Comments on: Bears’ Albatross: The Talent Gap

By: jdm

jdm — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 21:17:43 +0000

I caught the tail end of a segment on Waddle and Silverman today regarding this topic. With a new chairman in place, if things continue to go south, Waddle doesn’t think the current status quo will continue. We will see about that. I would think Waddle would know something most of us don’t know. Angelo has been a trainwreck/PR disaster since the draft. Just his actions this year doesn’t justify keeping him around, let alone the previous five.

By: Gary

Gary — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 19:03:16 +0000

Horrible. Frustrating. As a fan, what do we do to get our message to the McCaskey family? Start a petition? Create a Facebook page? Start wearing bags over our heads to the games?… sigh. So putting our own GM hats on, who would we get to replace Angelo (trying to put the Ruskell thought out of my mind)? One thought is that the Bears “braintrust” does something unheard of: go get a big name head coach and offer them full GM control as well. Would love to see Cowher or Fischer in Chicago. The ’85 ties that Fischer has would be an added nostalgic bonus (and I’d think it would be very possible he’d get some former Bears on his staff as well). Assuming that won’t happen, where do the good GM’s come from? I’d have to guess that former scouts make that most logical path to that role. Why not look at some of the cadillac personnel staffs around the league? Go get the top young talent from the Patriots staff, or better yet, steal someone from the Packers staff! Offering a well regarded top-flight scout that role (with the assumed raise in pay) would have to be an attractive enough offer to lure the right candidate. I just have no idea who those top candidates would be… Roy? Any thoughts here?

Oh, and if the Bears should lose to the Vikings this Sunday night (very possible), please feel free to fire Lovie and Martz (neither scenario likely) immediately and promote Tice to OC and Toub to interim HC (special teams coaches have a history of making great head coaches, and there isn’t anybody in the league better than Toub!).

By: sven

sven — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 15:31:59 +0000

Bernstein and Mulligan are just echoing what we all feel for the rest of the season. I understand players are getting old, but to take such a dip from last season … I like to believe the injuries to Carimi and Bennett must of have had a snowball effect on the whole offense. As for the defense, they’re reminding me of 2009 when we kept entering the record books week after week, except this time it’s not opponent passer ratings, but plain yards allowed.

By: jdm

jdm — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 13:08:55 +0000

I seriously don’t see the point in firing Lovie if you are not going to fire Angelo, too. I’m not against firing Lovie, and I don’t really care if he is the coach or not. We’ve seen his defenses work when the players execute it properly. However, no one wins without talent, and that’s what the problem is. What you should do is hire a new GM and let him decide if he wants to bring in a new coach. Then again, maybe I’m asking too much…

By: Roy Taylor

Roy Taylor — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 11:35:50 +0000

@Kenneth-I don’t think there’s any possibility of a “regime change” prior to the 2012 season-NONE. You’re right, the McCaskeys have always shown more loyalty than may be deserved. Yesterday Mike Florio (profootballtalk) did a video segment stating that he thinks the possibility does exist that with a horrible season (like 5 wins or less) Lovie could get canned, but he thinks Angelo would get the chance to hire another coach. And invariably, continue to draft mediocre players.
@JDM-Yes, I’m thrilled too. Actually the Bears could beat Minnesota and Tampa to go to 4-3. With everything that has happened in the first 5 weeks, I don’t think that’s likely though.

By: jdm

jdm — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 00:03:10 +0000

Roy, if your comparisons to 1992 are correct, they are going to win their next two games and go into the bye week at 4-3. So, at least we have that to look forward to… Can you tell how excited I am???

By: Rob

Rob — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 23:30:41 +0000

“I’m not ready for 3-5 years of “suck”.”

Then stay single.

By: Kenneth

Kenneth — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 22:53:31 +0000

Who plays the role of Dave Wannstedt (had to look up how to spell that) in this scenario? Or do we think Lovie sticks around somehow?

I have backed Angelo for longer than most but I think I’m done with him now. There’s just too little talent on this team to justify his continuing to lead the team. The only question I have is whether management/ownership would fire him and who they would replace him with. I have a notion that the higher-ups in the Bears value some things (loyalty, honor, commitment to a strong defense) as or more highly than just plain winning. Which is nice to say, but I think it can lead to awful outcomes (see Lions in the 2000s; everyone always say that Ford is absolutely loyal to his guys). It kind of makes me envy the Redskins a bit–at least with Snyder, you know what his thoughts and goals are.

Bleah, this is depressing. Whatever. I hope in our next coaching search we at least look at an offensive guy. You know who was an offensive guy? DITKA! You can have an offensive guy as a Bears head coach folks!

By: Roy Taylor

Roy Taylor — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 20:18:30 +0000

I don’t know if anyone has been following my comparisons to the 1992 season, but they keep coming. Today Smith is alluding to lineup changes; in mid-1992 Ditka did the same thing. And Singletary announced after the season started that it would be his last…probably partly because he knew how the team needed to be rebuilt. Now we have Urlacher at the end of his career, having to endure rebuilding if he sticks around. I don’t know who else remembers ’92 as I do, but there are so many parallels in my opinion. But I know we won’t be getting any new regimes next year.

By: harry

harry — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 19:45:52 +0000

Makes you feel for a guy like Urlacher. Been the face of the franchise for the last 10 years and has given every ounce of effort during that time. I put him right up there with Bill George, Dick Butkus and Mike Singletary in our great history of middle linebackers. Had he won a Super Bowl back in ’06, it probably would have cemented his place in the HOF. Now, who knows? He’s gonna spend the last few years of his career playing on a real sh*tty team. Briggs, Hester, Forte, Cutler…what’s going to happen to those guys? I highly doubt they’ll be here by the time we get this thing turned around. Sad…