Anyone Recall THIS Many Question Marks Going Into a Season?

[BaBaBlacksheep]

I'm sad... Bears are going to suck this year. Message board posters told me we suck.

 

[Tjodalv]

I'm sad... Bears are going to suck this year. Message board posters told me we suck.

Who is this "we" you speak of‽ Maybe you fucking suck, eh? One thing's for sure though, epic blogging kicks ass!

 

[NCChiFan]

I'm guessing the OP doesn't recall the late 60's or the entire decade of the 70's, much of the 90's...

 

[RacerX]

I would also add LB.

At this point, I'm concerned that Briggs is past his prime. He looked slow and fat in pre-season and I'm sure BBQ isn't helping. Also, add to that, there are 3 LBs on this team and we simply aren't sure can be NFL LB (Bostic, Greene, Shea) - one of them a mid/late first round pick.

It's one thing to look at a team and know they suck, but quite another to look with a big old headshake. That's the 2014/15 Bears.

My approach: acknowledge we have 2nd-stringers/depth that are masquerading as starters at both LB and Safety, know they will get torched, badly, but that the O will get us 8 or 9 wins. Enjoy the season and don't become despondent when the D is horrific, and wait another year or two to see if Phil can restock the D.

 

[WCL]

Seriously, tell me why I (or anyone for that matter) bothers with this site. Is it a bar stool type discussion of sports? Every bit I just brought up was discussed by Matt Bowen today - one of the most astute football analysts on the planet.

Nope. It's a tard marathon of who can post the most gifs.

Why not just call it 'cool gifs' or something and everyone can just post gifs all day long. You could even start polls of 'bro with the coolest gif post of the day'.

That would inspire another cool gif...and it will go on from there.

 

[Zoot Allures]

I do recall this many holes going into a season.

 

[Bearin' Down]

Ok, so we had last year's offensive line and, pre B Marsh and Alshon, the WR corps every year, but frankly, I don't recall a season with THIS many questions marks 6 days away from the opener. Let's play:

- Long Snapper - yes, Mannelly was a staple for 100 years, but think about it. The long snapper was signed on Saturday. After he'd been cut by the Bears already and Tampa. The guy they thought was the guy was released 8 days before the opener. With a new holder, I can see this being a problem. Robbie Gould hasn't looked great in pre-season. Having a new snapper and new holder could be the difference between a successful game tying/game winning field goal. I predict a game in which that will translate to a Bears loss.

- KR/PR - the Bears did not have a PR until a few days ago. A guy who was on the couch now has that job based on one - one - decent return against one of the doormats of the NFL. That's a major concern. The Bears brought in and tried a number of guys. None of them won the job (save for Holmes). At this point, I'm hoping for fair catches and that's all. Same for KR. A guy who very few thought would even make the 53 is now the #1 return man.

- ST - a mess all over. Yes, ST sucked last year. 8 of the 11 players are gone. Normally I'd think that's a good thing. I think they replaced shit with worse shit. Eric Weems sucked as a return man, but was quite good on coverage. As was Sherrick McManus (will see less ST time). Constanzo was decent. Jerry Franklin is gone. I simply don't feel great about this unit. Why should I?

- TE - Zach Miller going down hurt. Yes, he had one game, but it was a great one. Rosario is a guy. Mulligan is a nobody. I see two guys who are backups. Not guys who can run two TE sets.

- Safety - ah, safety. They chose not to address that clear need until the 4th round. Vereen had an opportunity to shine and apparently he didn't. One of the best ever (Wilson) was brought in but he doesn't have anything left. Mundy is a guy. Just a guy. Danny McCray was brought in as a core ST guy and is now listed as the starter. Conte was the guy everyone on Earth wanted gone and unfortunately, may be the best option at his position.

I won't say backup QB because most backup QBs suck. Claussen has started games and has some experience and seems to have command of the offense. I'm ok with him.

These bits make me very nervous are most likely the reason we are looking an 8-8 team in a difficult division and VERY tough NFC.

