adam

We are all of a sudden going to go 5-1 in the Division? We will be lucky to get to 4-2. As I said before, that is a tough schedule outside of the Division, I am hoping for a 4-2 Division record and 6-4 non-Division record for another 10-6 finish. The 6 non-division wins would be PHI, STL, CLE, DAL, NO, and CIN, same as Wesson. For the Division, it is a crapshoot, I see us splitting with Minnesota, sweeping Detroit, and hopefully splitting with GB, but I can see them sweeping us (again), making us finish 9-7.

I merged threads so we don't have a 1,000 on the same topic.

I though Lovie might go there with the defense. If not, he will end up in Buffalo.

Some interesting comments from Emery: http://sports.yahoo.com/news/gm-lagging-of...Y3Rpb25z;_ylv=3

No prob.

https://twitter.com/JayGlazer/status/286194232891424768

http://www.rotoworld.com/player/nfl/2468/bears-offense I thought it would be easier to put all the new rumors and news about the new coach into one thread. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I will update this portion as names come up: HC Prospects (13JAN): 1. Mike McCoy - Denver OC * 2. Keith Armstrong - Atlanta ST * 3. Mike Sullivan - Tampa OC * 4. Joe DeCamillis - Dallas ST * 5. Tom Clements, Green Bay OC * 6. Pete Carmichael, New Orleans OC * 7. Bruce Arians, Indianapolis OC * 8. Marc Trestman, Montreal Alouettes HC * 9. Rick Dennison, Houston OC * 10. Darrell Bevell, Seattle OC * 11. Mike Singletary, Minnesota LB's Coach * 12. Mike Priefer, Minnesota ST * 13. Dave Toub, Chicago ST * * - Interview completed

Lovie already contacted by four teams. http://sports.yahoo.com/news/report-four-t...08665--nfl.html So 4 out of Philadelphia Eagles, Buffalo Bills, Kansas City Chiefs, San Diego Chargers, Cleveland Browns and Arizona Cardinals. Buffalo and Arizona have similar defenses in terms of impact players and that is where Lovie is most interested. Peterson could be Lovie's new Hester, and the offense can be just as bad.

I was actually thinking of a great slot receiver like Amendola (UFA) instead.

Yep, I can't tell you how many times we have let teams back into games by first playing uber conservative on offense which would result in numerous 3 and outs, and then switch to prevent and allow teams to play pitch and catch all the way down the field for a score.

I was surprised to hear similar sentiments on ESPN (not like that is surprising). They kept saying, "I am sure Buffalo would love to be where the Bears and Eagles have been" and "be careful what you ask for" and "who are they going to get that is better". How many times did the Bears have back-to-back winning seasons under Lovie Smith (9 seasons)? 1 (2005-2006) We had back-to-back winning seasons once in the last decade. To me it is surprising that he lasted this long. He should've been given 3 years after the Super Bowl loss. What did the Bears do in those 3 years? 7-9, 9-7, 7-9, and no playoff appearances. He should've been fired after 2009, but since it was Cutler's first year, apparently he got a free pass. I also didn't like how he ousted Ron Rivera after the SB, and the defense has never matched the same dominance after that.

Final numbers for wins against winning teams: 2006 - 2 wins 2007 - 2 wins 2008 - 3 wins 2009 - 2 wins 2010 - 3 wins 2011 - 2 wins 2012 - 2 wins (Dallas going 8-8 reduced total by 1) So for 2012, we went 2-6 against winning teams. If we went 3-5 we make the playoffs. Amazing how a few plays in an entire season can impact coaching careers. If the Bears stop Seattle from scoring that last minute TD or hold them to something other than another TD in OT, and we win, who knows where we would be right now.

No, it was a team effort. Lovie was on the hot seat the moment Emery was hired. He either succeeded this season (and was well on his way after a 7-1 start), or failed (which occurred with a 1-5 stretch against playoff teams (2-6 overall).

I would prefer Arians or McCoy over Muschamp, and would prefer an NFL coordinator over a college coach.

After his performance this year, I can't see Emery paying him with Weems on the roster. Weems has been a ST stud and can handle return duties as well. Hester was electric in his prime, but he has lost a step or the rest of the league has gotten faster, because doesn't make anyone miss anymore. Sad to see his decline because I thought he had 2-3 good years left.

Yeah Peyton Manning carried that team for a decade, they should've won 2-3 with him at the helm.

Gruden built a Super Bowl team in Oakland, then got traded to Tampa where he beat his former team. So he essentially had 2 Super Bowl teams in 1 year, now that is efficient.

To me most decent coaches could've done what Lovie did with these players over his tenure. Any defense, with players like Urlacher, Briggs, Peppers, and Tillman would be good. Lovie gets some credit, but not all of it. Tillman alone accounted for most of "Lovie's ball hawking defense" as someone pointed out recently. Every year it seemed like we never lived up to expectations. This year as well, we had a top 5 defense and special teams, and an offense with Cutler, Marshall, and Forte, and we couldn't get it done. The Super Bowl loss was a missed opportunity as was the NFC Championship as home.

of the 14 UFA's, only 4 were technically starters, 5 if you count Hayes who came in when Urlacher went down. We will also have a bunch of guys coming off IR as well, which should help at least for depth. Cutting dead weight like Hester, Davis, and Spaeth will help as well. UFA's: Jonathan Scott* Chris Spencer Jason Campbell Josh McCown Kahlil Bell Brian Urlacher* Henry Melton* Nick Roach* Geno Hayes Israel Idonije Amobi Okoye D.J. Moore Zackary Bowman Olindo Mare

I LOL'd at this, very funny. https://twitter.com/BradBiggs/status/285797937827684354

Hilarious to see bitter former players. From Hunter Hillenmeyer: https://twitter.com/hthill/status/285781251074445312 5 wins my ass. This was a 13 win team taken down to 10 wins by Lovie.

Is this official enough: http://www.chicagobears.com/news/article-1...ab-51c753ac5fd6

From ESPN 1000:

Lovie was fired.

From a tradition and current roster standpoint, we have to be one of the best coaching jobs available in a long time. If some former HC's (Cowher, Billick, Gruden) were waiting for the right job, this one would be hard to pass on. Also, if we are looking for a College-level coach, they have a lot to work with right away.