Gabriel: Bears Are Lacking Leadership, Heart

I think new leaders and heart will be forged. Unfortunately, it will be forged from the heart of losing. It's like they skipped together any right of succession. Getting young in a hurry is one thing but a rudderless ship is another.

Hasn't taken then to a SB yet has he Bob?  Good call! 

I guess we'll see how good Luck is in two weeks when we play them.  Of course that's just one more QB who could carve us up right now so I'm not sure our defense is much of a test for anyone.

OK, let's take these two issues (Forte and Slauson) and add MartyB to it as well, Marty first.

Zach Miller is faster, more athletic, and a more dependable receiving TE than Bennett and I can add to that smarter, not as lazy, doesn't fight with his rookie teammates, more stable mentally, cheaper, less mouthy, and a whole lot less of a PIA.  Anyone disagree?

I think I can safely say we miss Marty a whole lot less than Marty THINKS we miss him.

Man, I thought we put this Sluason thing to bed long ago.  It's more complex but since it keeps coming up I guess we can have another go at but write this down this time so we don't have to do it again OK?

This only became an issue after Grasu got hurt and shelved for the year.  Prior to that Grasu would have been playing OC not Slauson and Whitehair would have replaced him at LG due to being a better fit for the blocking scheme.  At best then we have a $3.5 mil backup OC/OG whose no longer a starter.  That never works out well and there was no way to forecast Grasu's injury in April or May when Slauson was released.

I thought Larsen was always a mistake and honestly didn't even expect him to ever see the field and while it's not saying much he was a slight upgrade over Omameh and Duckass as a backup.  Ramirez was a less expensive and quality backup OC so the plan was working 'til Ramirez decides to retire (maybe he could see all this coming) and Grasu gets hurt.  No way to forecast all that back on April or May either.

So now were in a mess but magically Sitton drops in our laps.  Would we have passed on him if Slauson was here?  Highly unlikely.  So then is comes down to who'd be playing OC and still having to know all this ahead of time before we released him.  I can almost guarantee you Whitehair was gonna play somewhere this year and if Sitton was now at LG and it's Slauson still around at OC who plays, him or Whitehair?  Think about what Fox said about Whitehair's best position.

Betcha a million bucks that OL looks just like it does now and Slauson is still a $3.5 mil backup OC/OG and he would not be starting over Long either injured or not.  Anyway you slice is there was more chance that Slauson may still have been an expensive and unhappy backup than he would be a starter based on all I can see.  Tough to lead from the bench.

As for Forte that one's all on John Fox and very high on my list of why he should be fired.  I'm convinced that if Fox would have been willing to use him Pace would have re-signed him for what he got from the Jets or less and we'd have at least some semblance of an offense and a running game.  I'd love to have had a backfield of him and Howard.  That's what we've needed for year.  Forte paired with a "Beast Mode" type partner.

Anyway that's my take in this part of Gabe's essay.

Soul let me take this in pieces:

Marty vs Miller: Pass catching we'll call them equal, Marty's done more longer but Miller was hurt so I'll give you equal. Marty is the better blocker, capable of being asked to single block Chandler Jones, Miller isn't a fraction of Marty on that role. That makes Miller an overall less capable TE as he's only 1/2 of what the position calls for. I also don't agree he's faster or more athletic I think that's highly debatable. There might have been locker room issues, but none that were ever said other then the coaches didn't like him asking for more money.

Slauson: Go look at SD's OL, they are doing just fine w/Slauson starting at OC. He was the best OL on the line for this team(when Long wasn't at OG) and he was let go to pave the way for another set of draft picks to start w/out earning the job, there's the issue. Larsen and the retired dude were brought it b/c they couldn't compete w/the picks. If you don't think a set of players know who the best players are and aren't going to be effected watching them leave/lose their jobs to guys that haven't earned/don't deserve the jobs you are wrong. Sitton is a huge upgrade over Slauson no doubt, but Whitehair is a downgrade(right now) over him at OC. If Slauson was here right now, and Long was struggling like he is, there is a better then 50-50 shot they'd be looking at Whitehair or Slauson at RG.

Last year Fox let Forte know he wasn't coming back no matter what he did, hence his "put on good film" comment to him. Fox was convinced that Langford/Carey/whoever was going to be able to do the job, and he was dead wrong. I agree from everything being reported this years team was all about Fox and Pace was pushed even more off to the side, so if Fox had wanted Forte he could have had him, and he chose, poorly. Forte had a way of knowing how to get yards out of nothing, until the Def KNEW he was getting the ball.

Again if you are now happy this all went down so we can get a higher draft pick, fine, but this previous offseason no one was talking about how this team was set up to fail and get a top 5 pick. So maybe it all did work out in the end, but i'm not 100% sure that was ever the teams plan.