The majority of your questions are focused on special teams. I mean, not to downplay special teams, but I think you're vastly overrating their importance. Yes, they are important, but, if most of your question marks lie on your special teams unit, than your team is probably pretty good.

TE is the same unit as before. I'm not sure why this is a question mark. If Martellus Bennett goes down, we probably use the TE as more of a blocker and start running more 4 or 5 WR sets. We will, eventually, have Jeffery, Marshall, Holmes, Morgan, and Wilson. Dante Rosario can make some catches. While MB would be a big loss, it wouldn't be the end of the world.


Safety was a question last year. It remains a question. However, if we can get consistent pressure we shouldn't have to rely on that position as much. We have very good corner backs who can take some pressure off the d-line.

Linebacker, while not specifically addressed here, is also a question mark. Shea McClellin and Jon Bostic have all the tools to be incredibly talented LBers. Will they put it together, IDK. Having said that DJ Williams is probably an average NFL caliber LB, and if Briggs can be above average I don't think this becomes that big of an issue.

Nearly every year, there have been FAR more issues than there are this year. Take last year:

Jay Cutler - Can he focus on anyone other than BMarsh?
WR - Do the Bears have anyone but BMarsh?
O-line - How will they play together?
Defense - Are they getting too old?
Drafting - Does Phil know what he's doing?
Coaching Staff - Are they capable?

Those were fundamental core issues. You've point at Special Teams generally, and specifically to KR and LS, and said there are more questions than in years past. That's simply incorrect, and kind of dramatic. It seems like you are making mountains out of mole hills.

The biggest question is can the defense be respectable? If they can play the run well enough, and get enough pressure on the QB they will be a force.

 

[da_bears6]

I do recall this many holes going into a season.

No didn't you read the OP. Never before has there been this many questions going into a season of Chicago Bears football.

I'm afraid if they have a really bad year this might be the last year of Chicago Bears football and the McCaskey's might just close up shop and call it quits. I don't know if I could handle that.

 

[gwharris2254]

I think he really meant two out of three PHASES have big question marks......In the past it was just ONE......OFFENSE

 

[HeHateMe]

I recall many seasons where we didn't even care about question marks because the roster was so fucked. It's good to have question marks. Now we can talk about firing the GM before the season gets started because he did such a good job of getting our hopes up.

 

[number51]

I think he really meant two out of three PHASES have big question marks......In the past it was just ONE......OFFENSE

That could be what he meant. Are you his PR guy? If so, next time have your client just say that. Recalling this many question marks? This guy must be 5 years old.

If ST was really 1/3 of the game Lovie's teams would all have gone 11-5 every season.

And a bonus GIF for the OP.

 

[legendxofxlink]

Ok, so we had last year's offensive line and, pre B Marsh and Alshon, the WR corps every year, but frankly, I don't recall a season with THIS many questions marks 6 days away from the opener. Let's play:

- Long Snapper - yes, Mannelly was a staple for 100 years, but think about it. The long snapper was signed on Saturday. After he'd been cut by the Bears already and Tampa. The guy they thought was the guy was released 8 days before the opener. With a new holder, I can see this being a problem. Robbie Gould hasn't looked great in pre-season. Having a new snapper and new holder could be the difference between a successful game tying/game winning field goal. I predict a game in which that will translate to a Bears loss.

- KR/PR - the Bears did not have a PR until a few days ago. A guy who was on the couch now has that job based on one - one - decent return against one of the doormats of the NFL. That's a major concern. The Bears brought in and tried a number of guys. None of them won the job (save for Holmes). At this point, I'm hoping for fair catches and that's all. Same for KR. A guy who very few thought would even make the 53 is now the #1 return man.

- ST - a mess all over. Yes, ST sucked last year. 8 of the 11 players are gone. Normally I'd think that's a good thing. I think they replaced shit with worse shit. Eric Weems sucked as a return man, but was quite good on coverage. As was Sherrick McManus (will see less ST time). Constanzo was decent. Jerry Franklin is gone. I simply don't feel great about this unit. Why should I?

