Bears-Panthers Notes (On the Parts that Sorta Mattered, but Not Really)

I said on the podcast this week that I fully expected a Cutler interception on the first series that would cause the usual fits of hysteria and naysaying, and Jay did not disappoint. Sure, old fuddy-duddy Jim Miller had to correctly point out that Alshon cut off his crossing route and was at fault, but since when has that ever mattered? Bears football is back, and there's no better way to announce that than a deflating interception.

Anyways, it's a Friday night and I have better things to do than watch Josh McCown, so here's the brief recap:

The Good:

The Offense: With a big O, I'm not referring to performance so much as the tiny glimpses of Trestman's philosophy that we saw. Shotgun formation early and often, but never of the suicidal empty-backfield variety, lots of Trips WR sets with Martellus moving around the field. Short drops. Quick decisions. Also nice to see them feature the backs in the passing game right away. The things we've been hoping for for years.

Jon Bostic: He was beat in coverage on the Panthers first touchdown, but he recovered nicely with good pursuit in the run game and beautiful coverage leading to an interception. I bear DJ Williams no ill will, but it would be nice to see a rookie start and produce immediately.

Secondary: Tight coverage by Jennings and Tillman for the most part, with a couple of nice pass breakups. Presumptive nickelback Frey had a nice pass deflection that should have been a pick-six as well.

Jay Cutler: The interception was not his fault, and he looked fairly comfortable. The ball came out quickly, and he ended 6/8 for 56 yards (7.0), and he threw the ball away when he needed to.


The Bad:

J'Marcus Webb: Don't want to overreact to one play, but it's all we've got so far, and that sack killed an otherwise promising drive.

Defensive line: Not much in the way of penetration, and Nate Collins especially seemed to be taken out fairly easily in the run game.


 Injuries: Not good to see Melton go down for any length of time.


That's all for now. Tune in to the SKOdCast Tuesday as we make sure to FREAK THE F*&K OUT OVER EVERYTHING. Or something.

Go Bears.

The Dumbest Thing I've Ever Read

We've all spoken at length about the tendency of reporters to fill the preseason with empty conjecture and pointless speculation. I've done more than my fair share of mockery of exactly those things. But let's be honest: that's just the way it has to be. They can't not report on team happenings, but nothing really worth talking about is guaranteed to happen. So sometimes they have to dig pretty deep to even find something they can write an article about. 

I'll mock them for doing it poorly, but I get it. You've gotta report on something, but there's nothing really to report on.

Then there's this. On Tuesday, as everyone in Illinois knows, we got our monthly test of the tornado siren system. I don't know if it's the same way in every state and I can't be bothered to look, but this is something that has happened in Illinois literally every first Tuesday of every month I've been alive. 

Enter Tom Musick, a man who somehow wound up working under Hub Arkush. In terms of sportswriter career progression, this is pretty much the version of giving a defeated sigh and agreeing to do an Uwe Boll movie. I used to wonder how Hub even got these guys to come work for him, in fact I believe there is audio evidence of me wondering that exact thing in episode 11 of the SKOdcast.

But after today, I know exactly how. This piece is called "Siren Fails to Slow Down Bears." And it is literally the dumbest thing, Bears-related or otherwise, that I have ever read. In it, Musick marvels at the fact that a routine test of the state's tornado warning sirens did not cause the Bears practice to break down into a screaming orgy of confused violence.

I just... I don't even know where to begin. I'm sorry, Italics, but you must bear the burden of his words.

Episode 12 of the SKOdCast is Now Up:

In which we discuss ACL tears and Kintaro of Mortal Kombat II fame:

Episode 12: The SKOdcast Cometh

Greetings, friends! Now that there's football in our lives again, we're working back toward a weekly episode of the SKOdcast. Join us tonight at 6:15 central as we talk more training camp: the hip new injury craze all the kids are trying, position battles, the ongoing odyssey of the Futtbumbler and more!

Well, maybe more. Those are the only three things on the docket. But we might discuss more than that. We usually end up going on tangents. But you get what I'm saying.

LINK ME

Episode 11 of the SKOdCast is Now Up!

SKOdcast 11: The Reckoning

Join us tonight at 6:15 for episode 11 of the SKOdcast, in which Red and I take on training camp rumors, Hub Arkush's new epicenter of stupid and so on, without Iggins because he's doing some farm thing for his birthday. Or something like that, it wasn't really made clear to me.

The Chicago Sun-Times, the Gift That Keeps on Giving

You know when I said in last week's column that the hack writers would come out firing, I didn't realize that I was going to be handed a twofer by the Intrepid Ricks of the Sun-Times.

Not to be outdone by Telander's vague ramblings and misapplied talents, Morrissey stepped up to the plate to remind us all that you can never be sad if you just don't hope for anything. Don't let the title "MORRISEY: Bears look like an 8-8 team" fool you. This column is not about the Bears. This is about Rick Morrissey's inability to feel joy until at last an intrepid adventurer returns the Casket to its ancient home.

As is our custom, Rick will be in italics.

The Further Adventures of Ace Reporter Rick Telander: At This Point, It's Almost Impressive

As the sun rises on a world that is once again warmed by the presence of football, so too do we who talk about the Bears rise from our ancient slumbers. Rejuvenated by the healing rays of training camp, we seek out fresh news. Even throughout the offseason, I'll admit that I checked the big sites almost daily in the hope of fresh news. Seeing as you're reading this, I assume that you too care about Bears news.

And so we turn to the reporters. Those who can swing by training camp every day. Those with access to players and coaches. And they come out of their caves firing; making wild conjectures about the most simple training camp occurrences and laying down bold predictions for the entire season based on an errant pass or stiff exchange between players.

This year is no exception. In fact, furious over the death of his beloved Pro Football Weekly, our ancient nemesis Hub Arkush launched his very own website more or less dedicated to overreacting to Bears news. And I fully intended to bring you a fresh offering from him today.

But as is his wont, Rick Telander just will not go down without a fight. Where there is baseless conjecture to be made, they say he will never fail to appear. In our direst need for totally irrelevant and almost certainly inaccurate coverage, he comes forth into the light. And so, Hub must wait. For Telander has spoken.

Oh My God, It's Getting Closer

I woke up this morning in a damn good mood. You know why? Because Bears training camp starts this week, with players beginning to arrive today. Now, I'm not crazy about reading the news articles related to camp (ZOMG. DOES JAY CUTLER HAVE A LOT TO PROVE THIS YEAR? NO WAY and OH MAN IT IS SO WEIRD WITHOUT URLACHER HERE INNIT), but I am glad that football is starting. From the moment that first practice snap occurs football once more ascends to the top of the ladder of our national interest, we can all keep pretending baseball doesn't exist, and we can begin our breathless countdown to a preseason game that we'll stop watching after the starters leave by the third series. Most importantly, we can overreact to all of these things listed above. It's a great time to be alive.

Bears camp has been a pretty hot topic most of the last few years, with the arrival of Cutler in 2009, the signing of Julius Peppers in 2010, and the Marshall/Jeffery acquisitions of 2012 providing yearly buzz along with the seventeen or eighteen different offensive coordinators used in that time period. This year, however, takes the cake, with the following overplayed storylines sure to dominate:

1) Jay Cutler. Frankly, based on the way this offseason has gone with regards to Cutler columns, I hope Jay has changed his license plate to "NO XCUZ'S", because that's the unofficial motto of his 2013 campaign. Never mind that we've yet to see if any of the additions to the offensive line can play, or if his wide receivers can actually stay healthy for once, or whether Marc Trestman still knows how to call an NFL offense. The additions of Martellus Bennet and Jermon Bushrod mean that Jay's now guiding an offense equivalent to the 1999 Rams and anything shy of that vague and nebulous concept of an elite season he's been haunted by will result in him being run out of town on a rail.

