Bears off-season thread 2022

[WrigleyField 22]

I see so much Dodds love, but I'll be honest, part of me feels like it's a lot of Ballard regret being projected. Like I certainly see things to like but there's been so much fan consensus around him.

 

Or is it just that he's already made a lot of finalist lists the past few years so there's decent built in name recognition?

 

You're ignoring his time in Seattle.

 

I also have Aaron Glenn as my 4th choice for HC.

I'm aware of his time in Seattle. I'm actually not convinced all the casuals are.

[raw]

My top 3 GMs....

 

1) Dobbs

2) Khan

3) Schoen

 

My top 3 coaches:

 

1) Leftwich

2) Daboll

3) Hackett

 

1) Dodds

2) Khan

3) Smith

4) Adofo-Mensah

5) Schoen

 

1) Flores

2) Hackett

3) Eberflus

4) Leftwich

5) Daboll

[WrigleyField 22]

DBB claims no one was blown away by Pederson.

[David]

Dan Pompei with some horsefeathers that reads like like a meatball parody

 

https://theathletic.com/3066364/2022/01/12/pompei-when-it-comes-to-identity-the-bears-need-to-go-back-to-being-the-bears/?source=freedailyemail&campaign=601983

 

 

But what they really are in search of is an identity.

 

They had one for decades — they were George Stanley Halas’ Chicago Bears, charter franchise of the National Football League, the team that pounded the ball repeatedly to claim yards and souls, and then invented the middle linebacker so opponents couldn’t do the same.

 

They were the Bears of Bronko Nagurski and Walter Payton. The Bears of Dick Butkus and Brian Urlacher. The Bears of Mike Ditka and the 1985 Super Bowl champions. And yes, they were the Bears of Olin Kreutz.

 

Now? Nobody knows.

 

Yes, we live in the age of the no-look pass. But the age of the bloody lip is eternal.

 

Football, at its core, is about toughness. The team with the most determination, grit, doggedness and fortitude is the team that wins the most battles, and the team that wins the most battles wins the most wars.

 

 

But as we sit here in January, the Bears need a general manager who is committed to restoring the team’s identity.

 

Every roster decision the new general manager makes should be with the identity in mind. And the head coach has to implement the plan, presumably with a fullback who has a large rear end, deep knee-bend and explosive hips. The new coach needs to understand that I-formation is not some self-actualization technique.

 

[jersey cubs fan]

I horsefeathering cannot stand people who talk about a team needing to have an identity.

 

 

It is so not a thing. You need better players making better plays designed by better coaches than the other team. That's it.

[David]

I horsefeathering cannot stand people who talk about a team needing to have an identity.

 

 

It is so not a thing. You need better players making better plays designed by better coaches than the other team. That's it.

 

Yep.

 

Pompei is still doing his thing like it's 1992 or some horsefeathers.

[David]

[raw]

I horsefeathering cannot stand people who talk about a team needing to have an identity.

 

 

It is so not a thing. You need better players making better plays designed by better coaches than the other team. That's it.

 

I've seen somebody say, just yesterday, that the Bears need to stop trying to play like they play in a dome and run the ball and play D because the field is so bad. Like really? They play the damn Packers every year who's field is in a random neighborhood, 200 miles away from Chicago and is somehow 60 degrees colder on a normal basis, and they throw the ball all over the freaking stadium.

[David]

I horsefeathering cannot stand people who talk about a team needing to have an identity.

 

 

It is so not a thing. You need better players making better plays designed by better coaches than the other team. That's it.

 

I've seen somebody say, just yesterday, that the Bears need to stop trying to play like they play in a dome and run the ball and play D because the field is so bad. Like really? They play the damn Packers every year who's field is in a random neighborhood, 200 miles away from Chicago and is somehow 60 degrees colder on a normal basis, and they throw the ball all over the freaking stadium.

 

(You're absolutely right, but the Packers have a much better playing surface than the Bears)

[jumbo]

I see so much Dodds love, but I'll be honest, part of me feels like it's a lot of Ballard regret being projected. Like I certainly see things to like but there's been so much fan consensus around him.

