George McCaskey doesn't have the stomach to restructure this disappointing Bears organization.
The front office is faltering. How's Jay Cutler's hefty seven-year, $126 million contract working for Chicago now? Really? Did Bears General Manager Phil Emery legitimately think that Jay Cutler was the elite quarterback worth more money than both Tony Romo and Matthew Stafford? But the monetary value is not the only issue. Seven years? Cutler will be 38 years old by 2020, the last year of Cutler's contract. 38 years old. 38! NFL.com reports that the front office is expressing "buyer's remorse" over Cutler's contract. Duh! Did Emery really believe Cutler would be an elite quarterback over seven years, despite his fairly inconsistent five-year tenure in Chicago?
Besides overpaying Cutler, there are still other moves Emery made over the offseason that proved to do nothing to improve this Bears team.
Emery promised to improve the defense, but he ultimately has failed to do so. Jared Allen turned out to be a big disappointment, failing to meet the expectations that Chicago has set for him. Allen failed to make his presence known on the field, and I often forget that the Bears have Allen. Ultimately, Jared Allen reminded me of Julius Peppers last year. (Okay, maybe not that bad, but you get my point.) While Willie Young, Ryan Mundy, and Kyle Fuller (three players Emery added in the offseason) have impressed, the defense overall is still a joke. (The same applies to the offense, but you can't really blame Emery for that. You can blame him for how bad the defense is.)
Also, why is Chris Conte STILL our starting safety? He's awful. He's an absolute joke. Besides three key interceptions he's made (Week 17 last year against the Packers, Week 1 this year against the Bills, and Week 2 this year against the 49ers), Conte has done everything wrong. Oh yeah, let's not forget about that blown coverage on 4th and 8 last year in Week 17.
Overall, Phil Emery's job as the Bears GM this season proved to be a failure, with the lowlight being Jay Cutler's seven-year, $126 million deal.
The front office needs to face the fact that Marc Trestman is, at best, a mediocre NFL head coach. He would be a decent offensive coordinator and a formidable quarterback coach, but that's about it. Trestman is not cut out for the NFL. His play calls, as mentioned before, lack variety and fail to balance run and pass plays. Additionally, there is absolutely no creativity in Trestman's playcall. The Bears seem to run the same play (or a variation of it) six or seven times during the course of a game. Trestman is unwilling to adjust to what opposing defenses are doing, which is something every other NFL coach does.
Additionally, Trestman has, over the past two seasons, notoriuosly made poor decisions when regarding clock management. Trestman baffles Bears fans with the way he handles the time on the clock, and the decisions he has made have cost the Bears some games both last year and this one. Marc Trestman is, at best, a mediocre head coach. Trestman has done an awful job this season, and he took a major step backwards from last year. I consider Trestman to be the #1 reason (out of many reasons) why the Bears are this bad.
Overall, Marc Trestman has done a very poor job this year as Bears head coach.
After publicly criticizing Jay Cutler, Kromer has put the national spotlight on himself (and the Bears organization) for a negative reason. This reiterates the fact that the Bears are a discombobulated franchise, and they lack organization, stability, and accountability.
Aaron Kromer, after earning headlines for criticizing Jay Cutler, and doing nothing to improve Chicago's offense, has put himself in a dangerous situation when regarding job security.
Mel Tucker, the Bears Defensive Coordinator, is a joke. Tucker was extremely lucky that he didn't get fired last year. I'm not sure where to start with Tucker. Everything he does fails. Tucker, like Trestman and Kromer, incorporates no creativity into his defensive plays. He, unlike every sane NFL defensive coordinator, makes absolutely zero adjustments during the course of the game to what opposing offenses are doing. Isn't it common sense to adjust to what's being thrown at you? Wouldn't it be sensible to at least change what isn't working, and fix the problems that are letting other teams trample you?
Additionally, Tucker, like Trestman, seems to run the same play or a variation of that play repeatedly during the game. By "repeatedly", I don't mean "once or twice". By "repeatedly", I mean "constantly" and "five or six or ten times". I also don't think Mel Tucker knows what a "blitz" is. Since Tucker is running essentially the same play all the time (soft zone coverage, a four-man rush, and one linebacker crowding the line of scrimmage), it's no surprise that offenses, week after week, feast on this terrible defense.
