WrigleyField 22

of course it is a promotion Why of course? It sounds like VP of FO would be a title given to the GMs boss The NFL has almost exclusively coalesced around GM as the top role, I suspect largely due to the anti-tampering and Rooney rules. Some variance in coach/GM power balance, but we haven't seen the title inflation like other leagues. Part of the reason I almost always roll my eyes at the demands for a Football Pres. Also now the league will be creating Assistant GM as a "protected role" subject to similar rules so you'll probably see a lot of coalescing around that title within the next decade.

Ryan Pace, the gift that will never cease to give. I think it needs to be noted a lot of teams dealt with dead cap games this year due to the cap contracting. Big picture their flexibility is at least average situation, but the difference between like 5th and 15th is fairly marginal and in the top 5 cap groups diminishing returns kick in quickly IMO.

My thoughts.

Someone asked about the $15/job offer and he basically said take anything Olin says with a grain of salt and Olin didn't tell the whole story. And basically doubled down on the answer (but joked he hopes Olin tells that story while he's inducted into HOF).

Its gonna be a super team of consultants this time. Accorsi, Polian, Dungy, Parcells.

I think he was first this AM to make claim that Ted won't be in reporting line for next GM and that George would confirm. Saw Jahns I think allude to it after then. If that bears out that will be a pretty big feather in his legitimacy cap too. Also for anyone who saw him do that one podcast earlier this week the legitimacy cap is a horrific Old Style cap.

And the scary thing is Pace dramatically increased the size of football ops.

I think, at least early on, George didn't have much of an opinion, or at least conviction in his opinion. He clearly relied heavily on Phillips after coming out of the ticket sales department. He basically said Ted makes the decisions back when he became chairman and his job was to help Ted make those decisions. Maybe he feels more confident in himself making the decisions now. Yeah. That's what I'm taking from this. It's actually feasible. He's consulted with guys that know football. I'm sure he's spoken with plenty of other owners and gotten advice. Not saying he's an expert at this point, but he isn't any less qualified than Phillips to make decisions. Qualified to make decisions on a HC/GM hire, no probably not. Though I might give a slight edge to someone who worked their way to the spot rather than more or less inherit it. That's not a absolute guarantee of capability, but it prob means something. None of which is meant as a direct defense of Phillips. But resignation that there isn't really a choice for owner (though there's like 10 other kids they haven't tried out as chairman, not sure that matters lol) and either George alone or George and Ted is just basically rolling dice until you find the right person to lead football ops and neither is gonna directly cultivate that. Prove me wrong George. Don't only hire the right guy, actively support him in building out the best football org in football. Spearhead something and directly support the GM doing something useful in operations!

I think, at least early on, George didn't have much of an opinion, or at least conviction in his opinion. He clearly relied heavily on Phillips after coming out of the ticket sales department. He basically said Ted makes the decisions back when he became chairman and his job was to help Ted make those decisions. Maybe he feels more confident in himself making the decisions now. Hm maybe. He as pretty confident to not go the consultant role with the Emery hire after the org had used a search firm for Angelo. Then he reverted back to consultant. Maybe a cycle of overconfidence early, humbling of his status and now settling into a more normal owner function.

What does it really matter, either way? Does McCaskey making the hire on his own make you feel any better than Phillips? We just have to hope they manage to get it right, even if it's accidentally. Yes, because it means the next GM probably reports directly to George and not to Ted. I think that opens up more possibilities of people being interested, or at least not being scared away by the reporting structure. I'd be shocked to learn that the report structure ever scared away a good candidate. It's much adieu about very little.

Yea assuming nothing else changes I think having HC/GM is about 85% an issue of PR. If there's any other organizational changes announced maybe there is more to it there. But in any org structure do any of us think that a Presidents voice in the hiring/firing decisions is any more than like 15% of the impact compared to the owner? If the owner really ends up disagreeing they just make the decision or sometimes even chose the GM over the President.

I mean it makes zero logical sense why that changed things for LV. Have someone trying to argue with me on Twitter it signaled to LV that LA was playing to win, but how they used their TO is exactly the opposite of how you'd want to use them. They'd have to leave time or leave TO and they wouldn't have been in a position for either. Exactly. If the Chargers were trying to win and wanted time for a drive had the Raiders missed the FG, they wouldn’t have let 30 seconds run off the clock before calling the timeout. They would have called it immediately after the 2nd down play ended. I mean ideally right after the first down off the two minute warning when you stopped them for a loss because you could maybe bait them into a pass in completion too. Or you call it like 5 seconds later (if you get the stop) and save a TO for your offense/FG unit. Fwiw though I think it was right to play to tie. But they failed to execute and hold the FG to a long enough attempt and sounds like they let themselves get baited into subbing in a DB. But that's separate from the logic of the TO then.

