The Beast

I would rather him not play for fear that he would hurt himself (like an ACL tear) at the end of a meaningless season. His off-season is obviously going to be critical to getting better for next year.

I was in a bit of an emotional mood, but I really liked “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” with Tom Hanks. I’m a big fan of his and the role he plays in many movies.

Hence why I am hoping the wood in the fence holds for a little while longer and inflation didn’t hit garage doors or paint too hard (even though it probably did!). Patience is another good thing to work on.

I’d like to paint the house blue as opposed to reddish brown and get a garage door that doesn’t look like it is from the 80’s (diamond shaped wooden garage that is brown). And eventually replace the fence that has cedar wood instead of a stronger washed wood. It all depends on the budget so we will see what we get done this year…

Imagine being the idiot that didn’t start him.

One million dollars. Even voluntary coverage through group term life insurance would be great for people. $250,000 to $1,000,000 in coverage for a decent price with just some paperwork seems worth it to protect your family’s financial future.

Close to $750,000 raised for Parker with donations by the Bears, Eagles, Rams, Blackhawks, Adam Schefter, Andy Dalton, Anthony Rizzo, Jed Hoyer, Tom Ricketts and Jay Glazer. Pretty cool.

Lol John Schoop? You’ve got to be joking. Remember the screens on third down? I hate the wild cat, shifting and moving Montgomery from the side to the backfield too but Nagy is much better than John Schoop. I would have sat Fields for most of this year and let Dalton and Foles play so he could sit and learn. He got rushed into starting even though I liked the way they brought him in the first few games. I would also like the same offense you describe and don’t understand why they don’t do that. I watched the Dolphins last night and wished that the Bears would run plays like what they ran, they made it look easy. Agreed on offensive line and considering hiring Bowles who would then bring in a coordinator. Agreed. Pace dealing high picks and missing is one of the reasons why I can’t stand him. It’s one of the reasons why I didn’t like trading up to get Fields since I thought they would be better off getting a lineman in the first round and a quarterback in a later round, then bring in a veteran/give Foles a shot in 2022. I don’t think they are falling behind because a handful of teams fired their coaches. It won’t hurt them to lose out on two hires as it will hurt them with the interview research they will miss out on upfront…unless George is already making calls. I hope you are right about Pace. I can think of one who didn’t appear to be thrilled about getting drafted by them on Draft Day. I wouldn’t be opposed to Bieniemy, given his experience. I just hope he’s the right hire. I bet the Jags end up with Leftwich if they are allowed to interview him. Fox just did a special on him I believe, or promoted a special someone else made.

That may be true, but the offense “flowed” better than in recent years. Having said that, I also would love to know what Bears fans expect to see out of the offense. Do they expect to see something like KC or Tampa? Well how do they get there? What scheme or personnel do they need to do that? These may be good questions for football executives and coaches to answer, but I hear and see a lot of complaining about things without any thinking or discourse on what they want to see. The same bitching happened with Jay Cutler and Lovie Smith and nobody could give even ideas on who to replace those guys with. The same applies to the offense.

I want him to get another head coaching job if he gets canned. I think he can replicate and maintain that offense he had in 2018 but with the right players. He does need to learn to adapt better and give up the play calling since I think his coaching strength is being the CEO and not the play caller. But I’m also a Nagy fan and didn’t jump ship on him like others did after years two or three. He probably sold himself as a guru or maybe Pace and the Bears thought he was and maybe he couldn’t meet those expectations as play caller and also be the head coach. I look forward to the changes but it would be weak if they just fired Nagy and Pace got to hire a third coach. The underlying issues of their failures still would remain.

What would you all have done after Graham scored? One or two points?

Nagy has to know he is gone, just look at his body language and demeanor. I wonder if he knew he was done at Thanksgiving and was given the option to finish off the gear. They don’t solve anything firing just Nagy, Pace being fired has to happen for improvements to happen. I read somewhere that Phillips may retire or go to business operations to finish his career rather than be fired. I would love to know what Foles saw in front of him, he could have had that first down with his legs.

https://www.fieldgulls.com/platform/amp/2021/4/8/22372474/baltimore-ravens-nfl-rule-change-adding-booth-umpire-2021 Maybe the NFL needs more of this and the umpire can correct the calls with intel from the booth. It can’t be the easiest thing seeing some things with how fast the game goes in real-time.

It isn’t the only thing to talk about, Brad Biggs wrote more about the return on the highly paid players this year and the salary cap numbers in 2022 which was fairly interesting. He talked about the possibilities of who would stay or go and what he thinks will happen. I haven’t started the conversation about firing Pace and moving Phillips because it has been discussed here on other pages. Names have also been thrown out for GM and aside from Michael Lombardi I am not aware of any president types like the Bulls found in AK and the Cubs found in Epstein. So I would rather discuss Pace’s replacement since I know some GM names. And since Nagy is probably getting canned I would rather look ahead than dissect the tape from the season and relitigate it over and over. Like I said, at least here you have actual conversation whereas on social media and with some media types they can’t get past “Fire Nagy” talk. You would hope that crowd would dissect more than Nagy’s body of work and look at the moves Pace made and do a deep dive there. I truly do hope they do know the failings of Pace and Phillips. Amen. The bitching about the offense, the quarterback and the coach. Rinse and repeat.

