Your questions were so good this week I tacked on a couple more to make it a dirty dozen.
1. Q. Now that we can see the Bears aren't likely to win another game this year and Jerry Angelo and Lovie Smith are headed for the door, who do you think the Bears should hire? I am intrigued by Dave Toub but I have to ask if you would be interested in the next Sean Payton as your head coach. If you look for a successful offensive coordinator who is young and has a fresh approach but a strong pedigree, there is only one name: Kyle Shanahan. That's who I would hire. --- Joliet Pat
A: I still think there's a good chance the Bears will win some close games down the stretch, make the playoffs and save Lovie's job. If not, here's my ever-changing short list: 1. Bill Cowher 2. Jeff Fisher 3. Jim Harbaugh 4. Jon Gruden 5. Ron Riveria.
2. Q: I know that Julius Peppers is getting double teamed quite a bit but are you surprised that with Peppers in the lineup the Bears defensive line has not had more sacks this year? Do you think Peppers will be dominant week in and week out similar to some of the great defensive ends in NFL history? Last but certainly not least do you think Peppers will be in the NFL Hall of Fame one day? Richard Dent to me was better than Peppers and I think Dent should be in the Hall of Fame but may get shut out. --- Dahlillama
A: I'm not really surprised because the other players on the defensive line aren't proven sack producers. In fact, besides Tommie Harris, who is in obvious decline, the player with the most sacks in one season is Israel Odonije, who had 3.5 in 2008. Because there are no other serious threats, opposing teams can concentrate on Peppers. I don't think he'll have the type of monster year everybody is hoping for until they surround him with players who can consistently make opposing offenses pay for double-teaming him. Whether or not Peppers belongs in the Hall of Fame will be determined in the next couple years. He has been one of the dominant --- if not the dominant --- defensive end(s) of his generation, though. I also believe Dent is a Hall of Famer and hope he makes it.
3. Q: If you were to gaze into your crystal ball and predict the remainder of the seasons win-loss record for the Bears, what would you see as the outcome in both the second half and the final records? --- Jocko
A: I can see them splitting with the Vikings, splitting with the Eagles and Dolphins and beating the Lions. Winning against the Jets and Patriots will be tough. They beat the Packers at home but beating them in Lambeau to end the season will be a tough assignment. Therefore, my prediction for the second half is 3-5 for a total record of 8-8. Hopefully, I'm wrong.
4. Q: Has there been any discussion of spelling Charles Tillman during the game? He has been falling down, slipping like crazy, and generally looks gassed in the second half every week. Keeping him fresh late in the game can help us in the long run. The offense rotates receivers to ensure fresh bodies are out there.. Why don't we do the same thing? We do it on the defensive line. --- Joe Felicelli
A: Question of the week, Joe. I found it interesting enough to asked defensive backs coach Jon Hoke for his opinion. Here's his answer: "I've asked the same question. We do it on the d-line. We rotate them. To me, if you've got three guys that deserve to play, you should do it. It keeps everybody fresher. You'll see with d-lineman rotate early so they are fresher at the end of the game. Receivers run two long routes and tap their helmet to come out. Well, the corner just had to run with them for those two deep routes. I agree. He has a valid question and a valid point." With Zack Bowman returning from a foot injury, and Tim Jennings and Peanut Tillman playing well, I might explore this subject in a story in coming days.
5. Q: I don't think the Bears won their last game of the year against the Bills. With the turmoil in Minnesota and the fact that maybe they're not a very good football team you might see one win there. And with Matthew Stafford out and Miami switching back to Chad Pennington, there might be another there. With a possible 8-8 record, a potential work stoppage, and the McCaskey's "love" for Lovie, could you see a scenario where Angelo is fired, and a new GM is brought in, which would pave the way for a new head coach come 2012? --- Gearheadboy
A: At this point I wouldn't rule out any scenario. If things go bad, the question will be who is most responsible, Lovie or Jerry? A case could be made for Lovie being a solid NFL coach when he has talent to work with. If that's ownership's decision, they could bring in a new general manager and either let Lovie finish his current contract or sign him to an extension.
6. Q: Who do you think is the most underrated player on the Bears so far this year? Who do you think is the most overrated player on the Bears so far this year? --- Touche
A: Another good question. I really had to think about this one. The most underrated is Mat Toeaina. He doesn't get a lot of sacks so he doesn't stand out as much as others but he has been a force inside and is a big reason why the defense has been so effective against the run. You'd probably have to say Chris Williams is the most overrated because he is a first-round draft pick. But that only means it was the Bears who overrated him in the first place. You can read more about Williams later on in the Q&A.