Mel Tucker is a shame and disgrace to Chicago Bears football, a franchise with defense stored in its rich history. He is, in my opinion, second only to Marc Trestman on the causes of why the Bears are this disappointing this season.
Mel Tucker is an incompetent NFL defensive coordinator and will most likely be replaced by the start of next year.
Joe DeCamillis, the Bears Special Teams Coordinator and Assistant Head Coach, has failed this year. Coming into the season, everyone knew the Bears special teams would be poor. However, the least DeCamillis could've done is show improvement. Yes, it's okay for our special teams to flounder a little bit in the first small portion of the year. However, it would be reassuring (and even a success) for DeCamillis and Chicago if the Bears special teams unit improved throughout the latter portion of the season, and showed hope that the special teams wouldn't be this bad next season.
However, that was not the case. The special teams, overall, was below-average. Santonio Holmes was an average punt returner, and Marc Mariani is, judging from the limited time he's been on the Bears, a decent kick and punt returner. Robbie Gould is a formidable kicker. (Gould is the third-most accurate field goal kicker in NFL history.) However, even Gould's best years are behind him.
Besides Holmes, Mariani, and Gould, the special teams is an absolute mess. Chris Williams showed no potential, capability, or improvement as a kick returner this year, struggling to return the ball to even the 20-yard line. He made no big plays returning punts either.
The Bears have had numerous field goal tries and even PATs blocked this season. Many times, they have also allowed big kick returns and punt returns. In Week 5 at Carolina, the Bears gave up a 79-yard punt return for a touchdown. In the only game Jay Feely (a newly acquired kicker) played for the Bears, he missed a PAT. That's the second missed PAT for the Bears this year. Robbie Gould had one blocked in Week 6, and now Feely missed in Week 14. Before this season, the Bears hadn't missed a PAT in 9 years. It's embarrassing that they've missed two in this season alone.
However, I will say that the special teams this year was definitely not as disappointing as the offense or defense. While I consider it imperative to fire Trestman, Kromer, and Tucker, I don't think it's imperative for DeCamillis to get fired.
Throughout the course of the year, Joe DeCamillis failed to improve the Bears special teams unit, which was poor all throughout this season.
The players failed to perform on the field. When it mattered the most, Chicago couldn't come up big, often faltering in clutch situations. The players weren't listening to their coaches. But the biggest problem was this: the players lacked a true leader. The Bears were so undisciplined this season because they had no one to look up to. They had no one to follow, obey, and learn from. Good teams with good players always have a true leader. The Bears, a bad team with bad players, quite frankly, do not have a leader. They had veteran players that could've been leaders, but in the end, no one stepped up to the plate.
Brandon Marshall has always been known as an extrovert, and he likely gave the Bears inspiring pep talks before and during games. Brandon has also always been known as a huge competitor, a guy who has a will to win, and a great man with a great personality. However, Marshall has never been labeled as the Manning-like or Brady-like leader that many teams have. Brandon Marshall is a great football player. He is an elite NFL wide receiver. He's one of the best receivers the Bears have had in a while. He's a great man, a great competitor, and probably my favorite Bear. However, he isn't the true leader that the Bears need.
Brandon Marshall is probably my favorite Bear. But ultimately, Marshall isn't the true leader that the Bears need to have.
Lance Briggs should've been a leader to the defense. Instead, Briggs, who looked slow on the field, didn't step up to the plate. He didn't act as a mentor to a young Bears defense starting five rookies throughout the course of the season. After all those years of playing with and learning the leadership skills of Brian Urlacher, you would think Briggs would fill the "leader" role for the Bears. He did not. Instead, he looked like just another young, novice-level player on the undisciplined Bears defense. I was always remember Briggs highly, just as I will Julius Peppers. In my eyes, Briggs is a shoo-in for the Hall of Fame. I will remember the good that Briggs did before I will this fact: overall, Lance Briggs failed this season, both as a player and as a leader.
The Bears needed Lance Briggs to step up and be a leader this season. He wasn't, and he failed his opportunity to add at least a little bit of discipline to this sorry Bears defense.
