Howard

[Alaskan Grizzly]

It appears Jordan will be available soon as a FA.  The question is should the Bears consider returning him?  What type of blocking will Chicago deploy under Castillo?  Are they wanting to go more power blocking, zone blocking or concentrate more on pass blocking?  I think someone hypothesized that the reason Hiestand lost his job was because he wanted to do more power blocking and Nagy did not.  (My guess is Nagy needed a scape goat and Hiestand was one of a few options).  Anyhow, if in fact the Bears goal is to focus more on a combination of pass and zone blocking then Howard may still be an option.  Even with a couple of fixes along the oline for next year I don’t see them being dramatically better than they were this year.  And due to that having Howard in the backfield for blocking assists and the occasional power run would be worth the money.  The article below makes a few other good points.

https://www.nbcsports.com/chicago/bears/should-bears-bring-eagles-running-back-jordan-howard-back-chicago

[BearFan PHX]

I dont think Howard has enough change of direction.

I totally think this is a smart comment "I think someone hypothesized that the reason Hiestand lost his job was because he wanted to do more power blocking and Nagy did not.  (My guess is Nagy needed a scape goat and Hiestand was one of a few options). " -- I think probably a combination of both and the horrible play of the OL in general. But it was a smart point you made.

[Pixote]

For what it's worth,  I personally don't agree of all the claims that Nagy and Ryan made moves to defer blame to "escape goats." 

With a few exceptions, the players on every team bond with the other players and their coaches. They will go into battle with them. They become family.

If it were true that Nagy and Ryan were releasing coaches / players simply to defer blame on others, believe me, the players would know. Nagy and Ryan would lose all respect of the players. At that point, you might as well kiss their asses goodbye.

[Connorbear]

41 minutes ago, Pixote said:

For what it's worth,  I personally don't agree of all the claims that Nagy and Ryan made moves to defer blame to "escape goats." 

With a few exceptions, the players on every team bond with the other players and their coaches. They will go into battle with them. They become family.

If it were true that Nagy and Ryan were releasing coaches / players simply to defer blame on others, believe me, the players would know. Nagy and Ryan would lose all respect of the players. At that point, you might as well kiss their asses goodbye.

Good to hear from you, Pix. 

Agreed 100%. 

Peace

 

[BearFan PHX]

1 hour ago, Pixote said:

For what it's worth,  I personally don't agree of all the claims that Nagy and Ryan made moves to defer blame to "escape goats." 

With a few exceptions, the players on every team bond with the other players and their coaches. They will go into battle with them. They become family.

If it were true that Nagy and Ryan were releasing coaches / players simply to defer blame on others, believe me, the players would know. Nagy and Ryan would lose all respect of the players. At that point, you might as well kiss their asses goodbye.

Hi Pix, I agree, it's good to see you post here.

What if it was put a different way.

Last season went very poorly and to change nothing would be like saying everything was fine, and so they felt they had to make some changes to shake things up. They knew they werent going to fire themselves (Pace and Nagy) so they went to the people who ran the positions that failed. OC and OL.

That is almost the same as scapegoating, but from a different point of view, not purely political, but still systematic.

[Alaskan Grizzly]

6 minutes ago, BearFan NYC said:

so they went to the people who ran the positions that failed. OC

Who are we kidding?  Nagy was and is the OC.  I personally don’t think all that highly of Lazor.  He was just fired from Cincinnati for Pete’s sake.  

[Alaskan Grizzly]

1 hour ago, Pixote said:

For what it's worth,  I personally don't agree of all the claims that Nagy and Ryan made moves to defer blame to "escape goats." 

What if I said ‘fall guy(s)’ instead?  ??

Seriously though, Paces wagon is hitched to Trubisky and by association so is Nagy. Pace has more to lose than does Nagy due to that fact.  I would imagine that Pace and Nagy had some discussion about how to make their offense better and probably noticed like everyone else the weakest link this year, for whatever reason, was the oline.  Prior to his departure Hiestand was pretty well regarded in the offensive line world.  He coached a handful of successful linemen while in Notre Dame and many of those players thought highly of him (Bars being one of them).  So to believe he suddenly slipped is still a head scratcher.  As far as Helfrich I don’t know either.  History shows he did ok while at Oregon. But as I’ve mentioned before, Nagy is really the OC anyhow. We know Nagy has struggled before (see the playoff game with KC prior to his coming to Chicago).  
 

When it’s all said and done I hope ? that this combination will work.  The defense probably has a few more good years left in it.  The Bears need to strike while the irons hot.  

and...it’s good to see you back Pix.

 

[Stinger226]

What you get is new perspectives in the room with Dephillpo and Lazor . It is support for Nagy because he calls the plays. They have very little power other than to help coordinate Trubisky and the offense.  It MT fails that will fall on Pace, I think us finishing 8-8 with so many bad aspects of the offense Nagy is also going to get blame if not quick turn around.  The defense was 8th in the league even with our bad offense.  I think they make a quick turnaround with Hicks coming back. The team is better than they looked last year. 

[Pixote]

I agree, Dephillpo and Lazor both have amazing track records for their ability to get the most out of the QBs they've worked with. Plain and simple, it's a last ditch effort to salvage MT's career. Unfortunately, I'm unsure it's possible. We'll see. I would love to see them bring in a legitimate backup/starter in case MT tanks. 

[BearFan PHX]

16 minutes ago, Pixote said:

I agree, Dephillpo and Lazor both have amazing track records for their ability to get the most out of the QBs they've worked with. Plain and simple, it's a last ditch effort to salvage MT's career. Unfortunately, I'm unsure it's possible. We'll see. I would love to see them bring in a legitimate backup/starter in case MT tanks. 

agree!