I tweeted about this already but I think Bruce Springsteen’s new track, We Take Care of Our Own, has Born in the USA potential. It is a masterfully timely piece of songwriting with a potent and dangerous message. It also has a faux-patriotic hook that will surely be misused by a few candidates over the next 11 months. Give it a listen. (And yes I’m from New Jersey and yes I know.)

BOB BOSTAD AS NEW OFFENSIVE LINE COACH?

The Bears won’t make any announcements on the hiring of Bob Bostad, Gabe Carimi’s former offensive line coach at Wisconsin, as their OL coach until the Mike Tice situation is settled in Oakland. But Mike Mulligan reported on his radio show this morning that Bostad is indeed heading to Chicago for what would be a massive promotion.

Bostad left Wisconsin for Pittsburgh a few weeks back with offensive Paul Chryst. The news was not taken lightly by the Big Ten power:

Bostad’s departure is a significant loss. The offensive line has been outstanding under his tutelage, especially the last two seasons.

The Badgers had two All-Americans last season in left tackle Gabe Carimi and left guard John Moffitt, and that duo joined Bill Nagy as rookie starters in the NFL this season. The Badgers’ line last season was considered to be one of the best in school history.

He is a young, talented coach. And if Tice stays he’ll be coaching under one of the best offensive line coaches in the NFL.

ADDENDUM: THIS STORY IS BEING REPORTED AS FALSE IN PITTSBURGH. READ HERE.

Pompei Does a Nice Job Breaking Down Marc Ross

Dan Pompei spends more time writing about Marc Ross in the Tribune than he’s spent on either of the previous two candidates. (Good on ya, Dan) I usually would just post a link for you but I’ll just throw the text on here.

Ross is a veteran of three NFL teams even though he’s only 38. At 27. he became the NFL’s youngest scouting director while working for the Eagles, who gave him his first full-time NFL job.

“He loved sports and knew his stuff,” said former Eagles player personnel man John Wooten, who gave Ross his first NFL job. “With the knowledge he had, you knew he was something special. He has shown that in Philadelphia, Buffalo and New York.”

Ross also worked for Tom Modrak with the Eagles, and Modrak later hired him to be his national scout for the Bills.

“He has a great feel for what needs to be done,” Modrak said. “He’s able to see what the job is all the time. He’s a really good talent evaluator.”

It’s almost cliche to say Ross is bright, but everyone says it anyway. He has a bachelor’s degree from Princeton in sociology and a master’s in sports administration from Massachusetts. At Princeton, he played wide receiver and still holds the school record for average yards per reception in a season with 20.2 in 1993.

But those who know Ross say he isn’t one of those brainiacs who doesn’t deal well with those around him.

“He is smart about football and people,” Modrak said. “He has a feel for the room. He has the ability to pull things together. He draws from everybody around him because he’s very aware.”

That doesn’t mean Ross can’t be strong-minded. Modrak said Ross sticks to his convictions even if others disagree.

However, like former Bears general manager Jerry Angelo, Ross is considered a consensus builder.

“Here we do everything together,” Reese said. “Wherever Marc goes, he knows everybody’s voice is important. I think he’ll take that with him. We come to a consensus on guys. We don’t necessarily have one guy say this is our guy. If we can’t come to a consensus, we’ll pick somebody else.”

Ross does not have extensive administrative experience, but he has done some contracts and Reese gives him considerable autonomy.

“Reese has him run the draft, very similar to what Ernie Accorsi did with Reese,” said Wooten, who endorsed Ross in a phone conversation with Bears coach Lovie Smith. “He’s ready. He’s ready to run a team.”

Reese agrees.

“On draft day he does a tremendous job,” Reese said. “He has veteran scouts around him and young scouts around him and he manages those guys really well. He stays out all year long looking for players just like our scouts. He’s definitely qualified. Obviously I’m biased, but there’s no reason for him not to succeed. He’ll do a tremendous job wherever he goes.”

He’s the guy. It is simple as that. I would not have a terrible problem with Raye or Emery. But Ross just feels like the guy.

