How Bout Dem Bears?

padraig_f · 01-01-2013 9:05pm

I'm a big fan of the articles on Football Perspective. They use advanced stats that give them a different, and usually better, angle than the mainstream media.

They have one today saying Brandon Marshall was the best receiver in the NFL this year:
Examining the seasons of Calvin Johnson and Brandon Marshall in a different light

I'm not gonna bang the drum for Marshall being better than Calvin Johnson, they're both great players, and it'd splitting hairs a bit. But I do think Marshall had an awesome season, as good as Johnson, but he didn't get the credit he deserved because of the Bears' misfiring offense.

The Bears finished the season 29th in passing-yards, and Marshall finished the 3rd overall in receiving yards. That's pretty remarkable.

Realt Dearg Sec · 01-01-2013 9:50pm

padraig_f wrote: »

I'm a big fan of the articles on Football Perspective. They use advanced stats that give them a different, and usually better, angle than the mainstream media.

They have one today saying Brandon Marshall was the best receiver in the NFL this year:
Examining the seasons of Calvin Johnson and Brandon Marshall in a different light

I'm not gonna bang the drum for Marshall being better than Calvin Johnson, they're both great players, and it'd splitting hairs a bit. But I do think Marshall had an awesome season, as good as Johnson, but he didn't get the credit he deserved because of the Bears' misfiring offense.

The Bears finished the season 29th in passing-yards, and Marshall finished the 3rd overall in receiving yards. That's pretty remarkable.

The acquisition of Marshall was one of the factors that made Smith look a little better than he was. Without him the entire offense would have amounted to giving the ball to Forte.

Hester is not the player he was and his time was running out anyway. Never good to see him coming on as a receiver, and hadn't done anything too spectacular on special teams this year either.

Bruce Arians, if the Bears can get him, is the candidate people seem to want. That is, if the security officers at O'Hare airport are indicative of general opinion. But he'll be in demand.

Itssoeasy · 02-01-2013 12:39am

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap1000000120893/article/chicago-bears-exec-jay-cutler-similar-to-george-halas

Jay cutler is like George Halas apparently. Any bears fans want to explain that ?

padraig_f · 02-01-2013 1:34am

Itssoeasy wrote: »

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap1000000120893/article/chicago-bears-exec-jay-cutler-similar-to-george-halas

Jay cutler is like George Halas apparently. Any bears fans want to explain that ?

Ha, they had a press conference today outlining their plans in what's obviously going to be a new era for the franchise. And I think they just wanted to emphasise that Cutler was an integral part of those plans. Possibly went a bit overboard making that point

Oat23 · 02-01-2013 4:39am

The Emery presser today was great. He is better than Angelo at just about everything.

padraig_f · 04-01-2013 2:03am

Reading some profiles of Mike McCoy, here
He's not the real McCoy, he's the real deal

and on his wikipedia page. And you can only tell so much from them, but I like the profile of him. Former quarterback, rapid rise through the coaching ranks, proven NFL success with quarterbacks of differing abilities (from Tebow to Peyton Manning, can hardly have a bigger contrast than that).

It's a good balance between someone who you'd be pretty sure could at least do a decent job, given his track-record over the last few years, and could potentially have a very high upside.

Rented Mule · 04-01-2013 7:24pm

mayordenis wrote: »

Disappointed to lose Smith and will be sad to see Hester go, the way things went from a 7-1 start to not making the playoffs mean this had to happen, but at 10-6 it's something I'm not totally behind.

The Bears were 10-6 and third in their division. The second half of that is the obvious issue. The other issues is that they have missed the playoffs 5/6 years. That is completely unacceptable regardless of his record.

The biggest issue with Lovie's tenure with the Bears was the absolute dismal performance of the offense. The highest the Bears have ranked in his time offensively was #16. He championed mediocrity once in nine years.

The word in the Chicago media at the moment is that the Bears are starting to like the idea of Indianapolis Colts Offensive Coordinator/Interim Head Coach Bruce Arians.

Realt Dearg Sec · 04-01-2013 7:57pm

Rented Mule wrote: »

The word in the Chicago media at the moment is that the Bears are starting to like the idea of Indianapolis Colts Offensive Coordinator/Interim Head Coach Bruce Arians.

They definitely like the idea (offensively minded, has a very good record, and a clear understanding of NFL offenses today), the question is whether he really wants to leave the Colts, who are going places. He has said, quite unclearly, that he might be interested in a HC job, but it would have to be a place with a good city (I always wondered how players felt about having to go to crappy cities when they're drafted), a team with the capacity to win, and the right organisation in place. The Bears seem to tick all those boxes, but we can't know what's in his head.

padraig_f · 04-01-2013 8:55pm

Just looking at their basic resumes, I prefer McCoy to Arians. Reservations about Arians....

