2013 Chicago Bears Review

[ChitownGetEm23]

What an up and down season it was for the Chicago Bears. You had a quarterback controversy, horrible defense, the emergence of Alshon Jeffrey, and the beginning of the Trestman era. Let’s talk about the defense first or should I say the piss poor excuse Chicago has for a defense. This season was full of missed tackles, blown assignments, players out of position, injuries, the lack of fumbles forced or recovered fumbles, and terrible secondary play. The Bears were dead last in the NFL in regards to sacking the opposing quarterback and that’s unacceptable. Julius Peppers is being paid $15 million this year and lead the team with a measly 7.5 sacks and that doesn’t translate to a $15 million dollar player to me. Then you have Charles Tillman, who we probably have seen the last of in a Bears uniform, who played well to begin the season, then disappeared, and finished it off with a season ending injury. Tim Jennings played like a shell of himself this year and disappeared for several weeks until coming up with the interception against the Packers. Chris Conte was a highlight tape of how not to play the safety position as he missed open field tackles, blew coverage consistently, and simply was the weakest link on a vanilla Chicago Bears defense. Jonathan Bostic showed signs of hope with pretty consistent play for the most part but he lacks the ability to cover down field early in his career. That will be something Bostic needs to work on as Urlacher was brilliant when it came to covering TE’s and RB’s out of the back field. James Anderson was a ghost this year barely making an impact at all with his play. I highly doubt the Bears will bring Tillman back next year and may not bring Tim Jennings back as both are slated to become unrestricted free agents. Devin Hester also becomes a free agent and the Bears will need to re-visit the need of a 30 year old punt/kick return man. Granted he is the greatest return man in NFL history, but he has declined over the past 4 years and may not be the first priority for the Bears. It would be sad to see Devin go, as he said he wanted to retire as a Bear, but business is business and the Bears may go younger.
Looking to next year the Bears have made it pretty clear they will go back after Jay Cutler, and say what you want I believe Jay is the future of this team. Jay Cutler didn’t play like a top tier QB but he also didn’t play horribly either. He has a synergy built with Marshall, Jeffrey, and Bennett that will only get better with time. The offense flourished under Trestman this year and helped the emergence of Alshon Jeffrey and Martellus Bennett. There were a few occasions this year that Trestman made bad calls. The draw play on the 2 point conversion against the Lions, the 2nd down field goal against the Vikings, and the miss-use of the run game at times was shocking. Granted this was Trestman’s first year with the Bears so they can only improve from here but if this year’s offense is a foreshadowing of things to come we should all be excited.
The question on everyone’s mind is will the Bears resign Jay Cutler? My guess is yes they will as he is the best available option going into next year. They won’t be able to draft a good QB with the 14th overall pick and really should draft defensive players. The best case scenario is the Bears resign Cutler and McCown and go into the offseason with two possible starters; any NFL team would love to have that problem. Cutler may not have put up godly numbers, but he improved this year. He is more comfortable in this offense and the offensive line has proven to be able to give any Bears QB time in the pocket. Either way you look at it Chicago fans should be happy with Cutler or McCown as our QB in 2014.
Alshon Jeffrey easily had the most improved and impressive season out of all the Bears players. His 89 receptions, 1421 receiving yards, and 7 touchdowns came as a huge improvement from his injury riddled rookie season. He went to Florida in the off-season and worked with Brandon Marshall on route running and field awareness. It obviously worked as he now holds the Bears record for receiving yards in a game with 249 yards. Jeffrey being paired up with Marshall and Martellus Bennett will keep this Bears offense dangerous for years to come as long as the core of the offense stays together.
One this is for sure this was a disappointing season with a disappointing ending. There were a few silver linings in the stormy clouds that are the Chicago Bears, but that doesn’t make the ending to the season any better. The defense needs to be addressed in the off-season along with the special team’s players. The Bears should also think about bringing in a good LB coach and a better secondary coach to up train the god awful play that was the 2013 Chicago Bears defense. See you all next year and remember first and for most Bear Down….DAAAA BEARS!

[blumeany]

Things I'd like to see:

1. Trestman: Less head-scratching calls. More accountability and focus on defense and special teams. Otherwise, I think he and the offensive staff have done a great job.

2. Defense: I could go either way with Tucker, honestly. This league is all about talent and a good defense is all about talent in that front 7. You can say what you will about the safeties (they do suck), but honestly with a great front 7 you rarely have to worry about the DBs. This year's defense was all about a lack of talent. Getting old, getting injured, incapable backups, it just kind of cascaded into the worst defense in team history. It's all about talent though. With Lovie Smith, you saw a defense that would range anywhere from mid-20's to #3 overall. Each year it had to do with the talent on the defenses. The difference between good and bad personnel moves, good and bad health, etc. So either way they go, the important thing is to rebuild the defense with good talent. The rest will take care of itself. Coaching is important, but even great coaches can't overcompensate for bad players.

3. Special Teams - I think it's time to let go of Hester, or see if he's willing to renegotiate. He's clearly not as valuable as he once was. I think Father Time and rule changes have negated his full-time explosive ability. Podlesh need to be tested, once again, against more competition. He's had a tendency to flake out when we need him most.

All in all, 8-8 says it all. It was an average year. Some brilliant highs on offense, some horrible lows on defense. I look forward to seeing what Emery can do this offseason.

[bearadonisdna]

Things I'd like to see:

1. Trestman: Less head-scratching calls. More accountability and focus on defense and special teams. Otherwise, I think he and the offensive staff have done a great job.

2. Defense: I could go either way with Tucker, honestly. This league is all about talent and a good defense is all about talent in that front 7. You can say what you will about the safeties (they do suck), but honestly with a great front 7 you rarely have to worry about the DBs. This year's defense was all about a lack of talent. Getting old, getting injured, incapable backups, it just kind of cascaded into the worst defense in team history. It's all about talent though. With Lovie Smith, you saw a defense that would range anywhere from mid-20's to #3 overall. Each year it had to do with the talent on the defenses. The difference between good and bad personnel moves, good and bad health, etc. So either way they go, the important thing is to rebuild the defense with good talent. The rest will take care of itself. Coaching is important, but even great coaches can't overcompensate for bad players.

3. Special Teams - I think it's time to let go of Hester, or see if he's willing to renegotiate. He's clearly not as valuable as he once was. I think Father Time and rule changes have negated his full-time explosive ability. Podlesh need to be tested, once again, against more competition. He's had a tendency to flake out when we need him most.

All in all, 8-8 says it all. It was an average year. Some brilliant highs on offense, some horrible lows on defense. I look forward to seeing what Emery can do this offseason.

His contract is up. Not sure if the bears want to resign him or not but i think it has to be low, low contract almost the minimum unfortunately.

[patryk7754]

There's three things I want to see.
1. Trestman to adopt Chip Kelly's practice tendencies when it comes rest and eating habits
2. Defense to at least be average. We can destroy teams if we only allow 20 ppg
3. Better in game coaching from Trestman. His system has proved to be great, maybe even one of the best. However, at times we didn't run the ball enough and some of his play calls on 3rd or 4th and short were just to cute. I give him the benefit of the doubt because of the difference in game play in the CFL