WrigleyField 22

Yea - give me a great coach on either side of the ball. A good coach will shuffle through coordinators as needed, either way. But more than anything, give me a top 5 QB.

So they kind of could fit some stuff in this year. Again, Watson's cap hold isn't bad in 2021. It's 2022 that you have to decide. You probably could do ARob, but then you really need to tear a lot of your D pieces apart starting in 2022. Or you don't do ARob and you can keep a little bit more of the D intact, but maybe still walk from Mack. On some level there's always tough decision when you're paying a QB 20% or so of your cap. The issue is when you are draft capital depleted as one of the means to replace.

Well Watsons 2021 salary cap hit isn't very big. So they can make that work with minor manuevers. They don't really have extra picks from which they can deal from, but if they wanted to they could deal from the picks they do have, including having all their future firsts. So if it's really something Hou wanted to entertain and CHI was really motivated, sure. But I'll be honest, I really don't know they can build a team around the cap constraints. I think they'd have to move on from Mack by 2022 once Watsons cap hit gets bigger. Will be too much for 2 players. But maybe they could be all in for 2021 then retool. But it's tough to retool once you've traded maybe 3 or 4 future 1sts. They can definitely make it work. Watson's cap hit increase in 2022 actually sets up perfectly with the Bears being able to get out of some of the big contracts. Even if they don't cut Mack until AFTER 2022, they can save 24M by cutting Quinn and Jackson with a June 1 designation. Then there's Foles 7Mil off the books. Goldman could be a June 1 cut. If the cap is 200M in 2022, the Bears currently have 75M in cap room. Granted, only 24 players under contract, but that also includes guys like Massie who will certainly be cut this offseason. Yea, so you're cutting a bunch of starters and only have FA to really replace them. They can of course fit his cap number, but building a winner around it is entirely different.

Not that I have a very high opinion of what the Bears have done in the last 25 years, but I have a feeling these are a little bit cherry picked. That 1995 starting date is significant I'm betting. 25 years seems like a good starting point. If you want to even out the #s by going back to the 80s when the Bears dominated, you're further showing how the bad the Bears are. If you go back say 20 years or just during the Rodgers tenure, there's not a theme shift compared to 25. Well 25 ends up being significant since it picks up the first of the Packers first of back to back SB. But that's it. If you did 23 years it'd be just as damning.

Uh I definitely didn't need a full analysis to know that lol

Well Watsons 2021 salary cap hit isn't very big. So they can make that work with minor manuevers. They don't really have extra picks from which they can deal from, but if they wanted to they could deal from the picks they do have, including having all their future firsts. So if it's really something Hou wanted to entertain and CHI was really motivated, sure. But I'll be honest, I really don't know they can build a team around the cap constraints. I think they'd have to move on from Mack by 2022 once Watsons cap hit gets bigger. Will be too much for 2 players. But maybe they could be all in for 2021 then retool. But it's tough to retool once you've traded maybe 3 or 4 future 1sts.

I get why Meyer would. Is it fair to assume this is a Carroll type role where Urban is getting full roster control?

No you're absolutely right. The ship is sailed. The not having a portion apply to the cap is an interesting idea. They have the super max now, but I think the whole amount still counts towards cap/tax and it's hurt player retention in a few cases. I don't think it woild help the super team thing necessarily but it'd help in the few cases where supermax has been a negative affect on retention. At the end of the day, drafting a guy and then extending him typically gets you at least 6-8 years of control. If you haven't shown you can build around him in 6-8 years I guess he's gonna bolt and pair up on a super team. :dontknow:

Kill the max salary. (dreaming)

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Well they could but it's like throwing a dart at a dartboard and hoping you got bullseye without really knowing what they're doing.

That's more or less what it is though. The problem is Crane Kenney has no input on who runs the baseball department, Ted Phillips, for some reason, has a lot of input on who runs the football department. Ted should not have input on that matter. Well that's the "more or less" part. You could basically have Pace report direct to McCaskey would be the only change. I'm not sure how much actual say Phillips has in these decisions. If you read through the lines I think you can argue he's just the business-capable extension of McCaskey to carry out his vision.

That's more or less what it is though.

Matt is tense. You can see him shaking the chair behind him lol

The journalists are all doing a pretty good job tailoring their questions to put their feet to the fire.

AFC North had 3 playoff teams this year. NFC West had 2 and another team the Bears tied with them. So, on paper that's 6 teams equal or better than the Bears, not including GB x 2, and Tampa, and potentially whatever AFC team they get for the 17th game. That being said, I don't pay attention to projections. 6-8 new teams make the playoffs every year. Granted, the Bears could be 1 of the, but odds are 3-4 of these teams aren't very good next year. next year is a 17 game schedule? Yup.

This is one of the few days of the year I'll listen to a little talk radio and laugh to myself about all the guys who have listened to press conferences their entire life and then call in and complain that it was all fluff or spin or whatever.

Feels like the Bears constantly are facing a tough schedule like the ebbs and flows of other divisions is perfectly lined up with the Bears rotation haha. 8th easiest schedule this year. Well I was thinking more in terms of "projected" SOS. That always seems high, whether or not it ranks that way at the end or the year. I may also just be making it up completely.

Feels like the Bears constantly are facing a tough schedule like the ebbs and flows of other divisions is perfectly lined up with the Bears rotation haha.