60 years old, but never been an NFL head coach. Why?

WR coach in Pittsburgh in '07 when Cowher retired. Steelers went outside to Hire Tomlin (Arians promoted to OC).

5 years later, with some pretty average offensive years...

2007 - 17th in offensive yards,
2008 - 22nd
2009 - 7th
2010 - 14th
2011 - 12th

...his contract is allowed to expire by the Steelers.

Comes to Indy and has got a lot of good press for winning some games with Chuck Pagano going out.

But the Colts are really a fraudulent 11-5 team. They finished the season 23rd in yards-per-play, and 30th in yards-per-play allowed.

I was listening to Aaron Schatz of Football Outsiders on the BS Report podcast this week, and he said the Colts were the worst 11-5 team they'd ever recorded (their records go back 20 years), and their DVOA was also lower than any 10-6 team they'd ever recorded.

DVOA, which is a much better predictor of future success than the team's actual record, ranks the colts 25th this year (18th on offense, 31st on defense). Essentially they're a sub .500 team with a misleading record (played one of the easiest schedules in the league, and a lot of the games they won, they were outgained).

If their record better reflected the quality of the team and they were 7-9 or something, I'm not sure he'd be in such demand. When you look at Arians, you need to ignore Indy's 11-5 record, because it's not real.

padraig_f · 15-01-2013 4:34pm

Head coach search down to 3 candidates.

- Bruce Arians, Colts OC
- Darrell Bevell, Seahawks OC
- Marc Trestman, CFL winning head-coach

I'm a bit surprised not to see Mike McCoy at least in the last 3, but I'm only making a very surface judgment, looking at their general CVs.

Seems to me from the candidates, Emery is valuing head-coaching experience, which is obviously a real consideration, because success in a co-ordinator role doesn't always mean success in a head-coach role.

Of the three, I think I like Trestman bet. While there are technical differences with CFL football, I think head-coaching skills, where he's had success, would translate well, and he has fairly extensive NFL experience prior to going to the CFL.

Arians worries me, because I think he's getting far too much credit for the Colts single-season success. Chuck Pagano was the one responsible for the whole structure developed over the off-season, and took it into the start of the season. Ok, give him credit for keeping the show on the road, but I'm not sure half a season as an interim head-coach is comparable to an actual head-coaching role.

Bevell has a similar profile to McCoy, up-and-coming co-ordinator. The Seahawks had a very effective offense this season, although when I watched them, they got a lot of value from Wilson improvising outside the structure of the offense. So how much was the OC can be hard to gauge. He was also there the year before, with Tarvaris Jackson, when their numbers weren't so impressive.

I'll be honest, I'm not real fired up by any of the 3, but not having been privy to the discussions, it was always going to be a case of wait-and-see.

kennyb3 · 15-01-2013 4:42pm

Would like Trestman myself, but like you am surprised McCoy or Dennison didn't make it near the list.

I'd actually prefer Bevell over Arians - as we don't need the same old same old, we need a big change up. Though obviously it has the potential to backfire.

Quote from elsewhere that made me think:

What stands out to me: pick your flavor. Young, up-and-comer (Bevell); proven veteran (Arians) and outside-the-box (Trestman)

Anyway i'm hoping Emery gets this right

kennyb3 · 16-01-2013 2:48pm

I'm sure most know at this stage but said i'd leave this here anyway - Trestman hired

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/football/bears/chi-bears-hire-marc-trestman-20130115,0,6614538.story

baddebt · 16-01-2013 3:36pm

kennyb3 wrote: »

I'm sure most know at this stage but said i'd leave this here anyway - Trestman hired

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/football/bears/chi-bears-hire-marc-trestman-20130115,0,6614538.story

what do people think ?, I don't know much about this dude ,good of bad signing ?

is there much difference between Amercian footie and canadian footie

padraig_f · 16-01-2013 3:53pm

kennyb3 wrote: »

I'm sure most know at this stage but said i'd leave this here anyway - Trestman hired

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/football/bears/chi-bears-hire-marc-trestman-20130115,0,6614538.story

Good stuff, while I wasn't excited by the 3 candidates as a whole, he was definitely my favourite.

- Already a head-coach, he's not gonna be a co-ordinator spending a year or two trying to find his feet, so you can hit the ground running. Which is what you need for this team, it's not a project, it's built to win now.

