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Yeah, I really wanted a very experienced OC or DC with a young head coach. Hopefully, Fangio decides to come back, though it's not looking like it right now. Bettcher is a pretty good alternative at DC, but doesn't have a ton of experience. I'd definitely look to bring in someone in a consulting role if the coaching staff is a bunch of 40 year olds.

Playoff experienced Falcons vs. Nick Foles. Drew Brees vs. Case Keenum. Vikings beat the Saints in Week 1, but that was with Sam Bradford and Dalvin Cook. This is what I've been expecting to happen since the playoff seedings were set.

Eh. I wouldn't say he "collapsed". He was walking off the field and went down probably to avoid his team having to call a timeout or get a delay of game penalty. He looked pretty under control to me. Also, "obviously concussed" is a severe overstatement. You don't have the ability to diagnose a concussion on TV, and you can be woozy without getting a concussion. He was likely seeing stars, but you can't determine if he had a concussion based on watching a play on TV.

Many feel it's Flip's job to lose. I'm honestly torn. DeFilippo is the guy the that people think could be the next Sean Payton. An innovative, star head coach. But Nagy is said to be the best coaching prospect from the extremely successful Andy Reid tree, by Andy himself. I think DeFilippo is the guy that's going to get the most out of Trubisky. He seems to truly be a QB guru. But I think Nagy may actually be better for the team overall. He has a more recent history of playcalling and the Chiefs have averaged over 28 points the last 6 games he's been calling the offense. While Flip is more likely to make Trubisky "great", I think Nagy would be better for the offense if Trubisky isn't great. He seems to know how to maximize production from the talent he has to work with. That being said, it's hard to really know what DeFilippo would do with a full offense and a full team in general. But he did lead a McCown, Manziel, and Austin Davis led offense to 4100+ yards passing as the OC in Cleveland in 2015. So, if he does make Trubisky great, it's hard to imagine the team overall wouldn't be great.

It's not conveniently leaving anyone out. The conversation wasn't about failed coaches, it was about successful coaches and I didn't start the conversation.

Your list presented in anotherway: Defense: Brady, Roethlisberger, Wilson, Newton, Ryan Offense: McNabb, Rodgers, Brees ST: Flacco Just Missed: Luck, Bridgewater/Bradford/Keenum, Warner/Palmer, Romo/Prescott, Stafford, Smith/Kaepernick So it's a QB list as much as a coaching list. I am asking myself now, who are the top QB's that aren't on this list? The 50 win threshold & active status eliminates quite a few: E. Manning, Rivers, Carr, Cousins I'm sure the credit goes to coaches and QBs both and in some cases other ways to build a team (elite running/defense teams), but we all know its a QB league. Nothing shocking there, but I think it's clear that Mitch needs someone doing a great job developing him, even if it's not necessarily the HC. So one interesting thing I did read about DeFillipo is that he's actually coming out of contract so Philly can't block him from leaving for a OC job. Granted, if he has any success, he probably ends up leaving for a HC job the next year a la Gase, but I did think it was an interesting wrinkle to the search process. That's what you can't allow to happen though. 3 OCs in 3 years for Trubisky would be a bad idea even if there is some continuity at head coach. Pace really should have fired Fox after last year or forced him to fire Loggains and give him 2 years with a better OC that could be promoted to head coach in 2019 or just start all over then.

