Ballard and Toub?

Fuck that trib paywall

Haugh and his logic continue to baffle me at times. But trying to stay with continuity has gotten the Bears absolutely no where. Why is he stressing the Bears do the same. I personally think Jack Del Rio who was rumored today that the Bears may try to meet with would be a great match should Ballard be the choice. Though Ballard is still a 3rd or 4th place finisher in my mind for the GM job even though it seems as though the Bears really like him.

Newblood said:

Fuck that trib paywall

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It's been mentioned before, but just google the link and you will have no paywall.

Toub is a great coach

I'd be impressed to see how it goes in New York, not so much in Chicago.

Hiring Ballard also could make the next coach easier to deduce if the Bears do what smart teams often do: Let the GM hire an acquaintance with whom he is aligned philosophically. A former NFL general manager called the relationship between a GM and coach the most important factor for a rebuilding, draft-driven team.

Thus, the arrival of Ballard could hasten the return of Dave Toub if the Bears buy into the same belief. Toub, 52, lacks head-coaching experience but, of all the coordinators in a weak field of candidates, provides instant credibility in Chicago. He embodies everything the Bears need: a tough-minded coach who embraces defense and special teams with the ability to command respect in the locker room. He is ready to be an NFL head coach, somewhere.

I'm not sure you can make the jump from ST coordinator to NFL Head Coach. I like Toub, but would prefer someone with HC experience.

John Harbaugh.....

JIMMY MAC FAN said:

Hiring Ballard also could make the next coach easier to deduce if the Bears do what smart teams often do: Let the GM hire an acquaintance with whom he is aligned philosophically. A former NFL general manager called the relationship between a GM and coach the most important factor for a rebuilding, draft-driven team.

Thus, the arrival of Ballard could hasten the return of Dave Toub if the Bears buy into the same belief. Toub, 52, lacks head-coaching experience but, of all the coordinators in a weak field of candidates, provides instant credibility in Chicago. He embodies everything the Bears need: a tough-minded coach who embraces defense and special teams with the ability to command respect in the locker room. He is ready to be an NFL head coach, somewhere.

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One thing that intrigues me about Toub is that he is neither a "defensive guy" nor an "offensive guy" (which one could argue as a mark against him). Therefore, he should be more willing to get quality coordinators on both sides of the ball to work for him and not dead set on a certain system.
That being said, if he has success it could also mean less consistency on both sides of the ball because his coordinators could be hired away to be HCs.

(buckaroo2311 )I don't want the him as our HC, but you are wrong on that!

buckaroo2311 said:

I'm not sure you can make the jump from ST coordinator to NFL Head Coach. I like Toub, but would prefer someone with HC experience.

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Mike Ditka?

Newblood said:

Fuck that trib paywall

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I haven't seen anything worth reading on the Trib in years. But I think you can set up an account with them where you get a certain amount of free reads a month. It's always been enough for me.

buckaroo2311 said:

I'm not sure you can make the jump from ST coordinator to NFL Head Coach. I like Toub, but would prefer someone with HC experience.

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Happens all the time.

CubbyBear2290 said:

Haugh and his logic continue to baffle me at times. But trying to stay with continuity has gotten the Bears absolutely no where. Why is he stressing the Bears do the same. I personally think Jack Del Rio who was rumored today that the Bears may try to meet with would be a great match should Ballard be the choice. Though Ballard is still a 3rd or 4th place finisher in my mind for the GM job even though it seems as though the Bears really like him.

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The point of his column is that thee Bears have not stayed with continuity. They continue to hire coaches that they have no previous experience with.

My initial thought when I saw Haugh's suggestion was "Well, the shakeup is to bring in two guys who were here a long time?" But he points out that they have worked together since 2004 (First here, then KC), and that both are highly regarded for the positions we'd be putting them in.

Many here immediately react to Ballard with "Oh, no!!". But who was drafted when he was here, and what was his real involvement?

As for Toub, I don't know how well qualified he truly is, but it's better than most fans assume, apparently. he was interviewed for the Bears and another (Falcons?) job in the past. He is innovative. He got his player to perform. He seems to have the players' respect, which would certainly be a change from the past two years.

I would not be opposed to this duo.

buckaroo2311 said:

I'm not sure you can make the jump from ST coordinator to NFL Head Coach. I like Toub, but would prefer someone with HC experience.

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Most fans assume you need to be a coordinator of offense or defense to be a HC. But Jim Harbaugh, Mike Tomlin and John Harbaugh, to name a few, became HC with no def or off coord experience. John Harbaugh was a ST coach.

And if you look through coaches' resumes, you'll find many cases of a coach who people know as an offensive coordinator, who coached a defensive position at some point in his past. It is not all that rare.

Toub would have more credibility than many guys being listed by writers and fans as candidates around the league.

Chris Ballard-Dave Toub reunion at Halas Hall could be answer for Bears'



In search of the next big thing in coaching, Bears officials embarked Friday to interview job candidates in Seattle and Denver. You wonder how they ever got west of the Rockies by chasing their tail.

