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Spotlight on Coaching Candidates: John Fox

| January 12th, 2015

fox

Some reasons I believe John Fox should be the next head coach of the Chicago Bears.

  • He is truly a head coach, a stabilizing organizational CEO who will build a top tier, professional staff.
  • If Bears were looking to pair their young GM with a veteran coach, Fox is the ideal candidate.
  • Fox is thirty games over .500 as a head coach. He was two games over in Carolina where his best quarterback was Jake Delhomme. (With whom he went to a Super Bowl.)
  • John Fox is a good man with a ton of respect around the league and he will immediately return credibility to the Bears locker room. Credibility is something the Bears are desperate to achieve.

More to come…

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115 Comments

Spotlight on the Coaching Candidates: Todd Bowles

| January 12th, 2015

wrong-bill

TODD BOWLES

The Bill Parcells coaching tree has been the most profitable of the modern era, yielding six Super Bowl titles since 2000. The reason? Parcells teaches his coaches to coach the whole field, not just their specific positions or unit. He breeds men who can run the room a la Bill Belichick, Tom Coughlin and Sean Payton.

From a Sheil Kapadia piece for Philly Mag:

While Parcells was making a name for himself as the head coach of the New York Giants, he faced Bowles, a safety out of Temple, twice a year.

“I noticed that he was making their secondary calls and adjustments and and all those things as far back as those days,” Parcells said during an interview with Jon Marks and Brian Baldinger on 97.5 The Fanatic.

Later in the piece, Bowles discussed the impact Parcells has had on his coaching career:

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364 Comments

Bears Introduce New General Manager Ryan Pace

| January 9th, 2015

pace

The Bears will be introducing their new GM, Ryan Pace, at an 11 am CT press conference.

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I will be traveling this weekend on a trip planned before the Chicago Bears went into despair and firings became inevitable. To keep up with my thoughts over the next several days, you will have to view my Twitter feed on the right rail or GO TO TWITTER AND FOLLOW ME.

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(If the Bears hire a coach over the next three days I will, of course, rush from the oceanfront bar or golf course I’m currently enjoying to edit a photo of the man in Microsoft Paint. This is sarcasm.)

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327 Comments

Bears Give Pace a Chance as Next General Manager

| January 8th, 2015

pace

There has been much talk in the Chicago sports media about the general repugnance of the Bears GM and head coaching positions. If one had no access to information outside The Tribune and The Score one would think taking over a leadership role inside the Bears organization was viewed similarly to taking over a maximum security prison with only a fly swatter and a Wiffle ball bat as protection.

Yet, here is Ryan Pace. Having rejected multiple opportunities to interview for positions that did not fit his specific criteria, Pace enthusiastically pursued the Bears GM gig. Here is Ryan Pace, not phased in the least by supposedly poisonous existence of Ted Phillips in a position of power. Boy does that spill hot coffee on the morning motives of certain folks.

What do we know about Ryan Pace?

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335 Comments

Notes on GM Candidates: Chris Ballard, Lake Dawson & Brian Gaine

| January 6th, 2015

Kansas City Chiefs v Pittsburgh Steelers

CHRIS BALLARD, KANSAS CITY CHIEFS

Sometimes other writers do your work for you. I was readying an email to former Bears scouting director Greg Gabriel to arrange a podcast re: Ballard when I came across a piece by Bucs blogger Sander Philipse. (To read the entire piece, and you should, CLICK HERE.) Here are some thoughts from Gabriel:

“Chris was a very strong defensive evaluator and he was excellent with defensive backs. And the whole time I was there, Chris cross-checked defensive backs. So he knew number one what we were looking for, number two he knew the personality of the coach, and knew if the coach could work with the kid and knew if the kid could prosper under the coach. There’s not a lot of scouts, who can do that who have that skill. That’s where he was very very strong.”

“[Charles] Tillman, that was Chris’ guy. [Cornerback] Nate Vasher we took in the fourth round from Texas. Now that’s a great example, because Chris had a very strong conviction on Nate Vasher. Nate at his pro day didn’t run very good. Now his agility drills and stuff were outstanding.”

Ballard wanted to really sell Vasher, though. He was convinced Vasher was going to be good. So he went back to Texas to time him again, and gets a tenth of a second off his time. Gabriel said “What did you do, strap jet engines to his ankles?” But Ballard really believed in Vasher, and just told Gabriel “Oh no man, he can do it. He can run real good!”

“But fact of the matter is Nate Vasher, he couldn’t run fast!” Gabriel says. “And I always harassed Ballard about that after, but he was so quick and so instinctive he became an All-Pro. Fourth-round pick and he went to the Pro Bowl!”

It wasn’t just defense, though that certainly is Ballard’s specialty. “[Running back] Matt Forte was another guy. Chris and I both had a strong conviction. Jerry (Angelo) wasn’t as sold on Forte as Chris and I were.” Forte has since made it to two Pro Bowls and has been a very large part of the Bears’ offense since being drafted.

Ballard is a former defensive coach and defensive back specialist interviewing for a job desperate for that expertise. It is one of many reasons I believe he will be the next GM of the Chicago Bears.

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196 Comments

Diving Into the Offseason: GM Interviews, Coaching Candidates & the Free Agent List

| January 5th, 2015

bowles

  • Bears set to interview Lake Dawson (Tuesday) and Chris Ballard (Wednesday) for their GM position, per Adam Schefter. You know what I’d like to see from the Bears this week? Once they identify the guy they want, hire him. If Ballard is the guy they’ve truly wanted since even before they fired Phil Emery a week ago (as was suggested in multiple locations), don’t let him leave Halas Hall Wednesday without discussing terms of the contract and scheduling the press conference for Thursday morning. The firings of Emery and Trestman were decisive actions by owner George McCaskey. Let’s keep that decisiveness going.
  • Here’s what worries me about Todd Bowles: his sideline demeanor reminds me of Marc Trestman and Lovie Smith and Dick Jauron. Bruce Arians described Bowles as “soft-spoken” and haven’t we seen how sideline stoicism plays in the city of Chicago? You can call this a non-issue if you like but the lack of fire and passion from the Bears has been a major issue over the last two seasons. McCaskey should be looking for a man to change that.
  • Second thought on this. Jim Fassel coached the Giants to a Super Bowl appearance during his time with the Giants but he was a nightmare off the field and was way too lenient with his players inside the locker room. Longtime Giants owner Wellington Mara wanted to follow Fassel with the polar opposite. He went to Tom Coughlin. Giants won two titles.

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