 

Or is it just that he's already made a lot of finalist lists the past few years so there's decent built in name recognition?

 

There's a great Athletic article on him. It's from July 2019, but I found myself getting all excited reading it. I probably would with most of the GM candidates, who all seem like an immediate upgrade.

 

 

https://theathletic.com/1105033/2019/07/31/you-gotta-be-relentless-you-cant-stop-i-dont-colts-assistant-gm-ed-dodds-wont-settle-for-mediocrity/?article_source=search&search_query=dodds

 

 

“Let’s go have a beer,” Schneider told him.

 

The more they talked, the more Dodds couldn’t shake these two words from his mind. It’s what Carroll told his players every day:

 

Always compete. Always compete. Always compete.

 

Later that night, Dodds’ then-fiancée and now-wife put it this way: “You’re gonna be pissed off every day if you don’t do it.”

 

He called Schneider and Carroll a few days later.

 

“If I don’t go, I’m not competing,” he told them. “I’m taking the easy way out.”

 

They got it. They hated it, but they got it.

 

Dodds wanted the hard way, wanted to compete, even if it meant a roster teardown, uncertainty over Andrew Luck’s shoulder and a build that would need years. He moved across the country, reunited with his old friend from Kingsville and dug in.

 

“How do you get up and look at yourself in the mirror, just making the comfortable choice?” Dodds says now. “You just bet on yourself, and the way you work. Even if they fired us all two years in, the experience of having to build from the ground up, installing the system, getting people to buy in, all of that, and then learning how to do it in less than ideal conditions. …”

 

...

 

In the four months leading up to the draft, Dodds lives in the film room. His staff rips off 17 straight 12-hour workdays in February, poring through thousands of hours of tape, whittling each position down from hundreds to dozens. They do 15 straight more in April as the draft inches closer. It’s demanding, it’s exhaustive, it’s necessary. Dodds loves it. It’s his favorite part of the job.

 

“You always talk about how players miss the locker room?” he said. “Well, that’s our locker room. We get pissed off with one another. We laugh and joke with one another. We bond in there.”

 

That’s one thing Dodds loves about Indy: the staff Ballard has put together. Get him going, and he’ll rave about everyone who shuffles into that draft room, from the area scouts (“those guys kick-ass”) to head coach Frank Reich (“he’s phenomenal”) to the Colts’ analytics experts, John Park and George Li.

 

“John will make you feel stupid,” Dodds said, “and George has forgotten more about football than I’ll ever know.”

 

The risk Dodds took two years ago? It worked. Competing worked. The Colts are coming, coming soon, and he’s one of the biggest reasons why. You won’t see him behind the microphone, you won’t read his name in the headlines, but in two years on the job, Ballard’s No. 2 has quietly and effectively helped construct one of the best young rosters in the NFL.

[WrigleyField 22]

Familiar with the athletic article.

 

I'm not saying Dodds isn't a interesting or even exciting candidate it just seems like he's a consensus pick to such a high degree that I can't figure out. Like nearly everywhere in the Bears blogosphere seems to have him top 2, most top spot. It's kind of a startling amount of fan consensus that still doesn't make sense.

 

Just drives my skepticism I guess. We're not immune to being pushed media narratives because it's frankly so hard to know what individual FO guys actually do.

[raw]

Yeah, Dodds seems to have that mentality that meatballs love, but he's actually good at his job and based on the organizations he's been involved with, I'd assume he uses a modernized approach.

 

Somewhat related, ESPN did a survey on NFL analytics that is a good read (IMO). Also shows why I really like Adofo-Mensah, and I think he's a strong sleeper for the Bears GM job.

 

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/32338821/2021-nfl-analytics-survey-most-least-analytically-inclined-teams-future-gm-candidates-more

[raw]

Familiar with the athletic article.

 

I'm not saying Dodds isn't a interesting or even exciting candidate it just seems like he's a consensus pick to such a high degree that I can't figure out. Like nearly everywhere in the Bears blogosphere seems to have him top 2, most top spot. It's kind of a startling amount of fan consensus that still doesn't make sense.

