2014 Chicago Bears Offseason Thread

[Soul]

So they decided to blame the position coaches.

 

We'll see. Strong suspicion 2014 will be Tucker's last as DC of the Bears. Not a fan.

[davell]

I didn't care honestly. With the amount of injuries the D had this year, it's understandable if some would think we didn't get a good read on Tucker. I can see the other side where the bottom line is results and ours were awful too.

 

In the end, Emery is giving him a second shot, knowing he's got to supply him with players, in order to see what Tucker actually is. Exciting offseason coming up, can't wait to see how re-vamped the D is once it's over and done with.

[Splendid Splinter]

So they decided to blame the position coaches.

 

We'll see. Strong suspicion 2014 will be Tucker's last as DC of the Bears. Not a fan.

 

 

I'm ok with this if you really want to give Tucker another chance. I wouldn't have, but maybe this means they might be looking for DL/LB coaches who have done both 4-3/3-4? I'm not sure if Phair/Tibesar have, but something to think about. What's interesting is Tibesar was one of the guys that came with Trestman.

Edited January 12, 2014 by Splendid Splinter

[jersey cubs fan]

That's uninspiring

[Soul]

I don't buy the injury excuse. The fall was just too massive. Injuries cannot explain it all. The Bears are obviously saying that the position coaches didn't do enough to get the replacements ready.

 

I'm not in a position to fully disagree with that analysis, but I suspect Tucker's not a great DC, and he will continue to have lackluster results regardless of whether he has a healthy squad.

 

I hope I'm wrong.

[biittner77]

There was a quote from Trestman where he said something to the effect that Tucker knew what he needed to fix. No kidding.

[rawaction]

The coaching changes makes me think they are doing what I suspected and going to a hybrid defense. The DL and LBs will have slightly different responsibilities in a hybrid. If no scheme change, then why not get rid of the DBs coach too? Though I do like Hoke, the safeties were a disaster without the injury excuse in their favor.

[UMFan83]

There was a quote from Trestman where he said something to the effect that Tucker knew what he needed to fix. No kidding.

 

Yeah there's a whole laundry list. Missed tackles, players not understanding the play call, terrible routes to ball carriers, absence of pass rush, blown coverages, missed assignments.

 

Knowing is half the battle right?

[Soul]

Better hope he remembers what he did in 2011. Because outside of that, his defenses in yards/gm:

 

2008: 26th

2009: 23rd

2010: 28th

2011: 6th

2012: 30th

2013: 30th

 

He's had 1 good year out of 6 as a DC.

[Banedon]

He also hasn't produced much in the way of sacks. But then he also was coaching some bad teams.

[Soul]

I know. I keep telling myself it was the Browns and Jags, hoping that accounts for it. Still, if we are talking about a coach having enough of a positive effect to bring a bad defense to average, then those stats don't look promising. Because he had bad defenses then, too -- and couldn't get them up.

[Old Style]

There was a quote from Trestman where he said something to the effect that Tucker knew what he needed to fix. No kidding.

Everything?

[UMFan83]

There was a quote from Trestman where he said something to the effect that Tucker knew what he needed to fix. No kidding.

Everything?

 

No, if he knew everything that needed to be fixed, he would know that the DC needed to be replaced.

[Soul]

I'll say one thing in defense of Tucker. When they brought him in the idea was to run the Lovie defense for continuity, and he did do that. The first 3 games were definitely good. Then the injuries and the deterioriation -- we all know the story.

 

He hasn't run his own defense here. You can argue that he didn't make the right adjustments during the season, and you are correct. But he wouldn't be able to completely switch to his defense right in the middle of the season. He would need an offseason to install his defense, and it sounds like that's what Trestman is going to give him: a chance to run his scheme from the start of the offseason, with personnel decisions being made in conjunction with his scheme.

 

Will it work? I don't have a lot of confidence, but that's got to be the argument for Tucker. He gets a year to do something other than be Lovie's shadow.

[rawaction]

I'll say one thing in defense of Tucker. When they brought him in the idea was to run the Lovie defense for continuity, and he did do that. The first 3 games were definitely good. Then the injuries and the deterioriation -- we all know the story.

He hasn't run his own defense here. You can argue that he didn't make the right adjustments during the season, and you are correct. But he wouldn't be able to completely switch to his defense right in the middle of the season. He would need an offseason to install his defense, and it sounds like that's what Trestman is going to give him: a chance to run his scheme from the start of the offseason, with personnel decisions being made in conjunction with his scheme.

 

Will it work? I don't have a lot of confidence, but that's got to be the argument for Tucker. He gets a year to do something other than be Lovie's shadow.

 

They did still give up almost 900 passing yards in the first 3 games. Granted, a lot of that came by Roethlisberger in desperation mode. But they did get eaten up by AJ Green and Christian Ponder threw for 227, which is probably unacceptable also.

 

As for Tucker, part of the issue in Cleveland and Jacksonville isn't just finishing bottom 5-7 in defense....it's that they are constantly on the field in bad situations because they were bottom 5 in offense all of those years too. I don't mind giving him another shot. Honestly, the Bears talent on D probably won't be much better than what he had in those other jobs. But hopefully the offense being really good helps. Even the 20th ranked defense that isn't terrible at any phase (run D, pass D, pass rush) would be a huge difference.

[Guest]

The coaching changes makes me think they are doing what I suspected and going to a hybrid defense. The DL and LBs will have slightly different responsibilities in a hybrid. If no scheme change, then why not get rid of the DBs coach too? Though I do like Hoke, the safeties were a disaster without the injury excuse in their favor.

 

That said, Hoke has way more rope than the other position coaches.

