Check this out (found on twitter--link). Lots of fun questions to think about. Where are the improvements? Where wasn't there improvement? Which team overall is better? Which position group improved/declined? Which unit (off or def) improved? How much are we counting on potential?
The major difference is not so much the younger team, but the hope that we have a better coaching staff who can better use the talent we have. I think that is huge. Granted, we haven't seen a single game played yet, but don't you just feel like we have a great set of coaches now who can truly help these young players fully reach their ceiling? And the play-calling on offense should be significantly better too.
That 2014 team looking back was pure shite, especially on Def. Ego and Sutton are both currently FA's, so out of the league, not b/c of age b/c they aren't good football players. Shea McClellin, currently a FA, out of the league, so much for NE and Billy B fixing him and making him a star. Stephen Paea out of the league. Conte and Fuller are the only young players still in the league; that's just sad.
The O has faired better, Jeffery/Wilson and Long and even Mills are still in the league.
The O's OL and Qb look better, RB is probably a wash, Howard is a better runner but he cannot catch worth a damn. TE position overall is better and while I will hold judgement on the WR position, I think at least its depth is better, even if the starters are not noticably better.
Funny thing about the O? Trestman probably wanted to run a lot of the things Nagy wants to. Hopefully Nagy can improve on the idea and make it work for more then 1 yr. It seems more sustainable now after seeing KC and Philly do it w/great success.
That 2014 team looking back was pure shite, especially on Def. Ego and Sutton are both currently FA's, so out of the league, not b/c of age b/c they aren't good football players. Shea McClellin, currently a FA, out of the league, so much for NE and Billy B fixing him and making him a star. Stephen Paea out of the league. Conte and Fuller are the only young players still in the league; that's just sad.
The O has faired better, Jeffery/Wilson and Long and even Mills are still in the league.
The O's OL and Qb look better, RB is probably a wash, Howard is a better runner but he cannot catch worth a damn. TE position overall is better and while I will hold judgement on the WR position, I think at least its depth is better, even if the starters are not noticably better.
Funny thing about the O? Trestman probably wanted to run a lot of the things Nagy wants to. Hopefully Nagy can improve on the idea and make it work for more then 1 yr. It seems more sustainable now after seeing KC and Philly do it w/great success.
Still can't believe that the condition of becoming the Bears HC was to keep Lovie's system/language. Emery really screwed Tucker big time (even though Tucker was a terrible DC to begin with.) Tucker really had no chance. And once Trestman revealed himself as a lunatic, everything went to pieces quickly.
That 2014 team looking back was pure shite, especially on Def. Ego and Sutton are both currently FA's, so out of the league, not b/c of age b/c they aren't good football players. Shea McClellin, currently a FA, out of the league, so much for NE and Billy B fixing him and making him a star. Stephen Paea out of the league. Conte and Fuller are the only young players still in the league; that's just sad.
The O has faired better, Jeffery/Wilson and Long and even Mills are still in the league.
The O's OL and Qb look better, RB is probably a wash, Howard is a better runner but he cannot catch worth a damn. TE position overall is better and while I will hold judgement on the WR position, I think at least its depth is better, even if the starters are not noticably better.
Funny thing about the O? Trestman probably wanted to run a lot of the things Nagy wants to. Hopefully Nagy can improve on the idea and make it work for more then 1 yr. It seems more sustainable now after seeing KC and Philly do it w/great success.
Still can't believe that the condition of becoming the Bears HC was to keep Lovie's system/language. Emery really screwed Tucker big time (even though Tucker was a terrible DC to begin with.) Tucker really had no chance. And once Trestman revealed himself as a lunatic, everything went to pieces quickly.
Tucker/Trestman in their correct inviornment can be successful, see Trestman in Canada and Tucker at the college level. They just were in over there heads in Chicago where everything was already a mess in the locker before they even showed up. Trestman was the opposite of Fox in that he couldn't fix that mess. Fox was brought in to correct it and now thathe did, they went after a young upside HC that doesn't have to worry about the locker room already being cancerous. It's probably why they worked so hard to keep Fang.
Still can't believe that the condition of becoming the Bears HC was to keep Lovie's system/language. Emery really screwed Tucker big time (even though Tucker was a terrible DC to begin with.) Tucker really had no chance. And once Trestman revealed himself as a lunatic, everything went to pieces quickly.
