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WrigleyField 22

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Everything posted by WrigleyField 22

  1. WrigleyField 22
    I feel like Jay as a "media show" was much bigger a few years ago. Entering into what is now a market value deal (below market if you count guaranteed money) and without the franchise package, it wouldn't be a big deal. Going on the "Jay of last year" qualifier, did he blow up the news feed at all?
  2. WrigleyField 22
    Emery had 3 years and Trestman had 2 and it was the right move to fire them. Without Cutler and Alshon, what would you expect from this team next year? Emery and Trestman were clearly never qualified for their respective jobs. Emery was a S&C coach for 50 years at a nonentity school. Trestman was in Canada. Pace at least has the resume of somebody who can do his job and does not appear to be doing as poorly as Emery did. There's at least a reason to consider keeping him around and part of that is that Emery did such a terrible job. I think Pace was hired with the knowledge and understanding that he had a lot of work to do, his focus would be on the future but he'd give it the old college try in the interim while they still had Cutler. That was the reason for Fox. Maybe squeak out a 10 win season somewhere in the first two seasons but he's not going to be held accountable for a disaster. Also I'm not so sure Cutler is gone after this year. His cap hit is $16m which is more than reasonable for a veteran QB, which are typically running in the 18m-22m range right now. I wouldn't rush Cutler out the door or anything, but if he has a simillar season as last he could actually be a good trade chip, assuming you've found a player you think may be the QB of the future.
  3. WrigleyField 22
    Emery had 3 years and Trestman had 2 and it was the right move to fire them. Without Cutler and Alshon, what would you expect from this team next year? Agreed re: Emery and Treastman. Without Cutler and Alshon... I wouldnt expect a lot. But then again things can shift quickly in the NFL. But it also depends on expectations. You seem to be grading him on a quick turnaround approach, but that hasn't really been the strategy as its played out. But I guess it depends what management expected. We were one of the oldest, least homegrown teams 5 years ago coming off a 10 win season, and still were one of the oldest, least homegrown coming off a 11 loss season when Pace took over 2 offseasons ago. So we were never equipped as a quick turnaround type team.
  4. WrigleyField 22
    No. But I would like to see some emphasis w/amateur scouting from the GM. It's why I like Highsmith from GBP. I assumed Pace would come in and do some patchwork for two years and maybe sneak a 10-6 team as I thought that would be his and Fox's strengths. Instead, Pace has been bad both in FA and the draft so far, leading them to a likely complete rebuild (which is rare in the NFL). If Pace and Fox failed at what I thought their strength was, I can't trust with building thru the draft. But Fox isn't here for the long haul, Pace probably is. I'm not sure what you mean about "emphasis w/amateur scouting", but he did hire a longtime Ravens scout as his director of college scouting and that guy left after one year. I think UK thought we'd be more Saints like in our player acquisition, essentially leveraging big FA moves. But that hasnt been Pace's actual execution. He has executed a very youth-oriented, risk avoidance approach. Right now his biggest FA flops have occurred on prove it deals. His most agressive moves have been his first round draft selections, not his pro moves.
  5. WrigleyField 22
    While I more or less agree with your point, I'm still calling it 18 games.
  6. WrigleyField 22
    Failed implies such permanence though. They're merely falling.
  7. WrigleyField 22
    So to be a draft driven franchise you have to have young unproven coaches and GMs who came up from the college scouting ranks? Okay....
  8. WrigleyField 22
    So your issue is GMs inherenting coaches?
  9. WrigleyField 22
    More or less, but with Angelo he was typically drafting 18-22, while Pace has had a 7 and a 9. And Angelo's issue was more about finding an offensive coach for Lovie (and not stupidly drafting a good tight end in the firm before trading that tight end away for pennies on the dollar when a new OC decided not to use him). Angelo's team got really talented really quickly and I maintained that from top to bottom the 2006/07 Bears were the most talented team in the league. His first two drafts weren't great, but he started with the 29th selection and got Colombo who was worthy of the selection but suffered a devastating injury after the fact. Haynes was a bust but he got Tillman, Briggs and Alex Brown in the second year and followed that up with Tommie, Tank, Vasher and Berrian. So, yeah it's probably best to have Pace maintain stability and try and grow this thing, but the fact that he hired a stable/safe coach and still managed to field a 10 loss team and what looks to potentially be a 10 or more loss team in his second year is a really bad sign. He probably does get another coaching hire before he's gone. If it wasn't for his age, I would actually think we were in for a early/mid aughts Cincy situation where we just held onto a coach year after year, without making the playoffs.
  10. WrigleyField 22
    Yea there really isnt anything left to blow up except letting Cutler go and committing to a rookie QB. Everything else is the same plan - add better players. The blowup already occurred over the past 3 seasons when they moved on fom the foundations of the 06 team. Even some of the recent moves were always set up to be potential short term moves (looking at you Massie)
  11. WrigleyField 22
    Well it kinda sucks, but at least it wasn't a young player. More time to see what Floyd is actually made of.
