Bears have fired... TE coach Kevin Gilbride OC Mark Helfrich OL Harry Hiestand Asst. ST Brock Olivo So there are your scapegoats. Hiestand is one of the best in the business. I know the Bears OL was awful this season but I can't blame a guy that has gotten results everywhere he's been. There's a talent issue there and a scheme problem. How Nagy holds Helfrich responsible when he is the playcaller is beyond me. Not sad to see Helfrich go, it's whatever, but what's the message there?
BINGO. 100%. Anything to keep Nagy or Pace from accepting responsibility. I can't imagine the guys they fired are responsible for the bad personnel, playcalling, or Trubisky. But maybe I'm wrong...
Just saw this after I put the scapegoat thread up. We were all able to sniff this bullshit out immediately. Fucking rat-ass move.
That's what I thought coming in, but there is a disconnect somewhere on this line and he couldn't seem to correct it. It seemed like at least once on every drive that line didn't account for somebody and then they blow up the play. If Nagy continues to call plays it will probably get worse before it gets better moving forward.
That’s on the whole offensive staff to design and execute (players too) the protections though. Maybe a reason Helfrich was fired..???
These guys weren't immaculate at their jobs either. I think Heistand, Helfrich and Gilbride deserved it. This offensive line regressed. Now here's where you can cry 'skapegoat,' because Mitch in 15 games (should be 14, b/c that's counting 1st Minny game he got injured early in the game) had 516 passing attempts. For context--Mitch threw 434 times in 14 games in 2018. That's on Nagy. Massie improved, or maybe his average ass looked better than the rest of the chumps I'm about to get to. But Charles Leno sucking J'Marcus Webb level of bad and was the 6th most penalized player in 2019? Rashad Coward sucking? Cornelius Lucas being inadequate at best? Whitehair and Daniels starting terribly then finishing hot and cold? That's not on Nagy. You cannot tell me the aging, debilitated Kyle Long was the glue that makes it work/superior--what we all thought was a strength for 2019 was embarrassing. That's fireable to me, I don't care about your resume. Tight Ends coach is responsible for Adam Shaheen right? He should have done something for JP Holtz or Jasper Horsted, right? The highest grossing TE in receiving yardage on the bears in 2019 only had 93 fucking receiving yards (JP Holtz). Why the fuck should he keep his job? Helfrich was a scapegoat in that he wasn't the playcaller, just the poor guy with the title. But honestly, I thought he was here to incorporate his bread and butter mid-2000s Oregon offense, where he could bowl you over with a powerback and break big plays with a speed back and many teams run it RPO style successfully in the NFL in 2019. The bears couldn't do that. So what exactly is his job and reason for being here? Because he isn't calling plays... On the plus side, the 'Mariota reuniting with his former Oregon coach' storyline won't happen. So I guess that's a plus.
This offense was ranked 29th in Total Yard, PPG and Total Points. No one who was involved in that should be considered safe. Mitch was mediocre. Montgomery was solid but only had a 3.7 avg. The offensive line was putrid. The TEs all garbage. No talent, poor scheme, poor playcalling. What's concerning particularly is that there is a lot of talk of "regression". While this is true, it's not a massive dropoff from last year. The actual big difference? The defense stopped forcing turnovers and scoring off of them. The offense was just "good enough" last year, and sure it did regress some, but getting back to last year wouldn't even be close to sufficient to win if the defense doesn't score at the same rate. I don't understand though, how you can spin these as improvements, when the problems on Offense were so varied, and one guy who has taken ZERO responsibility to what I've heard, is Nagy. I think he's a good motivator, but as a playcaller/schemer? I'm pretty done. Yes, he's handicapped with talent (which Pace gets the blame for, *particularly* if he's talking up Shaheen of all things), but by the same token, 29th. 3rd *WORST*. Barely scoring 21 points against 2nd and 3rd stringers of the Vikings is fucking pathetic. I get they needed to send a message with these scapegoat firings. But it's ancillary to the real problems, and they rank as follows: 1. Owners, 2. Pace, 3. Nagy, 4. Mitch, 5. Oline (and frankly, 4/5 are pretty close IMO, Trubs is mediocre enough to win with). If Pace would have stopped trading away picks, him missing on people like Trubs and Shaheen wouldn't be the end of the world. But with limited picks he can't be missing on guys like Grasu and White, etc, etc. Right now, after getting rid of these guys, the Bears are no better than they were yesterday.