- West Coast Offense guy. I'm not that knowledgable on the X's and O's of the WCO, I'm gonna read some more about it, but the lack of effective quick-hitting plays this year I thought was a big handicap. In 3rd-and-short situations I had no confidence in the team to get a high-percentage play. You expect to see more of Forte as a receiver, which is exciting. And I presume they'll be looking for a new receiving tight end. I was thinking of reading this book by Bill Walsh in the off-season, so think I'll definitely get that now.

- Already worked with Cutler at the '06 draft combine, so there's already a relationship there. It'll be a new style of offense for Cutler to learn, but I think he has the general skills to do so, and with Trestman being a bit of a QB guru, can help him fill in the gaps.

In general I'm excited. Reading some reactions from Montreal Alouettes fans and you hear things like 'innovative', 'creative', and it was proven by on-field success. They're obviously going to be positive about a coach that won them titles, but the sense I got was they were specifically crediting a large part of their success to his coaching skills.

kennyb3 · 16-01-2013 4:16pm

Aaron Kromer OC also, bye bye Tice

kennyb3 · 16-01-2013 4:21pm

http://www.amazon.com/Perseverance-Life-Lessons-Leadership-Teamwork/dp/0978780930/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1358349629&sr=1-1&keywords=marc+trestman

Might be worth a read too, Brandon Marshall just tweeted to say he is reading it and is excited by the hire!:)

padraig_f · 16-01-2013 5:16pm

kennyb3 wrote: »

http://www.amazon.com/Perseverance-Life-Lessons-Leadership-Teamwork/dp/0978780930/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1358349629&sr=1-1&keywords=marc+trestman

Might be worth a read too, Brandon Marshall just tweeted to say he is reading it and is excited by the hire!:)

Nice one. I forgot as well that Culter and Marshall played in a West Coast Offense in Denver. It won't be exactly the same, but should be a big help.

Oat23 · 16-01-2013 5:24pm

Happy Trestman got the job

Hopefully Marinelli stays as the DC.

TO. · 16-01-2013 6:20pm

Great hire by the Bears. Great offensive mind and knows how to work with QBs properly. Very intelligent coach and the Bears get exactly what they need an offense guy. Coach in the NFL as a QB/OC for 20 years before hitting Canada. In 4 seasons in Canada he has 2 Grey Cups.Liked by many coaches and players.

Oat23 · 12-02-2013 7:31pm

Johnny Knox released today, sad to see he couldn't recover from his injury but I'm happy they kept him around and paid him last season.

I know some sections of the fanbase gave him a lot of sh*t for running the wrong route or not blocking, but he was a solid contributor and went to the pro bowl as a returner one year. I think he was only about 50 yards away from 1000 in 2010 also. Best of luck to him in his life after the NFL!

padraig_f · 12-02-2013 7:43pm

I think that was the scariest injury I ever saw watching sport. Sucks to be out of the game at a young age, but hopefully he has pretty good health.

Realt Dearg Sec · 12-02-2013 8:00pm

padraig_f wrote: »

I think that was the scariest injury I ever saw watching sport. Sucks to be out of the game at a young age, but hopefully he has pretty good health.

Was just looking at the hit, it was gruesome. He's lucky to be alive let alone playing football.

Realt Dearg Sec · 15-02-2013 7:43pm

Knox has announced that he is retired from pro football.

bobby wade · 24-02-2013 1:44am

Its a shame but health comes first

Realt Dearg Sec · 02-03-2013 10:04pm

Henry Melton franchise tagged. Uses up nearly all of the spare cap space, and makes it very difficult if they want to keep Urlacher this year. Actually it's an indication that they don't want to keep him. He said he'd take a serious cut in pay because he wants to stay in Chicago, but it doesn't look workable at the moment. They'll even struggle to pay their rookies. Presumably a fair few cuts on the cards after all the silence from Emery.

Spongey1975 · 02-03-2013 10:47pm

Wouldnt worry about the salary cap at this stage. Plenty of time yet to do a deal for Melton that wont cost 8mil towards the cap. They will also rework Peppers deal (he's counting 16mil to the cap) Tillmans deal (8mil to the cap) and possibly Cutlers deal (10 mil to the cap). Reworking those deals will free up plenty of space to resign Urlacher, all the rookies and a few more vets. They could also release Kellen Davis and Devin Hester which would free up almost 5mil too.