Mike Tice Will Interview With the Oakland Raiders Tuesday

Unless you’re a devout follower of the bullshit spewed by Steve Rosenbloom almost daily on the Tribune’s website, you understand that having your offensive coordinator interviewed for vacant head coaching positions is life in the NFL. And unless you’ve not checked a football-related website over the last two weeks you would know that Tice now joins a list of almost a dozen potential candidates for the position. Tice is a good football coach, well-respected throughout the league, and I firmly believe he is going to be a head coach again in the league. (I do not, however, believe he will be the next HC of the Raiders.) Tice staying in Chicago is the ideal scenario but if Tice leaves it is far from doomsday. It is not going to take a genius to hand the ball to Matt Forte twenty-five times a game next season.

Bears Interviewing Marc Ross For GM Position Today

He has been DaBearsBlog’s officially endorsed candidate for the GM position since before the candidate list was announced and Marc Ross is finally receiving his interview today. Ross is the candidate from the most stable organization and has had the most success on draft day at position the Bears target desperately: WR, DE, OL. I truly believe if Ted Phillips and the McCaskey family make this hire they will have stability in the front office for more than a decade.

Mark Potash: You’re Next

I made a mistake this morning I never make: I read a column in a major Chicago newspaper not written by Brad Biggs. That column is written by Mark Potash in the Sun-Times and can be read by clicking here. His premise is simple: Bears fans should not celebrate the loss of the Green Bay Packers because the Packers are better than the Bears. One of the reason the Packers are better than the Bears is because the Packers hire people quickly and the Bears do not. (I shit you not. This is one of the actual points of the column.)

We all know the Bears did not make the postseason but I refuse to join the chorus of revisionist historians who’ve casually chosen to forget the Bears were 7-3 and one of the best teams in football. And the same columnists who’ve discounted the Bears surprising appearance in the NFC Championship Game a year ago now want us to celebrate regular season success for Lions and Packers teams that were BLOWN OUT this January.

Newspapers are dying and it is not just because of the digital revolution. It is because they are no longer the destination for the country’s best writers and journalists. The Chicago sports columnist is a perfect example.

The Chicago Bears have signed special teams coordinator Dave Toub to a two-year extensions, making him one of the highest paid at his position across the NFL. Toub was under consideration by the Miami Dolphins for their head coaching vacancy.

This contract extension means many things. (1) If the Bears have a disastrous 2012, the organization could look within and consider Toub as a replacement both short and long-term replacement. (2) Even if the new GM moves on from Lovie at the end of 2012 the organization can prevent Toub from moving laterally (as an ST coordinator) to another organization. (3) Most importantly the Bears kept their finest coach.

They won fifteen of their sixteen regular season games, these Green Bay Packers. You remember them, right? These are the Green Bay Packers that won last year’s Super Bowl as the NFC’s six seed. These are the Green Bay Packers that ran through their regular season record with ease, doubling the scoring output of their opponents. These are the Green Bay Packers Ted Phillips was referring to when he addressed an attempt to narrow the talent gap between the Bears and the other teams in the NFC North. These Green Bay Packers were quickly becoming the gold standard for NFL organizations. Members of their front office were being considered for bigger things around the league, with Director of Football Operations already assuming power in Oakland. Their coaches – especially Darren Perry and Winston Moss – are locks to be head coaches down the road. Their backup quarterback is going to sign a $60 million contract somewhere this year. Their players are in commercials. Their fans are gobbling up fake stocks at $250 a clip at such an alarming rate that the organization is just going to print more meaningless pieces of paper to appease them.

And yesterday the Giants walked into Lambeau Field and ended their season. The Packers became the fifth straight Super Bowl champion to fail to win a playoff game the following season. This was not a loss. This was not the better team winning on any given Sunday. This was a colossal choke job by a heavy favorite. Nobody on the Packers defense could make a tackle in the open field. The most sure-handed wide receiving corps in football suddenly drew comparisons the group we all see in Chicago on a weekly basis. Their head coach was attempting desperation onside kicks for no reason whatsoever. Their quarterback missed throws he hasn’t missed in two years. Easy throws. Rookie throws. Their team performance was so bad Sunday that many of the people I watched the game with were wondering aloud (and seriously) if the Packers were throwing the game. There were several moments throughout the afternoon where I thought it was possible.

Now fifteen wins is nothing. It is meaningless. Ask fans in the Chicagoland area how much they cherish their trip to the NFC Championship Game a year ago. I’ll save you the trouble. They don’t even remember it. And those that do remember it consider the whole exercise more of a failure than an achievement. Now this team will be doomed to an entire offseason of self-evaluation. Why did this collapse happen? Is their offensive model capable of sustained success in the postseason? How did the defense go from one of the league’s best to one of the league’s worst? Is Dom Capers headed for the door? Questions no one in Packer Nation ever expected to address will dominate the headlines from this morning until they win their next playoff game.