While Lance Briggs failed to be the true leader that the Bears needed, the most disappointing Bear this season was undoubtedly Jay Cutler. After being paid like an elite quarterback, your job as a professional is to go out there and perform like an elite quarterback. Instead, Cutler showed the Bears and the sports world that he is, quite simply, not an elite quarterback. Quite frankly, Cutler showed the Bears that he is an overpaid quarterback who, because of constant leadership issues, personality issues, inconsistent play, and turnovers, does not deserve the money he is being paid.
At the beginning of the year, it wasn't unrealistic or unreasonable to think that Cutler would have a career year this season. I know for a fact that I wasn't the only one to think this. Field Yates, for example, writer for ESPNBoston.com, said that team the surprise team in the NFC this year was the Bears. Yates said that he expected the Bears to make a deep playoff run in the NFC, and he said that the emergence of Jay Cutler would be a big reason for that. I was a Cutler believer for a long time coming into the season, because really, the stars were aligned for the 31 year-old veteran. Everything was set up perfectly for Cutler to succeed this year. It was his job to go out and make things happen, but Jay, quite frankly, failed miserably.
Out of all the players on the Bears this season, Jay Cutler was, by far, the most disappointing.
Cutler had the weapons on offense. He has the best wide receiver duo in the league to throw to. Brandon Marshall is in the latter stages of the prime of his career. He came off a great receiving season last year. Marshall has already established himself as one of the league's best receivers, and he showed how elite he was and how great of a teammate he was last year. After a great year last year, Marshall was ready to succeed again. Instead, Cutler struggled mightily, which directly caused Marshall's numbers to significantly drop from last year.
Then we look at young Alshon Jeffery, the other half of the Bears' dynamic receiver duo. Jeffery had, by far, the best year of his three-year career. Although Brandon Marshall is, in most people's eyes, the better of the two receivers, people tend to forget that Alshon Jeffery had more receiving yards than Marshall (1,421 to Marshall's 1,295). Last year, Jeffery established himself as one of the league's top-tier receivers, landing himself in Top 10 for both ESPN and NFL.com wide receiver rankings. (Marshall cracked the Top 5 for both websites.) There's no doubting Alshon Jeffery's talent and skill, and he (and Marshall) showcased that last year by having one of the best Bears receiving seasons we've seen in a long time.
In case you haven't noticed, some of the catches Alshon Jeffery made last year were absolutely insane. Check them out.
In this play, Alshon Jeffery was literally running down the back of Vikings cornerback Chris Cook while making the catch and staying in bounds. This is probably the best of Alshon Jeffery's catches last year.
Another angle of this unbelievable catch.
This catch against the Cowboys on Monday Night Football last year was almost impossible. The fact that Jeffery made that catch with two defenders on him is amazing. What's even more amazing is the fact that the ball was being thrown over his head, and he was falling backwards, but he was still able to make the catch and stay in bounds. Wow.
Okay, Alshon, you can stop now. Seriously, this catch is so good, it should be illegal. Weaving in between two defenders, spinning and twisting and turning like a light bulb, and extending his arms to the best of his ability, Alshon makes yet another sick catch.
I think we've established that this Alshon kid is pretty good. Oh yeah, and he's just 24 years old. In the next few years, Jeffery will only get better as he approaches the peak of the prime of his NFL career.
The problem is, if Cutler keeps playing the way he does, Alshon can't improve. Jeffery's numbers dipped drastically from last year because of how poor Jay Cutler has been playing this year. I don't understand how Cutler couldn't take advantage of Alshon Jeffery's talent this season, and, as a result, Jeffery couldn't build off of last year.
Running back Matt Forte, like Marshall and Jeffery, was coming off a career year last year. He was third in the NFL in yards from scrimmage last year, and he is one of the only true three-down backs in the NFL. A versatile, quick, and powerful back, Forte is one of the most talented players in all of football. It's a shame Jay Cutler couldn't take advantage of that this year. With an annoying low amount of carries this year, Forte's numbers dipped from last year, and I feel that both Jay Cutler and Marc Trestman wasted the talent they had in Forte.
Last year, Matt Forte proved once again that he is an elite running back, and one of the best in all the NFL. However, with little carries and a struggling Jay Cutler, Forte saw his numbers drop from last year.