Loads of options available

Realt Dearg Sec · 02-03-2013 11:01pm

Spongey1975 wrote: »

Wouldnt worry about the salary cap at this stage. Plenty of time yet to do a deal for Melton that wont cost 8mil towards the cap. They will also rework Peppers deal (he's counting 16mil to the cap) Tillmans deal (8mil to the cap) and possibly Cutlers deal (10 mil to the cap). Reworking those deals will free up plenty of space to resign Urlacher, all the rookies and a few more vets. They could also release Kellen Davis and Devin Hester which would free up almost 5mil too.

Loads of options available

Tagging Melton guarantees him 8.45 million though, so there's no doing a deal. In the longer term, I presume they hope to be able to come to a more reasonable agreement (same as Forte). They also need to workout deals with Idonije, Lance Lewis, and a bunch of others. They can restructure Peppers and Tillman, but Cutler is different. If they want to get his wage down, they'll have to cut a longer term deal, and Trestman and Emery have been very cagey about whether they are actually interested in doing that before they see how he works with the new coaching staff. They've all but said (and so has Cutler) that they will basically wait and see.

Still, of course, they have more room for manoeuvre than most clubs, I think I'm just getting pessimistic that they might not bring back Urlacher, didn't think our defense was up to scratch once he got injured.

Spongey1975 · 02-03-2013 11:21pm

Realt Dearg Sec wrote: »

Tagging Melton guarantees him 8.45 million though, so there's no doing a deal. In the longer term, I presume they hope to be able to come to a more reasonable agreement (same as Forte).

The purpose of the tag is that he doesnt hit free agency. They now have until a certain date (usually in July but not sure exactly) to agree on a multi year deal or else Melton plays a one year deal worth 8.45 million. If they agree a deal then i've no doubt it will be structured in such a way that it doesnt cost 8.45 million towards the cap this year

If you remember last year Forte was tagged for 7.7 million but after his deal was done in July last year his salary cap hit was only 6.8 million

There is plenty of wiggle room for the salary cap this year. Converting Peppers salary to a signing bonus over remaining 3 years will free up 10 million alone

bobby wade · 07-03-2013 6:26pm

Aye no need to worry about Meltons hit on cap space just yet. However I'd like to hear of some restructuring on other players

Realt Dearg Sec · 07-03-2013 7:02pm

bobby wade wrote: »

Aye no need to worry about Meltons hit on cap space just yet. However I'd like to hear of some restructuring on other players

Especially if they are looking to pick up a TE in free agency.

Spongey1975 · 13-03-2013 11:11am

Good pick ups yesterday in Bennett and Bushrod. Not sure what the cap hits are yet (I heard that bushrods was only 3.05 million for 2013 but not substantiated yet). Might see kellen davis and matt spaeth cut as a result of Bennett signing. A few restructures will be needed

bobby wade · 13-03-2013 3:10pm

@vxmcclure23
Profootballtalk reports that Bears have released tight end Kellen Davis.

padraig_f · 14-03-2013 5:18pm

Spongey1975 wrote: »

Good pick ups yesterday in Bennett and Bushrod. Not sure what the cap hits are yet (I heard that bushrods was only 3.05 million for 2013 but not substantiated yet). Might see kellen davis and matt spaeth cut as a result of Bennett signing. A few restructures will be needed

Cool, two of the biggest needs and probably safer to address them in free-agency rather than the draft. Looking forward to a more varied offense next season, no viable tight-end was a big handicap last year. You'll have Jeffery in his second year (I heard he's working out with Marshall in the off-season), and Emery said he wanted to use Forte as a receiver more. We'll need to see how it comes together, but think it will be more varied and fun to watch at least.

Spongey1975 · 14-03-2013 6:20pm

The combined signings of Bushrod and Bennett are counting just under $5 million in cap space in 2013. The cuts of Davis and Spaeth and projected cut of Toieana will save over $5 million in cap space.

Good business so far. We have enough to sign our rookie class but then we are right up on the cap limit. Some restructures are still needed as we still got to sort out our LBs, backup QB and other needs

bobby wade · 15-03-2013 5:16pm

Roach gone to Okland to be their MLB

Spongey1975 · 16-03-2013 2:53pm

bobby wade wrote: »

Roach gone to Okland to be their MLB

Disappointed with that one but Bears were given chance to match Raiders offer of 3-4 mil and decided not to (right decision imo)

Better news is we re-signed Zack Bowman who is a special teams standout

Article here from yesterday on the current cap situation for the Bears

bobby wade · 18-03-2013 10:41pm

Aye Bowman came in & had an amazing year

Oat23 · 21-03-2013 12:23am

Lach is gone, turned down the 1 year/$2m he was offered.