Here’s the truth of the modern NFL: the playoffs and regular season have nothing to do with one another. Yes you need sustained success throughout the regular season to become eligible for the tournament but that is where the chain is broken. Tim Tebow couldn’t complete a pass for a month and puts up 300 yards against Pittsburgh. The Patriots defense was the worst in football and made Tebow look like an amateur again. Alex Smith is the biggest liability on the Niners until he does his Joe Montana impression against the Saints. Everything the Packers did yesterday was contrary to everything they did all season long.

You just have to get into the playoffs and take your shot. Doesn’t matter what the path: at home or on the road. Doesn’t matter what the seed. You just have to get in and take your shot. Because football is, unlike any other sport, often determined by the bounce of the ball. One drop. A Hail Mary at halftime. The Packers proved it yesterday. Winning fifteen games is sometimes easy. It’s winning one that’s hard.

Three things on yesterday’s football:

1. Brilliant performance by Jim Harbaugh, Vernon Davis, Alex Smith and the San Francisco 49ers. Nobody, and I mean nobody, thought this team was going to beat the Saints in a game that saw both teams in the 30s. (I couldn’t find one game prediction on the internet that had the Niners scoring more than 24 points.) This is an easy team to root for in the NFC Championship Game.
2. So what’s the Tebow fanatic’s response to a game like this? A game where he missed receivers five yards down field by twenty feet. A game where he looked like he didn’t belong on an NFL practice squad; never mind starting in a playoff game. His victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers last week may have set the Elway era in Denver back five years.
3. This is going to sound cruel but hear me out. The best thing that can happen to Joe Paterno’s legacy is his death. Because if he dies he will be prohibited from giving the kind of ridiculous, insulting and downright untruthful interview he gave to Sally Jenkins of the Washington Post. The man who ran Penn State with an iron fist for fifty years suddenly did not want to disrupt university procedures and suddenly did not know what was happening in the football facilities? No one will believe him if he continues to take this approach with media and it will take an actual interviewer, sitting in front of him, harassing him for the truth, to know what really happened. He’s better off not being around when that time comes.

My betting guide:

Saints -3

Patriots -13.5 and over 50

Ravens -7.5 and over 36.5

Giants & Packers over 53

Nailed Saturday last weekend but Sunday had some genuine surprises. I did not expect the Falcons to let the Giants simply push them around in the Meadowlands. I did not expect Mike Smith to deliver such an inept performance from the Falcons sideline. I did not expect every member of Steelers roster to leave the game injured and for those remaining healthy (Ike Taylor, James Harrison, Troy Polamalu) to bee overwhelmed by Tim Tebow’s arm. Bizarre ballgame.

New Orleans Saints over SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS

I’m torn on this game. I root for old school football and nobody played older school football in the NFL this year than Jim Harbaugh’s Niners. They are as talented a defensive front as there is in the game, suffocating against the run, and would tell you their ideal offensive game plan would be forty Frank Gore carries. Their problem is while Alex Smith has minimized his mistakes and managed games well, he has been an inaccurate mess in the red zone and left his team to settle for a million field goals. I know the Saints have been a different team on the road and on grass but I think this will be one Gregg Williams blitz too many for the Niners. Saints 23, Niners 20.

NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS over Denver Broncos

I’m not torn on this game. What Tim Tebow did to the Pittsburgh Steelers he will not do to the New England Patriots. I’m prone to believe the real Tebow was the one who failed to complete a pass over the month of December and not the bomb dropper we saw Sunday afternoon. You can’t find consistent success only throwing 30+ yard passes in the NFL. You have to throw a come backs. You have to throw accurately to the sideline. Belichick does not have the defenders Romeo has in Kansas City or Lovie has in Chicago but he’ll compensate for his lack of talent by preaching gap discipline from his front seven and toughness from his deep backs. His offense will score. New England 30, Broncos 16

BALTIMORE RAVENS over Houston Texans

Why? Because I believe the Ravens can sell out to stop the run and then bully T. J. Yates into sadness. Ravens 20, Texans 10

GREEN BAY PACKERS over New York Giants

I can’t get the image of the Bears dominating the front seven of the Packers on Christmas night with Kahlil Bell running the ball. The Giants don’t have the run game the Bears have but they’ve looked more capable on the ground as Brandon Jacobs has reemerged in the last few weeks. I see one of those games where the Packers jump out quick and the Giants keep chase but never quite finish it. Packers 30, Giants 24  

Fantasy Playoffs Continued….