Martellus Bennett is one of the best tight ends in football. The 6'6" beast is one of the most versatile tight ends in football, and, at 27, he's at the prime of his NFL career. After a blazing hot start last year, Bennett cooled off a bit, but still proved to be a high-end tight end (no rhyme intended). Bennett is the perfect for this Bears team. His power and strength complements Alshon Jeffery and Matt Forte's speed and quickness perfectly. After having the best year of his career last year, Bennett was poised to do even more this year. But you know the drill. Because of Cutler's failure to perform, every Bears pass-catcher - including Martellus Bennett - didn't do as well as they had hoped.
This Martellus Bennett season was supposed to be even bigger than last year, but with Jay Cutler's struggles, that was not the case.
All of the members of last year's offense returned this season. Coming off a season where the Bears offense scored the most points in the NFC, you would think Cutler would've broken out by now. Last year, Jay Cutler had the best offensive line he's ever had in a Bears uniform. The offensive line proved to be above-average, which is something Cutler hadn't experienced in a long time. Rather than taking advantage of the fact that all of these members of the O-line were returning, Cutler floundered. And as the line battled injuries, all the promise for the O-line that came into this season went crashing down as the season wore on.
Jay Cutler couldn't take advantage of the fact that all of last year's formidable offensive line returned this year.
Additionally, Jay Cutler is in the prime of his career. At age 31, Cutler is an established veteran in the NFL. Experienced and in the second year of Marc Trestman's west coast offense, you would think Cutler would settle in this season and improve. Obviously, this was not the case. In fact, Cutler took a step back from last year.
And that step back is why Cutler has frustrated Bears fans so much. This season was filled with hope. The Bears were supposed to be good! Instead, Cutler's committed 21 turnovers this season, which is tops in the NFL. Ouch.
Besides the fact that Cutler is turnover prone, there's an even bigger problem: and that's the fact that the Bears, as a team, have failed to perform well in the 2nd half of ball games - specifically, late in the fourth quarter when it matters most. The Bears can't come up with big plays down the stretch. In the clutch, while some teams get the job done, the Bears end up floundering, and that's costing Marc Trestman's team many games that the Bears should've won, but couldn't close the door.
Cutler's turnovers seem to come at the most inopportune times. Most of his turnovers come late in the fourth quarter, and that's undoubtedly cost the Bears some ball games throughout the course of this NFL season.
What's also undoubted, at least, in my eyes, is the fact that Jay Cutler has been the most disappointing player on the Bears this season.
So there it is. From top to bottom, the Bears prove how unstable and discombobulated of an organization they are. They lack any sort of structure in the ownership; the front office has made many mistakes; the coaches are one of the worst in the NFL; and the players have failed to perform up to the expectations of Bears fans everywhere.
This internal instability and insecurity within the Bears organization is a very frightening (and unfortunately, very recurring) thing. Ever since the Bears' Week 1 loss against the Bills, I think Chicago has lost its edge on the football field. All the hunger the Bears had built up - after losing to the Packers in Week 17 last year - quickly wore away after Week 1. All the hopes that the Bears had of making a deep NFC playoff run, slowly but surely, eroded away as the season grinded on.
I fear that next year, the Bears might face the same problem. Why? The ownership is too afraid to go through a big, time-consuming organizational overhaul. The general managers have failed to turn last year's talented team into a playoff club. What makes you think the GMs can turn this awful Bears team into a playoff club next year? To think something like that is unreasonably odd - in fact, if you think this in your right mind, I recommend you consult a doctor and get help. Fast.
And the coaches? What makes you think they're going to adjust? Heck, these same guys might be in Chicago next year because of Phil Emery's fear of making necessary changes.
And the players? It's not like they're going to start listening to the coaches, regardless of who those will be next year. The guys on the field don't have a leader.
Essentially, the players are like a bunch of sheep without a shepard. What makes you think the sheep can manage themselves? What makes you think a shepard will magically appear out of nowhere and then tend to the sheep next year?
The fact of the matter is this: none of these two things can or will happen! There will be no organizational overhaul. Thus, none of these Bears' issues will change! They'll stay the same.
And that's why I foresee these same problems to come up next year. Everything will remain the same because the ownership and the front office will be to afraid to make a major change. The coaches are too inept to adjust, and the players are too stubborn to listen.
The bottom line is: unless the Bears make some major changes, I don't think next year will be very different from this one.
And that's a big problem.
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