Are we getting Black Monday II? No, but we got a Black QB!!!

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Oh yeah, that’s the stuff.

 

[WrigleyField 22]

With all the contract stuff, I'm thinking that rumor from a few weeks ago that Pace already has an unannounced contract extension is true. Probably did it once the Halas hall renovations were completed.

 

I kind of get that they make a practice of not formally commenting on contracts, but they seem insistent on not letting any info have leaked either. Maybe consider letting it leak after that lol.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

I never get the Ted Phillips/Crane Kenney stuff. No matter how many layers of sports people you add, eventually they'll have to report to a not-sports person.

[minnesotacubsfan]

I never get the Ted Phillips/Crane Kenney stuff. No matter how many layers of sports people you add, eventually they'll have to report to a not-sports person.

 

the issue is who is hiring the guy who goes out and gets the talent, is the top guy somoene who cares about:

 

"moxy"

cost

or actual football knowledge and experience

 

I'll say this, Pace was a football guy, albeit young. I cant fault Phillips for his involvement in that hire.

[WrigleyField 22]

I never get the Ted Phillips/Crane Kenney stuff. No matter how many layers of sports people you add, eventually they'll have to report to a not-sports person.

Further to that. The only person who's opinion actually matters is the owner.

 

Look at the Blackhawks. They hired a baseball marketing man to run a hockey org. At the end of the day when he wanted to go one direction and the owner disagreed, the GM won out.

[jersey cubs fan]

I never get the Ted Phillips/Crane Kenney stuff. No matter how many layers of sports people you add, eventually they'll have to report to a not-sports person.

Ted Phillips has spent nearly 3 decades deciding who the football executives should be. He has failed at his job. Crane Kenney did not spend 3 decades determining who the top baseball mind would be.

[jersey cubs fan]

I never get the Ted Phillips/Crane Kenney stuff. No matter how many layers of sports people you add, eventually they'll have to report to a not-sports person.

Further to that. The only person who's opinion actually matters is the owner.

 

Look at the Blackhawks. They hired a baseball marketing man to run a hockey org. At the end of the day when he wanted to go one direction and the owner disagreed, the GM won out.

The major difference here is the Blackhawks moved on after a decade despite massive success, the Bears are doubling down with the same dope who has been in charge for 30 years. The Bears also don't have a Scotty Bowman type in house advising George directly. George is a kindly grandpa type who leans heavily on Ted for football decisions. That's a problem.

 

McDonough was there for obvious business upgrades. The Bears aren't in a position where they need some business wiz to run things. They are on cruise control. Ted has had far greater input into the product on the field than any similar prez in Chicago sports.

[WrigleyField 22]

I never get the Ted Phillips/Crane Kenney stuff. No matter how many layers of sports people you add, eventually they'll have to report to a not-sports person.

Further to that. The only person who's opinion actually matters is the owner.

 

Look at the Blackhawks. They hired a baseball marketing man to run a hockey org. At the end of the day when he wanted to go one direction and the owner disagreed, the GM won out.

The major difference here is the Blackhawks moved on after a decade despite massive success, the Bears are doubling down with the same dope who has been in charge for 30 years. The Bears also don't have a Scotty Bowman type in house advising George directly. George is a kindly grandpa type who leans heavily on Ted for football decisions. That's a problem.

 

McDonough was there for obvious business upgrades. The Bears aren't in a position where they need some business wiz to run things. They are on cruise control. Ted has had far greater input into the product on the field than any similar prez in Chicago sports.

I think there was a time Ted did have greater impact. That was basically up to the point that they had gone like a decade+ with no GM. Ever since they finally got with the times and hired a GM, I've never heard real examples of that actually being the case.

 

The McCakseys are also probably the least impressive ownership group of any Chicago sports team. They need that strong business person, even if the NFL is a cash cow. Once whatever tailwinds from Finks finally gave out, the McCaskeys were disastrous running the business on their own.

[jersey cubs fan]

I think there was a time Ted did have greater impact. That was basically up to the point that they had gone like a decade+ with no GM. Ever since they finally got with the times and hired a GM, I've never heard real examples of that actually being the case.

.

 

What is it about this set-up that you guys don't get? This isn't Crane and the Cubs. This isn't McDonough and the Blackhawks. Ted has football input by virtue of having direct input on who the GM is, and he's had it for decades.

[jersey cubs fan]

George takes advice from other owners in the league, on how to run his team. And internally he takes input from Ted Phillips.

 

The Bears make it clear in their announcements and in their execs bios that Ted makes those decisions. George has final say but his final say is approving for not approving Ted's recommendations. It's still Ted's recommendations.