• The individuals listed below (and myself) are still eligible to win six Lou Malnati’s pizzas. You have until kickoff of the first game Saturday to put in your selections.
• Select one offensive unit, one defensive unit and one special teams unit active this week.
• You can not select any of the units you chose for the wild card round. If you do so, even by accident, you will be disqualified from the competition.
• There are 23 eligible contestants left. Only the top ten (plus ties) will make it to the Championship Games.
• My selections this week. Offense: New York Giants. Defense: Baltimore Ravens. Special Teams: San Francisco 49ers.

Gpldan 

SidLuckman42 

Doc Nitty 34 

FQD1911 

#76 Mongo Murph 

do53 

thebigcheese 

TheConsummator 

CanadaBear 

DYLbear23 

SC Dave 

Jimwoww 

TheFifth 

JAB1 

BigT 

Elcaney 

Perno 

Albertintucson 

BearsFan4Life 

The Void 

Shannon Pankster 

Jokey  

First, the Bears are set to interview former Bucs OC and former Bears quarterbacks coach (under Jauron) Greg Olson for their vacant QB coach/passing game coordinator position. Olson has a great deal of NFL pedigree and would be a solid choice. But one need only watch Tom Thayer’s interview with Mike Tice below to recognize this position is not a primary coaching role. Tice knows what he wants from both the run and pass game. And he’s going to get it.

As for the GM candidates, Brad Biggs does a terrific job summarizing them in the Trib. So good, in fact, I am just copying a bulk of his article for you here. (Side note on article: my full support continues to be behind the Giants’ Marc Ross. I love the Giants scouting department, love how they draft and just quite simply have faith in their organization to promote the right people.)

Eight days after general manager Jerry Angelo was fired, the club announced Chiefs college scouting director Phil Emery, Patriots director of pro personnel Jason Licht, Chargers director of player personnel Jimmy Raye III and Giants college scouting director Marc Ross will interview for the position.

Emery is a known commodity at Halas Hall. He joined the team as an area scout when Mark Hatley was in charge of personnel and covered the Southeast from 1998-2004. He was the scout who endorsed Rex Grossman as a first-round draft pick in 2003. Emery spent six seasons with the Falcons, five as their director of college scouting, and has been with the Chiefs for three years under general manager Scott Pioli.

Licht, an all-conference defensive tackle at Nebraska Wesleyan, has worked for five organizations, serving as a vice president of player personnel for the Eaglesand as a personnel executive for the Cardinals when they reached the Super Bowl in the 2008 season. He’s in his second stint with the Patriots and can be credited with key moves such as the addition of guardBrian Waters and running back Danny Woodhead. He started as a college scout.

Raye, who played wide receiver briefly for the Rams, oversees the college and pro scouting departments for the Chargers and was the team’s director of college scouting from 2000-2007. He gets a lot of credit for drafts that included center Nick Hardwick, linebacker Shaun Phillips and running backMichael Turner in Rounds 3 through 5 in 2004 and in subsequent years Shawne Merriman, Luis Castillo, Vincent Jackson, Darren Sproles,Marcus McNeill and Eric Weddle. Raye’s father, Jimmy Raye II, was a longtime NFL assistant.

Ross, an All-Ivy receiver for Princeton, has been Giants director of college scouting for five seasons. Like Licht, he came up through the Eagles, for whom he was a regional scout before becoming the NFL’s youngest college scouting director at 27 in 2000. The Eagles drafted longtime standouts Brian Westbrook, Lito Sheppard and Derrick Burgess and he has continued to acquire top talent during his run in New York, including Jason Pierre-Paul,Hakeem Nicks, Kenny Phillips and Terrell Thomas.

I don’t get too excited about writing those “ten things the Bears need to do this offseason” columns that seem to inundate the internet in the immediate aftermath of every NFL season. We all know what the Bears need: backup quarterback (they’ll have options), number one wide receiver (they have great FA options), offensive line health and some depth where they are beginning to age on defense (LB, CB).

