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Um, no. We both feel like George is a bad owner of a football team but want a great football team. I think your solution of having George try to implement a much more complex structure where he decentralizes power across the organization and hires multiple people is going to be less likely to be successful than just hiring one person and getting out of the way. Pair a young GM with a veteran football mind they can lean off of? Congratulations, you have created Ryan Pace and John Fox. The Ravens set-up is possible because they had the best executive of his era. The Bears can't recreate having Ozzie newsome (though rumor is they tried)! I'm sure if the Bears installed a long-time, experienced GM with unquestioned credentials as president on top of this hire we would have all applauded George for installing Bill Polian as President. Your own scenario concludes that people have trouble disagreeing with the ultimate decisionmaker, but want a GM that can relay ideas off of a President who controls his employment. That just makes the President the new GM and the GM the assistant GM. It's just a people problem. If you get an amazing coach like Payton, he can be given personnel power and your structure of a young GM with someone to relay ideas off of works. But if you force a coach on him like John Fox, the structure is a problem. But bringing in experienced people isn't a bad thing, it's just the idea of putting a position over the GM I dislike. You could add in Scott Pioli or Bill Polian as a senior consultant and it gets you what you want. Put him above Poles and it's bad. Poles should have structural decisionmaking power over those people. Ultimately it's George's fault that he sicced Fox on Pace to start, but it's Pace's fault his inner circle was a mediocre inner circle. By accounts of those whove talked to him, Poles wants to know everything and talk to everyone. Pace thought he knew everything because he knew Drew Brees. Hopefully that works with Poles, or it leads to analysis paralysis and weak decisionmaking. We'll see.

Also weird to me is this NYG search. Starting to feel like Daboll isn’t the shoe-in it seemed. And if Schoen doesn’t hire him that’s uh…interesting.

That’s just part of building a good team though. I’m sure Chris dodds doesn’t mind disagreeing with Ballard. Pretty much all GMs are first time GMs, and very few have this president role. You talk of this role like a mentor role, but I’d someone is above them as a soundboard that’s ultimately also the lead decision maker, which defangs the position. Pace just wasn’t a very good GM. Hopefully this guy is.

How many 1 year rebuilds have the eagles done? Pace's 3 year rebuild was unnecessary, but and a reason why it fell apart so quickly.

Definitely, we'll see.

Also I'd be shocked if this guys source wasn't Ted Phillips.

so what DaBearsBlog just mentioned on a podcast was that Omar Khan wasn't interviewed for GM role, but to replace Phillips next year, so if Colbert retires and Khan isn't slated with a role he likes, he could move to Chicago. That's pretty damn interesting.

I think a lot honestly. If they didn't draft mahomes, they would basically be the 2000s Eagles. Maybe didn't win the big one, but KC promoting out its FO talent prior to 2017 (sadly to bears once). Kelce, Hill, Berry are all some of the best players in their position of the decade. They brought in Tyronn Matheau to great effect. They have had a long run of great RBs before Edwards-Helair. They also have drafted some big pass rushers in Houston, (Houston, Ford), and last super bowl withstanding, they've had some really strong Oline forever, going back to Priest Holmes days to Jamaal Charles. Under Reid, their floor is just consistently good.

lol this reminds me so much of that video from the trubisky draft where all the scouts showed him #1 on their board.

MN

There is real dialogue and give and take now. What a breath of fresh air. Please keep it going.

True, but Arians took an actual year off. If he would have retired and then signed with the bucs I'm pretty sure they'd have demanded more since that's just sidestepping a contract.

You definitely look into it, and considering his service to the Saints maybe they do him a solid. But I think he probably is looking for a break.

The Bears would still need to send draft capital to the Saints, as the bucs still did with Arians since he was under contract.

Honestly I've been Dan Quinn-pilled. Wouldn't have guessed. He definitely needs horses for his defense, but his ATL defenses were a reverse bears, where nearly all of their cap was in offense. When it had keanu neal and deion jones, it was fine, without they were awful. But with Cowboys, obviously were great. Not since dave wannstedt have we targeted a coach so universally in demand. Everyone wants Quinn. The takeaway for me - people want to work for that guy. I think his staff will be as good as rumored. Otherwise, I like don't mind Eberflus, Leftwich, Daboll. I really don't know what to make of Caldwell. I'm not sure a coach got more screwed over than him in DET, but I kinda felt that about Fox. But Kubiak went on to take that team to a superbowl, the lions were awful after he left. The players loved him. Everyone loves him. But the lions still felt like such a sloppy team. The most unlikely, greatest thing would be Ryan Day being disillusioned with the NLI stuff in college and the bears throwing $30 million at their coaching staff for a Quinn/Day combo.

Remember how the bears were smitten with Flores and were going to make him GM and trade Fields? Good times.

Not surprised, it would have been very surprising given how he could choose between either job.