Nothing against Seahawks defensive coordinator Dan Quinn and Broncos 36-year-old offensive coordinator Adam Gase, two of the NFL's hottest assistant coaches, but the Bears have traveled down this road often since George Halas retired after the 1967 season. It seldom leads to prosperity. By now, the McCaskeys really should be tired of introducing themselves to their next head coach one month and asking them to save the franchise the next. By now, they should be out of the business of staging NFL head-coaching debuts.

League rules about postseason access to assistant coaches justify why the Bears asked for initial interviews with Quinn and Gase now rather than waiting until their teams are eliminated. What merits a closer look is why the Bears think entrusting success to an assistant coach they have no obvious connection with makes sense at all. My sense is the Bears approached the popular candidates for the same reason teenagers incessantly use Instagram: Because everybody else is doing it.

Quinn, 44, and Gase, along with Cardinals defensive coordinator Todd Bowles, 51, represent the NFL coaching flavors of the month. All three might develop into quality head coaches. Or all three might become Marc Trestman. The Bears cannot afford to waste time with unknowns.

To call the Bears' coaching search puzzling would be as much of an understatement as calling team President Ted Phillips polarizing. The McCaskeys should devote every waking second to finding a general manager-coach combination with which they are familiar and offers them the stability they admire in the family-owned Steelers and Giants; stability that has eluded the Bears since George McCaskey became chairman in 2011 — two fired GMs and two former head coaches ago. The Bears thought they had a compatible duo in Phil Emery and Trestman but never anticipated Trestman's shortcoming managing players because nobody at Halas Hall had worked with him before January 2013.

If the Bears hire another stranger or novice, they deserve to stay with their noses pressed against the glass watching the NFC playoffs. If they start the rebuild by hiring a GM with impressive credentials that include a past with the Bears, they can restore some confidence lost in the process. That brings us to Chris Ballard, the highly regarded 45-year-old Chiefs director of player personnel.

When Ballard interviews with the Bears as scheduled, nobody will need an introduction. Ballard spent 11 years with the Bears as an area scout before ascending to director of pro scouting in 2012. Two league sources identified Ballard as the Bears' leading GM candidate based on that background.

In two years under Chiefs GM John Dorsey, Ballard played a major role revamping a roster that produced the franchise's first back-to-back winning seasons in 17 years. One executive who has worked with Ballard complimented his method of working closely with assistant coaches — which also speaks to spending seven formative seasons as an assistant at Texas A&M-Kingsville. Comparisons to Emery, a former Bears scout who also came from the Chiefs, would be inevitable but also unfair given Ballard's reputation as an up-and-comer. It’s why the Jets also requested permission to interview Ballard.

Hiring Ballard also could make the next coach easier to deduce if the Bears do what smart teams often do: Let the GM hire an acquaintance with whom he is aligned philosophically. A former NFL general manager called the relationship between a GM and coach the most important factor for a rebuilding, draft-driven team.

Thus, the arrival of Ballard could hasten the return of Dave Toub if the Bears buy into the same belief. Toub, 52, lacks head-coaching experience but, of all the coordinators in a weak field of candidates, provides instant credibility in Chicago. He embodies everything the Bears need: a tough-minded coach who embraces defense and special teams with the personality that commands respect in the locker room. He is ready to be an NFL head coach, somewhere.

Has any Bears assistant coach been missed more since Toub left as special-teams coordinator in 2013? Remember, he and Ballard have worked in the same NFL organization since 2004. Seahawks offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell, a runner-up to Trestman, was a Wisconsin teammate of Ballard's but would be harder to sell than Toub to a Bears fan base that obviously matters to McCaskey.

Mike Shanahan deserves a phone call. So does Rex Ryan, though the absence of the Bears from Ryan's interview itinerary suggests perhaps he's not as interested in a homecoming as many assume. Gary Kubiak, Jack Del Rio and Mike Smith would be worthwhile interviews. Doug Marrone wouldn't be — please explain what about a 15-17 record with the Bills and a classless exit established him a coaching superstar. You might hear other names floated as the Bears' next coach.

Don't forget Toub's, especially if you hear Ballard's announced as the Bears' next general manager.

toub would have kept weems

I mean Toub is a good coach. However this article then proceeds to downplay guys like Marrone and Ryan while hyping Toub? I can't go down that road.

If the Bears truly believe in Ballard so much then I think the next move needs to be a HC with some experience. We need balance on the field and in the front office.

buckaroo2311 said:

I'm not sure you can make the jump from ST coordinator to NFL Head Coach. I like Toub, but would prefer someone with HC experience.

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Isn't Pete Carroll basically just a cheerleader though(At least from what I gathered around here)?His DC and OC, Quinn and Bevell make the calls and get their units prepared from what I understand. Carroll just kind of brings it together. With Toub it would be just a matter of hiring the right guys to run the system and play the kind of football you want at that point, but I like the intagibles he brings.