I mean it makes zero logical sense why that changed things for LV. Have someone trying to argue with me on Twitter it signaled to LV that LA was playing to win, but how they used their TO is exactly the opposite of how you'd want to use them. They'd have to leave time or leave TO and they wouldn't have been in a position for either.

This is exactly what I expected the response to be. I also think Mina hit the nail on the head as to why this is confusing everyone so much (even the broadcast booth!) The TO was fine, if you wanted to get a different look on D. The issue was letting up a 10 yard run.

Whats the risk of losing the playoffs against the gain of playing Cincy over KC.

Night and day from this year. Barring some insanity this offseason that's an average at worst schedule. Yep some first year coach gonna make the playoffs and it will be shades of Nagy all over lol.

This would never happen. Dodds as GM could. Ballard would be blocked. Plus, according to Olin Kreutz and Patrick Mannelly, Bears ownership are not fans of Ballard anymore Honestly, with several years to evaluate him, he's pretty meh. I guess a step up from Pace, but he's way overrated.

This would never happen. Dodds as GM could. Ballard would be blocked. I know Ballard in Phillips role as Pres/CEO will never happen ( obviously they picked Pace instead of Ballard), I doubt Dobbs would come too, TBH. It's just a shame this organization can't get out of their own way I mean Ballard would also be a really weird choice in Phillips role if that's what you meant. I thought you were trying to create a football only role, but that's not gonna allow you to poach another teams GM without permission.

He was mentioned with the Frazier rumor, but maybe Dorsey as OC (especially if Daboll doesn't get a HC gig this cycle). Same E-P "system/terminology". Allen has grown with him. Try and keep Flip as QB coach as he seems respected and keeps continuity (and Fields did show some skills progress)

This would never happen. Dodds as GM could. Ballard would be blocked.

I was wrong about Coby. I said they should trade him for a future first.

https://www.si.com/nfl/2022/01/07/nfl-head-coach-hiring-preview-week-18 Eberflus is a name that keeps quietly coming up. Also, been whispers out there that the Bears are interested in Colts Asst. GM, Ed Dodds. I've been mostly focused on offensive coaches for the Bears, but a Dodds/Eberflus combo could be pretty sweet. The Colts have some interesting guys on their staff that combo could bring along with them. But reading between the lines here, I'm not sure how I feel in general. I just want the organization to do it's due diligence. Don't go into a HC search thinking "need a strong leader". It's the same line of thinking that has made every other hire they've done a mess. "Lead of men" is akin to "QB developer" which led to Nagy; is akin to "experienced HC" which led to John Fox; is akin to "outside the box" which led to Trestman; is akin to "hot young coordinator" which led to Jauron, Lovie, and Ditka. Them going into the search looking for a certain type of coach, will almost certainly lead to them picking the wrong coach, because they have already shrank the candidate pool. Yea, I am warming to Eberflus, but I also agree that it doesn't feel like the thought process here is good. That said, even if the "Leader" aspect is being over-thought it at least isn't immediately cutting your pool in half like a QB focused coach search did. So it's something? I also kind of explicitly don't want HC/GM from the same spot. Granted both of those guys have been around at different stops before Indy, so that's something. But I really want a variety of backgrounds and not just try to replicate one org. I don't know how close Polian/Dungy are to Indy still but those two are the supposed consultants and a HC/GM name are surfacing from Indy and its also where the presumed runner up to Pace ended up and I feel like, Ah horsefeathers it, theres no actual process is there?

Okay, yea Bears are cheap

isn't that rule specifically about NFL assistants? It would have nothing to do with Harbaugh. Yea the tampering rule wouldn't have applied to Harbaugh. At most it would be a optics thing though. Maybe the Bears are gonna be too cheap for Harbaugh. We know Davis will shell out a 100M contract because he did once already. Are the Bears ready to compete at the top HC salaries or is thay why reports are trickling in again of first timers like Eberflus and Mayo?

Sorry I don't necessarily see a GM role, but not down a few rungs either. Opportunity is obviously key. Ireland as an example could be his replacement here if he's dismissed and then theres a nice cushy job in his old org. Obviously stars may not align that quickly. I could definitely see a senior consultant role for a year and then back into a director level roll shortly after. Most GMs don't get a second GM chance, but would be surprised if he's not at the director level for a long time.