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       #Post#: 112833--------------------------------------------------
       Re: 2013 Chicago Bears
   DIR By: vj
       Date: January 9, 2013, 9:44 am
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       Heard a nice endorsement from a Houston beat writer regarding
       Rick Dennison.  Check out his <a
       href="
  HTML http://www.houstontexans.com/team/coaches/rick-dennison/b0bcf564-4b97-4f02-8136-c892f704d5ba">bio</a>.
       He's played linebacker for those Elway Super Bowl...uh losing...
       teams, but hey there are players out there who would kill for
       the opportunity on the grand stage.
       He coached special teams for the Super Bowl winning teams under
       Shanny.
       He coached the offensive line and later became OC after Kubiak
       left for 8 years and Denver's reputation at the O-line has been
       solid.
       And he's done a good job overall working under Kubiak in
       Houston.
       Pretty well rounded experience in the NFL
       #Post#: 112835--------------------------------------------------
       Re: 2013 Chicago Bears
   DIR By: yapper
       Date: January 9, 2013, 9:57 am
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       That is a good breadth of experience.
       Sounds like about the only thing Dennison lacks to be a HC, is
       actually having done it.
       I still think McCoy and Arians are the front runners though and
       here's how I break them out.
       - With McCoy, I along with everyone else love his ability to
       adapt to personnel.  If we hired McCoy we could be confident our
       entire offense won't break down if (or more likely, when) Cutler
       goes down again next year.  His youth would bring new energy and
       a fresh perspective to a team that is long overdue for a
       cultural makeover, and would position us well for the younger
       skew our roster will be taking over the next few seasons.  If we
       hired McCoy I would expect our offense to look dramatically
       different than anything most of us have ever seen from a Bears
       team and may not have thought was even possible.
       - With Arians, I like the fact that he had great success with a
       QB much like Cutler (Big Ben), playing in similar conditions as
       the Bears (outdoors, cold weather, sh*tty field).  I also like
       the HC ability he showed under duress (and with little prior
       warning) this season at Indy, and the fact that his offenses and
       his OLs in particular tend to overperform their talent level
       (the Baltimore game last week notwithstanding). His offenses
       tend to be more than the sum of their parts and are
       fundamentally sound and disciplined even if not always the most
       creative or exciting to watch.  If we hired Arians I would
       expect our offense to look pretty much like most of us associate
       with Bears offenses (run to set up the pass, ball control
       emphasis, occasional shots down the field, limited formations
       and motion)...  only executed much, much better.
       Specifically with regard to those two guys and Cutler.  The
       impression I get is that as a player and a person, Cutler needs
       to respect the guy he's working for and I believe a lot of that
       comes with age.  Jeremy Bates, his supposed QB Coach, is only a
       few years older than he is and the results of their
       collaboration so far in Chicago have been mixed at best.  Cutler
       was clearly a better and more successful player in Denver under
       the alpha-dog coaching personality of an older Mike Shanahan
       than he has ever been under Lovie/Martz/Tice.  Arians -- with
       his age, experience and record of success -- would IMO
       immediately command Cutler's respect whereas Cutler would view
       McCoy more as a collaborator.  The bottom line being that McCoy
       would probably be able to come up with the most successful
       SYSTEM for Cutler, whereas Arians would have the best chance of
       making Cutler a fundamentally better player.
       I don't see any huge negatives with either McCoy or Arians...
       just different sets of strengths.
       #Post#: 112840--------------------------------------------------
       Re: 2013 Chicago Bears
   DIR By: navigator
       Date: January 9, 2013, 10:50 am
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       what do you guys think of the zone blocking scheme(ZBS)?
       Seems like we had a guy here one time that did that and no one
       liked it, maybe our guys weren't great fits.
       It would seem that the ZBS would match more to nimble pass
       protectors than huge maulers which would seem to be a better fit
       against a lot of pass rushers.
       I know not all RB's like the ZBS and defenders hate it.
       #Post#: 112841--------------------------------------------------
       Re: 2013 Chicago Bears
   DIR By: yapper
       Date: January 9, 2013, 11:01 am
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       I get the feeling that the ZBS is where we're headed with our
       new HC and/or OC.
       Dennison is a big advocate of it and so is McCoy IIRC and I
       think Arians may have employed it in Pittsburgh as well.