There is no way he is getting much more than that off another team. Is it really worth going somewhere else for a few hundred grand more instead of having one more season with the Bears? If Briggs & Peanut are hoisting the Lombardi next February he is going to regret it forever.

Maybe he'll just retire. Sad day anyway

Realt Dearg Sec · 21-03-2013 1:21am

Oatesy23 wrote: »

Lach is gone, turned down the 1 year/$2m he was offered.

There is no way he is getting much more than that off another team. Is it really worth going somewhere else for a few hundred grand more instead of having one more season with the Bears? If Briggs & Peanut are hoisting the Lombardi next February he is going to regret it forever.

Maybe he'll just retire. Sad day anyway

Yeah disappointed to be honest, I thought the defense was far better when he was in it last year, struggled a bit without him reading the play. He had said he would be happy to take a pay cut and that he wanted to finish his career in Chicago as he regards it as home now, so it's odd that he would hold out for more than 2m. What teams would take a cap hit of more than that for him at this point? He must have some other interested parties lined up or he wouldn't have held out.

bobby wade · 21-03-2013 1:48pm

from what I've read the problem may have been it was only $1 mill guranteed. $500,000 signing bonus & $500,000 roster bonus

Realt Dearg Sec · 21-03-2013 1:56pm

bobby wade wrote: »

from what I've read the problem may have been it was only $1 mill guranteed. $500,000 signing bonus & $500,000 roster bonus

Well Urlacher certainly seems to think they were deliberately low-balling to get rid of him.

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap1000000152376/article/brian-urlacher-chicago-bears-offer-about-saving-face

It's an odd article actually, because after saying he felt jipped by the franchise, he also says he could possibly still see himself signing later in the year. I think he's right though, the Bears clearly don't want him.

bobby wade · 21-03-2013 2:14pm

‏@ZachZaidman 1m #Bears went 5-7 the year after parting ways with Bill George, 4-10 the year after Dick Butkus left and 7-9 after Mike Singletary retired.

Spongey1975 · 21-03-2013 2:18pm

I don't think its a case of the Bears not wanting him, they just dont want to pay 3.5 million for one year or the 11.5 million 2 year offer Urlacher originally wanted. They are tight against the cap at the moment and have two LB starters to get yet along with their other needs.

I do believe the way the Bears have gone about it has come across ruthless but maybe thats Emery putting his stamp on his era as GM

I still think he'll be back with the Bears, there doesnt seem to be much interest in him at this stage and there is other good ILBs still out there that will lower the market value of Urlacher

bobby wade · 21-03-2013 2:31pm

‏@espn_nfcnblog 30s Podcast of @BUrlacher54 appearance on ESPN Radio this morning: http://espn.go.com/espnradio/play?id=9078632 …

Not listened yet

Realt Dearg Sec · 21-03-2013 2:53pm

bobby wade wrote: »

‏@espn_nfcnblog 30s Podcast of @BUrlacher54 appearance on ESPN Radio this morning: http://espn.go.com/espnradio/play?id=9078632 …

Not listened yet

Damn can't listen in work, I'll have an ear of it later.

bobby wade · 22-03-2013 5:00am

R.I.P Harlon Hill

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/football/bears/chi-harlon-hill-chicago-bears-20130321,0,1511884.story

bobby wade · 22-03-2013 7:09pm

@BradBiggs #Bears are adding a linebacker. @DanPompei reports team will sign D.J. Williams. http://t.co/6V51AwVYIZ

Spongey1975 · 22-03-2013 7:53pm

bobby wade wrote: »

@BradBiggs #Bears are adding a linebacker. @DanPompei reports team will sign D.J. Williams. http://t.co/6V51AwVYIZ

Not sure what to think about that one, if he stays out of trouble it will be a good signing. At least they addressed one of the linebacker spots and must be a kick in the nuts to Urlacher that they have replaced him so quickly

kennyb3 · 22-03-2013 8:54pm

bobby wade wrote: »

@BradBiggs #Bears are adding a linebacker. @DanPompei reports team will sign D.J. Williams. http://t.co/6V51AwVYIZ

Done deal - at $900,000 base salary not a big risk anyway

Jolly Red Giant · 23-03-2013 12:54am

kennyb3 wrote: »

Done deal - at $900,000 base salary not a big risk anyway

DJ is a suspension waiting to happen - he doesn't have the smarts to keep out of trouble.

How Bout Dem Bears?

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