Glimmers of hope (something positive from the Tribune)

I think what's become most clear to me as far as this "rebuild" goes is just how much the loss of Adam Gase has had on the progression of the offense.  For the very first time since he arrived Cutler had an OC willing to scheme and run an offense tailored to his strengths and even without his top receivers for much of the year he had a career year and nearly broke the Bears single season passing record.  With a 100% healthy AJ and Royal and also not having missed one game himself he would have.

His efficiency was up dramatically and his turn overs decreased dramatically as evidenced by his QBR.  Fox installs Loggains as his OC and quite possibly adds his own preferences and the offense sinks as it if was a lead tugboat not the improving version it was in 2015.  Cutler has often said it takes 3 years to fully install a new offense so under Gase there was an expectation that year two would show even more improvement.....then Gase is hired away which we all suspected from the start.

John Fox sold us all on this changeover this spring huffily dismissing the loss of Gase as being in anyway significant because if was "the Bears offense" not Adam Gase's.  I think what really happened their was a challenge to John Fox ego was thrown out and the more accurate statement would have been "this is my offense" and it looks like it John.  The single biggest factor behind this 2-7 record is the regression of that offense so don't tell me losing Adam Gase didn't make a difference when it's obvious it did.

I can't see much chance of Cutler returning in 2017 and for him that would probably be a blessing but far less so for us since we have no capable replacement on the roster or in the pipeline.  But it's just like the Bears to allow players who can be productive like Cutler and AJ to leave in order to try something else that seldom if ever works out even half as well.  That's why I believe this team will continue to sink to the levels of the most poorly run team in the NFL and remain there until they hire a top football exec to stop this nonsense.

So when people ask for my predictions for the future that's it.