This is bullshit, of course. Jay Cutler has to be better than every other quarterback on the market next year. Unless you're really fond of the Ryan Fitzpatrick's of the world or you're foolish enough to think Emery and Trestman are willing to sacrifice good chunks of the prime years of Marshall, Forte, etc. to build around a rookie QB next year, that's not going to be hard for Jay to do. It's likely all Jay has to do to get an extension is survive 16 games without a major injury. What he hopes to determine with his play this year is how much money that extension will pay him.

2) Urlacher. Leadership. Identity. Lost. Scared (Related: How does Jon Bostic/DJ Williams/James Anderson feel stepping into Urlacher's shoes, besides the uncomfortable burning on their feet?).  Some combination of those words will be used in a number of stories about how odd it is for the team to get together without Urlacher. Most of these are just recycled articles from 2011 because it's easy to use a find and replace to switch "Olin Kreutz" for Brian Urlacher. In the end, the transition will be as relatively easy as that one was because players are not that stupid, and they tend to accept the guy who can play football over the guy who no longer could.

3)Meet the New Boss, He's Weird as Shit and has a Bad Combover. Marc Trestman's a weird dude.  I tried reading his book. In the intro his ghostwriter says "Marc and I realized we basically had content for two books, one about strategy and X's and O's, and one about bullshit coaching cliches and maybe a mention or two of God" (I may have loosely paraphrased there). Much to my chagrin, the book was a collection of weird, empty coaching patois instead of the insight into his offense I was hoping for. Long story short, Trestman is odd. He just escaped from Canada, for fuck's sake. That'll change a man. He's going to do things differently than Lovie, and many things, positive and negative, will be said about this. We have no idea of measuring whether his weirdness means anything until the games matter, however, so just ignore Dan Bernstein on this one.

4) Kyle Long Did (X) Today. This one's actually kind of interesting. It'll be worth noting whether Long looks absolutely lost or not given his concerning lack of experience in college. That said, Gabe Carimi was the star of two consecutive training camps so take all of this with a grain of salt.

5) Contract Extensions. Jay. Tillman. Melton. Jennings. These guys are on the last years of their deal. It stands to reason that Emery, the general manager, is aware of this fact. He will still get asked 75 questions a day about it like he's fucking blind, and someone (probably Telander) seems to think they will eventually get Phil to say "Holy shit, dude. Not sure how I missed that. I'll get right on it." Never mind that there are roughly 80 ways that NFL contracts are skewed in favor of teams retaining players, and that the absolutely earliest that any of these situations would actually be problematic is next fucking March, this will be treated as some kind of massive dark cloud hanging over everyone.

6) Josh Lenz. I don't know whether this guy will be overrated or not. But he's fast, scrappy, white, and went to Iowa State, so...well, yes. He's going to be overrated. Ignore anything you hear about him.

That said, enjoy this day. Bear football is now a light at the end of this miserable offseason tunnel. We're getting close. Go Bears.

Episode 10 of the SKOdCast Now Up!

Podcast Tonight at 6:15 PM

http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/127741

Listen Live as we discuss:

-What a Director of Analytics is, and why it's a good thing
-Stupid shit Bears and NFL coaches do that we hope will go away.
-Erik's hilariously failed attempt at defending the honor of Aaron Hernandez.
-Goddammit, Bears Fans.

SKOdcast Episode 9: Tourney Final and Chicago Sports Outlook

In tonight's episode we finish the tournament and discuss the current Chicago sports outlook. We also somehow weasel Anne Frank, Roman Polanski, and further discussions on Chris (OR IS HE?!) Long into there. Check it out on iTunes and leave a review! Enjoy!

MoneyBears? Phil Emery, Marc Trestman, and the Evolution of the Bears Organization

The Chicago Bears entered the twentieth century in 1974. That was the year they hired Jim Finks, the General Manager and architect of the Minnesota Vikings 11 division titles and 4 Super Bowl appearances in 14 years. In his first draft Finks brought in Walter Payton. He was the one that drafted Doug Plank, Mike Hartenstine, Dan Hampton, and many others who formed the backbone of the successful Bears teams of the 80s. He oversaw the hiring of Buddy Ryan. Under his guidance the Bears made the playoffs in 1977 and 1979, breaking a postseason drought going back to 1963.

More important than all of this, however, was that Finks was the first person to run the Bears that wasn't part of the Halas/McCaskey family tree. The Bears had been surpassed in the division they used to rule by the Vikings, and it wasn't even close. Driven to desperation by a decade of futility, George Halas loosened the reins of control, and the result was the resurrection of the franchise.

Then, in 1982, Mike Ditka wrote George Halas a nice letter asking if he could be the head coach of the Bears. Without consulting his GM, Halas hired Ditka. Finks responded as any GM who had just been publicly neutered would: he walked away. Personnel control went to Jerry Vainisi, the team's long-time treasurer, who continued largely in Finks' stead for the next several years as the team built upon the foundations laid by Finks' overhaul and turned into a championship organization. Just as quickly as this turnaround began, however, it fell apart. Vanisi clashed with Mike McCaskey, and McCaskey, always quick to credit himself for the success of a team he had no hand in building, fired Vanisi and assumed total personnel control for himself. After a decade of improvement, the Bears were back to being a small-time mom and pop organization.

The results are well-known. The Super Bowl champion Bears fell apart, McCaskey's drafts failed to come close to replicating the quality of Finks and Vanisi's, then McCaskey made the ill-fated decision to hire Dave Wannstedt and grant him personnel control. Finally, after the team's second consecutive 4-12 season in 1998, McCaskey botched the hiring of Dave McGinness, turned the entire franchise into a laughing stock, and forced his own family to fire him.

After the firing of McCaskey, the Bears slowly took steps towards becoming a respectable franchise once again. They hired a search firm to find them a real general manager, and for some reason that search firm settled on Jerry Angelo. Angelo eventually hired Lovie Smith, and together the two of them built a team that competed regularly and garnered respect, but still came up short.

 Lovie and Jerry represented a comfortable middle-ground for the always-conservative McCaskeys. Angelo valued his scouting department, his gut feelings, and the evaluations of his coaches. Lovie Smith talked of getting off the bus running, promoted a closed-door policy with the media, and spoke with reverence for "Chicago Bears football." While both were steps forward from the lunacy of the era before them, they were still thoroughly old school types, determined to build the Bears on a tried and true playbook written long ago.

Enter Phil Emery and Marc Trestman. What the two of them are trying to accomplish right now has rarely been attempted before in the NFL, and certainly not in Chicago. In a press conference he gave back in January, Emery referenced the extreme statistical analysis he uses in order to evaluate a player:

Yes we’re going to pay attention to the coach’s grades. Yes we’re going to pay attention to our internal scouting grades. But let’s look at this another way. I went to STATS Inc., went through all the numbers. Went to Pro Football Focus, did all the numbers. I’m familiar with STATS Inc. We’re one of their contracted teams. Spent quite a bit of time with their people, not only their programmers but went to their offices, watched how they grade tape, how they triple check all their facts. So I trust all their data, that’s it’s unbiased, that it doesn’t have my hands in it, that it doesn’t have our coach’s or scout’s hands in it, or anybody else in the league. They are simply reporting fact. Some ways to look at it is in a very Money Ball way, crunching the numbers.

That evaluation process right there is a big step forward from Mike Tice telling us that J'Marcus Webb "graded out well" in the team's evaluation process while every other statistical metric and our own eyes told us otherwise. Just today, Emery took this process a step further by appointing Mitchell Tanney as Director of Analytics, a new stat-oriented position in the front office.