 

Just drives my skepticism I guess. We're not immune to being pushed media narratives because it's frankly so hard to know what individual FO guys actually do.

 

Most people have no clue on these things. Like someone mentioned, we can see and somewhat quantify what a coach on the field has done. But with GM candidates, name recognition goes a long way. Ed Dodds is a name we've heard the last couple offseasons. He has interviewed for a couple jobs (Detroit last year for one), so he's probably the most familiar name out there, except for maybe Rick Smith and he's been away from the game for a few years. So people (myself included) are probably latching on to the names they know.

[David]

For me, it's more about trying to suss out what their philosophies and strategies might be by looking for interviews/articles where they talk about stuff. (An example might be that Theo clip that went around where he went on the radio and talked about how RBIs aren't a good measure of a player - not that I needed any convincing on Theo). I want to know how they feel about analytics. Scouting vs analytics and how to blend them. How much do they value draft picks and what is their philosophy on trading up vs. down? What traits do they look for? How many guys do they want in the room? Etc.

 

As others have mentioned, trying to figure out who is responsible for certain successes in a given organization is a fool's errand with the level of information we have on most of them.

Edited January 13, 2022 by David

[CubinNY]

I horsefeathering cannot stand people who talk about a team needing to have an identity.

 

 

It is so not a thing. You need better players making better plays designed by better coaches than the other team. That's it.

Identity is an effect, not a cause. A lot of people get the direction of causality backward. It's kind of like the concept of self-esteem.

[David]

I horsefeathering cannot stand people who talk about a team needing to have an identity.

 

 

It is so not a thing. You need better players making better plays designed by better coaches than the other team. That's it.

Identity is an effect, not a cause. A lot of people get the direction of causality backward. It's kind of like the concept of self-esteem.

 

Or (in the vast majority of cases) team chemistry.

[WrigleyField 22]

Yeah, Dodds seems to have that mentality that meatballs love, but he's actually good at his job and based on the organizations he's been involved with, I'd assume he uses a modernized approach.

 

Somewhat related, ESPN did a survey on NFL analytics that is a good read (IMO). Also shows why I really like Adofo-Mensah, and I think he's a strong sleeper for the Bears GM job.

 

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/32338821/2021-nfl-analytics-survey-most-least-analytically-inclined-teams-future-gm-candidates-more

Yea either guy from the Browns would certainly be an interesting signal. I feel like the Emery hire had shades of McCaskey wanting to embrace analytics, but was like when the Cubs hired that Kaplan guy, just a super rudimentary and basic understanding of what analytics even was. There was that thing about Emery conducting a study of QB draft picks for instance. Like probably one guy with a subscription to pro football references pro database and excel. Then they never really revisited it with Pace where they've had an analytics department of 1.

 

The Browns are just going at it to an extreme degree. I think I read they're the first team to try and do the same thing PFF does, grade every player from every team for every play. Which is kind of crazy.

 

It would be super interesting if McCaskey were to go with Mensah. There would definitely be a big fan push back. And it would signal Polian's role in this whole thing was really more organizational/administrative in nature rather than pushing a org agenda/identity.

[raw]

Yeah, Dodds seems to have that mentality that meatballs love, but he's actually good at his job and based on the organizations he's been involved with, I'd assume he uses a modernized approach.

 

Somewhat related, ESPN did a survey on NFL analytics that is a good read (IMO). Also shows why I really like Adofo-Mensah, and I think he's a strong sleeper for the Bears GM job.

 

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/32338821/2021-nfl-analytics-survey-most-least-analytically-inclined-teams-future-gm-candidates-more

Yea either guy from the Browns would certainly be an interesting signal. I feel like the Emery hire had shades of McCaskey wanting to embrace analytics, but was like when the Cubs hired that Kaplan guy, just a super rudimentary and basic understanding of what analytics even was. There was that thing about Emery conducting a study of QB draft picks for instance. Like probably one guy with a subscription to pro football references pro database and excel. Then they never really revisited it with Pace where they've had an analytics department of 1.

