Foxie better bring his A game

[DaSuperfan]

What did Cutler, Bennett and Marshall even bring us? To me, if Glennon can just stay on the field - something that our QB's rarely did last season - feed the beast, play action passes, play solid defense.....we should win at least 6-7 games. That won't be enough to save Foxie's job but it could buy some time for Pace - especially if his 2017 draft picks show some promise.

[Mr.Irrelevant]

As I see it, we really haven't done much to improve our team in free agency. I have more hope than most for Mike Glennon, but there's nothing there right now that says he's better than Cutler. We've also lost Alshon and replaced him with almost nothing. Cooper and Demps look like upgrades, but nothing that's going to make us a top 5 defense.

I disagree with this sentiment.

First of all I don't really think we were as bad as 3-13 would indicate, the problem was mostly injuries. But that said we have replaced 3 of 4 starting DB's - which I think most people would agree was our biggest weakness. That also helps our depth as last years starters become backups.

As far as Alshon goes, while neither Wheaton nor Wright are as good as he is they both are probably better fits in the offense that Loggains wants to run. Alshon won with size, body control, and great hands; but he was slow and not a good route runner. Loggains wants his guys to be at the right place at the right time.

Finally, I also have hope for Glennon. Not that he can become Tom Brady, but if he can turn into an Alex Smith type game manager it will be a huge improvement.

[BamaBear09]

IF Glennon can simply avoid costly turnovers, we are capable of hitting 8-8.

He can avoid costly errors by taking a knee on every play and the Bears will not win 8 games. You have to get out of bed in the morning. QBs have to throw TD passes.

Cutler and Barkley are gone. Hopefully our nightmares of pick6s on every pass attempt will gradually cease and those memories will gradually fade away and we will remember that a QB's primary mission is not avoiding turnovers, and it's not even ball control. Losing is worse than an interception, and winning is better than a completion. Judgement.

Can Glennon kneel, he seems rather ungainly.

Glennon has shown the ability to make throws. And Fox knows how to win when his QB doesn't turn the ball over. I believe the offensive production will be there and as long as we don't make stupid mistakes, we'll bat .500. With any kind of luck, we'll actually have some balls tip our way or the other team make the back breaking mistake and then 10-6 and playoffs are right there.

Basically this team was 25 points separated from a 9 win season... and that was with pretty much complete ineptitude at the QB position for most of the year, they go out and find a guy who has shown flashes of ability and has a reputation as a leader.

They had a young defense that played well at times but had major issues in the secondary... so they go out and upgrade the secondary or at least bring in some good competition for the area, find guys that truly fit the system and one in particular that was drafted specifically by the DB coach and DC on a previous team.

Now we don't know how the draft will go, it's over a month away and there are many more interviews and workouts for them to go through and process, but if Pace has a good weekend like he did last year and the players they brought in integrate into the system, I wouldn't be surprised to see this team hit double digit in wins...

[Bad Flanders]

Alshon was a blow but this offense is being built to run, the best players are linemen (on both sides of the ball actually) followed by the RB's and LB's, and that's the direction they are going for better or worse... better to lose Alshon than Sitton, Whitehair, Long, Goldman, or Hicks... that's where the team is now. Just keep building out from there in the draft.

Fox isn't a great game coach but he's great at finding good coordinators/coaches/assistants and letting them do their thing, hopefully his legacy is to get the team rebuilt with solid core and to leave it in the hands of the next Gase.

Pace is cheap in free agency and unwilling to overpay for hype or to offer long term deals for mediocre stop gaps, he finds his talent in the draft. That's a good system.

Just give it time.

[Mikefive]

I keep hearing statements similar "this offense was built to run". I agree with and would like to see more of that. But will Loggains actually do that? We don't have much evidence that he will.

What worries me about our offense is the three headed spear... lack of WR talent, the immobility of Glennon and the mediocrity of our OTs. That's not a good combo. If I were defending against the Bears, I'd put 8 in the box to stop Howard and send guys off the edge often when Glennon drops back.

[Middleguard]

I've heard that Glennon can drop back quickly and that his 7-step drop puts him into a different county. With real speed on the outside, a few long strikes as Glennon gets nailed might bust up the water cooler gang.

[Bad Flanders]

I agree with you Mikefive about Glennon, the prospect of relying on him with the run game stalled is unknown to say the best and we all know what it'll be like at it's worst. But I don't know that it's any worse off than we would've been with Jay in there in the same spot, and Glennon will hopefully be more durable than that when he does get hit. Like I said, Alshon leaving is a kick in the balls but he obviously didn't want to be here and I don't know that there were any FA WR's that could've replaced him in that safety valve sort of function. I guess there were options at tackle they could've paid for in free agency but I'm willing to give Pace the benefit of the doubt still, if the right deal wasn't there it wasn't there.

I still say the team is better now than it was when Pace got here, he did effectively replace Forte, both lines are better, LB's are better, DB's and TE's aren't worse, QB and WR are probably the biggest losses since he's been here BUT, for all the talent, there wasn't much actually consistent production at either of those spots either. It just wasn't working. At least now it won't work a little more cheaply!

As for running, I don't know that you need to rack up 2000 yards on the ground to make it work, I think you NEED to convince the D to get 8 in the box, like you said, and then have a qb who won't throw picks, Loggins does seem to be able to make up chunks of yards in between the 20's regardless of qb, and then you run it in the red zone. Not exciting, and without SOME sort of passing game it won't score TD's but it's better than nothing.