Post by Deleted on Dec 5, 2017 2:29:55 GMT -6
Dec 4, 2017 8:47:15 GMT -6 @bearsinhouston said:
yep. can't argue with any of that. Keeping Fox last offseason was a really bad move. But you take a look at this board and few people thought it was a good idea to move on from Fox. I suspect that most fans felt that way. So not sure why people are complaining that Fox was not let go. But yeah... Pace is really under the microscope. And should be. If he does not get the coaching right, he will be gone. Then we will try to hire a top GM with Phillips still there. The two don't mix.
The buzz word that was handed out and many bought into was "continuity" and that much we got. This season looks a whole hell of a lot like the last one right on down to a distinct possibility of another 3-13 finish. So it's that same old story of "be careful what you ask for" because you may not be happy with the results. Are we? No, I didn't think so. This kind of continuity is not the kind we asked for yet somehow we should have known it's what we would get.
To his credit I think Pace may well have done far more thinking about why he didn't want Focks coaching his new QB after seeing how once again Cutler began to regress after Gase left. Funny how that happened more than once yet Cutler was a "coach killer". Not this time but he was a convenient scapegoat for Focks whose always looking for at least one. But I digress and this post is not about Cutler it's about Pace and his pet albatross John Focks.
Maybe just maybe Pace realized what Carolina did when the cut him loose after a 2-14 season. They planned to draft Cam Newton and wanted no part of Focks coaching him. If that thought ever occurred to our two resident geniuses in charge then surely the cost of paying off yet another HC and staff early and the added embarrassment from firing a 3rd HC in 5 years was more than our timid leadership could take. Pace may have wanted Focks gone but he lacked he chips to raise his bet above those of Phillips and GMcC and that was it. He accepted what he had to accept.
If this doesn't seem plausible to some read this.
"Not only did he hire an older coach who was turning 60, somebody likely not up to the task of a full rebuild. He ignored the glaring warning sign of the fact that Denver fired the man despite going 12-4 his final year with the team. That should’ve been a red flag. Pace though, at the urging of team advisor Ernie Accorsi accepted the hire."
If Lambert is correct in this as he seems to be with all else then what I've always believed is true. Phillips and GMcC were hesitating about hiring an inexperienced guy as HC so when Focks was made available (and Accorsi knew he would be) selling him to GMcC and Teddy Bears was a slam dunk. Accorsi in turn along with some encouragement from his new bosses managed to see that Pace accepted Focks. How could he not accept? He has even less chips to play back then.
So my deal is this. On two separate occasions Phillips and GMcC have asked Pace to accept Focks and we're supposed to think he really had another choice? Sorry, I don't. The trade off this time was two fold. GMcC gives Pace his personal vote of confidence and an extension of more patience giving him more time to rebuild. The other is what we're about to see. Focks can now be let go and Pace can hire his own HC.....with their approval of course. Naturally.
I believe this a the short story version of the Pace/Focks saga and it's why I won't hold him fully responsible for Focks.
But his piss poor work in FA I do hold him 100% responsible for as well as denuding his team of so much offensive firepower and lacking replacements for them. This is the reason we can only score 7 points on offense against one of the poorer defenses in the NFL. This is why we could only average 16 ppg on offense in 2016 and even less in 2017. So that POS offense is not all on John Focks and Dowell Loggains. Pace had his hand in making it what it is too.
His drafts have been much stronger beginning with the second one but most of these guys will need to step up another notch or two to become blue rated players. Right most of them are greens with a couple of reds like White and Grasu. Both should probably be gone before the 2018 season begins. A few others are little more than ST guys which we do need but we need frontline talent far more and we aren't getting it quickly enough.
Very soon Pace will find himself in the position of hiring a HC whose deal may exceed his by two years or longer. That should be one hell on an incentive to pull out all stops and get his team back on track and winning consistently in 2018 so he can earn an extension. If not then in 2019 he becomes a lame duck GM and once again the Bears may have to hire a GM with a HC already in place. Could this organization ever get even more backasswards then they've become under Phillips and the McCaskeys?