RealGM

Marc Trestman may be an obvious choice... followed by Aaron Kromer who has turned around the OL's performance completely with 4 new starters, 2 of which are rookies. Miracle work.

But the more I think of it, I think my vote would go to Jon Hoke.

Hoke has been here since 2009. Since coming here, Tillman (who has been in the league since 2003) has been to both of his pro bowls, scored 6 of his 8 career return touchdowns, has 23 of his 39 forced fumbles and 15 of his 35 picks (that last one wasn't as eye-popping as his others... but it still prorates better over those 3 years than his other 6). Tim Jennings has come from the Colts where he was OK, and has magically become one of the best CBs in the league in the past two seasons. We went from having a black hole at safety to two reliable pro-quality starters in Wright and Conte. Is it me, or is he one of the best DB coaches in the game?

One of the reasons why I raise this also is, we have three starters who will be coming out of contract in that defensive backfield this off season along with a whole bunch of other critical players at other positions. Does Hoke make one or two of those three expendible?

Also... is the case stronger for Kromer or Trestman in your opinions for best coach on the Bears staff?

Arron Kromer

This is a great case for Trestman: http://www.chicagobears.com/multimedia/ ... 586428a15c

This guy is playing some crazy chess out there.

I have to go with Hoke too. Kromer looks like a genius with how the line is playing, but that is largely due to the talent Emery has brought in.

Phair is the only other holdover that I can think of, and his d-line isn't performing very well despite being the highest paid group of players on the team.

Hoke has shown that he can bring out the best in old veterans, veteran acquisitions and young additions. I would like to keep all three of Tillman, Wright and Jennings but I think Hike does make them expendable. I think we Tillman and Wright are the two priorities. The problem is Hoke is definitely a candidate to become a Defensive Coordinator somewhere in the league. Hopefully we can keep him.

Trestman simply because of how much of a departure he is from what we've had in the the past. After 20 years of Wannstedt/Jauron/Lovie, I'm burned out on head coaches who are former defensive coordinators and have questionable in-game decision making skills.

Flopper wrote:Trestman simply because of how much of a departure he is from what we've had in the the past. After 20 years of Wannstedt/Jauron/Lovie, I'm burned out on head coaches who are former defensive coordinators and have questionable in-game decision making skills.

Flopper... if you have a few minutes, check out that video about the reverse we ran to Alshon Jeffery. I'm sure the better offenses had been doing the same thing for years, but it is refreshing that we're finally doing this. Trestman ran a similar play but didn't have Jay handoff to Alshon just to see what the DE was coached to do. When he saw the DE was told to pinch inside and focus on the running back we ran the reverse for real for big yards. He did the same thing after the half to see what the adjustment was. To the casual fan (like me) who thought we ran the play one too many times when Jeffrey was stuck in the backfield... it was a pleasant surprise to see we ran it ANOTHER time after the DE was now instructed to get upfield to contain the WR and Michael Bush would take another handoff off tackle for 11 yards.

If Trestman is doing this with the running game... you know he's doing it with the passing game too. On running downs or on the opposite side of where a play is going, he's probably testing the coverage with different routes to see how the secondary is coached to respond so he could exploit it on subsequent plays. At the end of the day, we have a coach who isn't just squinting at the field and calling a number out of his playbook. We have a deliberate play caller who is solving for "X".

Still put me down for Hoke... but so far so good on Trestman. If we're going to be applying super-metrics to our personnel decisions and putting a lot of weight into workout numbers, having great position coaches who can teach and develop is critical.