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The State of the Bears press conference got me thinking about the big issues with the Bears and I wanted to write down my thoughts on some of the big things facing the Bears.
I am not trying to be inflammatory or negative.
1. This is a Coaching Issue.
The issues that plague this team are bigger than any one player or unit on this team. When an entire unit is playing poorly that is either a talent issue or a coaching issue, and in the Bears have talent, especially on offense.
-Consistently poorly prepared to play good teams
-Late collapses and an inability to make halftime adjustments
-Poor game plan [mostly defense]
-Baffling Personnel Decisions
-Sloppy, undisciplined, and fundamentally weak play
These are coaching issues. When all the players fail at the same time it has to be connected to something bigger.
2. Marc Trestman is on the Hot Seat.
Earlier I wrote that the shine had come off of Trestman, but this has gone well beyond that. Trestman should be at risk of losing his job. This team is too talented, on offense especially, to be this bad and to lose games in this way. The Bears are not only failing to live up to expectations, but they are not competitive in games, they cannot win at home, and HIS offense is one of the main reasons.
There have been multiple games where I have felt like we had no answer and that we were out coached, one of those was against Joe Philbin.
With the season on the line, in a must win game, the Bears were losing 45-7 at the half, if that does not show that a team has quit I do not know what does.
3. Mel Tucker and Joe DeCamillis should be fired this week.
Neither of these guys have a ton of talent.
But none of these guys do much to assist their talent level and improve the overall quality of the unit. Tucker especially is pathetic. His desire to continually run the same schemes even when they are not working is a fire able offense. A coach’s job is to enhance the talents of his players, not to expose them and force them to do things that they cannot do.
Rob Gronkowski was the exclamation point on this issue. Running the same off coverage with Ryan Mundy getting torched shows an inability to adapt and put your player in the best place to succeed.
4. Jay Cutler has not been good.
We needed Jay to be good, he has not been good. I also do not think that it is unrealistic to expect improvement when the Bears removed hurdles for him and paid him. I expected him to be better, but I am coming to terms with the fact that he may never be better. If it is true that he will not improve with the talent around him then 18 million a season was a bad investment.
That being said, focusing the blame for this dumpster fire solely on Cutler is a mistake that hurts the Bears. This problem is so much bigger than 1 player it requires an entire organization evaluation, don't lose that in a rush to crucify 1 player.
Cutler is part of a much larger problem.
5. Not a Cutler Apologist.
I may have sounded like a Cutler apologist above, but trust me I am not.
I have serious doubts that he is ever going to be good enough for the Bears to be a contender. I have serious doubts about his ability to ever beat Green Bay, kind of important, and I have my doubts about his ability to ever reach his potential.
Cutler Facts
-He is overpaid. Even if you say Alex Smith makes 16 million a year, Alex Smith gets his team into the playoffs with less offensive talent.
-He is always going to be mistake prone, after 9 years and this season with removed excuses accept that you are going to get Bad Jay more than you want.
-He is still the best QB within arm’s reach of the Bears, the Bears paid Cutler because he was the best option and he will continue to be until the Bears get better at scouting QBs or end up being able to pick an Andrew Luck.
-You are never going to personally like him, he is an asshole stop pretending that liking him matters or that smiling more will help him win.
-He will be here for 3 years, 54 million reasons why this is true.
6. The Bears Reliance on Aging Veterans has killed them.
The Bears drafted poorly from 07-11.
This has left them reliant on aging veterans [Briggs, Tillman, Williams] that cannot stay healthy or that cannot play anymore. This has also left the reliant on veteran free agents that are either ineffective [Allen] or over paid based on what they provide [Houston].
The young back bone of this team simply does not exist. Chris Williams and Gabe Carimi should be our tackles. Pool Jumper, Bazuin, and Shea should be helping our DL. Major Wright, Chris Conte, and Brandon Hardin should be at least be key contributors to special teams and maybe an impact starter. Iglesias and Greg Olsen should be key targets in the passing game.
This team does not have the young backbone they need. However, the last couple of drafts have given hope.
7. This Team is Devoid of Leadership
The Bears crumbled under the expectations of the season and when things have gone sideways there has been no one to step in and lead. Things have gone from bad, to worse, and finally to embarrassing with little done from players or coaches to stop the slide.
Cutler has never really been a vocal leader, and I do not see it happening now.
Briggs is the longest tenured Bear, but he has also never been a leader and he seems to have check out even more than last season.
Even the coach is not a vocal leader and Marshall is not someone I want yelling at anyone.