  12. WrigleyField 22
    No, I don't really think it was bad luck. And I don't really agree that the problem is a lack of organization philosophy. It seems fairly obvious they were going for a younger, faster defense and counting on a solid run game with the occasional deep threat, a standard play not to lose mentality. the problem is talent at key positions. The offensive tackles suck, the defense cannot rush the passer. Pace, whose history is in scouting guys already in the NFL, has not been a good drafter, and frankly I have no reason to believe he was capable of making a better hire than Fox. He looked for stability. To me, the balance of power between the GM and HC has always been flawed. Too many circumstances (including now) where the coach has more power than the GM. Do you think Fox has too much power right now? I haven't got that impression. I feel like we wouldnt have made as much of a youth push otherwise.
  13. WrigleyField 22
    Okay... not great, but still a potentially 12 game season for his development.
  14. WrigleyField 22
    If there is one encouranging thing about Pace's drafting, its been his picks outside the first round, as well as UDFAs. But you can't swing and miss on multiple top ten picks. Not that its too late for them to turn it around, but eaely returns are not promising, and there was plenty or criticism at the time so its not just 20/20 second guessing. Regarding his coaching pick. Yea, he went safe. Pro personnel? He did a good job at his two ILB pickups. Outside of that... pretty meh over both years. Isn't that basically the exact same flaw as Angelo? Good with late round picks, terrible with high picks. Well early on JA hit with mid round picks and that turned out to be pretty short lived. I think most GMs who stick.at it long enough will go through relative spurts and dry spells in the middle rounds. A big part of JAs problem I think ended up being how he valued picks, trading them away for poor returns; giving the Bears less opportunity and magnifying his misses. Part of that probably also had to do with Lovies increased power and favoring vets over youth.
  15. WrigleyField 22
    Kind of to your point, its really hard to prove one way or the other how someone drafts 18 games in. 32 games we may be able to make a little better determination, but you also probably didn't hire a 37 year old GM thinking the guy you hired was the guy that brought you a Super Bowl, figuratively speaking. You are expecting growth. And yea, if you just move on every year or two, you're just the Browns. I wouldn't expect them to move on from him, and I'm okay with that, while also being critical of his misteps. He needs to just pour resources into both lines. At the very least, he has followed through on turning over the roster with youth, something Emery only talked about.
  16. WrigleyField 22
    No, I don't really think it was bad luck. And I don't really agree that the problem is a lack of organization philosophy. It seems fairly obvious they were going for a younger, faster defense and counting on a solid run game with the occasional deep threat, a standard play not to lose mentality. the problem is talent at key positions. The offensive tackles suck, the defense cannot rush the passer. Pace, whose history is in scouting guys already in the NFL, has not been a good drafter, and frankly I have no reason to believe he was capable of making a better hire than Fox. He looked for stability. If there is one encouranging thing about Pace's drafting, its been his picks outside the first round, as well as UDFAs. But you can't swing and miss on multiple top ten picks. Not that its too late for them to turn it around, but eaely returns are not promising, and there was plenty or criticism at the time so its not just 20/20 second guessing. Regarding his coaching pick. Yea, he went safe. Pro personnel? He did a good job at his two ILB pickups. Outside of that... pretty meh over both years.
  17. WrigleyField 22
    Luckily some other commitments should keep me away from the first half of this one.
  18. WrigleyField 22
    Cant Trevanthan just like tape it up? Oh well.
  19. WrigleyField 22
    Watson isn't good enough to tank for. Well maybe not intentionally, but we are where we are. Who's looking like top 5 picks is the real question?
  20. WrigleyField 22
    The Matt Barkley bandwagon is revving up!
  21. WrigleyField 22
    that would be a real ballsy move for a relative neophyte like Pace with a terrible track record to try and pull off. Give a veteran head coach a garbage team and back-to-back wasted first round picks and then kick him to the curb when things go predictably bad, only to give the job to the coach whose team has been falling apart for nearly as long as the Bears have and largely because of a poor "pro personnel decisions", which was your department at that team. True, then again, if he's picking a QB with a high pick thats all thats really going to matter in evaluating him. Then again it's a bold prediction because it has like 1% chance happening. Bold prediction number two. We keep Fox until he retires due to heart issues. This I put at better odds. 25%
  22. WrigleyField 22
    My bold prediction. The nearly as lowly Saints finally part ways with Sean Payton. Pace drops Fox, signs Payton, and drafts his QB for him to mold. Jay is traded for a couple mid round picks.
  23. WrigleyField 22
    Oh and outside of Cutler, Goldman had to be pretty high on the list of guys we could least afford to lose, and his injury definitely looked serious.
  24. WrigleyField 22
    So of Jay is seriously hurt, who we tanking for, Watson?
  25. WrigleyField 22
    Thats it?
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