- TE - Zach Miller going down hurt. Yes, he had one game, but it was a great one. Rosario is a guy. Mulligan is a nobody. I see two guys who are backups. Not guys who can run two TE sets.

- Safety - ah, safety. They chose not to address that clear need until the 4th round. Vereen had an opportunity to shine and apparently he didn't. One of the best ever (Wilson) was brought in but he doesn't have anything left. Mundy is a guy. Just a guy. Danny McCray was brought in as a core ST guy and is now listed as the starter. Conte was the guy everyone on Earth wanted gone and unfortunately, may be the best option at his position.

I won't say backup QB because most backup QBs suck. Claussen has started games and has some experience and seems to have command of the offense. I'm ok with him.

These bits make me very nervous are most likely the reason we are looking an 8-8 team in a difficult division and VERY tough NFC.

4 of your 5 points of emphasis are about backup players... yes ST players are usually backup players. You're going to get suicide gif's when you sound like you need a hotline.

I remember going into a couple seasons where i knew Urlacher and Briggs were going to be killer, everyone else was a question mark. I remember starting rookie safeties several years in a row... I was there when Craig Krenzel won a game off a safety A SAFETY! in OT at Nashville.

Chill. Let them play

 

[AHSIllini32]

Seriously, tell me why I (or anyone for that matter) bothers with this site. Is it a bar stool type discussion of sports? Every bit I just brought up was discussed by Matt Bowen today - one of the most astute football analysts on the planet.

Nope. It's a tard marathon of who can post the most gifs.

Why not just call it 'cool gifs' or something and everyone can just post gifs all day long. You could even start polls of 'bro with the coolest gif post of the day'.

That would inspire another cool gif...and it will go on from there.

So then all you did was rip off what Bowen said earlier and act like you thought it up in some grand enlightening as to why we should all lose our shit worrying over this season?

 

[waitingforoffense]

I agree with AHSIllini32. If the site doesn't want gifs it can exclude them down the line. Mostly I am here to get the perspective of other Bears fans. I live in Arizona and thus have to depend on online material. We know the Chicago Tribune is in trouble when they cannot muster up sufficient advertising dollars to cover the articles by very ordinary writers. Just as good of stuff right here from the fans.

 

[Menchifus]

"Anyone Recall THIS Many Question Marks Going Into a Season?"

When exactly did you start following the Bears? Okay, how about this, I'll stay recent. Remember these guys? Kellen Davis as our starting TE. Devin Hester, Roy Williams, Rashied Davis as our starting WRs. BF51's boy Webb. Carimi, Williams. Going a bit further, how about Cedric Benson?

Or lets go into the coaching staff. Mike Tice, Mike Martz, Ron Turner, Babich.

You wanna go into backups? How about these guys? Chester Taylor, Josh McCown (before he became the greatest QB of all time). Come to think of it, did we even have good backups at LB during the Urlacher/Briggs/Roach era? Costanzo?

Of course there have been this many question marks before this season. In fact, there were many years with more question marks. You just chose to ignore them and be sensationalist in your posting.

2 more names: Jason Campbell, Kordell Stewart. There are many more but if you don't get the point by now, you'll never get the point.

 

[Foul Phil]

Or lets go into the coaching staff. Mike Tice, Mike Martz, Ron Turner, Babich.

Adding John Shoop.

 

[waitingforoffense]

Menchifus and Foul Phil. Good points and thanks for reminding us of the days of little hope.

 

[HeHateMe]

Menchifus and Foul Phil. Good points and thanks for reminding us of the days of little hope.

thanks for nothing...

 

[MacBear]

For those of you concerned with the quality of football discussion on this forum: understand that starting a thread with a premise this dumb doesnt really help.

 

[Don't Care]

My approach: acknowledge we have 2nd-stringers/depth that are masquerading as starters at both LB and Safety, know they will get torched, badly, but that the O will get us 8 or 9 wins. Enjoy the season and don't become despondent when the D is horrific, and wait another year or two to see if Phil can restock the D.

The D will be restocked just in time for Cutler and Marshall to retire. In the meantime, I'm sure fans will call for Emery/Trestman's heads, and the process will start all over.