Another sign that Emery valued statistical analysis and an unbiased evaluation of player performance was the decision to move on from Brian Urlacher. Urlacher said it all when he stated that he believed he'd still be a Bear if Lovie Smith was the head coach. Emery was unswayed by Urlacher's history, his presence, his leadership, or the historical importance of MLBs in the Bears defense. He simply saw what any statistician or objective evaluator would see: a washed up football player.

This new mode of thinking also shows up in Emery's draft strategy. It's clear from his statements on the importance of versatility and the drafting of players like Shea McClellin and Kyle Long that Emery understands the changing nature of the NFL, and the need for fast, athletic "tweeners" who can fit multiple schemes without substitutions.

Kyle Long is also an example of the Bears new forward-thinking approach. Aaron Kromer, explaining why the Bears put Long at guard instead of tackle despite their assertions that he is their most talented lineman, cited statistics that demonstrated that most pressure on quarterbacks actually comes from the interior, and stated that the Bears philosophy would be to build their pass-protection from the inside out.

The last, and most important, change that Phil Emery has brought to the Bears is Marc Trestman. As mentioned nearly everywhere, Emery took a huge risk bringing in a guy from the CFL to coach the team. Trestman is regarded as a guru and an innovator, a guy who has witnessed the evolution of the West Coast Offense practically since it's birth, who has incorporated elements of the spread offense, the read option, and other recent trends, and who was brought in to give the Bears a counter to the machinations of the Packers and other offensive juggernauts. While it remains to be seen how Trestman will fare in the NFL, it's clear the Bears are going in a very new direction.

When Phil Emery was hired last year he was more or less an unknown. Some questioned how much power he would even wield, considering he was forced to keep Lovie Smith on as head coach. Since then, however, it's become painfully obvious Emery has complete control of this team. He fired Lovie, despite Lovie's stellar reputation and relationship with the McCaskeys. He moved on from Urlacher, despite McCaskey conspiracy theorists' fears that George McCaskey's comments about Brian meant they would pressure Emery to keep him. He made a bold and unorthodox coaching hire after a lengthy interview process, passing on several "safer" picks. Regardless of what anyone thought in the beginning, Phil Emery right now IS the Chicago Bears.

There's no guarantee, of course, that any of this will work. Numbers are imperfect, and both Emery and Trestman remain unproven quantities in the NFL. The fact of the matter is, however, that the future seems more hopeful for the organization now that it's finally free of people who appeared to be more concerned with the past.

SKOdCast Update

Hello,

As you may have noticed, if you're looking for anything Bears related amidst the Blackhawks in the Final and baseball, there's not terribly much to talk about in the dry-period besides "so and so said Joe Anderson looked good in mini-camp," and we refuse to talk about mini-camp. So from here until the preseason we'll be doing the SKOdCast bi-weekly. So see you next Tuesday!

Episode 8 of the Podcast Now Up!

Enjoy!

And as promised, here's the David Terrell interview with RedEye: http://articles.redeyechicago.com/2013-06-12/sports/39931743_1_redeye-opinion-gabe-carimi

Episode 8 of the Podcast at 6:15 PM

http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/127741

Before we all stop paying attention to watch the Blackhawks, join us as we discuss:

The Sweet 16 of the Worst Bears Players Ever (Since 1997)

Goddammit, Evan Rodriguez

Goodbye, Gabe Carimi

Goddammit, Bears Fans

Episode 7 of the Podcast is Now Up!

Episode 7 of the Podcast Live at 6:15

Do not fret, part two of round one of the Worst Bears Players of All Time (Since 1997-ish) is on the way.

http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/127741

The Ghost of Lovie Smith, Apparently

I apologize for our lack of content in recent weeks, but after the draft there just isn't much to talk about until actual football starts happening again. Fortunately for me, this doesn't stop the good folks of the Chicago sports media from trying.

Before I start this one, I want to say that I actually respect Dan Bernstein. His radio stuff is pretty good, despite his sometimes inflammatory opinions, and he always offers sources and numbers to back his shit up on air. Plus, his defense of Jason Collins and gay rights in general on the day Collins came out was truly inspiring. He seems like a standup guy and a solid radio host. Unfortunately, whenever he sits down at a keyboard, terrible things happen.

Today's drivel is titled "Briggs' Response Shows Bears' Identity Challenge." And let me tell you now, it is extremely difficult to follow. The essential thrust of the column, if it has one at all, is that Lance Briggs' refusal to answer questions about Brian Urlacher not being signed means half of the team doesn't respect Marc Trestman and will play poorly.

And so, with a heavy sigh, I turn on the italics.

The Bracket, Halfway through Round 1:

Click to enlarge.

Episode Six of the SKOdCast is Up: The Tournament Begins!

Episode Six of the SKOdCast: The Worst Bears Players of All Time (Since 1997), Tonight at 6:15 PM

http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/127741 Listen live as we discuss, tournament style, the worst Bears of players of our recent collective memories, and Brian Urlacher's retirement.

This Week's Episode of the SKOdCast has been Postponed!

Due to conflicts, we'll be seeing you next week. Don't worry, we have something very special planned.

Episode Five of the SKOdCast Now Up:

Episode 5 of the SKO Podcast Tonight at 6:15 PM

http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/127741

Follow along live as we cover:

-The Draft, Part Two: Other teams did stuff, too:
           - Seriously, what the hell is Jacksonville doing?
           - The Plight of Geno Smith
           - Seriously, I'm still laughing at the Jets
           -Oh hey, turns out nobody wanted Manti Te'O

-The Horiffic Condition Afflicting Rookie Quarterbacks on a Yearly Basis

-What did the rest of the NFC North do?

-Goddammit, Bears Fans.

The Dead Period Home Stretch: How to Identify the Danger Signs

It's the worst time of year right now, Bears fans. You got past the February-May lull where the only football news is draft conjecture that (as we especially have seen) is largely completely goddamned worthless. But now what to look forward to? We have May, June, July, and half of August to sit here and think about football without actually seeing any. And you know what that does to people?:

Yeah. So instead of that, most people just start reading the ESPN NFL tab for offseason news. This, my friends, believe it or not, is even MORE dangerous than taking care of a cavernous hotel, infested with ghosts, cut off from civilization, being directed by Stanley Kubrick. Lucky for you, I'm here to attempt to steer you clear of the many Second Dead Period pitfalls. Without further ado:

1. The "I saw this in practice and it is sure to be a focal point!" wave.

Remember every article you ever read about how Devin Hester "finally got it" and he was going to be a "big part" of the offense? File that here! The most important thing to note about this category is that Michael C. Wright and the rest of the guys who watch practices open to the media have exactly as much evidence and insight into the Bears this upcoming season as we do, they just get paid to write about it.

Consider this: You are coaching a football team. You have hundreds of people surrounding you with high-tech video and audio equipment. These people's jobs are quite literally to lay bare your entire operation. Are you going to give anything away? Yes?... should I bring out more Shining videos to show you what you turn me into?

An interesting note: last season before the preseason Michael C. Wright hosted a chat. He had just reported that Hester would be the #2 receiver, with Alshon in the slot and BBE presumably eating Skittles. I asked, why, why would the Bears do that? It makes no sense! His reply: "I don't know, but that's what I saw!"

So, case closed.

People I Hate: You, If You're Still Whining About the Bears Passing on Tyler Eifert

I'll give Bears fans more credit than I usually do. After an initial panicked reaction by many on the actual night of the first round, the general consensus seems to be a calm, rational "let's see how this plays out" regarding Kyle Long. However, the few people who are still desperately clinging to the idea that this was a wasted first round pick, be they fans or media talking heads (lookin' at you, Kiper and Steve Rosendouche), seem to be basing their complaints less on any perceived shortcomings of Long's and more on the opportunity cost in terms of a player the Bears passed on, namely one Tyler Eifert.