       The problem with the ZBS is that to really make it work you need
       O-Linemen that are both athletic and intelligent. Those guys are
       hard to come by and even more so on our current roster.  If we
       bring in a ZBS you can say goodbye to Webb and Carimi and
       probably Garza because they simply don't have the needed
       agility.  OTOH Lance Louis (if he comes back 100%), Jonathan
       Scott and possibly Chris Spencer would probably plug in pretty
       well to a ZBS offense.
       This is going to be a critical decision and one our new HC must
       commit to right out of the gate because it will absolutely
       affect which players we target in the draft and FA.  Lots of
       people think a ZBS just means you use undersized O-Lineman.
       That's only true if they fit the profile in the other aspects as
       well.  Otherwise you just have a small OL that can't play.  If
       you try and run a ZBS without the right players it can be a
       disaster. You also need a RB who is comfortable and "natural"
       working within that scheme and I have no idea where Forte would
       land on that dimension.
       If we really wanted to get maximum leverage out of a ZBS we
       would also install FieldTurf at Soldiers.  Zone schemes tend to
       get blown up against bigger D-Lines when the footing isn't good.
       The reason defenses hate playing against ZBS teams is because
       zone blocking often does a much better job than "man" schemes of
       disguising where double-teams are coming from, and also because
       certain ZBS teams (the Terrell Davis era Broncos for example)
       became notorious for the frequent use of cut blocks and hi-low
       double teams.
  HTML http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zone_blocking
       #Post#: 112849--------------------------------------------------
       Re: 2013 Chicago Bears
   DIR By: navigator
       Date: January 9, 2013, 11:39 am
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       I think our fields late in the year wouldn't do well for a ZBS.
       I don't think those guys are usually real good at grinding out
       short yardage situations either.
       #Post#: 112851--------------------------------------------------
       Re: 2013 Chicago Bears
   DIR By: yapper
       Date: January 9, 2013, 11:45 am
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       If anyone is interested, here is the Bears' early season
       starting OL lineup, compared to that of the Texans (ZBS)
       Bears                                  Texans
       LT - J'Marcus Webb 6'7 333        LT - Duane Brown 6'4 320
       LG - Chris Spencer 6'3 309        LG - Wade Smith 6'4 307
       C - Roberto Garza 6'3 310          C - Chris Myers 6'4 290
       RG - Lance Louis 6'3 320           RG - Ben Jones 6'3 303
       RT - Gabe Carimi 6'7 316           RT - Derek Newton 6'5 318
       #Post#: 112877--------------------------------------------------
       Re: 2013 Chicago Bears
   DIR By: davebear
       Date: January 9, 2013, 1:52 pm
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       So the Chargers hired the Indy personnel guy as their GM.  Maybe
       that gives them the first shot at Arians.
       Yapper, I have to disagree with your assessment of our OL
       athleticism.  I see it as athleticism is all they have ....not
       the ability to block.
       Last year and less this year we ran a lot of plays where the OL
       had to pull, both guards and tackles.  We were pretty successful
       on those plays largely because our OL had some agility.  A lot
       of that was with Chris Williams at LG though, and that was the
       only thing I though he did well.
       If you could watch the last Green Bay game from last year you
       would see what I mean.
       #Post#: 112895--------------------------------------------------
       Re: 2013 Chicago Bears
   DIR By: dallasbear
       Date: January 9, 2013, 2:25 pm
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       Lance Louis was practically pulling every play this year.  And
       the Chris Williams cut was a bad move.
       And I saw that Corey Graham is the starting nickel back for the
       Ravens...he had 60 tackles for them this year!
       #Post#: 112898--------------------------------------------------
       Re: 2013 Chicago Bears
   DIR By: yapper
       Date: January 9, 2013, 2:29 pm
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       And I saw that Corey Graham is the starting nickel back for the
       Ravens...he had 60 tackles for them this year!
       That doesn't surprise me.  I was saying for years that Corey
       Graham should be getting snaps on our defense and not just STs.
       The guy is smooth, has good ball skills and can move.
       Lovie was not good at talent evaluation.  Not good at all.  A
       big reason the Ravens are in the postseason and we're not.
       #Post#: 112901--------------------------------------------------
       Re: 2013 Chicago Bears
   DIR By: dallasbear
       Date: January 9, 2013, 2:41 pm
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       Remember when DJ Moore was hurt in 2011 and Corey Graham had to
       sub in for him.  He had an interception in 3 straight games.
       And he was a pro bowl quality special teamer.
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