7. Q: I read that the Vikings Williamses' have been let off the hook for testing positive for a banned substance two years ago. They allegedly took this substance by "accident" as part of a weight loss supplement. Are you kidding me? These guys are defensive tackles. The more bulk they add, the more effective they'll be. Why would they take weight-loss supplements? That's like Usain Bolt saying he takes a supplement that will make him slower. Am I missing something here, or does that excuse reek as much as I think it does? --- AndrewPDX
A: You're missing something. Bigger is not always better. Dozens of defensive linemen across the league trim down so they are quicker off the ball. Remember the Fridge? He was always trying to lose weight. Marcus Harrison reported to training camp much heavier than coaches would've liked last season. In lots of cases, players try to lose weight to meet incentive clauses in their contracts. After eating too much and not working out enough during the offseason, they'll go to great extremes to get the weight off and collect the dough.
8. Q: The Bears are at the halfway point of the season. Who is the offensive MVP? Defense? Special teams? Rookie of the year? Play of the the Year? --- Mr. Cox.
A: Who is the offensive MVP is a fascinating question. After much thought, I would have to say Matt Forte, who leads the team in rushing, receptions and touchdowns and is second in receiving yards. It hasn't been the kind of consistently dominant performance that you would expect of a team MVP, however. Defensively, I'd have to say Peppers by a nose over Urlacher and Briggs because he has turned a potential weakness (defensive line) into an above-average unit. Devin Hester is the special teams MVP after his two punt returns for touchdowns, although Corey Graham is also having a solid year. The play of the year was Greg Olsen's 39-yard touchdown pass against the Cowboys because it changed not only the game but the Bears season.
9. Q: We all know nobody in their right mind will punt the ball to Devin Hester anymore, so wouldn't it be wise to put him back on the kick return team? What are your thoughts? --- Tripper
A: I would agree totally if Danieal Manning and Johnny Knox haven't proven to be such dynamic kick returners. a lot of teams wish they had Manning and Knox returning kicks for them. That said, I'm not opposed to giving Hester another shot at returning kicks. Lovie Smith would probably say that with Hester playing so many snaps on offense, they want to give him a break, but Manning and Knox are full-time starters as well. It might be time to give Devin Aromashodu more playing time on offense and have Hester return some kicks.
10. Q: I know it's very early still, but given the current standings and what you've seen so far, what positions do you feel the Bears will address in the draft? It's been awhile since they've had a full complement of draft picks so it will be very interesting to see what they do. I'm hoping for o-line help in a major way. --- Sonny
A: Angelo has always said you start from the inside out. Plus, it doesn't take an expert to realize the Bears are in desperate need of offensive line help, especially since Olin Kreutz and Roberto Garza are aging veterans. That's a no-brainer. They could also use a dynamic defensive lineman moving forward. The only question is whether Angelo will be making the picks.
11. Q: Chris Williams is horrendous. I understand he's a first-round pick and that the Bears will shoehorn him onto the field no matter how bad he is but they're risking losing two 1st round draft picks in the form of Jay Cutler. Have you seen anything that even hints that Williams will pan out some time down the line? --- Mike
A: I read lots of criticism directed at Williams on the Bears blog and went back and specifically watched him against the Bills. There was a two-play sequence early in the game that wasn't pretty. He got beat by Kyle Williams on one play and missed a block after pulling on the next one. For the most part, however, I wasn't as critical of his performance as everybody else. He's not a Pro Bowl left guard by any means, and he and the rest of the line need to be more physical, keep their feet moving and sustain their blocks. But I didn't see horrendous. I saw average.
12. Q: Yeah, this might be a pipe dream but what are the chances that we could have Bill Parcells as general manager and Cowher as head coach next year? --- BearsFan4Life
A: A zillion to one. They are strong personalities who will hire a coach or general manager to play a subordinate roles. Besides, together they would cost more than Jerry Jones or Dan Snyder would be willing to pay
Neil I found some of your answers a bit intresting. The Matt Forte as offensive MVP answer cracks me up. So I thought maybe I am missing something and decided to take closer look. Was not really happy with what I found though.
Forte in 8 games this year has had 1 big game. That's all one big game against Carolina. It accounts for two fifths his total rushing yardage and two thirds of his rushing TD's.
Matt Forte has been removed from short yardage situations and replaced with Taylor. Which does not scream MVP to me when people start taking major parts of your job away from you for suckage.
The other thing that stands out to me is outside of the Carolina game Forte has been down right bad as a rusher.