If this description applies to you, well, I warn you, if you read my following reasons as to why you're a moron, they will probably break you. Don't worry, though, I will rebuild you into something better, smarter, and more knowledgeable in the ways of the football, like me.

Without further ado, here's why Phil Emery wasn't wrong to pass on Tyler Eifert:

A #2 Tight End was absolutely nowhere near this team's biggest need:

Quick, write a list of the top three reasons why Jay Cutler has struggled at times as a Bear. I'll wait.

Got it? Okay, if your list had "he really needs a great pass-catching #2 Tight End!" anywhere ahead of: 1. Absolutely shitty offensive line play, 2. Inconsistent and sometimes clueless coaching, or 3. His tendency to fire fastballs to opposing defensive backs when he's frustrated, I'd really like you to go drink a nice, tall glass of battery acid.

I hope that hurt. The Bears have plenty of targets. They have Brandon Marshall, Alshon Jeffery, Earl Bennett, and two very good pass-catching runningbacks, among others. They hope they've address the coaching problem by hiring Trestman. In order to fix #3, they need to fix #'s 1 and 2, and they're hoping to do that by drafting Kyle Long. Literally none of the above problems are solved with a backup tight end.

Yes, I said backup tight end:

Do you know who this is? It's okay if you don't. Mel Kiper and the ESPN crew seemed to quite stubbornly ignore his existence while urging the Bears to take Eifert so that Mel's precious big board would look a little less stupid. This is Martellus Bennett. He's a bit of an odd fellow. He calls himself the Black Unicorn and raps about Cap'N'Crunch.

He's also a damn good tight end. According to Pro Football Focus he's been one of the best blocking tight ends in the NFL since he entered the league, and last year, in his first year free from the shadow of Tony Romo's favorite target Jason Witten, he racked up 626 yards receiving and 5 TDs by catching over 61% of the balls thrown his way. He's your starter, and that's a good thing, so you're lobbying for a backup with your first round pick.

"But, but, the Patriots!":

Oh, right, the Patriots have had so much success with Aaron Hernandez and the Gronk. It's the way of the future! EVERYONE SHOULD HAVE TWO SUPER AWESOME TIGHT ENDS!

Well, last time I checked the Patriots had the highest scoring offense in history before they had either of those two on the roster. It turns out that Tom Brady, with time behind a great offensive line (and that's key here, folks), can make any assortment of pass-catchers, regardless of position, into a damn good offense. Doesn't mean that's the only way to fly.

Also, the Bears had two pretty decent pass-catching tight ends with Cutler once, in 2009, and he couldn't hit Desmond Clark and Greg Olsen with his face in the turf.

If the Bears DO want two pass-catching tight ends, well, there's always Evan Rodriguez, the big hulking guy who runs a 4.5 forty and drew comparisons to Aaron Hernandez coming out of college for his great hands, good speed, supposedly questionable blocking ability, and because of the unwritten scouting law that you can only compare prospects to someone of the same ethnicity. It turns out Rodriguez actually blocks really well, and he led all Bears tight ends with 3 catches for 49 yards in the preseason, and Mike Tice's natural response to this surprising upside was to make a fast, versatile athlete into a blocking-only fullback while Kellen Davis kicked all of our hopes and dreams in the testicles. Trestman is on record as saying he sees a lot of potential for Rodriguez in the passing game, provided he can avoid further incidents with the law.

Hey, what if Tyler Eifert's not really any good?

I know, I know, it's unthinkable a highly-touted prospect from Notre Dame could be overrated. Such things have never happened before in the history of football. Interestingly enough, Eifert drew a lot of comparisons throughout his career to Stanford's Coby Fleener, the top tight end in last year's draft who ended up with a whopping 281 yards receiving last year and a spot on the depth chart behind the Other tight end his team drafted. It's also hard to find a single scouting report of Eifer that doesn't criticize his blocking abilities to some extent, so excuse Phil Emery for not falling all over himself to draft the next Greg Olsen (who, by the way, finally surpassed 612 yards receiving for the first time in his career on the sixth try, and we're all super proud, Greg). I mean, if Eifert ends up as just another tight end who is little more than a big wide receiver, that would seem to be of less value to a team that really, really needs blockers than, say, a really talented guard.

We get it, you just really like Notre Dame:

Seriously, just, like, shut up already.

Rick Morrissey's Second Apparently Weekly Mental Collapse

Let me first take this opportunity to gloat over the fact that I, and not Rick Morrissey, was totally right about the Bears' first-round pick. However, I can do better than that today because Rick apparently is determined to crank out an even stupider column this week. And he just may have succeeded! 

This week's cannon fodder is entitled "Heredity Made Long Easy Choice for Bears." If you couldn't gather from the title what it's about (in which case, thanks for reading, Telander!), Morrissey is boldly claiming that the only thing Emery saw in Kyle Long was his dad's last name. As ever, his disjointed thoughts are in italics. 

I don’t want to minimize the work that Bears general manager Phil Emery and his staff did in preparation for the draft, the hours they put in and their lack of anything resembling a personal life the last year or so. 

“But I’m going to.”

Episode Four of the SKOdCast Now Up:

Episode Four of the SKOdCast Tonight at 6:15

http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/127741

Follow along live as we discuss:

-The Bears Draft
-Pretty much just the Bears draft
-We ♥ Phil Emery
-Goddammit, Bears Fans and the Stupid Things They Said About the Draft

Can Tim Tebow be Fixed? What about Jay Cutler?

When I think of Tim Tebow, I think of Kyle Boller.

You see, Kyle was drafted in the first round in 2003 because of a strong final year at Cal. Up until his last year, Boller had been a tremendous disappointment, for his cannon arm had completed just 45% of his passes, thrown for just 1721 yards a year, and compiled a lackluster 36-38 TD:INT ratio. Then famed QB guru Jeff Tedford took over at Cal, and Kyle threw for nearly 3000 YDs with a 28-10 ratio his senior year. His rocket arm and great size (6'3", 220) led Brian Billick and the Ravens to take a chance on his continued improvement and made him the Ravens QB of the future.

The Ravens, however, had overlooked that Boller, in his best year, completed just 53% of his passes. Boller's accuracy issues hadn't really gone away, so much as a new system and better coaching hid the rest of his flaws. In the NFL, Boller's accuracy proved to be his undoing, as he struggled through nine years in the NFL to a 56.7 career completion %. That is, in all fairness to the Ravens coaching staff, a tremendous improvement over his college career (47.8%), although it came at the cost of running a conservative short passing game (Boller averaged 5.9 YPA, 10.4 YPC, and just 133 YPG in his career) that rendered any offense with Boller at the helm completely impotent.

The point is, quarterbacks that can't throw the ball accurately in the NFL aren't likely ever going to do so.

2013 Bears Draft: Talent Trumps All

Every year I think it's expected that every blogger give their half-assed draft grades after the whole process is done. I've never really done that and still won't. The draft is a crapshoot and millions of dollars are spent trying to determine whether these kids are any good or not, and half or more of them will still fail. So I'm not going to say before anyone's taken a snap whether they're an A or a C. With that said, with all we have to go by being physical attributes, positions, and production...I am as excited about this draft class' potential as I can remember being at any point in recent years. Last year I was little more than cautiously optimistic about Shea, thrilled about Alshon, utterly befuddled by Brandon Hardin, surprised by Evan Rodriguez, and didn't expect much out of the rest (and none of them made the roster), but this year the Bears drafted talented players who fit clear needs in nearly every round, and it's quite possible all six players could make the roster and contribute on the field this year. That's the best you can really hope for.