 

The Browns are just going at it to an extreme degree. I think I read they're the first team to try and do the same thing PFF does, grade every player from every team for every play. Which is kind of crazy.

 

It would be super interesting if McCaskey were to go with Mensah. There would definitely be a big fan push back. And it would signal Polian's role in this whole thing was really more organizational/administrative in nature rather than pushing a org agenda/identity.

 

Yeah, I put Adofo-Mensah more on the younger ones they have consulting (Campbell, Wade). I think Polian is good to have around as a guy who's run a team. He's likely going to boost up the Colts guys and any older/experienced candidates he may have worked with. But Campbell and Wade are likely the ones that have insight to the hot analytic driven candidates like the Browns guys.

[WrigleyField 22]

Yeah, Dodds seems to have that mentality that meatballs love, but he's actually good at his job and based on the organizations he's been involved with, I'd assume he uses a modernized approach.

 

Somewhat related, ESPN did a survey on NFL analytics that is a good read (IMO). Also shows why I really like Adofo-Mensah, and I think he's a strong sleeper for the Bears GM job.

 

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/32338821/2021-nfl-analytics-survey-most-least-analytically-inclined-teams-future-gm-candidates-more

Yea either guy from the Browns would certainly be an interesting signal. I feel like the Emery hire had shades of McCaskey wanting to embrace analytics, but was like when the Cubs hired that Kaplan guy, just a super rudimentary and basic understanding of what analytics even was. There was that thing about Emery conducting a study of QB draft picks for instance. Like probably one guy with a subscription to pro football references pro database and excel. Then they never really revisited it with Pace where they've had an analytics department of 1.

 

The Browns are just going at it to an extreme degree. I think I read they're the first team to try and do the same thing PFF does, grade every player from every team for every play. Which is kind of crazy.

 

It would be super interesting if McCaskey were to go with Mensah. There would definitely be a big fan push back. And it would signal Polian's role in this whole thing was really more organizational/administrative in nature rather than pushing a org agenda/identity.

 

Yeah, I put Adofo-Mensah more on the younger ones they have consulting (Campbell, Wade). I think Polian is good to have around as a guy who's run a team. He's likely going to boost up the Colts guys and any older/experienced candidates he may have worked with. But Campbell and Wade are likely the ones that have insight to the hot analytic driven candidates like the Browns guys.

Yep the little bit I've read about Campbell is interesting. I could totally see him being of an analytical mind, but it's not bearing out in a "spreadsheet spits out a WAR" type, but more of a social sciences, "what untapped areas are we ignoring that will enhance the physical development". But then you go hire the ivy league savant who understand the mathematical and modeling component of what you're aiming to accomplish. Maybe Wade is that, though it's not as immediately obvious how it ties into football. But like the idea of somewhere there cutting through inherent biases.

[minnesotacubsfan]

Flores is not someone I would have thought would be available, nor did I think he would be a great choice when he did become available. However, I didnt realize his last two season have been 10-6 and 9-7. I'm really warming up to him, but how he would deal with Fields is my #1 concern.

[raw]

Flores is not someone I would have thought would be available, nor did I think he would be a great choice when he did become available. However, I didnt realize his last two season have been 10-6 and 9-7. I'm really warming up to him, but how he would deal with Fields is my #1 concern.

 

Ideally, he wouldn't deal with Fields too much. Hire a good OC and let them run the offense and stay out of the way/lead the rest of the team.

[David]

 

 

Jeff is beating Schefter to scoops by several hours lol this is hilarious

[WrigleyField 22]

He's gotta be a McCaskey mouthpiece. Thats why he'll also trash them, trying to keep us off the scent.

[UMFan83]

He's gotta be a McCaskey mouthpiece. Thats why he'll also trash them, trying to keep us off the scent.

 

I 100% think he is. Earlier in the season he went on this huge rant defending Nagy, I think it was before the Bucs game. He was defending him to anyone who responded to him. The next day after the game, he now was railing against Nagy in a way that was basically pretending that he never had the previous rant and that he had always been against Nagy.

[David]

pretty sure his connection is actually through Ted