It’s just the same old discussion week in, week out and I am not talking about here. It’s fans on Twitter, it’s the media, it’s the Score, it’s the same narrative everywhere. Like somehow firing Nagy will cure all ills and doing so before the end of the year will make things better. The level of discussion with people who just say Fire Nagy is so low, they need to be pressed on the other issues of the team to get more details on what they want to see happen than the head coach getting fired. I guess raising the level of discussion with fans is too much to ask though.

I was thinking about how these December/January parts of a lost season are common for the Bears under many coaches since I started watching in 1998. It’s truly sad that the best head coach I have seen during that time was Lovie Smith, who at least was consistent during that time. I was excited when Nagy got the job, thought the first year was fun and that if he could keep up that offense and the defense played like it had, he could be here for a while and they could get past the first or second round of the playoffs. The drop off was significant for a variety of reasons. Injuries, tape catching up to Nagy, players not performing like they had, roster crunches and bad investments were all part of it. Nagy will take the fall, but Pace deserves a lot of the blame too. If Nagy gets canned, I really don’t want Pace and Phillips to be around in the same capacity or at all. And I definitely want to see replacements for guys in the secondary (last night was only part of the body of work), for Allen Robinson, Jimmy Graham, Nick Foles, Akiem Hicks, other wideouts, Eddie Goldman and to try and get picks, Khalil Mack and Robert Quinn. They may not be able to trade Mack or Quinn, given their salaries, but they may be the only trade chips they have on the roster to get picks back. Then maybe they can build a more balanced team around Fields, Montgomery and Smith. And maybe they will have a GM and coach that have personnel that is a better fit for the team and scheme they have. After Nagy gets canned, hopefully some fans will raise the level of discussion and think of something more to say than the predictable two words you hear from crowds or on Twitter in this city.

Sure, fire Nagy. That will fix everything, all of the underlying issues!

Is anyone against Jim Harbaugh coaching the Bears if he were to leave Michigan?

I’m glad we have moved on to discussing some names that could be possibilities to be the next head coach. Hub Arkush, in my opinion one of the most respected and insightful football reporters, said on the Score yesterday that Dan Quinn and Todd Bowles would be his top choices to be the next HC. McDaniels would be the most intriguing option in terms of upside, but what he did to the Colts is something I couldn’t get past, especially since the Bears already had their own situation like that with Dave McGinnis, even if that was their own fault. Payton would need a blank check contract and a trade to pry him away from New Orleans but he would be a powerful head coach. We will have to see what happens to Mike Tomlin after Black Monday, but he would be an interesting fit. I want nothing to do with hiring a college coach, that game and role is a different beast from the NFL altogether and there isn’t a great track record of success in the NFL with college coaches making the leap. I tend to like defensive head coaches and having an offensive coordinator call the plays even though Payton and Reid are masters of being both the CEO on the field and play callers. I still think that Pace is the larger problem than Nagy and would want a different type of front office than we are used to seeing, much like what we see with the Bulls, which is getting out of the old way and trying the modern NBA approach with AK at the helm and bringing in his own people as GM and HC. (The roster makeup in some ways is no damn good, some signings were bad ones and some of the draft day picks and trades are inexcusable, so it is time for a change.) One would think the Bears could get there, if they listened to advice from alumni, executives and got out of the way once the new leadership is hired.

I had him on my fantasy team for at least a year. He was consistent and good! It sounds like Manning and the Broncos had lots of good things to say about him. He was very young to pass. Very sad indeed.

It doesn’t add up to me that they are unwilling to spend some money on the holes they have to try and get better. Trading assets doesn’t really help unless they deal from a position of strength. From knowing this ownership, cash is limited, but isn’t it better to spend that versus prospect capital? They still need two starting pitchers, a relief pitcher, a second baseman and right fielder and they don’t need platoons since those have been tried before and didn’t work out. The clock is ticking…even if there is a lockout holding the clock in place.

If they got one of Schwarber or Taylor then that would be better than neither. Then again if you get Schwarber you have more DH/1B/corner OF types on your roster. I have no issue trading from Vaughn or Sheets to get something else they need. To do nothing or half ass it doesn’t help them get closer to the World Series next year and beyond.

They still need a starting right fielder, a starting second baseman, a starting pitcher or two and more bullpen arms. They better not just get stopgaps for these positions, there should be upgrades and possibly everyday players. I will be disappointed if they do platoons and don’t do upgrades. Morosi had a hunch that they were targeting Taylor when I listened to Parkins and Spiegel today. Now if they did get him, Schwarber, Tepera and a starting pitcher or two, then that looks better than doing nothing even if other teams are spending like drunken sailors.

Again, you and people on this board still say more than just “Fire Nagy and Pace!” It’s mostly the clowns on Facebook, Score callers, people on Twitch and Score hosts who have nothing to say than reliving the past. I guess I care more about who the candidates could actually be and the possibilities for the future than I do bitching about the coach and GM like the fans I have mentioned do. P.S. The analysis on the board last winter was some of the best I read from fans all offseason.

It just makes the conversation more interesting than the constant “Pace and Nagy need to go!” I hear from the fan base. The Score and sports radio just dissect what goes wrong between Nagy and Pace but there is no solution and it is really old discussing the same old same old shit every fucking day with fans and listening to the talking heads have segments upon segments about the garbage. So yeah, it’s not anyone’s job to come up with the next hire but dissecting the past is really stale after a while. I should add that I don’t disagree with what you’ve said about Pace and Nagy and that you have named more names than most Bears fans and hosts who have spoken on the matter have.