In 7 games he is averaging 33 YPG, 2.85 YPC, and has 235 yards rushing combined. 235 yards in 7 games? How on earth do you name him an MVP of anything? Outside of the Carolina game he has 1 rushing TD in 7 games.
Now for his recieving, just like his rushing it was one big game that bloated Forte's stats. The first game of the year against the Lions. Which accounts for half his recieving yardage, and two thirds his recieving TD's.
Since the first game of the year Forte has averaged just over 23 yards per game recieving, has 22 total receptions for 164 yards and 7.4 YPC. In the 7 games since the Lions he has 1 recieving TD.
So basically you have one guy who had 1 good recieving game, and one good rushing game, and in the other 7 games has been pretty horrible. Not to mention losing his goal line status to Taylor.
If this is the MVP of the offense we are totally screwed. Not saying your wrong Neil, just saying we are screwed if that is the case.
Really there should be no award for the MVP of the offense at this stage of the year. But if one has to choose I would say that Forte and Cutler are right there together as having contributed the most to the offensive success during the first 8 games.
Creighton, you make some good points about Forte but we do have to recognize that Forte's ability is as a multi purpose back, he is not the great runner and receiver that Payton was but he is capable of doing both running and receiving effectively. Given the problems and inconsistency of the OL; Forte has been pretty productive when you combine both receiving and rushing yardage. He ranks 16th in the league in total yards at 89.5 yards per game with 3 fumbles and 2 lost.
What is ironic is that Cutler is also ranked 16th among the QB's in total yards from scrimmage and he also has fumbled 7 times tied with Colt McCoy for the most by a QB and with 4 lost also tied for the most in the league for a QB. He is also the most sacked QB in the league by a long shot with 28.
So we have two MVP's on Offense or we have no MVP's on offense, both have contributed greatly on their good days and both have helped lose the 3 games lost on their bad days. The good news is it is only 3 games lost, although it should be 4 with the Detroit game.
I vote for the Offensive line to be the MVP for the second half of the season, if they could step it up significantly the Bears will make the playoffs.
Lets set our goals for the second half as noted below.
Sacks allowed 14 just under 2 per game and improved by 50% versus the first 8 games.
We should have second half goals for all categories such as third down efficiency, turnovers and take aways, TD's etc, etc.
Here is to being 5-3 in the second half and taking a 10-6 record into the playoffs and winning the division.
HA! Jerry Angelo, in regards to drafting, says "we start from the inside out".
Here are the defensive and offensive lineman he has drafted the last 4 years.
07 - Dan Bazuin (2), Josh Beekman (4), Aaron Brant (7)
08 - Chris Williams (1), Marcus Harrison (3), Ervin Baldwin (7), Chester Adams (7), and Kirk Barton (7)
09 - Jarron Gilbert (3), Henry Melton (4), Lance Louis (7), and Derek Kinder(7)
10 - J'Marcus Webb (7)
Of all these, only Henry Melton looks to be a player. Maybe Webb will pan out as well because of his physical attributes (size and strength, and quick feet).
Williams, Harrison, and Louis are on the team, but suck so far. The rest are cut, and are not on any active roster in the NFL right now.
It doesn't matter what his draft strategy is so far, because he keeps striking out. And then, he sticks with the ones that suck too long. Although, he doesn't have any alternative to having Lance Louis and Chris Williams right now.
"A case could be made for Lovie being a solid NFL coach when he has talent to work with."
A case could also be made that Lovie wouldn't know talent if it punched him in the nose. The latest example of many is that Brandon Lloyd is leading the league in receiving. I'm not saying Lloyd is a hall of famer, but LEADING THE LEAGUE!!! This is the same guy that Lovie made inactive for half a season. Meanwhile, it's been three years and we're still waiting for Devin Hester to learn a playbook.
Ryan, you forgot Woooton in '10. Another inactive.
Oops! I make one mistake per year.
Don't worry Dahli I would never insult Walter by comapring Forte to him. All I am saying is a RB who lost his job in short yardage, can't be trusted to block anyone, and in 6 games this year has averaged only 56 total combined yards is not very impressive. But like Cutler he does not have a line. Unlike Cutler this offense was suppose to be perfect for Forte. As for the Fumbles most of those can be related to pressure and sacks. By the way thats 28 sacks in 7 games not 8. Let me tell you wait till the eagles come to town, they are getting after the QB. I am not sure what McCoy and Cutler are tied at, Cutler has started 7 games and McCoy 3. Oh and don't forget that one Fumble Cutler had that was a TD but Lovie didn't challenge so it was fumble instead of a TD. Brilliant move. McCoy doesn't have 7 fumbles that I know about. As for yards from scrimage McCoy is not even close to Cutler. I look at this way with a crazy OC who seems to have a death wish for Cutler, a lousy supporting cast and the worst O-Line in football a Line that has seen 3 QB's knocked out of games since the preseason, and Cutler has a respectable 86 passer rating. Not bad considering he is ill suited to the offense. However some of the things he has done that don't show up in the stats are what bother me. No Mvp on offense for the Bears. I could also argue that take out the Washington game Cutler has a 9-3 TD- Int ratio 3-1 which is excellent. But it's other things he has done that worry me.