Trubisky wasn’t mediocre. He was bad. Bottom of the league bad. This season saw QB’s from all over the landscape get put in as starter and be more productive with less to work with. I have a hard time believing any amount of coaching is going to make Trubisky a good enough QB to win with any kind of consistency. To go along with our crap QB we have a disaster of a running game. For this the blame goes more to coaching. The entire running scheme needs to be replaced with a better one. It’s on Nagy to get this done. If that means bringing in new OC, OL and TE coaches to get that done so be it. Nagy needs to swallow his pride and bring in outside help to get the running game going. If he brings in new coaches just to force the shitty inside zone, misdirection BS he’s been running since he’s got here he will need to go.
The run game has to match what your o-line and your RB is good at. You have a physical running back and a large o-line.....you should be running a power run game with downhill blocking. Instead Nagy wants to run out of shotgun and pistol formations with a lot of RPO and misdirection with guards pulling and stacking your oline to create confusion...using blockers behind your o-line to pick up the second defenders in. It hasn't worked at all. Let the personnel you have do the things they are actually good at. Power run with Monty and use Cohen as a change of pace with some misdirection and more ticky shit.
Why can't you use misdirection from run formations? If it works properly you won't need to put a body on the LB, and it will make playaction more effective.
You definitely can....I just don't think that style as a base run game works with our personnel. Look at the systems Whitehair and Daniels came from in college and look at where Massie and Leno have graded out well in their pro careers....it's when they are running a more basic push defenders back downhill type of scheme. This should be a physical o-line and moves forward....when they are on their heels and moving laterally they aren't anywhere near as effective.
Somewhat reminds me of Martz continuing to call deep dropbacks and deep slow-developing crossing routes even though we had the worst OTs in the league, WRs who couldn't separate even if they were fast, and a QB who couldn't hit guys in stride. Over the course of 2010 and into 2011 we saw Martz more willing to call traditional running plays, which to no one's surprise, brought some level of consistency and dependability to the offense. Nagy either needs to persuade Pace to change that personnel or better yet adapt his playcalling, the latter the only realistic option. Otherwise 2020 will be his final year as a head coach in the NFL. Lot of back and forth on who was most responsible for the failure of this season: Trubs or Nagy. Mostly I've blamed Trubs but if Nagy had gone to less RPO, more ground and pound, less of Cohen/Patterson up the middle, it's not unreasonable to think we could have squeaked out one, maybe two more wins in made the playoffs. Pace may have set this franchise back several years with the Trubs pick, but Nagy's stubbornness cost us a playoff birth in 2019.
I actually love how you've come full circle this season on this. While I am also well done with Trubisky and his garbage play, by the same token he's what we'll have next year, and there aren't a lot of good options out there (I know there was that thread where you argued for Bridgewater, but I think that's some serious fools gold). Fuck I even heard Nick Foles name thrown around. The sad fact of the matter is, Trubisky is confirmed *already* to be our starter next year, and that's not much of a surprise. But I don't think we can't win with him, after all we did it last year. We just need the coach to completely overhaul his scheme (running, RPO, passing, you name it) to fit this guy. Yeah, it might handicap Nagy, but it *CAN* work if he just weren't too stubborn to run an offense he doesn't like. We also need to the defense to score some more points (as sad as that is, but it's the way this team is built). blang really hits the nail on the head, the problem is BOTH Nagy and Trubs and then some. I'm curious to see how we handle the offseason. Pace's spending is now coming back to haunt him and there are going to be some cap casualties. It wouldn't surprise me if Pace did something like draft a WR with his first pick and not get a new deal done with Robinson, for example. I'm also curious who wants to come in as sacrificial lambs into these now vacated positions? Who wants to be an OC that will take the fall for Nagy's stubborness/inexperience in playcalling?
https://670thescore.radio.com/bears-to-name-juan-castillo-new-offensive-line-coach Seems like a good resumé. Lots of NFL experience.
