Chisoxfn

@ClaytonESPN says the #Bears could get Fox & Gase w/ the #49ers not hiring Gase.

Clayton indicating Bears have been meeting with Fox since about 12 Central time and that supposedly Fox has made calls to Shanny and Dennis Allen during those interviews. Expects something to get done today/tonight. Real question I have, does Fox switch back to Gase as the next OC. With SF going another direction and not hiring Gase and the Broncos focused on Kubiak and Falcons not interested, I guess the question is how was Gase and Fox's relationship. Given that Denver didn't just jump at Gase, you'd have to think Fox and Gase worked well with one another and that Fox might go with Gase over Shanny (given their previous working relationship). What a f***ing coup if true.

He is back as an outfielder.

Evidently Austin plans on bringing the Ravens LB coach, Ten Monachino with him to be the DC.

According to Mort, Austin interviewed very well yesterday. If it isn't Fox, I think it will be Austin. Some reports indicate that people think of him in a similar manner to Tomlin (I think we've already seen those comparisons here and a lot of that probably has to do with them having similar backgrounds leading up to this). Supposedly similar personalities as well.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 14, 2015 -> 01:20 PM) When you have as much talent as he has, defense is all between the ears. I think right now he just looks goofy and still looks like he is thinking about his knees a lot and being in crowded areas / traffic and as a result doesn't always take the right angle / make the right decision from a defensive perspective. He also looks like he is "coasting" way too much on defense.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jan 14, 2015 -> 11:41 AM) Considering Fran just signed an extension, your one season from being fired isn't very accurate. But their play in the second half of games for a season and a half now, has to be a concern. If they actually played well in the second half most of the time, they probably would be ranked right now. He seems to be finishing runner up for a lot of recruits. He did recruit his son who I think is a sophomore in HS. It seems laughable, but the kid is ranked high for sophomores, and might be his best recruit. Fran and his wife were both pretty good college players, so his gene pool might be good. His son is actually supposed to be really good and Fran has gotten a lot out of his players and I think has generally done a very good developing talent. The next step really is being able to get some of the bigger recruiting wins and improved point guard play, because if he can get that, I think we will see the Hawkeyes become more perennially ranked and therefor should improve. New and improved facilities help as well. I complain about some of the issues we have had closing but in general, I still think the needle is headed in the right direction, which is nice given where we were 5 years ago.

Can we figure out how to get DRose to not suck at defense. He used to be elite their (and always was underrated) and right now is as bad as it gets. I think the biggest problem of our defense is what opposing point guards have been able to do and how much it has put the rest of our defense in horrific positions.

Damn it...announce Fox already. It would be such a major step in the right direction for the Bears. We can debate whether Fox can win a superbowl in the future, the reality is he's proven that he is a competent head coach who brings stability and has demonstrated an ability to hire top assistants (look at all of his assistants that went on to be HC's) and win with some pretty average to crappy QB's (Delhomme - Tebow) and obviously look amazing with someone like Peyton. And before people say, well he only made the playoffs 3 out of 10 years in his coaching career without Peyton Manning, I'd point out to the fact that his career record with the Panthers, which included a year with Claussen as a rookie (2-14) was over .500 and included a trip to the superbowl where they were a missed field goal away from beating Beliceck. Belli's career record without Brady is about 20 games under .500. End of the day, I think it is critical to have a coach who stabilizes and can win, develop, and generally gets more out of a team than their talent level (I know people will say Denver on paper was stacked and they certainly were but Peyton Manning has a massive track record of choking in the playoffs and they still did make a superbowl in 1 out of the 3 years, which is no easy feat). The Bears have made the playoffs 7 times since 1990 where as Fox made it 7 times in the last 13 years. That is a major freaking upgrade for this franchise. We have hired a ton of sexy assistants over the past 20 years as head coaches too and Lovie was the best we got (and to be frank, that was pretty good...Fox is an upgrade over him though as he has been able to actually hire good offensive assistants). We had Jauron, we had Wanny, etc...now we are getting a proven guy at a time that the organization really needs it (and yes, I think Trestman was that bad). When we look back on the Bears franchise, I think we will look at this off-season as one which put the Bears back on the map to being one of the elite franchises in the league again. The real question to me is, can Pace do his part and get Fox the talent.

Same individual indicates that Pasqualoni may be the only assistant returning and that he will be interviewing for his job tomorrow. If Fox is the guy, I have full faith in him surrounding himself with great assistants (he seems to have done it everywhere he has been).

Dennis Allen would reportedly be his DC. I hope everything is true. I'm really excited if it is the case. With Fox you know that if you have good personnel you will have a good team so the onous now really falls on Pace to bring in good people. Fox knows what he is doing and is a good coach, but good coaches still need talent. Pace...get Fox that talent. He'll coach it up and develop it, but you need to get it.

QUOTE (scs787 @ Jan 14, 2015 -> 10:41 AM) While throwing rankings out there, you might wanna look at what he did before going to San Fran. By the way, I take the rankings to an extent with a grain of salt. To me you compare the rankings to the personell and talent and say did he get as much out of the team (or more or less) as the talent level. With Kyle, the fact that 4 of his 7 years he had top 10 offenses (Yards) and 3 of the 7 years as OC his offenses ranked top 5 in yards, with Schaub and RG III, well that is impressive. I think the Browns on paper were a complete garbage offense (and I think Hoyer is about as bad as a lot of the piles of junk that the Bears had at QB, such as Henry Burris) so I don't think anyone could have saved that unit. The #'s posted with Rex Grossman as the leading passer (and McNabb when he was done) were actually relatively impressive to me (even though general ranking may not have been good). The one question I have is context, how much of those yards were piled up because team was down, etc and why weren't those offenses able to convert the yards to points? I think the same thing on the defensive side of the ball. You evaluate coaches success while considering personnel they had to work with.