Not sure where all the Browns stuff came from Dahli but you should check your source. The only thing I want from the Browns is Joe Thomas, and Alex Mack.
Now to address this "A case could be made for Lovie being a solid NFL coach when he has talent to work with."
Well what is Lovie Smiths job?
He is in charge of all three phases of the team. However, he has little to nothing to do with offense and special teams and instead focuses on the defense. He is in charge of player development, and who starts. Challenges, and since 2006 he has had a lot of power reguarding the draft.
First the defense, Lovie Smith has done a nice job with improving the defense this year, although how hard was it to improve the defense when you brought in Julius Peppers, Chris Harris and Tim Jennings and had Urlacher return.
It was Smith who claimed his guy Rod would improve the D-Line, it was Smith who handed the starting job to Anderson, and it was Smith who continues to Claim Tommie Harris is an impact player. Well the fact that they don't have a single starting defensive linemen who is a draft pick points to player development sucking, and talent evaluation sucking. They needed to bring in the 100 million dollar man Peppers to do what Lovie couldn't. But hey they needed help on defense and they went and got it. But Lovie couldn't do it through the draft or player development. I could also point to the Gains Adams trade, not blaming him for the tragic death, but you trade a second round pick for a bust. Every paper in Tamp was laughing at Smith after that move.
Lovie chooses his own staff. He has fired more coaches than any head coach in the nfl. It's always their fault and not his. It was Lovie that brought in his good friend Martz. How is that working out?
Special teams, Dave Toub continues to work with whatever he is given and usually has one of the best special teams in football. This man has Saved Lovie's Job.
Now for the offense. While both the offense and the defensive lines needed help and it could easily be argued the O-Line needed more help Lovie had no problem making moved for Gains Adams and Julius Peppers, he has no problem with he and Angelo drafting Gilbert, and Wootton, or Bazuin. He seems to feel the offensive line is just fine. He is the only one in the nfl who thinks that. The Bears had problems on the O-Line and and at Reciever, huge problems, Lovie addressed this by bringing in the one of the most difficult passing schemes to block for and brought in Tice a man who specializes in run blocking. Remember he picks his staff not Angelo. Lovie has no problems going out and getting help for the defense, but he refuses to help out the offense. Not exactly a head coach quality. Not to mention him insisting that Hester is their number 1, and the fact that he was a big fan of Chris Williams.
It is Lovie Smiths job to over see his staff during games. In the NY game Lovie Smith let Martz execute 7 step after 7 step even though his QB was getting killed. Lovie showed no reguard for the offense when he didn't tell Martz to stop dropping back 76 percent of the time. He should have told Martz to go max protect, quick drops and run the ball. But he didn't.
In Seattle game Martz was up to those same tricks, Lovie once again did not stop him from dropping Cutler back for 7 steps even though they could not protect him and this resulted i na safety.
In the Washington game after Hall had gotten his second pick Lovie should have told the offense to stay awya from Hall, but he did not do this. Then he did the unforgivable, he refused to challenge a clear TD by Cutler. Doing the unforgivable and taking points off the board and costing the Bears that game.
Speaking of Challenges the bears are rated the 4th worst team in the league since 2009.
So to sum up, Lovie has little to no eye for talent, has been horrible at developing talent, ignores the offense and favors the defense, is horrible at picking his staff, owes his job to Toub who has saved him more than once, has sucked at challenges, has taken points off the board more than once, talks about accountablity as long as it's not him having to be accountable, it's always the assistants faults, he runs a vanilla scheme with little to no originality, and of course there is his love of the Bears fans.
You know if you get Lovie a couple of more All pro players he could have the best defense in Football. Kyle Williams at DT and Revis at Corner would really help out, and maybe Trent Cole at the other end position. Then he will show everyone how good his defense can really be. Whoc ares about the offense, it's all about his baby the defense.
Doesn't really sound like a head coach to me, it sounds like a DC who gets whatever he wants.