Here's the current/active coaches with 9 wins/season and at least 50 wins, to give a sense of sustainable success: Defense: Belichick, Tomlin, Carroll, Rivera, Mike Smith Offense: Reid, McCarthy, Payton ST: John Harbaugh Just missed: Pagano (D), Zimmer, (D), Arians (O), Garrett (O), Caldwell (O), Jim Harbaugh (O) Your list presented in anotherway: Defense: Brady, Roethlisberger, Wilson, Newton, Ryan Offense: McNabb, Rodgers, Brees ST: Flacco Just Missed: Luck, Bridgewater/Bradford/Keenum, Warner/Palmer, Romo/Prescott, Stafford, Smith/Kaepernick So it's a QB list as much as a coaching list. I am asking myself now, who are the top QB's that aren't on this list? The 50 win threshold & active status eliminates quite a few: E. Manning, Rivers, Carr, Cousins I'm sure the credit goes to coaches and QBs both and in some cases other ways to build a team (elite running/defense teams), but we all know its a QB league. Nothing shocking there, but I think it's clear that Mitch needs someone doing a great job developing him, even if it's not necessarily the HC. Historically, it's pretty interesting defensive vs. offensive coaches. Shula, Landry, Noll, Parcells were defensive guys Gibbs, Reeves, Shottenheimer, Levy, Shanahan were offensive guys. A quick glimpse looks pretty close to 50/50 offensive/defensive coaches in the top 20 all-time wins (with guys like Halas, Paul Brown, Lambeau, etc. who did it all back in the day in their early 20s).....though I don't know if all them averaged 9 wins per year (for example Coughlin's at 8.5 for his career, and 8.5 for the Giants and Jags each ironically). And John Harbaugh worked as a defensive coach before become a STC, so he'd make it 6-3 in favor of defensive coaches. But I think the trend is clearly going offensive coaches way. Sean McDermott won 9 his 1st year this year. Anthony Lynn won 9 his 1st year this year. Marrone has an 8.3 win average and has won 9 games in 2 of his 3 seasons (1-1 interim in between) Gase won 10 his 1st year and only year with his starting QB healthy. (still average of 8 per season) McVay 11 in 1st year this year. Pederson averaging 10 wins in 2 years Koetter had a 9 win season his 1st year last year. Kyle Shanahan may never lose another game apparently. I think there's a good chance that at least 3 of these guys get there. McVay and Pederson are ahead of the curve and have young rosters under contract for the foreseeable future. McDermott looks like a damn good coach considering his GM tried to tank the season and rebuild and he still made the playoffs. On the defensive side, it looks like a case of teams just not really going after defensive guys as much because of the league being so QB driven, but it looks like only Zimmer and Quinn will get there. Of course, there are only 2 other defensive minded coaches that currently have jobs that were hired in the last 4 years (others being Bowles and Vance Joseph). I think Bowles is a really good coach, and he won 10 his first year but a pair of 5-win seasons since which were probably overachieving, but still puts him at risk of getting 9 per and 50 total anytime soon.

Jack Del Rio gone in Oakland. Word was he'd only be gone if they were able to get Gruden.....we shall see.

Looks like results of other games put the Bears at a higher SOS than Tampa. So them winning did nothing. Bears will have the 8th pick in the 1st round, but will pick 5th in the 2nd because of the tiebreaker rotation.

49ers are going to win, Bears will be in the 8th spot in the draft. Moves up to 7th in Denver wins vs. KC's 2nd string. Could move to 6th if Tampa wins, as they project to have a 0.001 higher SOS. I'd love to pick 1 spot ahead of Denver. Be a prime spot to trade down with a team that wants a QB and is afraid Denver could take their guy. Doubt it happens though the Broncos really suck.

Chuck Pagano officially axed. Pa-gone-no?

In some cases, I think we may be looking at multiples.... Trade for Machado, sign Reed, plus a cheap starter to compete with Monty Trade for Archer, sign Reed, replenish what we lost in trade Trade for Yelich, sign Cobb, replace traded parts Sign Cobb and Reed Sign Yu and be done I think these are kind of our general options. Yelich/Cobb seems like the best option of those IMO. Love Machado. Love Archer. But Yelich and Cobb under control for 4 years + potential to go after Harper >>>

I just want Mitch to finish with: 60% completions - currently at 59.9% More TDs than INTs - currently 7 of each A QB rating higher than Wentz's rookie year- 79.3 for Wentz, Trubisky at 78.5

So based on the current NFL catch rule. If a player makes a diving catch on 40 and does the worm all the way to the end zone, and drops the ball after crossing the goalline but before standing up or handing it to an official, that would be an incomplete pass.

The hell is with this IU team. Hang with then #1 Duke, Louisville on the road, @ Seton Hall. Beat #15 ND just 2 days ago. But just lost their 2nd home game by more than 20 points against an in-state team that's not Purdue or Butler.