#20 Overall, Kyle Long, OG, Oregon
So on last week's SKOdCast, we made a desperate plea to Bears fans to not immediately assume a guy sucks if the team drafted someone other than the names you kept seeing in mock drafts. Naturally they chose a surprise player and everybody lost their F*&KING MINDS.

After the dust settled, however, Long isn't really that big of a surprise. He was a top 30 player on ESPN's board, Scouts, INC had him ranked #26, he was the consensus third best guard in the draft...and the Bears badly needed a guard. Why is this so hard? As for the people who feel it's a reach, well, that seems unlikely for a guy who was a top 30 prospect. Some think the Cowboys traded back because they thought they could nab him and were shocked when he was gone and forced into taking Frederick. Others have said the Colts wanted him. I really don't care. In a draft like this, where top-level talent at the premier positions was largely lacking, the difference between a player at #20 and a player at #40 isn't that great, and those slots were going to be determined by team preference. If Long was their guy, and I have no trouble believing he was, it makes sense to me to take him as soon as you have the chance, because with nine offensive linemen off the board in the first round it wasn't likely he'd still be there later. Also, the 20th overall pick last year got $8 million for four years, so I really don't think the franchise is screwed if he bombs.

I don't think he will, though. He's a freak of nature athletically and he looks like goddamn Frankenstein's monster. Playing at guard he'll hopefully be less exposed as he learns on the run and his natural talent should help make up for his lack of experience. I don't think his inexperience is that much of an issue anyway, he got a full season of experience under his belt at a top five program (even if he only started five games) and started for a year at JuCo before that. The offensive line isn't exactly the most mentally demanding position on the field, and Aaron Kromer has a track record of developing linemen from Division II schools and turning them into immediate starters. I am excited to see what he can do, and unlike many, apparently, I'm willing to wait to see him do it before I pass judgment.

#50 Overall, Jon Bostic, MLB, Florida

Bostic actually makes the most sense of any linebacker that was in the draft for the Bears, if you think about it. He's not undersized for an MLB, like Arthur Brown, so he's less likely to struggle in the middle in the NFL, he was the 3rd-fastest linebacker at the combine with a 4.61 40, so he's more than capable of dropping deep into coverage in the Tampa Two, and he also made all of the calls in a Tampa Two style defense at Florida. I think Arthur Brown may have been a more tempting athletic prospect, but Bostic is as natural a fit as they were going to find, and the presence of DJ Williams keeps the pressure to produce immediately off of him.

#117 Overall, Khaseem Greene, OLB, Rutgers

He's going to draw a ton of comparisons to Lance Briggs, who he's obviously intended to provide depth and a potential heir for, given his position, their similar measurables (and matching 4.7 40 times at their respective combines), and that's both unfair and understandable. No one can necessarily be Lance Briggs, arguably one of the two greatest players to ever play the OLB in a Tampa Two style defense, but Greene's numbers in college are promising in two categories where Lance has often thrived: impact tackles (gains of two yards or less that prevented first downs), where Greene led all college linebackers last year with 27, and forced fumbles (15 for his career). A lot of people will question his numbers by saying the scheme at Rutgers was designed to give him a free shot at the ball-carrier, but that's exactly what the Bears defense does for Briggs. It may have taken Urlacher's very rapid demise to give the organization some urgency, but it's nice to see them actively prepare for a world without their superstar linebacker. The Greene and Bostic picks should also put to a rest for all time the conspiracy theories that the Bears are still potentially planning a switch to a 3-4 in the near future, because Greene and Bostic fit exactly one type of defense perfectly, and it's the one they're already running.

#163 Overall, Jordan Mills, OT, Louisiana Tech

You never want to overrate the potential impact of a late round offensive lineman, but there's cause for optimism with Mills. He has good size and arm length and he was considered by many to be a potential 3rd round pick. Even more importantly is, as I mentioned with Kyle Long, Aaron Kromer's track record as an offensive line coach: Jahri Evans (4th Rd, Division II Bloomsburg University), Carl Nicks (5th Rd, transferred to Nebraska after two years of JuCo), Jermon Bushrod (4th Rd, FCS Towson), and Zach Strief (7th Rd, Northwestern) were all mid to late round picks mostly from small schools who have become Pro Bowl or All Pro caliber linemen under Kromer's guidance. Nicks and Evans both started and played well as rookies as well, so there's reason to believe that if Kromer thinks Long and Mills can play right from the start, he's probably right. Even if Mills is just a potential future starter and a guy who can add to the competition this year, it's nice to see that Emery has now added five completely new players to the offensive line, and that guys like Webb and Carimi (and hopefully even Garza) will have to earn both their jobs and their roster spots. The overhaul was long awaited, but better late than never.

#188 Overall, Cornelius Washington, DE, Georgia

It's never a Bears draft without a defensive lineman (although we finally broke the 8 years long streak of safeties), but I didn't look into many defensive ends before the draft so I can't tell you shit about this guy. Mike Mayock says he's fast (4.55 40) and he likes the pick for a situational pass rusher. With Wootton, McClellin, and Kyle Moore (and the still possible return of Izzy) he seems to have the toughest task of cracking the roster of any of the picks, but we'll see.

#236 Overall, Marquess Wilson, WR, Washington State

Oh man do I approve of this. Marquess Wilson, ironically, is the only guy the Bears drafted that I've actually watched several games of, and I was hoping all along he might be an option for the team at some point. He's a first day talent (I don't know about first round, although some had him there before last season) who fell hard because of some admittedly concerning personal issues. As Iggins! can tell you, I'm not one to get scared off by drinking or pot (DRAFT THE WEED GUY! is one of my favorite chants on draft day, actually), but a guy who walked out on his team and made apparently false claims of abuse against his coaches probably has some maturity issues. In the seventh round, though? Absolutely worth the risk. He's 6'4'', he plays much faster than his 40 time (4.51, still not bad), and, like Jeffery and Marshall, makes himself a deep threat less through speed than his ability to create separation and fight for jump balls. In a best case scenario he's a solid #3 who rotates with Bennett, but he's also a similar type of player who can step in as a potential starter on the outside if Jeffery struggles or is injured again in year two. I just can't see a downside here.

Wilson also illustrates the difference between Phil Emery and Jerry Angelo's philosophies. If you look at the receivers that Jerry took in the 6th or 7th rounds (Derek Kinder, Marcus Monk, Jamin Elliot) or guys he signed as UFAs like Sanzenfucker or Mike Haas, Angelo preferred to go with productive college starters who lacked measurables but seemed valuable to a team through their hard work and potential production on special teams. Wilson was definitely productive (averaged 97 yards per game in his career at WSU), but Emery clearly values the potential of hitting on another big, physical receiver than on a smaller guy who might be more useful on special teams. High Ceilings, Low Floors (Emery) vs. High Floors, Low Ceilings (Angelo). Not that one option is necessarily better than the other over the long haul, but it certainly gives you more hope in the spring time when camp is still far away.

That's all for now. In short, I'm more than fine with taking a guard with tons of potential at #20 in a very odd draft, even if it may have been a bit of a gamble, but I'm even more excited about the depth and potential from nearly every round of the draft, more so than in recent memory. I can't wait for camp to start. While it's premature to tell whether they'll be any good or not, there's certainly a lot of questions I'm looking forward to seeing them answer. Go Bears.

Tune in to the SKOdCast this Wednesday for even more discussion of the draft.

Rick Morrissey's First Annual Pre-Draft Mental Collapse

The draft is upon us! In just a few short hours, young men from around the country will gather in hilarious suits, and together go forth unto their destiny. Rick Morrissey is so excited, and also so, so stupid, about tonight’s events. This is actually a rare insight into Rick’s personality, because he spends the entire article spelling out exactly why and how he wants the Bears to fail for his personal and professional delight. It’s a schizophrenic mess, and I just had to get this out before the draft happened.