A little known fact (because of the age of this site) but Daver was one of the original Soxtalk admins.

Kyle Shannahan 2014 = Cleveland 2013 - 2010 = Washington 2008 - 2009 = Houston Pts 2014 27 (Hoyer) 2013 23 (Griffin) 2012 4 (Griffin) 2011 26 (Grossman) 2010 25 (McNabb) 2009 10 (Schaub) 2008 17 (Schaub) Yds 2014 23 (Hoyer) 2013 9 (Griffin) 2012 5 (Griffin) 2011 16 (Grossman) 2010 18 (McNabb) 2009 4 (Schaub) 2008 3 (Schaub)

Can't remember if this was posted on here or not, but Kyle Shannahan would likely be Fox's OC (Per Schefty & Others).

I wonder if Vic Fangio is an option. He's a freaking stud DC.

Rankings (Not near as good as I remembered): 2014 = Bills (DC) 2009 - 2013 = Lions (HC) 2002 - 2008 = Titans (DC) PTS 2014 4 2013 15 2012 27 2011 23 2010 19 2009 32 2008 2 2007 8 2006 31 2005 29 2004 30 2003 13 2002 11 YDs 2014 4 2013 13 2012 23 2011 8 2010 17 2009 31 2008 1 2007 16 2006 26 2005 29 2004 27 2003 4 2002 11

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jan 13, 2015 -> 08:10 PM) Blowing a 17 point lead to an 0-4 Minnesota team, even on the road. Inexcusable. Mentally weak. McCaffrey's one season away from being fired, as they're unlikely to improve much with White graduating. I am posting this anyway while breathing a huge sigh of relief. Went down by four before eventually pulling the game out. Would have been a season killer IMO. OSU (for first place) at home, at Wisconsin and at Purdue the next three. Would take 1-2 and hoping for 2-1. Iowa just goes on this insanely long stretches of playing bad basketball (after playing really good basketball for other stretches). They are consistently manic and have been so under McCaffrey each of the past two years. It is really odd and I think it largely comes down to the fact that we haven't had a good PG with McCaffrey. At least we ended up winning. Minnesota is better than the last place team in the Big and a road win is a road win.

QUOTE (dasox24 @ Jan 14, 2015 -> 08:35 AM) Absolutely. I really hated Schwartz when he was in Detroit, but I could look the other way if he was our DC. I don't want him being the leader but as long as you have a HC who controls overall discipline like Fox, than I think the combo is great. I wonder if Maronne ends up being our OC (if Fox gets hired). Otherwise he'll just be on the sidelines. Looks very unlikely that he is going to get a job (unless he ends up in Atlanta). Raiders haven't been on his radar and now with the Niners hiring Gase, Jets hiring Bowles, and the Bronco's focused on Kubiak, there really are zero places for Maronne to go. I think Fox as the HC with Maronne as the OC and someone like Schwartz as the DC would be amazing.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 14, 2015 -> 07:17 AM) Sounds like Robinson is going to aim for a buyout to sign a deal with a contender. I would take him back. We need an extra insurance policy in our back court, imo.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jan 14, 2015 -> 06:15 AM) as a head coach. His defenses are ferocious, I would love him as DC The combination of him and John Fox on defense would be fantastic.

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Jan 13, 2015 -> 03:48 PM) This does pose a much larger, critical question that I dare ANYONE to defend Rich Hahn on; why don't the Sox sign all the players? Strategy to guaranteed victory. Eventually, you'll have every player who has at least one hand to throw with and thus, rest of the league fields teams of people who have no arms and only feet to throw. Certainty of winning...99.99999999%.

QUOTE (Tex @ Jan 13, 2015 -> 02:48 PM) The Hall of Fame is a celebration of baseball and if the name is to be believed, fame. Fifty years from now do we want fans to know who MB was and what he meant to the game? Has his career been that good? That unique? There are guys in the HoF now that I don't want my great grandkids thinking was what makes baseball great. I'd rather have them see a bust of MB. But I really doubt it would ever happen. We value stats over everything else, and that is probably what should happen. But I'm certain that means the people who have really made baseball great through the years will be missed while those that gave the game a black eye will be there. I think Buehrle's argument is in how long he can be effective and it will be that uniqueness (if he can sustain it another 3-5 years) that makes him a potential candidate (especially in an era which was tainted by steroids). The question is at that point in time, how much will the entire voting be done by people who purely measure everything by the numbers. To me, there is and always will be a place for both.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Jan 13, 2015 -> 01:56 PM) Classic Phil Rogers contradictions, lol: Wtf? Lol, and his opening argument is Buerhle made 30 startas abunch of times, rofl. Also, this gem from Don Cooper: Lol, that's awkwardly precise there, Don. "Oh man, he practically only shakes off signs point six six repeating times per season." I loved Coopers quote and I love every bit of how Buehrle pitched. He is one of my all time favorite pitchers to watch for the way he did things. Maybe that is just something that stat people can't appreciate but he was awesome to watch pitch. He was and is extremely unique on the mound.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 13, 2015 -> 02:07 PM) They're requested permission for a Kubiak interview. It says "they will seek" permission. They haven't yet requested it or at least that is what John Harbaugh said earlier today. That could have changed by now.