[jersey cubs fan]

I'll say one thing in defense of Tucker. When they brought him in the idea was to run the Lovie defense for continuity, and he did do that. The first 3 games were definitely good. Then the injuries and the deterioriation -- we all know the story.

 

He hasn't run his own defense here. You can argue that he didn't make the right adjustments during the season, and you are correct. But he wouldn't be able to completely switch to his defense right in the middle of the season. He would need an offseason to install his defense, and it sounds like that's what Trestman is going to give him: a chance to run his scheme from the start of the offseason, with personnel decisions being made in conjunction with his scheme.

 

Will it work? I don't have a lot of confidence, but that's got to be the argument for Tucker. He gets a year to do something other than be Lovie's shadow.

 

What the hell is his own defense anyway? The guy isn't really known as a guru of any system.

 

My feeling is that he had a tough sell job with the vets returning last year, and did an okay job. But he did a horrible job adjusting the weaknesses of the defense as the season went along. He didn't have to install some complicated offense like Trestman. Defenses are much easier to tweak midseason, and he did nothing to tweak it in a positive direction.

 

When they got Lovie we knew Lovie was a disciple of the Tampa 2 and an accomplished defensive mind that actually had success. What the heck is Tucker's defensive reputation based on? He coached DBs in college for five years, then four years of pro and then seemingly became the default defensive coordinator of bad defenses after his boss was fired. He was an NFL D coordinator in his late 30's, which is pretty impressive, but when that happens you typically hear about what that coordinator's calling card is. Does this guy have a calling card or has he just run his boss's defense (Crennel, Del Rio) or the defense of the man his boss replaced (Lovie)?

[WrigleyField 22]

We should have known from the start that having Tucker install Lovies D was a bad idea. Is he a bad D coordinator regardless? Very likely. But it kind of left some lingering doubt when piled with the injuries.

 

From a risk/reward perspective I don't think we're chancing too much by giving him another year. If there was an outstanding candidate out there I may feel differently. I'm intrigued if the plan is a "hybrid" scheme. I think we'll mainly see a primarily one gap scheme. I don't think we'll see much if any true two gap 3-4 schemes, but try and move guys around as much as possible. Any versatile defenders are probably getting a boost on our draft board.

[rawaction]

We should have known from the start that having Tucker install Lovies D was a bad idea. Is he a bad D coordinator regardless? Very likely. But it kind of left some lingering doubt when piled with the injuries.

 

From a risk/reward perspective I don't think we're chancing too much by giving him another year. If there was an outstanding candidate out there I may feel differently. I'm intrigued if the plan is a "hybrid" scheme. I think we'll mainly see a primarily one gap scheme. I don't think we'll see much if any true two gap 3-4 schemes, but try and move guys around as much as possible. Any versatile defenders are probably getting a boost on our draft board.

 

I don't think it was a bad idea of him keeping Lovie's D. We knew 2013 was potentially Peppers', Tillman's, and maybe even Briggs' last year. Melton also was a FA. Urlacher was either going to be gone or back for maybe 1 year. It was a great idea to not completely change both sides of the ball, especially when 1 side wasn't broken. If u would have told me the offense would be top 10 and 2nd in points, I'd have thought this team would win 12 games, easy. I expected some dropoff from defense, but I never imagined they'd be worse than the top part of the middle of the pack.

 

As for the defense, yeah a lot of teams actually run a 1-gap 3-4 or hybrid defense. It's alot easier to transition too. You don't have to have 6'5", 300lb DEs. You can basically have the best of both worlds personnel wise. If you want a 6'5", 300lb DE, he can fit. But so can your 6'3", 270 4-3 DE already on the roster. So can your 6'2", 250lb standup edge rusher. I think a hybrid D allows Emery to draft how he wants, which is if he likes a player...pick him and not having to worry about how the defense is geared.

[cubbyvirus00]

I'd like to see Tillman return to be honest. I think he's got some good football left since he hasn't suffered any kind of lower body injuries that I know of. I think you re-sign Tillman and draft a young CB to add depth.

[rawaction]

I'd like to see Tillman return to be honest. I think he's got some good football left since he hasn't suffered any kind of lower body injuries that I know of. I think you re-sign Tillman and draft a young CB to add depth.

He did have a bad knee when he did play, but was put on IR for an upper body injury.

[mul21]

McNeil and Speigel just had some guy on that said Shea and Bostic are going to compete for the SAM LB spot in camp next year. That seems like a really terrible idea considering Shea gets blown to bits trying to play the run.

[rawaction]

McNeil and Speigel just had some guy on that said Shea and Bostic are going to compete for the SAM LB spot in camp next year. That seems like a really terrible idea considering Shea gets blown to bits trying to play the run.

 

But he'll get a running start at SLB. I'd be more worried about who the hell he's going to be able to cover at TE.

[jersey cubs fan]

McNeil and Speigel just had some guy on that said Shea and Bostic are going to compete for the SAM LB spot in camp next year. That seems like a really terrible idea considering Shea gets blown to bits trying to play the run.

 

Some guy, like a random caller with an idea, or some guy, like a new LB coach?

[UK1679666180]

They updated some of their rankings: More accurate, definitely not 100%.

 

 

R1 DT LOUIS NIX III

NOTRE DAME

 

R2 CB KYLE FULLER

VIRGINIA TECH

 

R3 DE JACKSON JEFFCOAT

TEXAS

 

R4 ILB YAWIN SMALLWOOD

UCONN

 

R5 QB JIMMY GAROPPOLO

EASTERN ILLINOIS

 

R6 CB KEITH MCGILL

UTAH

 

R6 RB TERRANCE WEST

TOWSON