As ever, he is in italics.

I don’t normally start these things with the title, but in this case I’m going to because…

Draft Manti Te’o? Bears Should Take Him or Leave Him

Yes. Those are the two things it is possible to do with a player in the draft. Well done, Rick.

Episode 3 of the SKOdCast is Now Up!

Episode 3 of the SKOdcast Tonight at 6:15

Follow along live as we discuss:

-Is anyone really "Good" at the draft?
-What killed Jerry Angelo?
-LOL @ J E T S JETS JETS JETS
-Other draft stuff, probably.
-This week's Goddammit Bears fans.

http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/127741

The Read Option, the Pistol, and the Spread are Different Things, and None of Them are Gimmicks

The NFL is a very interesting league. In many ways, as Chris Brown of Smart Football once pointed out, every NFL team, despite all of the different talk about systems and the seemingly different appearance of offenses, runs basically the same offense, or did for many years. Mike Martz ran the Coryell offense and had his own philosophy, but there's no doubt that you could crack open a playbook and find the same base runs, the same quick slants, and many other concepts that you could also find in the most conservative offense. What distinguishes NFL offenses, for the most part, aren't, as the aforementioned article notes, macro-level differences between the different systems, but the minute details.  You win by game-planning how to put your players in the best spots to attack where the defense is most vulnerable, and, most often, by having better players. Mike Tice can have the exact same playbook as Sean Payton, but it doesn't matter if he's dialing up the wrong plays against the wrong coverage and has no feel for the game. That's where the great offensive minds in the NFL show their strengths: their perception of the situation at hand and their responses.

So in this NFL where the plays themselves rarely change and the philosophies/strategies of coaches and the disparity in talent are the only real differences people are used to seeing on Sundays, it makes sense that the introduction of the read option, the Pistol, and, to a lesser extent, the spread, has absolutely blown people's freaking minds. This mind-blowing has resulted in a number of utterly predictable responses:

1)All of these things are somehow catchall terms for the same thing. Some people will even throw in the Wildcat for good measure.

2)One or all of these things is a fad that won't last in the REAL MEN'S LEAGUE OF NFL FOOTBAW.

3)One or all of these things are not just a fad, but a gimmick, a cheap way to trick people .


Now, all of these are worth discussing because I believe, frankly, they'll be around in the NFL for a long time and also because Trestman has run the read-option and spread in Canada and will probably use them at various times with the Bears, probably not as base plays but certainly as constraints on the defense. With that said, let's break down the various issues:

First off, the spread refers to an entire offensive system, the pistol refers to a specific formation (but is sometimes understandably a blanket term for the system that utilizes it as it's base formation), and the read option is a single specific play. A spread offense can run a read option from a pistol formation, but that doesn't mean the three are automatically associated or inseparable.

-The spread offense, specifically, is an offense that is based almost entirely out of the shotgun, using at least 3 receivers, but usually four or five on every play. It's name comes from "spreading" out the defense to isolate teams in one on one matchups as much as possible and to open up running and passing lanes with all of the open space the formations create. It differs from the old Run'N'Shoot in that the Run'N'Shoot almost exclusively used four wide receivers, with two on each side, and a half roll by the quarterback on each play, and because spread offenses usually do not give their wide receivers the ability to adjust their routes on the fly quite like that offense did. The spread can be a running offense, as it was primarily for Rich Rodriguez at West Virginia and Michigan, or it can be a primarily passing offense, like it is with Mike Leach and his disciples. Run or pass isn't important, once again, the main idea is simply that you want to stretch the defense from sideline to sideline and take advantage of open space. That's it.

The spread for years was derided as a college only offense, but starting, ironically, with the Bears under Gary Crowton in 1999 (laugh all you want, but he got over 4,000 YDs passing out of Matthews, McNown, and Miller) and then, much more successfully, the Patriots under Josh McDaniel, it's become a major part of the league. Several teams that run the West Coast offense have adjusted their passing concepts to spread formations and run hybrid "Spread-Coast" offenses, like the Packers and Saints and, presumably, given Trestman's history in Canada and his and Kromer's time in New Orleans, the Bears. Considering the spread isn't a single play, or a single formation, and relies on the oldest principle in football (isolating your players and winning one on one matchups), I'd dare you to say Tom Brady, Drew Brees, and Aaron Rodgers owe their success to a gimmick or a fad.

-The pistol is a specific formation. Tom Kaczkowski and Michael Taylor, two coaches at a D-III school in Ohio, developed it in the late 1990s. It became most famous when Chris Ault adopted it at the University of Nevada. As you've probably figured out if you've seen it, the Pistol is a hybrid between the singleback formation and the shotgun where the quarterback lines up four yards behind the line of scrimmage instead of under center (as in singleback) or seven yards back (as in the shotgun). The runningback lines up directly behind him as he would in the singleback. That's really it. You can run the pistol in literally any other formation you'd like, with as many backs and receivers and tight ends as you want. You can spread the defense sideline to sideline and play a spread offense out of the pistol, or you can run Power O out of it. The two are unrelated. This kind of thinking leads to people assuming spread guru Chip Kelly is responsible for a formation he's never even used.  I mean, hell, if it looks weird and DOESN'T BELONG IN THE REAL MEN'S NFL, it's all got to be the same somehow, right?

-Finally, the read option is a specific play. The quarterback takes the ball (usually out of the shotgun or the pistol, but sometimes from under center! PRO STYLE!) and reads the backside defensive end. If that defensive end plays the outside and aims to take away the runningback who is waiting for the pitch to run off tackle, the QB keeps the ball and runs the opposite direction or up the middle. It's extremely simple and effective, because the entire play is founded on basic math. If the QB is a threat to run the ball, and the QB neutralizes one of the defenses defensive ends by "reading" him and thereby rendering him useless without even having to block him, the offense has a numerical advantage, theoretically, regardless of who ends up with the ball. Obviously the QB can make the wrong decision, or if some defensive end out there (let's call him, I don't know, Julius Peppers) is a superhuman freak of nature that can react too quickly for either option, the play can fail, but it's absolutely not a gimmick in any way shape or form.

As I've tried to spell out: not one of these things is a fad or a gimmick. People will bring up comparisons to the Wildcat, which is absolutely a limited formation that offers no passing threat and is easily countered. That description doesn't apply to any of these three things. The spread can be used to create lanes for runs and passes. You can run literally any play in your playbook out of the Pistol. The read option is a running play, but it also provides some excellent opportunities for play-action passes, as Kaepernick, Wilson, and RGIII have ably demonstrated. All of them are based on sound, fundamental principles, and belong in the NFL just as much as Power O and Counter Trey.

All of this brings me to my last point: all of these offenses are relatively new to the NFL, and many people will want them to fail because they are new and scary and the league doesn't always like that. The only way these offenses will fail, however, will be the same way other offenses fail: poor talent. Chip Kelly is going to take over an Eagles team with a turnover prone QB and a bad offensive line. They might be bad this year. People will blame the offense and ignore the fact that the Eagles were bad last year because they are, well, bad. At some point Kaepernick, RGIII, and Russell Wilson will experience the same ups and downs that confront everyone else if their left tackle goes down or their best receiver gets hurt. None of that will diminish the legitimacy of their team's offenses anymore than the Browns "exposed" the West Coast offense when they had Colt McCoy under center. Talent trumps all.