So you had me until this line. After cutting Mike Davis, bears stood at 17.5 mil in cap space per Sportrac for 2019. Kyle Fuller's contract was just restructured for more cap space just the other day, and here is the breakdown: So a 7 mil cap hit to 2 mil due to 6 mil being a bonus. Pace just saved 5 more mil and we're at 22.5 mil in cap space. Pace also set up the future couple of years nicely with Fuller's 2 mil cap hit for 2020 and 2021. Amid harsh, deserved criticism--this is a fantastic move. Now onto cuts....... We've discussed Kyle Long, Prince, and Allen Robinson all being able to be cut for minimal dead cap penalty. I think cutting Kyle Long is a no-brainer at this point. Dude just cant stay on the field and as we all know and agreed, new blood on the OL is critical (but hard given current salaries). Allen Robinson needs to be locked up, that's just me. The only way I get rid of this guy is if someone calls offering a 1st round pick for him.....and I don't see that, but you never know..... I think Prince is a guy you can trade to a team not looking to drop stupid big $ on a CB the way teams have these past couple of years. Teams not looking to drop big guaranteed $ on Chris Harris (denver FA), Jimmy Smith (Ravens), Logan Ryan (Pats), Bradley Roby (Texans), or Eli Apple (Saints) could find Prince's 7 mil per year very tenable for a #2 DB. I get its not ideal because "it creates a hole" and the return is probably a 3rd rounder at best, but--even banged up down the stretch, I think Toliver did a decent job, and drafting a CB is a need because the bears are thin....... If you cut Kyle Long and can successfully trade Prince, you just freed up 14 mil in cap space. It wont happen, but you cut Leonard Floyd, that's 14 mil more. 36.5 mil in cap space (+14 if you cut Floyd). I don't see that as 'coming back to haunt Pace.' That's a solid amount of room to sign an impact guy or two (Bud Dupree to play edge, a QB, depth).
Indeed. OLine coach and run game coordinator for Ravens and Bills from 2013-2018 before taking 2019 off. 2013 he had an injured Ray Rice who only got him 600 yards from week 11-17 then his domestic violence situation right after. He turned Justin Forsett into a powerhouse in 2014, split Forsett and Allen 50-50 in 2015 with solid results, revived Terrance West's career in 2016, before being gifted Shady McCoy in 2017 and 18 in Buffalo. He developed Dion Dawkins in 2017 at LT, amid having bears castaways Jordan Mills and Vlad Ducasse on his OLine--got solid results....... He got fired after 2018 when Bills OLine regressed to 26th in the league per PFF.....yep. You guessed it. Ducasse and Mills sucked. We need to see who the starting 5 are, but he immediately needs to correct Whitehair and Daniels, develop a new RG, fix Charles Leno, and hopefully get Massie t play as consistently as he did earlier in the season.
I wouldn’t get too worried about Mitch being confirmed as the starter. He is the starter right now by default. Daniel is coming out of contract so Mitch is the only Qb on the roster. And he is most likely going to be getting surgery in the off season. It sucks but we are going to have to be patient when it comes to who else will be in the QB room next season. There is a lot to play out. Who will be available and at what price. Once Pace adds a QB or 2 we will have a better understanding on just how cemented in as the starter Mitch is. I’ll tell you this. Whoever it is the fans will be calling for him to take over as soon as he signs. Unless it’s Daniel in which case they will burn Halas Hall to the ground. The biggest thing that has turned me off of Trubisky is his fear of contact. Yes I know QB’s don’t like to be hit but since getting hurt last season against the Vikings Mitch has turned into a pussy. Slightest bit of pressure and Mitch bails. When is the last time you saw Mitch stand in the pocket and deliver a pass just before taking a shot? He either checks it down too quickly or flees for the sideline where on too many occasions he sacks himself. His utter fear of contact completely ruined the option runs and RPO game that he excelled in early last season. Do you think he is going to grow a set of balls this offseason most likely recovering from shoulder surgery? I don’t.
As bad as Mitch is, I'd rather have him over Jameis or Mariotta or a few other guys who Pace could conceivably bring in. I know you're all about Teddy but I don't think it's happening. Pace will bring in someone more or less on the same level as Chase, but not Chase. Some journeyman backup with a good attitude who is completely non-threatening to Mitch's starting job.
