Post by Deleted on Mar 15, 2017 16:08:01 GMT -6
Mar 15, 2017 15:38:45 GMT -6 @soulman said:
Alex what you seem to be advocating would look very much like the 1990s when Wanny and Mikey McCaskey were making all of the personnel decisions. Mikey would not spend on top talent then either. The team was content to bring in middle of the road guys unde the theory that our coaches would make them all better and we'd win.What was our record from 1993-98 under these two? It was 40-56/.417 or about the same as Trestman's was and under Fox and Pace we are far worse. If you structure their deals well any team with the Bears cap space can sign several top tier guys. Look at what Jax has been doing and they aren't alone.
So I don't buy the story they're handing out at all. Cliff Stein was one of the best capologists and contract guys in the NFL. He was also the teams VP of Football Admin and it's General Legal Counsel. He made top tier deals work out cap wise and the Bears were able to attract and sign some top talent as well as keep their own.
In may of 2015 he was replaced in that role by Pace's former NOLA comrade in arms Joey Laine and since then our success rate attracting and signing top tier guys and our own top producers has declined significantly. That would mean Laine negotiated all of the contract in 2016 and also in 2017. Do you feel that's it's just a coincidence we're failing to get our priority guys under contract?
If you spend some time on Spotrac actually looking at them most of these more recent UFA guys have come in either on one year prove it deals or if they've signed longer term ones the max has usually been 3 years and they are front loaded so after a year or two at most we can send them packing too. How does that jive with a long term approach to rebuilding when you're hiring mostly temporary labor?
This team seems to have completely lost it's identity to the point where I can honestly say I really can't relate to it any longer. The key players seem to be changing as rapidly as greeters at Walmart and as JJ has pointed out for every hole we fill we seem to create twice as many voids. So you do the math brother. It all looks nuts to me.
I'm sure you know the old saying about the definition of insanity being repeating past behavior and expecting different results just as well as I do. What do you see that's any different from that right now? I see a whole lot of rinse and repeat going on that seems to sink to the level of either insane of very dumb.
The only thing that might explain it to me is that Fox is 100% a lame duck HC and that next January the Bears will once again do a huge reset and hire a new HC. I still don't believe Fox was Pace's first choice but rather how he was prodded to accept in order to confirm his job as GM. Pace has 3 years left to go on his deal and a public promise from GMcC to be patient. John Fox's name did not come up in that vote of confidence.
If that truly is the case then this is pretty much a tread water year where the draft will produce the most significant potential improvements for 2018 and beyond. In that event I would also agree that it makes little sense to invest heavily in pricey UFAs who may or may not fit the next HC's schemes so Pace is kicking the can down the road again with the assurance that GMcC not only "gets it" but also agrees this is best for now.
Lacking that I can't really put much logic to why they're doing what they're doing because UFA is not really upgrading this team much this year at all. If we're lucky it's push.