This should be a fun way to spend Christmas eve! The Browns actually are a pretty good run defense. But they allow teams to do whatever they want passing the ball. Not exactly the Bears strength, but Mitch will have his chances. Josh Gordon could be a tough matchup for the Bears, but Kizer is an absolute mess at QB. He's only had 2 games where he didn't throw a pick, and that was because his coaching staff saved him from himself, and he also threw 0 TDs in those 2 games. So, if he throws the ball around a lot, the Bears are probably going to get a turnover or 2. Throw in that the Browns have allowed (I believe) the most sacks, and there's potential for more turnovers. I think the Bears win this one, but I wouldn't bet on them beating the spread. I think Trubisky gets his first multi-TD game. Bears win 27-24.

Is this a "The Bears shouldn't have fired Lovie" take? Because that's not a good take. Not at all. Just pointing out that the Bears have been bad for 25 years, and that even includes a 9-year stint of decent football.

Best for them to not have a double digit lead in the 2nd half against the Hoosiers.

It'd be really hard to continue watching, if that happened. Be the easiest decision I ever made to stop watching this team and probably football in general.

25 seasons since Ditka was fired. 10 seasons with 10 or more losses (4 in a row) 5 seasons with playoff berths 3 of those playoff seasons and just 1 of those double digit loss seasons (his 1st season) came under Lovie Smith.

I don't get it. Who is getting 2 full weeks off? I didn't include week 17 because they already don't do week 7 games. Every team that doesn't play on Thursday would get 2 full weeks off.....the way they do now during BYE weeks. 32 teams. 2 teams per game. So you'd need 16 Thursday games to make every team have the same BYE length. But since you can't have BYES the first 2 weeks and the last handful are too late in the year for a bye, you'd have some teams that don't get scheduled on TNF. Those teams would still need a BYE.......where they'd be getting 2 weeks off, because they are not playing a Thursday game.

Been saying this for years. The only issue I see is that's not enough Thursdays for every team to have a Thursday game. Thus, some teams would get a full 2 weeks off, while others get 10 days on either side of a Thursday night game. Not sure who would be losing out here. 17 weeks of the season. But you take out Week 1, because that's not a BYE. Take out weeks 2, 3, 4, 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17. Thanksgiving though, you can keep the current format. Cowboys and Lions stay with traditions but now always get pre-Thanksgiving byes. Then throw in a 3rd game at night, and you have 6 teams on bye then. So, that's 10 games in 8 weeks, but 32 teams.

He didn't even have accuracy problems today. 12-for-15 and at least one of the three incompletes was a drop. I might have missed a play here and there, but the only inaccurate throw I can remember was the one on the "free play" when there was a penalty and he tried to force in an 8-yard curl. That's also the only bad decision I really remember. It's hard to give him a full evaluation when he only throws 15 passes, but this was the best he's looked so far. Mitch was great today outside of the fumbled snap. And you're right, 1 bad decision and it didn't count. He did have another inaccurate throw for 1 of his incompletions, but I got no complaints about Mitch today. Definitely wasn't the problem. It's pretty amazing, the Bears finished today (if you take out the QB scrambles) 15 passes and 15 run plays. So, they actually called 22 passes (4 scrambles, 2 sacks, 1 fumbled snap). Yet somehow, Mitch was only 2-3 passing on 1st down, with one of those coming on a throwaway play on the last play of the first half. Take out the fumbled snap and a scramble, and Loggains again called 5 passing plays of the 14 first down plays. On those 9 runs, the Bears averaged 2.8 yards per carry. Of those 26 yards on 1st down runs by the RB, 1 was 14 yards. The other 8 runs got 12 total yards. So, the Bears were already behind the 8 ball (the 8 1/2 yards to go ball) when they let Trubisky throw.

I know it's great for fans to get a true champion, but at that point you're talking about kids playing a 16-game season (Ohio St has played 12 reg season, 1 conf championship game, this would potentially add a play-in game, semifinal, and championship game) for free. That's pretty ridiculous. Do we get a true champion the only undefeated team left doesn't have a prayer at the playoffs? Yes.

I know it's great for fans to get a true champion, but at that point you're talking about kids playing a 16-game season (Ohio St has played 12 reg season, 1 conf championship game, this would potentially add a play-in game, semifinal, and championship game) for free. That's pretty ridiculous. The two teams who advance to the FCS championship generally play 15 games, and many of those players are only on partial scholarships. Ok? That's also ridiculous.