Tucker/Trestman in their correct inviornment can be successful, see Trestman in Canada and Tucker at the college level. They just were in over there heads in Chicago where everything was already a mess in the locker before they even showed up. Trestman was the opposite of Fox in that he couldn't fix that mess. Fox was brought in to correct it and now thathe did, they went after a young upside HC that doesn't have to worry about the locker room already being cancerous. It's probably why they worked so hard to keep Fang.
Kind of like me. I'm competent at my job to keep getting promotions yet I'm a terrible manager. Peter Principle right?
Tucker/Trestman in their correct inviornment can be successful, see Trestman in Canada and Tucker at the college level. They just were in over there heads in Chicago where everything was already a mess in the locker before they even showed up. Trestman was the opposite of Fox in that he couldn't fix that mess. Fox was brought in to correct it and now thathe did, they went after a young upside HC that doesn't have to worry about the locker room already being cancerous. It's probably why they worked so hard to keep Fang.
Kind of like me. I'm competent at my job to keep getting promotions yet I'm a terrible manager. Peter Principle right?
basically, except that Trestman excelled to the point of being the best there ever was at the CFL, so there was a reason he was getting interviews. The level of player just was above him in the NFL. He couldn't handle 53 NFL alpha's
Offensively I like the OL much better and the WR/TE group can be at least as good if not better. Simply being unbridled from Marshall creates more peace and we now have a legit slot guy and downfield game breaking speed we lacked in 2014.
RB is a bit of a push with only Howard vs Forte but now we have a usable game breaker we can employ offensively in Cohen.
The jury may still be out at QB but in all honesty I like the fit with Trubisky and Nagy better than Cutler with Trestman or Gase. By 2014 we'd misplayed Cutler so badly it was tough to turn it around. Mitch/Nagy is a clean slate to write on.
Defensively I believe were not only much younger but far better across the board both in talent and in scheme.
Sutton and Ego were not suited for a 3-4 defense. Neither was Jared Allen and our ILBs and Safeties were poor at best.
Goldman is a top notch NT, Hicks is a monster 5 tech DE and Bullard and RRH have potential but need to move beyond that point and produce more.
ILB is much improved and OLB has the pieces but needs to prove itself with Floyd and Lynch.
No one can adequately replace all of what Peanut could do when healthy but the entire secondary is younger and far better.
The 2014 team was coming off an 8-8 season and finished 5-11. There's no way that I can see this team going only 5-11 unless we have to back an ambulance up to the bench each week but even then our depth is much better. I see a team who should win at least half their games finishing stronger offensively than we started.
That 2014 team looking back was pure shite, especially on Def. Ego and Sutton are both currently FA's, so out of the league, not b/c of age b/c they aren't good football players. Shea McClellin, currently a FA, out of the league, so much for NE and Billy B fixing him and making him a star. Stephen Paea out of the league. Conte and Fuller are the only young players still in the league; that's just sad.
The O has faired better, Jeffery/Wilson and Long and even Mills are still in the league.
The O's OL and Qb look better, RB is probably a wash, Howard is a better runner but he cannot catch worth a damn. TE position overall is better and while I will hold judgement on the WR position, I think at least its depth is better, even if the starters are not noticably better.
Funny thing about the O? Trestman probably wanted to run a lot of the things Nagy wants to. Hopefully Nagy can improve on the idea and make it work for more then 1 yr. It seems more sustainable now after seeing KC and Philly do it w/great success.
Still can't believe that the condition of becoming the Bears HC was to keep Lovie's system/language. Emery really screwed Tucker big time (even though Tucker was a terrible DC to begin with.) Tucker really had no chance. And once Trestman revealed himself as a lunatic, everything went to pieces quickly.
Yep. Emery handled the transition from Lovie to Trestman/Tucker very poorly and it's not like he wasn't forewarned either.
Tucker sans the leadership Urlacher could have provided during the changeover was a major blunder by Emery and his draft picks in no way compensated for the losses of players he inherited. The defense was breaking down due to age but he only made it worse.
Tucker and Trestman were both in over their heads as was Emery. FWIW Tucker went back to being a very successful college DC and actually coached Smith at Georgia. Tresty is back in the CFL and never should have left and Phil has been busted in rank back to being a scout which I doubt he will ever rise above again.
Man these last few years have been like an ongoing bad dream I couldn't wake up from.