[David]

I think there was a time Ted did have greater impact. That was basically up to the point that they had gone like a decade+ with no GM. Ever since they finally got with the times and hired a GM, I've never heard real examples of that actually being the case.

.

 

What is it about this set-up that you guys don't get? This isn't Crane and the Cubs. This isn't McDonough and the Blackhawks. Ted has football input by virtue of having direct input on who the GM is, and he's had it for decades.

 

i mean if it weren't ted, that line ultimately ends at the mccaskeys (just like it would with PTR on the cubs hiring the head baseball guy) so what are we really arguing about here? this ownership is always going to determine who the hires are, so we better just hope they get lucky at some point.

[jersey cubs fan]

[jersey cubs fan]

I think there was a time Ted did have greater impact. That was basically up to the point that they had gone like a decade+ with no GM. Ever since they finally got with the times and hired a GM, I've never heard real examples of that actually being the case.

.

 

What is it about this set-up that you guys don't get? This isn't Crane and the Cubs. This isn't McDonough and the Blackhawks. Ted has football input by virtue of having direct input on who the GM is, and he's had it for decades.

 

i mean if it weren't ted, that line ultimately ends at the mccaskeys (just like it would with PTR on the cubs hiring the head baseball guy) so what are we really arguing about here? this ownership is always going to determine who the hires are, so we better just hope they get lucky at some point.

We're arguing about Ted not being held to any level of accountability and about bringing in a new team president.

 

This "it's always been that way so it's going to be that way forever" attitude is bizarre. There's no point in talking about whether ownership should sell, what you can argue for is change in management and there is a clear need for a change at the top of the Bears management. It's a mismanaged football organization.

[David]

we can fire ted. he can retire. it's not really going to make much of a difference. the same boobs are gonna hire his replacement and are gonna have most of the input in hiring the actual football guys. he's a symptom more than he is a problem.

[jersey cubs fan]

we can fire ted. he can retire. it's not really going to make much of a difference. the same boobs are gonna hire his replacement and are gonna have most of the input in hiring the actual football guys. he's a symptom more than he is a problem.

There is no reason why the same boobs would need to have most of the input in hiring the actual football guys with a more qualified president of football operations, especially when one of the biggest boobs, Ted, is gone.

[WrigleyField 22]

 

What is it about this set-up that you guys don't get? This isn't Crane and the Cubs. This isn't McDonough and the Blackhawks. Ted has football input by virtue of having direct input on who the GM is, and he's had it for decades.

 

i mean if it weren't ted, that line ultimately ends at the mccaskeys (just like it would with PTR on the cubs hiring the head baseball guy) so what are we really arguing about here? this ownership is always going to determine who the hires are, so we better just hope they get lucky at some point.

We're arguing about Ted not being held to any level of accountability and about bringing in a new team president.

 

This "it's always been that way so it's going to be that way forever" attitude is bizarre. There's no point in talking about whether ownership should sell, what you can argue for is change in management and there is a clear need for a change at the top of the Bears management. It's a mismanaged football organization.

Its all well and good to say they lack sophisticated football intelligence. But that is basically just to say they need to hire a different GM. It's highly unlikely they find some fit where there's some brilliant football mind who just advises and makes the decisions on a different GM or coach.

 

To this point, I mentioned last night, but their best bet once they pull the plug on Pace/Nagy is probably to give someone the Bellicheck/Carrol/Gruden role. Simplify the evaluation for themselves. Its probably more efficient and higher chance of success than trying to identify a different president to run the biz. And once Ted does retire they'll prob just promote from within.

[Tim]

Am I wrong to get the impression that the Bears front office is one of the smaller ones in football? I have no idea where I'm recalling that from.

 

Instead of a change in leadership, should we add additional people there to introduce new voices and skills? Maybe someone that, I don't know, understands how to evaluate quarterbacks?

[jersey cubs fan]

Am I wrong to get the impression that the Bears front office is one of the smaller ones in football? I have no idea where I'm recalling that from.

 

Instead of a change in leadership, should we add additional people there to introduce new voices and skills? Maybe someone that, I don't know, understands how to evaluate quarterbacks?

It certainly looks like they have a smaller front office based off what they list on the website, but every team seems to break it down differently. The Cowboys look like they only show Jerry and three top execs for the entire front office.

[WrigleyField 22]

Am I wrong to get the impression that the Bears front office is one of the smaller ones in football? I have no idea where I'm recalling that from.

 

Instead of a change in leadership, should we add additional people there to introduce new voices and skills? Maybe someone that, I don't know, understands how to evaluate quarterbacks?

