rawaction

Well that's not confusing or anything. When was that tweet? The trib, Biggs I think, already wrote an article about Olson interviewing for the job this week. Not sure TODAY needed to be emphasized. Anyway, he was QB coach with the Bears under Jauron, and has been TB's OC. He was around when Freeman emerged as a solid QB, but also around when he regressed into garbage. Overall he ran a pretty horrible offense in his tenure there. He may be qualified, but I think he's a completely uninspring selection. Yeah, don't know why he would be picked over the guys that have worked with Cutler before if there's even a question. Bates and Fisch at least come from big time offensive roots.

Lucas shot the ball a lot.

he seems to be able to identify DE's and WR's (Cruz). out of the four listed, he's the only one I really have an opinion on. The others seem like a whole lotta "meh" what happened to Snead? did he back out? Nothing yet with Snead. Guessing he'll get an interview if this round doesn't go well. Don't want the Chiefs or the Pats guy. But the SD guy seems interesting. They have drafted some good talent until the last couple years.

Ross is one of the most ideal candidates. When this search started my top 5 were (in no order) : DeCosta, McKenzie, Ross, Snead, and Lake Dawson.

Ivan Rodriguez has been traded in the middle of the season twice. Mike Piazza was traded in the middle of the season twice, in the same season. We acquired Jason Kendall in the middle of a pennant race. Those are just off the top of my head. See, I completely forgot about those.

That's Mike Jones. Who? Mike Jones.

I think Angelo's draft record is overblown. He's never been a great drafter, but Iwouldn't call him horrible either. The major issue has been him ignoring the OL. But he has drafted Pro Bowlers in: Tillman, VAsher, T Harris, M Brown, Briggs, Hester, and Forte. Also, guys like Alex Brown, Melton, Moore, Olsen, Manning, M Anderson, Benson, Orton, C Harris, Tank, Berrian, and Columbo are/were solid NFL players. ......who mostly aren't here anymore. He hasnt had a good defensive pick since when, Moore? Other then Melton who is still developing Chris Conte and Major Wright looked pretty good together before Conte got hurt. Paea looks like a nice addition to the line as well. Wright was also pretty good in 2010 with 0 missed tackles and no major missed assignments. He's still a solid safety, he'll probably never be great though. Yeah, and Conte played really well for the most part. The major issues with Angelo drafting came when he got cocky and started thinking he was a better talent evaluator than he was. I'm talking about reaching for Bazuin and Wolfe, trading out of the 2nd round to get the pool jumper (Jarron Gilbert), and then when those picks didn't work out, he didn't have any early picks to fall back on because of the Cutler trade. The ignoring of the OL and inability to find QB talent without trading top picks were his downfall. And even then, I'd take the Cutler trade 100 times out of 100.

I could be completely off here, but is there a history of catchers being traded at the July deadline? Seems like playoff teams may value stuff like "working with pitchers" down the stretch and may not want to bring in a new guy toward the end of the season.

I think Angelo's draft record is overblown. He's never been a great drafter, but Iwouldn't call him horrible either. The major issue has been him ignoring the OL. But he has drafted Pro Bowlers in: Tillman, VAsher, T Harris, M Brown, Briggs, Hester, and Forte. Also, guys like Alex Brown, Melton, Moore, Olsen, Manning, M Anderson, Benson, Orton, C Harris, Tank, Berrian, and Columbo are/were solid NFL players.

Truth.

Me too. Quit pretending that the 4th linebacker that blitzes every passing down isn't just a small DE. That's not even close to the only difference between the defenses.

Usually, when a guy hits 8 3's, that's pretty much all he does. A guy that can hit 8 3's, throw in some inside the arc and drive the ball to get to the line are pretty much unstoppable. Impressive performance.

Rose is unbelievably quick.

Sacks aren't a great measure, but they didn't get enough pressure on the QB. Peppers got held almost literally every play of 2011 that he didn't get a sack. But the Bears got nothing out of Idonije and the NT position for the most part of the season (though Paea showed flashes). Melton also had times where he disappeared, which could be expected from a 1st year starter in his 2nd year at DT. I'd like to take a big step and go after a guy like Cliff Avril (big money), Robert Mathis (big money, but getting old so short deal) or Anthony Spencer (3-4 OLB, who could be better with hand in the dirt, should be more affordable) opposite of Peppers.

Nice quotes from Tice. "You can't pass the ball in this league unless the quarterback is protected, and you can't protect unless you help the guys up front with chips, keeping tight ends in, play action, move the quarterback, move the launch point, we're going to do all those things moving forward," Tice said on "The Carmen, Jurko & Harry Show" on ESPN 1000. "We've done some of those things, but we're going to make sure our quarterback is protected so he can set his feet and throw the ball comfortably. "With that said, if we're going to be like that, we do need a (receiver) that when he gets one-on-one coverage, he has to win way more than he loses. Obviously moving forward, we're going to evaluate the guys we have and how we've used them in the past. Our scouting department will do a great job, whether it's our pro personnel department or college scouting department in finding that guy or guys that are going to be able to let us implement this system, this process."