Episode 2 of the SKOdcast is Now Up

 

Next Episode of the Start Kyle Orton Podcast Tonight at 6:15

http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/127741 Follow along live as we discuss:

-Jay Cutler and his contract situation
-What the hell is an Elite Quarterback?
- HOW DERE DEY GIVE DAT JIMMY ANDERSON SAMURAI MIKE'S JERSEY NUMBER!
-This week's installment of "God Dammit, Bears Fans"

Schemin' Marc Trestman

Last year when I was attempting to get a grip on what kind of offense Mike Tice was going to run given Tice's history in Minnesota, the presence of Jeremy Bates, and the holdovers from the Martz playbook, I said the following:

I'm forced to wonder how all three of these influences (the Ghost of Martz, Tice/Linehan, and Bates/Shanahan) are going to gel into one coherent offensive scheme this year.

Unfortunately, as anyone who watched the team last year knows, the answer was that they just didn't. Tice's playbook consisted of a sometimes random assortment of ill-timed deep balls, inside zones with guards who couldn't run-block and a runningback who makes his living bouncing outside the tackles, and a motley jumble of other concepts. Tice ended up throwing deep more often than his seemingly mad predecessor, but lacked Martz's deft hand with screens and hot routes to enable the team to move the chains between the twenties.

The biggest problem with Tice's offense was that it just wasn't an offense, frankly. A true offense starts with a philosophy. This doesn't have to be Lovie Smith's "we get off the bus running" or Martz's bombs away aerial approach, but you have to have clear, delineated goals and concepts to match. What pass plays do you have that you believe will always work against Cover 2? If it's 2nd and 1, do your players know and have faith in what you are going to call, or are you just guessing? Mike Leach once rejected the description of play-calling in football as a chess match in favor of boxing. You're taking way too much time if you're trying to guess or dial up the perfect play for that moment. It should be punch-counterpunch, with an instinctual response to every situation that is honed by repetition and consistency.

Marc Trestman, at least, brings a true offense with him. Trestman is as old of a disciple as one can be in the West Coast offense without having sat in the room with guys like Paul Brown and Bill Walsh as they first put the concepts together. He's run some version of it since the 1980s, adjusting it to suit quarterbacks as different in arm strength, mobility, and accuracy as Bernie Kosar, Steve Young, Scott Mitchell, Jake Plummer, and Rich Gannon. Through this all, he's remained true to the core philosophy of the system, which is to move the ball methodically down the field with a controlled, timing-based short passing offense.

This is a welcome relief for Jay Cutler, most of all, because this was exactly the system that Jay was drafted to run in Denver (it's worth noting that Trestman took over as 49ers offensive coordinator in 1995, replacing Mike Shanahan). It would seemingly run counter to logic that Cutler, with his cannon arm and his sometimes erratic accuracy would be a perfect fit for this system, but consider that some of the most successful operators of the West Coast were guys, like Jay, known for strong arms and sometimes questionable decisions like Brett Favre and John Elway. The West Coast is perfect for these type of players as it places structural limitations on their recklessness and carefully manages when and where they attack the defense vertically. Trestman, unlike Tice and Martz, seems unlikely to give into the temptation of Jay's arm strength and be seduced by lower % big play attempts instead of a more efficient approach.

Simply being a West Coast Offense guy, however, is relatively meaningless in today's NFL, where a good portion of the league's coordinators will lay claim to a similar lineage. The Green Bay Packers under Mike McCarthy and the Cleveland Browns under Pat Shurmur and our old friend Brad Childress both ran the West Coast as their base offense last year, and one would hardly say they had much in common. Trestman will be judged not on what his offense has done in the past but on what adjustments he has made to suit the modern NFL, and for that it's worth looking at his experience up North.

The CFL, with only three downs, seven skill position players, and a wider, longer field seemed an odd fit for a West Coast guru. Traditional West Coast formations (remember, for years the shotgun was an almost foreign formation in the scheme) and run plays simply wouldn't work. What was Trestman's response?

Not much, actually. In Canada, Trestman still ran traditional West Coast concepts like Snag and Stick, with the routes run out of the shotgun instead of a pro set, and with extra wide receivers or tight ends running routes that previously belonged to the fullback or runningback. By doing so, Trestman could present new looks to the defense and utilize the horizontal passing game in place of the run while leaving the basic concepts and strengths of his offense in place.

If this sounds somewhat familiar, it probably should, because it's not much different, schematically, from what the Saints and Packers have done in recent years, and that's also no surprise since Trestman was actually offered the opportunity to be the Saints OC in 2006 and served as an offensive consultant for them in 2007. These teams are running more or less the same plays that the 49ers ran with Joe Montana, with a few added wrinkles, out of different formations and with different personnel, taking advantage, for example, of the mismatches created by splitting someone like Jimmy Graham or Jermichael Finley out wide.

So, going back to my main criticism of Tice, that his offense lacked a true philosophy or identity, what can we expect from Trestman? It would seem the Bears are likely to lead with the pass, although in a much less reckless fashion than Martz's deep drops. As Cutler has said, the emphasis of this offense is definitely protecting the quarterback by getting the ball out as soon as possible. Forte will get over twenty touches per game, most likely, but those touches will definitely vary between rushes and receptions based on the situation. It would also seem, from observers' comments at the first mini-camp, that Trestman believes in the boxing approach, as many said the Bears got in and out of the huddle and to the line faster on their first day of install with a new playbook than they ever did at any point under Tice or Martz. Trestman himself said that he wanted each play to "build muscle memory." It would appear that Trestman is less concerned with out-scheming or out-smarting is opponents (a difficult thing to do in the NFL where too much is made of "genius" as it is) and more with ensuring that his players understand their roles and their objectives and can execute them on each play.

If that's the case, then we'll hopefully see a more confident offensive unit in the fall, one that wastes fewer timeouts, has fewer false starts, and overall seems to be a lot less confused than the mess we saw last year. It's hard to say right now that this approach will be successful, but it seems logical to assume that you'll be able to do a lot more on offense if you know, at least, what it actually is you want to do, and Marc Trestman has at least gotten them started on that path.

Episode 1 of the SKO Podcast is Now Up!

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Mike Martz, Mike Tice, and The Myth of a Balanced Offense

There are any number of reasons why the Bears offense has been downright awful at times for the last two seasons. Jay Cutler missing 7 1/2 games during that time period is probably the biggest, followed by injuries to key contributors like Forte, Bennett, and Jeffery. There's also the obvious answer that the offensive line couldn't block a spending cut in Congress. HEY OH. TOPICAL HUMOR.

Beyond this, though, there are schematic issues. In Mike Martz case it was a matter of talent not matching the scheme that he wanted to run. Both years that he was the offensive coordinator started with him attempting to run a facsimile of the greatest show on turf before he relented and opted for a less demanding style of offense in order to keep Jay alive. Perhaps the biggest issue leading to Martz's demise, however, was the lack of a "balanced" offense. This was in reference, of course, to Martz's pass-happy nature and the frequent battering that Cutler took as he dropped back 50 or more times in single games while Matt Forte did little more than pass block.

In response, the Bears promoted Mike Tice to take Martz's place.On the surface, Tice certainly gave Bears fans and critics want they wanted in terms of balance: the team attempted 485 passes to 470 runs, a 50.8% ratio that seems downright archaic in today's pass happy NFL, where teams threw the ball at least 56% of the time on average. Was this really "balance," though?

I was reading Mike Leach's book Swing Your Sword the other day, and he made a great comment about what balance on offense is that really struck me. Leach, the spread guru who frequently dials up sixty or even seventy passes a game was talking about his love for the Wishbone, a run-centric offense that he praised for having "balance." Given the traditional interpretation of the term, it would seem impossible that Leach's offense or the Wishbone would be described as "balanced." Leach, however, defines balance differently than most. To Leach, a balanced offense is one that, run or pass, attacks the entire field and utilizes all of its playmakers.