A great sign of team wide leadership would have been responding to the Miami loss with a strong effort in New England, cue the sad trombone music.
8. Change has not yielded results.
On a micro level there is so much this season to be disappointed about and upset about.
On a macro level I am most disappointed that the change I had waited for [Angelo and Lovie] did not yield the results I was promised or thought we were getting.
I thought firing Lovie, and his never ending carousel of offensive coordinators, would lead to an offensive revolution in Chicago. We hired an offensive coach that I liked and respected. Yet, we have the same offensive inconsistency and incompetence. We still have terrible coordinators [Tucker, DeCamillis] defended by their head coach.
This is was disappoints me most. 24 games into the new era and I do not feel the Bears are any closer to winning, and the argument could be made that they are further away. I am sure that this is why most
9. We should have hired Arians.
Hindsight is always 20/20, but it is hard to argue with his success in Arizona. Arians is exceeding the expectations put on that roster, while Marc Trestman is failing to meet the most basic expectations of his talent level. Arians seems to have the command and leadership that Trestman is lacking.
I am not guaranteeing that Arians would be doing more in Chicago, but it would be tough to be doing less with this offense and with this team.
I was a Trestman fan so I am surprise to see him fail as he has. I was excited about the hire and I was skeptical of Arians, but you cannot argue with results.
10. 3-6 Ends the Season
The Bears come out of the bye and play in Lambeau, a place they cannot win, against the Packers, a team they cannot beat. I know that sounds extremist, but the numbers do not lie. Cutler is 1-9 against the Packers and has never won in Lambeau.
The Bears have 2 weeks to prepare and get healthy, well the Packers have 2 weeks to prepare and get healthy.
I have a hard time seeing Trestman and Tucker out coaching the Packers in Lambeau when they could not out coach Joe Philbin, who is constantly on the hot seat, at home.
Once the season is done, it will be interesting to see if Trestman can keep the team together and playing hard when they have no reason to. Failure and pressure can breed toxic environments in locker rooms. This will be the biggest test for Trestman and will go a long way in the evaluation of him as a head coach.
I just hope that we play the young guys when this happens. See what we have and develop these guys, rather than try and uselessly save face and win a couple of meaningless games with veterans that are not part of the teams future.
I think Michael C Wright said it best
"Having covered a few teams & experiencing different fan bases, boy for all the support Bears fans give their team, they deserve way more."
I am not trying to be inflammatory or negative.
1. This is a Coaching Issue.
The issues that plague this team are bigger than any one player or unit on this team. When an entire unit is playing poorly that is either a talent issue or a coaching issue, and in the Bears have talent, especially on offense.
-Consistently poorly prepared to play good teams
-Late collapses and an inability to make halftime adjustments
-Poor game plan [mostly defense]
-Baffling Personnel Decisions
-Sloppy, undisciplined, and fundamentally weak play
These are coaching issues. When all the players fail at the same time it has to be connected to something bigger.
2. Marc Trestman is on the Hot Seat.
Earlier I wrote that the shine had come off of Trestman, but this has gone well beyond that. Trestman should be at risk of losing his job. This team is too talented, on offense especially, to be this bad and to lose games in this way. The Bears are not only failing to live up to expectations, but they are not competitive in games, they cannot win at home, and HIS offense is one of the main reasons.
There have been multiple games where I have felt like we had no answer and that we were out coached, one of those was against Joe Philbin.
With the season on the line, in a must win game, the Bears were losing 45-7 at the half, if that does not show that a team has quit I do not know what does.
3. Mel Tucker and Joe DeCamillis should be fired this week.
Neither of these guys have a ton of talent.
But none of these guys do much to assist their talent level and improve the overall quality of the unit. Tucker especially is pathetic. His desire to continually run the same schemes even when they are not working is a fire able offense. A coach’s job is to enhance the talents of his players, not to expose them and force them to do things that they cannot do.
Rob Gronkowski was the exclamation point on this issue. Running the same off coverage with Ryan Mundy getting torched shows an inability to adapt and put your player in the best place to succeed.
4. Jay Cutler has not been good.
We needed Jay to be good, he has not been good. I also do not think that it is unrealistic to expect improvement when the Bears removed hurdles for him and paid him. I expected him to be better, but I am coming to terms with the fact that he may never be better. If it is true that he will not improve with the talent around him then 18 million a season was a bad investment.
That being said, focusing the blame for this dumpster fire solely on Cutler is a mistake that hurts the Bears. This problem is so much bigger than 1 player it requires an entire organization evaluation, don't lose that in a rush to crucify 1 player.