Right, he's a california guy and Oakland has always had a history as a big passing team, but he was just fired there, so what are his other options? He could sit a year, but he's not exactly Bill Cowher, a year away may shove him down the line. Unless he's getting another head coaching job his best bet is to probably go to a team with a QB in place (so he doesn't have to overpay in draft picks to acquire one). STL could be an option, and I'm sure a couple more should be in the mix. But it wouldn't be outlandish to try and go after him this time. Definitely would go after him. I think in his case, a job is better than no job. And like you said, he's not proven enough and isn't going to get another head coaching job without going back thru the OC ranks again. And with that head coaching experience, if he does well with the passing offense and the new GM tires of Lovie, he'd be the odds on favorite for head coach. The Raiders offense was a top 10 unit in the league. They were 9th in total yards, 6th in rushing, and just outside the top 10 in passing. And you're talking about a team that played 3 QBs, including their best for only slightly more than 1/2 the season, lost their starting RB for most of the season, and had several injuries to the WR corps.

If Rip doesn't do anything, what are the odds the Bulls make a move? At this point, I'd probably move Noah for a team that is willing. I think a run-of-the-mill C like Kurt Thomas again (though I know he is not available), along with Asik would honestly be enough if they got another 2 Guard. Maybe like Jason Richardson and Big Baby Davis for Noah and a draft pick or something, once Orlando trades Dwight Howard.

LSU has called a shitty offensive game.

19 Chicago Bears (8-8) 22 Cleveland Browns from ATL (10-6) 23 Detroit Lions (10-6) This pisses me off. Don't make the playoffs but only get 3-4 spots ahead of the 2 wildcard teams. Damn, they really shoulda lost that last game.

It could kill us to hire a 3-4 coordinator, considering all the personnel says 4-3. Teams that have made that change have invested heavily in the conversion (Packers- Raji and Matthews; Texans- JJ Watt and others). The Bears are already heavily invested in the 4-3 with the money paid to Urlacher, Briggs and Peppers, and they can't really afford to switch at this point.

Yeah, I'm still expecting some bad games, but this season has been so much fun. Next year is going to be really exciting. The thing with having low expectations is that you start to expect the team to live down to them at some point. I'm not sure what is meant by "bad games", but honestly, I don't really expect it anymore. They've had plenty of bad moments of basketball this year and have still managed to win those games. I'm not big on the "winning breeds confidence" thing in most cases, but I'm pretty sure Crean is playing up on that to a bunch of kids that have never won enough to know any better. I just don't see the bad losses coming with this team. I started the season hoping they'd sneak into 6th place in the conference and maybe get a token tourney bid. It's to the point now that I can't look forward to next year. This team should win 25-games and win a tourney game with a shot at a Sweet 16. No? Jeez, by my lights, they just barely avoided bad losses in consecutive games (while Michigan is good, I'd consider a blown fifteen-point lead at home to a peer to be a bad loss). The defensive play has really slipped the last two games. IU seems like a team just waiting to lose a bad game. I just hope they can get through Minnesota without a bad loss, take the lump at Ohio State, then get Will Sheehey back. They're really missing him -- his return, if nothing else, should help alleviate Crean's poor substitution patterns the past couple games -- even if it hasn't shown up in the won/loss record. I do think they're headed for low/mid-20s in wins and a good NCAA Tournament seed. However, they seem like early-upset fodder -- I'm thinking high seed that loses in the second round (no tournament experience and, despite the amazing start, some rather exploitable weaknesses). That should still be considered a rousing success and garner Crean coach-of-the-year accolades. I guess the difference is in what we consider a bad loss. They obviously aren't going to win every game they're favored in. By bad loss, I'm talking about losing at home against a non-tourney worthy team or losing on the road to a bottom feeder in the conference. Losing to Minnesota would be a bad loss, but I don't see that happening. I agree about the defensive play, but I didn't think either of the Michigan/Penn St games were all that much in jeopardy because we were on the FT line late in both games. Not really worried about a freshman post leading the way either. IU was able to win with Zeller fouled out of a tie game vs. Ohio St. They have been able to win without him having a dominant game by any means (see Penn St and only 10 points). Maybe I'm naive, but that's how I feel at this point.

What's the point of that though? Why not do it all now when you had the chance with 1/2 of that equation already gone? And I actually like Lovie. I don't want him fired, but there's no reason to intentionally hire a short-term GM.

But they don't have to wait. The Raiders hired the guy from Green Bay. Everyone tried to contact the guy from Baltimore.

The longer this thing goes, the more likely it is the Ruskell is the hire. At least start the interview process. I don't care if no hire is made until after the Superbowl, but all I see is Bears "looking at" candidates. You got the Senior Bowl and East/West Shrine in the next couple weeks. The combine is a month and a half away. Gotta have a strategy in place at least before the combine. Preferably would have a GM in place for the Senior Bowl in 2 weeks. If Ruskell is the default guy looking at prospects, then we all know what that means.

Yeah, I'm still expecting some bad games, but this season has been so much fun. Next year is going to be really exciting. The thing with having low expectations is that you start to expect the team to live down to them at some point. I'm not sure what is meant by "bad games", but honestly, I don't really expect it anymore. They've had plenty of bad moments of basketball this year and have still managed to win those games. I'm not big on the "winning breeds confidence" thing in most cases, but I'm pretty sure Crean is playing up on that to a bunch of kids that have never won enough to know any better. I just don't see the bad losses coming with this team. I started the season hoping they'd sneak into 6th place in the conference and maybe get a token tourney bid. It's to the point now that I can't look forward to next year. This team should win 25-games and win a tourney game with a shot at a Sweet 16.