The Bears are in a rather wonderful position heading into this offseason. Here is a tweet from Sun-Times beat man Sean Jensen that sums it up:

Yes, it is a huge draft for the #Bears with 4 picks in first 3 rounds. But, they also have most cap space in NFC North.

It is the cap space that intrigues me and it is the cap space that should be used to add not only a wideout but a position of equal importance: situational pass rusher opposite Julius Peppers.

While most NFL analysts out there are yelling and screaming about a team needing seventeen wide receivers and 500 yards passing a week to challenge for the Super Bowl, I have consistently gone the other way. I think you can win the big game running the ball and making plays through the air in the red zone. I think you can win with excellent special teams and disciplined defense. But I think, without question, you can not win a championship without great pass rush. And the Bears pass rush has simply been too inconsistent.

Julius Peppers is great. No question about it. But he is an every down defensive end that tends to understandably wear down as the season progresses. He needs help. Who is out there?

Robert Mathis is 30 years old but has a life of experience playing defensive end in the exact system. You can pencil him in for double-digit sacks in a Bears uniform. Mario Williams is one of the true young stars of the game and while he’ll cost a fortune, he’ll be worth every dime. Cliff Avril was a revelation for the Lions this year and they will need to open their wallets to keep him. The question facing their organization is how much money can they pump into their defensive line as their secondary continues to get torched for 40 points a week? Osi Umenyiora is not going to be a three-down man on the outside but he’s come to earn the nickname “the closer” in a city that understands that position better than anywhere else in the country. When the game is on the line, nobody is better at getting to the QB than Osi.

There is also the draft, of course, and the Bears will have their sights set on pass rushers in the same way the other thirty-one clubs do each April. But the chances of finding a man, even with the 18th overall selection, who’ll dominate the edge on Sundays is unlikely. (Especially not in 2012 – his first year.) These guys are the most coveted prize in the post L.T. NFL and the Giants seem to know where they are before the rest of the league does.

Use the cap and get the pass catcher, of course. But remember that if the Bears do not add a legitimate sack man opposite Julius Peppers they will be staring up at big numbers on scoreboard when they face BOTH their rivals to the north. Don’t attempt to join the high-flying circus offenses. Not when you’ve already got one of the most consistent run games in the league. You are the Chicago Bears. Concentrate your efforts on taking the circus tents down. Do it with a pass rush.

None of us, except those living in the war rooms of the respective organizations, know how involved the non-GM is with particular personnel decisions. But if you’re not going to hire a man with GM experience you target the high level executives at organizations run in a way you believe to be analogous with how you want your organization run. Here are three of those guys.

Marc Ross, Director of College Scouting

New York Giants

If Ted Phillips was not lying and this move will be about making the Bears a draft-based organization, hiring an experienced college scout would be a no-brainer move. And for a team that can pinpoint their needs at the WR, OL and pass rushing positions it would make sense to target the man heading a Giants team that continues to nail those positions with ease. (The Giants suffered some terrible injuries on their o-line this year and actually improved when they resorted to a second unit.) Ross is ready to make the leap to the big room and the Bears would be wise to provide him that opportunity.

Les Snead, Director of Player Personnel

Atlanta Falcons

Having watched the Falcons closely these last few years it is clear to me their issue is not talent-based. They have a head coach that seems to lose his mind situationally and a quarterback who shrinks in the big playoff spot. What I like about the Falcons front office is they go after it. They signed Tony Gonzalez when the Hall of Famer was essentially begging the New York Giants to bring him in and they balked. They gave up a boatload of picks to secure Julio Jones – a man they targeted as a verifiable game breaking wide receiver. They build their depth in the draft but they don’t fear free agency. I think that’s the key to building a championship group in modern NFL. (Many do not share that opinion.)

Rick Reiprish, Director of College Scouting

New Orleans Saints

I don’t love the Saints talent on the defensive side of the ball. They rely far too heavily on weird Gregg Williams blitz packages to pressure the passer. But Marques Colston? Lance Moore? These guys were afterthoughts on draft day. He also is at least partly responsible for selecting the best guard tandem in football – Jahri Evans and Carl Nicks – in the fourth and fifth rounds respectively. We all know how good the coach and quarterback are in New Orleans but their draft evaluations have been the unsung hero in their alarming, historic offensive success.