Cutler is part of a much larger problem.
5. Not a Cutler Apologist.
I may have sounded like a Cutler apologist above, but trust me I am not.
I have serious doubts that he is ever going to be good enough for the Bears to be a contender. I have serious doubts about his ability to ever beat Green Bay, kind of important, and I have my doubts about his ability to ever reach his potential.
Cutler Facts
-He is overpaid. Even if you say Alex Smith makes 16 million a year, Alex Smith gets his team into the playoffs with less offensive talent.
-He is always going to be mistake prone, after 9 years and this season with removed excuses accept that you are going to get Bad Jay more than you want.
-He is still the best QB within arm’s reach of the Bears, the Bears paid Cutler because he was the best option and he will continue to be until the Bears get better at scouting QBs or end up being able to pick an Andrew Luck.
-You are never going to personally like him, he is an asshole stop pretending that liking him matters or that smiling more will help him win.
-He will be here for 3 years, 54 million reasons why this is true.
6. The Bears Reliance on Aging Veterans has killed them.
The Bears drafted poorly from 07-11.
This has left them reliant on aging veterans [Briggs, Tillman, Williams] that cannot stay healthy or that cannot play anymore. This has also left the reliant on veteran free agents that are either ineffective [Allen] or over paid based on what they provide [Houston].
The young back bone of this team simply does not exist. Chris Williams and Gabe Carimi should be our tackles. Pool Jumper, Bazuin, and Shea should be helping our DL. Major Wright, Chris Conte, and Brandon Hardin should be at least be key contributors to special teams and maybe an impact starter. Iglesias and Greg Olsen should be key targets in the passing game.
This team does not have the young backbone they need. However, the last couple of drafts have given hope.
7. This Team is Devoid of Leadership
The Bears crumbled under the expectations of the season and when things have gone sideways there has been no one to step in and lead. Things have gone from bad, to worse, and finally to embarrassing with little done from players or coaches to stop the slide.
Cutler has never really been a vocal leader, and I do not see it happening now.
Briggs is the longest tenured Bear, but he has also never been a leader and he seems to have check out even more than last season.
Even the coach is not a vocal leader and Marshall is not someone I want yelling at anyone.
A great sign of team wide leadership would have been responding to the Miami loss with a strong effort in New England, cue the sad trombone music.
8. Change has not yielded results.
On a micro level there is so much this season to be disappointed about and upset about.
On a macro level I am most disappointed that the change I had waited for [Angelo and Lovie] did not yield the results I was promised or thought we were getting.
I thought firing Lovie, and his never ending carousel of offensive coordinators, would lead to an offensive revolution in Chicago. We hired an offensive coach that I liked and respected. Yet, we have the same offensive inconsistency and incompetence. We still have terrible coordinators [Tucker, DeCamillis] defended by their head coach.
This is was disappoints me most. 24 games into the new era and I do not feel the Bears are any closer to winning, and the argument could be made that they are further away. I am sure that this is why most
9. We should have hired Arians.
Hindsight is always 20/20, but it is hard to argue with his success in Arizona. Arians is exceeding the expectations put on that roster, while Marc Trestman is failing to meet the most basic expectations of his talent level. Arians seems to have the command and leadership that Trestman is lacking.
I am not guaranteeing that Arians would be doing more in Chicago, but it would be tough to be doing less with this offense and with this team.
I was a Trestman fan so I am surprise to see him fail as he has. I was excited about the hire and I was skeptical of Arians, but you cannot argue with results.
10. 3-6 Ends the Season
The Bears come out of the bye and play in Lambeau, a place they cannot win, against the Packers, a team they cannot beat. I know that sounds extremist, but the numbers do not lie. Cutler is 1-9 against the Packers and has never won in Lambeau.
The Bears have 2 weeks to prepare and get healthy, well the Packers have 2 weeks to prepare and get healthy.
I have a hard time seeing Trestman and Tucker out coaching the Packers in Lambeau when they could not out coach Joe Philbin, who is constantly on the hot seat, at home.
Once the season is done, it will be interesting to see if Trestman can keep the team together and playing hard when they have no reason to. Failure and pressure can breed toxic environments in locker rooms. This will be the biggest test for Trestman and will go a long way in the evaluation of him as a head coach.
I just hope that we play the young guys when this happens. See what we have and develop these guys, rather than try and uselessly save face and win a couple of meaningless games with veterans that are not part of the teams future.
I think Michael C Wright said it best
"Having covered a few teams & experiencing different fan bases, boy for all the support Bears fans give their team, they deserve way more."