This really stuck with me, and I think it hints at part of the problem with the Bears offense last year. Now, I'm obviously not the first one to state that the Bears focused too heavily on Brandon Marshall last year, and I understand why they did it, but the numbers are still staggering: 40% of the Bears targets, over 41% of their completions, 46% of their passing yardage, and 29% of the Bears total yardage all went to one player.

Matt Forte, although seemingly underutilized in the receiving game versus his previous years, represented 27% of the Bears total offense as well, meaning that two players combined for over 56% of the Bears total offense.

Now, naturally you would expect a team's number one receiver and starting runningback to play larger roles in the offense than anyone else, but that's still a disproportionate amount of a team's offense coming from two players.

To put this into perspective (and to stave off the people who want to blame the over-emphasis on Marshall on Jay), compare the Bears offensive output, %-wise, to the 2008 Broncos. That year, Marshall led the Broncos with 104 receptions for 1265 yards but still represented just 27% of their total receptions, 28% of their total passing yardage, and just 20% of their total offensive yardage. The Broncos also were 12th in the NFL in rushing that year, but their starting runningbacks accounted for just 20% of their offense. In total, the Broncos starting backs and #1 receiver accounted for just 40% of their offensive output despite having, by any measuring stick, pretty good years offensively.

The strength of the Broncos offense that year, therefore, was an example of real balance. While Cutler's favorite receiver, then as now, was Brandon Marshall, the Broncos had ten different players catch at least 10 passes, with four receivers catching at least 30 passes or more. The Bears last year had just six different receivers in double digits, despite a series of injuries that would seem to have required more players to step up, and Forte was the only player besides Marshall to catch at least 30 balls.

Now, I understand that Jay forces passes to Marshall, and that he had good reason not to trust many of his other targets at times, but it was also clear that Tice called numerous plays throughout the year that were designed to get the ball to Marshall at all costs. Considering he made a big deal of the "Hester Package" and is also the man who once introduced the notoriously disastrous Randy Ratio in Minnesota, Tice focused more on designing plays for specific receivers than on a balanced, ball-distributing offensive progression.

I also get the perception that the 2008 Broncos had a superior supporting cast of receivers and tight ends than the Bears, and that may be true, but considering Eddie Royal, who caught 91 balls for 980 YDs in 2008, and Tony Scheffler, who brought in 40 passes 645 YDs, have averaged just 340 and 411 yards per season, respectively, since then it's conceivable that neither player is quite the star that they appeared to be when Cutler was inflating their value.

In any case, there was no reason that the Bears couldn't at least do a better job than they did of spreading the ball around and giving the defense reason to expect that the team would at least make them defend the entire field. As it played out, opposing defenses were generally safe so long as they didn't lose sight of Marshall or, barring that, Forte.

Now, I'm obviously not saying the Bears should deliberately under-utilize Marshall or Forte next year. Obviously those two should be the focus of your offense, but Trestman has to ensure that All of his pieces are being used effectively and that teams will respect, for instance, Earl Bennett in the slot because the Bears can and will throw to him if teams make the mistake of paying too much attention to Marshall. This seemingly obvious solution didn't happen last year, and must in the future.

For reassurance that it will, one need only look at Trestman's most successful NFL offense, the 2002 Raiders, where three different receivers caught at least 50 passes, two tight ends caught 32 and 27 passes, respectively, and where the top two runningbacks and starting fullback combined for 330 carries and 113 receptions. The result was an offense that averaged 389 yards and 28 PPG. Now that's balance. Hopefully we'll see something like that in Chicago next year. 

2012 Bears Positional Reviews: Specialists

Now we reach the always anti-climactic end. There's usually not too much to talk about for the Bears special teams unit, because they're usually pretty spectacular. This year they finished as the 9th ranked special teams unit in the NFL, which gives you an idea of how solid their coverage units are since this was the first year of the Dave Toub Era where they didn't have a single punt or kick return TD. That stat alone is unbelievably impressive.

Next year things will undoubtedly be different without Toub, and I wish him well in Kansas City, but there are still plenty of strong performers left on the roster. As a returner I wouldn't make the mistake of assuming Hester's done, since we've all made the mistake before and he thundered back with great years in 2010-2011, but even if he is the team has a Pro Bowl kick returner in Eric Weems on the roster, and Earl Bennett has had great success in his career as a punt returner as well.

Kickers:

#9 Robbie Gould: 21/25 FG (20-29 YDs: 7/7. 30-39 YDs: 5/7. 40-49 YDs: 7/9. 50-59 YDs: 2/2), 33/33 PAT.

Robbie Gould is awesome. You don't need me to tell you that. Hopefully he doesn't get hurt again, because that really sucked. Last year he was a tad less accurate than usual (84% vs. 85.6% for his career), but shut up, it's Robbie Gould. Interesting stat: since Lovie found the balls to let Robbie regularly attempt field goals of greater than 50 yards in 2009, Robbie's made 13/15, including 8/8 in the last two years. Robbie Gould is awesome.

#10 Olindo Mare: 6/8 FG (20-29 YDs: 2/3. 30-39 YDs: 3/3. 40-49 YDs: 1/2), 7/7 PAT

If you want to know how awesome Robbie is, look at Olindo. He was an acceptable fill in, but it's never a good thing when your kicker shanks one from less than 30 yards (if you're wondering when the last time Robbie missed one of those was, it's never), but the worst thing is having to hold your breath any time he's kicking more than 40 yards. Olindo for his career has a seemingly respectable 81.3% conversion rate, but on kicks of greater than 40 yards, where kickers make their pay, he's converted just 66% for his career (Robbie: 72%). Goodbye, Olindo.

Punter:

#8 Adam Podlesh: 81 punts, 3399 yds, 42.0 average

A year after setting a franchise record averaging 43.9 YDs per punt, Podlesh had another solid campaign. His predecessor, Brad Maynard, hadn't reached a 42 yard average since 2004, so the team made the right move to move on when they did. Pathetic stat: in two years Podlesh has had 89 and 81 punts for the Bears. In four years in Jacksonville (pre-Blaine Gabbert, but, still, fucking Jacksonville) he never had more than 72. That's goddamn depressing. Stop sucking, offense.

Kick Returners:

#14 Eric Weems: 13 returns, 231 YDs, 17.3 AVG, 1 punt return, 0 YDs.

Man, the new kick return rules suck. Sure, they seem to have had an actual impact as far as limiting concussions, but who cares about saving brain matter when guys like Eric Weems are struggling to provide the excitement they once did (career average of 24.8 YPR). In all honesty, Weems is a solid special teams player and I still can't figure out why he and Hester are both still on the roster if neither is going to be a contributor on offense.

#23 Devin Hester: 24 returns, 621 YDs, 25.9 AVG, 40 punt returns, 331 YDs, 8.3 AVG

Devin finished tenth in the NFL in kickoff return average, was middle of the pack in return average (although, of the four guys who returned at least 40 punts his 8.3 average was pretty much the norm, as the other three averaged 8.4, 8.7, and 10.2 YDs) and, yet, by all accounts, he was pretty much awful and is done. As I said, we've made the mistake of assuming Devin was done before, and yet he still had plenty of explosion left in him. Clearly the quality of his blocking tends to vary from year to year and has as much to do with his success as anything. It's not really worth criticizing how infuriating it is when he backpedals and loses yards, or how irritating it is when he fair catches a ball at the 7, because he did that in the years when he was returning six kicks for touchdowns, too. He's no different now than he was then, he's just not surrounded by the same guys and he certainly doesn't see the same opportunities.

With all of that, though, I'm still surprised, honestly , that he's on the roster, given his $2.9 million cap hit and the fact that his days as anything more than a role player are, finally, supposedly gone. I definitely don't think he'll be a Bear in 2014, and I'm okay with that. Not to disrespect the greatest kick returner of all-time, but the money would be better spent investing in an offense that can set up good field position for itself.