Poles is a bigger wild card than I would have targeted, as I said. I think Adofo-Mensah can do great in Minny which has a much better infrastructure left to him post Spielman. But, after weeks of constant sniping about stuff that didn't happen, they didn't hire a coach first, they didn't hire a "polian" connection or colts west. It's possible now that Caldwell will be forced on this guy. But considering he had the pick of two orgs I'd be surprised. That would be a bad sign, however.

Ah, I see we've moved on to the fresh new panic. "Some in league circles" has been kicking ass as a source, I'm expecting it to continue to kill it on accuracy.

Yeah, I mean cool but sox can you just send out an effing press release on your INTL class?

I wouldn’t be shocked given the excitement around the staff rumors with Quinn if he’s able to pull a McDaniel or OConnell into OC duties, or maybe the excitement is Doug Pederson as OC.

So as resident Bears Shill, apparently, it seems things are circling around Ryan Poles - VP of Player Personnel as next GM. There are things that I like and things that disappoint me. First - I was hoping this was going to be an opportunity for Bears to bring in a strong team with experience, because their org lacks guidance. Harbaugh was very attractive there, and obviously I started wanting a Full court press for Sean Payton. Omar Khan was my numero uno. And it seems he's out. I still think it's crazy not to trust that he made it that high up, in that org. But I also cannot know much about these guys. And I have to include that he interviewed last cycle and did not get a job. He is likely to be passed over in PIT when Colbert retires, and now once again likely to be passed over in cycle. Rick Smith apparently isn't ready to jump into things, and Dodds seems like a maniac and the bears are wimps. I'm a bit shocked that Morocco Brown is not a finalist. Finalists: Monti Ossenfort is resume-interesting but I can't help but notice that despite me being uber impressed by what TN has been doing - that since he's been there their drafts and pro acquisitions haven't been anything to write home about. The Tannehill resurgence was before he arrived, as well as Henry draft. Last year they drafted Isaiah Wilson despite character concerns and he character concerned his way out. Then Caleb Fairly this year despite injury concerns and well, he's injured. Elliot Wolf was passed over in GB despite being an heir apparent, was part of the Dorsey years in CLE that were tumultuous and stunted a rising team, and then had an inspired run in NE. His background is incredible, but ...that Cleveland Tenure. The Packers passed over him. The NFL is often stupid, but I don't know. Now, I do think he's a person that can define the franchise and get away from the bumblingness of the mccaskeys. He's a strong NFL brand in that respect. And lastly poles. I had some heuristics for NFL GM after Pace. I wanted someone who had been in multiple orgs, held multiple positions, and their success could be isolated outside of just a great coach or QB. So he's none of that. He's also young, and it scares me that he wowed the mccaskeys in an interview because they are idiots. BUT - he's been a finalist now for every job he's interviewed for. He's apparently also a favorite in MN, and I admire that franchise a lot. His recommendations must be sterling. Brad Spielberger (PFF) did a podcast in december on likely GM candidates and listed Poles as his favorite because when he met him he was genuinely curious asking questions. He was hired up through 4 GMs in KC. He DID run multiple roles, handling scouting and now on both pro and contracts. His curiosity is good and sounds like someone who wants to bring the smartest people in the room together including analytics. But he is a huge wild card. The pros of Dodds and M Brown are coming from Ballard where they have not been amazing but ran with strong discipline as a front office in terms of managing assets - which is key to me to be a sustained winner. What can we really tell from KC there? I don't really know the KC front office philosophy. I do know that for more than a decade they have been incredible drafters. Pre-Reid they seemed loaded with talent but poorly coached and quarterbacked. They've propelled multiple personnel to front offices. They have drafted loud athletes. But they have had Reid to develop them, especially the ones with character concerns that they've been burned less harshly than you'd expect. They don't hoard picks, they don't put themselves in terrible cap situations like the Saints. They've been very well balanced. That's good...but it also means I have no idea what this guy will do. That's a scary proposition.

Well one thing here - the assumption that an offensive head coach will consistently maintain a good offense. You should find a defensive guy that isn’t bored by dealing with the other side of the ball and have some point of view, and vice versa. And my main thing is what part of a wave are we at with offensive coaches? Guys are getting picked over with a year of success - whereas guys like Shanahan were able to develop for years before honing it in. But as for OCs Obviously Caldwell would be a slam dunk, and pains me to say it but Darrell Bevell would be a good choice for Fields. Kevin OConnel could be lured with PC duties. Honestly Dan Mullen would be intriguing to me. I still like Joe Brady. The offensive personnel in Carolina was ass and didn’t get better after he left. They just seemed like a poisonous culture. I do want Pep Hamilton somewhere on staff. But ultimately I don’t know these guys. I think stefanskis offense would work really well for Fields. But I want a staff that organizes around what’s good for him.

I’m just happy there is progress. The game will survive all these dudes.

I guess I just think this argument loses steam with me when you look at buffalo and that’s a defensive head coach, and then McVay just had to trade for an established vet. Shanahan bristling at dealing with Lance. The one problem is Eberflus defense get a lot of takeaways but they scheme doesn’t seem amazing at confusing great QBs who take what it gives them and can execute easily