They used to be. I think that was one of the main areas they invested in once Pace came on. From what I've looked around (whatever is listed on Wikipedia) they seem competetive size wise now.

 

Handy link:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_current_National_Football_League_staffs

[jersey cubs fan]

Am I wrong to get the impression that the Bears front office is one of the smaller ones in football? I have no idea where I'm recalling that from.

 

Instead of a change in leadership, should we add additional people there to introduce new voices and skills? Maybe someone that, I don't know, understands how to evaluate quarterbacks?

They used to be. I think that was one of the main areas they invested in once Pace came on. From what I've looked around (whatever is listed on Wikipedia) they seem competetive size wise now.

 

Handy link:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_current_National_Football_League_staffs

Those looks a lot more pared down than what you see when you google each team individually and see what they post on their website.

[WrigleyField 22]

Am I wrong to get the impression that the Bears front office is one of the smaller ones in football? I have no idea where I'm recalling that from.

 

Instead of a change in leadership, should we add additional people there to introduce new voices and skills? Maybe someone that, I don't know, understands how to evaluate quarterbacks?

They used to be. I think that was one of the main areas they invested in once Pace came on. From what I've looked around (whatever is listed on Wikipedia) they seem competetive size wise now.

 

Handy link:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_current_National_Football_League_staffs

Those looks a lot more pared down than what you see when you google each team individually and see what they post on their website.

From what I've seen I know it pared down scouts and I think non player personnel related roles. I thought it did a good job of capturing all the director level roles, but maybe I'm mistaken.

[raw]

So, a lot in that press conference was said about getting better play out of the QB position. Essentially, Trubisky was thrown under the bus multiple times. The irony is Mitch brought the team together after the 6-game losing streak that was apparently very impressive to ownership, and his play at QB is one of the primary reasons the Bears even got to 8-8 and the playoffs before being neutered by the game plan Week 17 and the wildcard game.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

I think there was a time Ted did have greater impact. That was basically up to the point that they had gone like a decade+ with no GM. Ever since they finally got with the times and hired a GM, I've never heard real examples of that actually being the case.

.

 

What is it about this set-up that you guys don't get? This isn't Crane and the Cubs. This isn't McDonough and the Blackhawks. Ted has football input by virtue of having direct input on who the GM is, and he's had it for decades.

 

OK but if he was one step higher, wouldn't he still have "technical football input" by picking who the president is?

 

No matter what the labels are, unless your owner is a football guy, there will always be a non-football guy picking the top football guy.

[jersey cubs fan]

I think there was a time Ted did have greater impact. That was basically up to the point that they had gone like a decade+ with no GM. Ever since they finally got with the times and hired a GM, I've never heard real examples of that actually being the case.

.

 

What is it about this set-up that you guys don't get? This isn't Crane and the Cubs. This isn't McDonough and the Blackhawks. Ted has football input by virtue of having direct input on who the GM is, and he's had it for decades.

 

OK but if he was one step higher, wouldn't he still have "technical football input" by picking who the president is?

 

No matter what the labels are, unless your owner is a football guy, there will always be a non-football guy picking the top football guy.

Yes, and as I said, there's really no point to the "they should sell the team" arguments. What they can do, is replace the failed President and CEO. Organizations do it all the time, especially stagnant ones.

[WrigleyField 22]

While not an excuse per se, I understand why the McCaskeys wouldn't want to have to hire a new Pres and CEO either. It's not that they just aren't football people, they really aren't business people either. They're drawing on very little to make big decisions like that. I get why they act conservatively and will accept the security blanket that is Ted. I think when he retires they'll probably promote from within. I get that the NFL is a cash cow and it shouldn't be hard to find a business operator to not horsefeathers things up, but when you're as incompetent and poor as the McCaskeys there's a lot more at risk, especially if they want to spend like they have since George came on board.

 

The Wirtz family has experience running a large company. Reinsdorf could buy a minor league team first to help Michael learn how to operate a business. The McCaskeys just have their one business to run and they sucked at it before. Maybe George would be better than Michael if given the chance, but the board apparently doesn't want that. In that context I think finding their Ted is a bit more unique fit wise because they're really looking for another owner who doesn't take actual equity (to my knowledge).

 

If they did want to hire an outside CEO they'd probably do well to exclusively search from the limited pool of people with experience with similar old school, relatively poor, family owned franchises. Those are gonna be the people who understand the business component specific to a family like the McCaskeys. To that end I'd throw out Omar Khan or Amy Trask as two options if they ever did replace Phillips. But I think it's also a lot of wasted breath since I don't think they'll actually make a move.