With another meaningless free agency period quickly passing the Chicago Bears by, and more holes to fill than can be addressed in the draft, many members of our great blog have repeatedly expressed their discontent with the folks running our beloved franchise. Occasionally, a few of you will speak up, and try whole-heartedly to be optimistic about the current state of affairs at Halas Hall. Unfortunately, most of the time, you are drowned out by the shouts of much larger numbers.
Are the Chicago Bears in need of a complete overhaul? If we were to break out our team into three parts... players, coaches, and management... how would each piece look individually?
From a player perspective, we have many talented young players, with the potential to make an impact for many years to come. We have great veteran leadership as well that still have a few good years left in them. True, we have some holes to fill... but doesn't every team? Are we worse off than the rest of the league? I think the Bears are probably middle of the road when it comes to our roster.
From a coaching perspective... how do we look? We have a talented Head Coach, who has been given more responsibility with the defense. We brought in one of the best DLine specialists in football with Rod Marinelli. Our special teams have been one of the best in the league for several years, but offensively... well, not so much. Shouts of "Fire Ron Turner!" will undoubtedly commense once the season gets underway... and who knows how much Bob Babich will actually do? Compared to the rest of the league, I'd say the Bears coaching staff is probably average.
And the third piece of the pie... management. Outside of a few obvious names around the league (Parcells, Millen, Smith, Shannahan, Jones), most people are not that familiar with the executives that make business and personnel decisions for their football teams. But I do know one thing: most of us are very familiar both with the history of our management, and the current staff. A lot of criticism gets thrown in the direction of McCaskey, Phillips, and Angelo. But is it warranted? How would our executives compare with the rest of the league?
We have another draft upcoming in which there will need to be some great decisions made for a lot of Bears fans to be able to sit comfortably this season... I know I am very restless... and am not sure what we should do to try and return this franchise back to glory. Is it rebuilding our roster? Starting over in the coaching ranks? Hiring new management to make decisions? All of these things would take years to accomplish...
Something absolutely needs to be done, lest we continue to exist in the "middle ground" of the NFL. I just can't think that something won't be done somewhere if we have another 9-7 season. Then again... as many of you have said over and over... "This is the Bears we are talking about."