.

1. TB 2-14 2. TEN 2-14 3. JAX 2-14 4. OAK 3-13 5. WAS 4-12 6. NYJ 4-12 7. CHI 5-11 8. ATL 6-10 9. NYG 6-10 10. STL 6-10 So we get the 7th, 39th, 71st, and 103rd picks in the first 4 rounds before adding in the supplemental picks.

No it was actually confirmed by Albert Breer.

Great news, and Harbaugh is going to Michigan.

Kinda funny that Cutler misses the mark for any of the Bears single season records with another lackluster game. Forte gets the single season record for receptions by an RB, passes Chris Warren for 52nd on the all-time rushing list, and Keenan McCardell for 66th for yards from scrimmage.

Thanks for sharing. All seems pretty accurate.

A loss gives us the 7th pick, and a win drops us from 8th thru 11th depending on the outcome of 3 other games. We need ATL, NO, and NYG to all win to get the highest pick possible. Also, a win puts us into 3rd in the division making our schedule even tougher next year. The last place team plays TB and WAS, while the 3rd place team is going to get NYG and the 3rd place finisher of the NFC South (CAR , ATL, NO). That is a huge swing.

We will more than likely win unless this team totally mails it in. Hopefully Forte gets the record. With a win, I figure we will end up picking 9th. With 2 of ATL, NO, and NYG winning.

We are definitely at the end of an era. The great defensive core of Urlacher, Briggs, and Peanut are almost gone (pending Peanuts status). Hopefully we can get back to that level on the defensive side of the ball soon.

I know you didn't want stats but I thought these comparisons were interesting: Name - Y/G / Comp / Y/A / TD% / INT% / QB Rat Jay - 234 / 61.7% / 7.2 / 4.8% / 3.4% / 85.3 Eli - 234 / 59.0% / 7.1 / 4.6% / 3.3% / 82.5 Joe - 227 / 60.5% / 7.0 / 4.0% / 2.5% / 84.6 Andy - 230 / 61.4% / 7.0 / 4.7% / 3.1% / 85.2 Besides Flacco's lower TD and INT pcts, all 4 QBs are almost indistinguishable stats-wise. I will have to look into this but I believe that all QBs have had above average to great defenses for most of their careers and some have had very little turnover at OC and HC. I think Cutler is in this category, he can be better in the right system and situation but will always be inconsistent. This puts him as a top 15 QB with a ceiling of top 8 or so. He will never be Brady, Rodgers, Manning, Brees, and probably will never be Romo or Rivers, or Luck but I think he can be in the third tier. I just don't know if he can do it in Chicago.

With Cutler starting the season finale, he actually can hit some Bears single season passing records. He needs 173 yards to pass Kramer for the Bears single season record. With 107 yards he will also pass Jeff George and Joe Namath and move into 56th all-time. With 2 TD passes he will tie Kramer with 29 and 3 would make him the first Bears QB to throw for 30 in a single season. With 3 completions he will be move into 46th all-time and will add to his season record for the Bears which he already surpassed this year. Forte is currently 52nd all-time in rushing yards and needs 44 yards to pass Chris Warren and only 13 yards for 1k on the season. With 11,357 yards from scrimmage, he is currently 67th all-time and needs 37 yards to pass Keegan McCardell. The most interesting record will be with his receptions. He is 6 from 100, 7 from tying Larry Centers for the most all-time by a RB in one year and 2nd all-time in Bears history. 8 gives him the record outright for a RB, and I hope he gets it. Marshall ends the year 32nd all-time in receptions, 48th in yards, and tied for 50th in TDs.