Man, there might be no one I want to have a beer with more than
@4Afan. Sorry, Hockey tournament weekend so replies will come as they come. Others will say we should get our own room but pay no mind to them. This is fun.
How is the NFL morphing into the college game?
Well this would take a couple of pages and enough gaps for you to contest each point so we won't waste anybody's time. Maybe when we get that beer, we can discuss further.
Harbaugh is never happening. The Bears president, Warren, is the former B1G commish and he and Harbaugh don't get along.
Correct, which is why I never said that. I said the closest person currently to Harbaugh's mode of operation is Sherrone Moore, and since the Bears can't or won't get Jim Harbaugh, then I am fine with Coach Moore as OC.
Yes, Monken has NFL experience, Moore has not. He's a good coach and maybe his success lands him a college HC position but the Bears aren't in a position to give him his first shot in the NFL unless he wants to be the TE coach or something like that.
Again, not as big of a leap as you are making it out to be. Monken basically developed under Koetter who is basically his own twig. I wouldn't put him on anyone's tree and I wouldn't call him a tree himself since a coaching tree has to have branches to be considered a tree. Sure, you can say Koetter hired Andy Ried to his first gig at UTEP but then I would argue Andy Reid's bigger influence was his time with Mike Holmgren which is obviously a direct link to Bill Walsh.
Harbaugh is also his own stand alone branch influenced by his father, Lindy Infante, Mike Riley etc. But Harbaugh is a branch and Koetter is a twig because of Harbaugh's success completely outshines Koetter's. So a current successful NFL hire from the college ranks whose only previous NFL play calling experience led to the whole staff getting fired, mentored by an ok offensive mind is so much better than a successful college OC taught by a former successful NFL coach showing success vs former NFL coaches' (Saban) defenses, the leap you are trying to make between Monken and Moore is not there.
Reich and Bienemy is who you're ok with? Reich's only positive is that he's worked with Eberflus before. Bienemy could be the guy, but he wasn't exactly successful in his first year in Washington. Until he proves he can do something without Mahomes and Reid I'm not sold on him.
I'd say Reich getting Indianapolis to the playoffs twice and winning a playoff game while losing a franchise QB (Luck) and coaching up an old-shotputting Phillip Rivers and the incredibly inconsistent Carson Wentz into a playoff appearance outweigh missing the playoffs in the final two weeks in the Wentz year. Just because the man has coached for the 2 craziest owners, Irsay and Tepper, should not tarnish his reputation but it does for others, not me. The guy won a SB as an OC with a back up QB. Give all the credit to Pedersen I guess.
Bienemy critique is fine. No other offensive coordinator has been critiqued as much as him. I can say plenty in his defense but they can each be countered so I abstain for now.
Bears are going to interview Klint Kubiak, and I love this. He's the passing game coordinator for the 49ers, and that Purdy guy has been doing good things in SF. He was also the Vikings OC in 2021. Anyone coaching under Shanahan gets a leg up from me.
Waldron helped people remember Gino Smith still existed and helped him to the Pro Bowl last year. He's also out of the McVay coaching tree. Regardless of how he measures up to your checklist he's a good play caller.
Zac Robinson is the QB coach for the Rams. Absorbing as much knowledge as he can under McVay can only be a good thing.
Jerrod Johnson is the Texans QB coach and has done well to help develop CJ Stroud. He was also with Eberflus in Indy.
I'm on the fence with how I feel about Kellen Moore. Good play caller and had success in Dallas, but he's never really done it for me.
To a lesser extent, Kliff Kingsbury. He gets negative feedback after his time in Arizona and he's definitely not a HC, he's still a great offensive guy and if the Bears move on from Fields and take Williams there's the familiarity there since Kingsbury is at USC currently.
Cool. You can say, you just agree with me next time to make these conversations quicker. I lean to hitting a college OC, mentored by a great mind, lottery ticket and you are leaning to the NFL QB coach, passing game coordinator, mentored by great minds, lottery ticket. As Bears fans, we are all well aware of how that could play out.
Oh, and Kellen Moore sucks. He has 'the look', he has the cute Boise St. story but not many men have done less with more than him. You don't like Bienemy's attempt with Sam Howell but are ok with Kellen Moore's inept attempts with Prescott, Lamb, Herbert, Ekeler, Allen? Ok. At least you admitted you are on the fence for both.
Rest of the list is fine besides Waldron. Increasing 13 personnel by 10% and droppin 11 personnel 12% is the route to go after drafting JSN and already having DK and Lockett. Brilliant way of keeping a defense in between (sorry, one of my pedestrian keys). Kenneth Walker would be a household name if the OC wouldn't tip his play and crowd a box and take away defense focus on playmakers so they can run into 8 defenders or play action to a Dissly stick route for 4 yards. Just an absolute failure of understanding leverage that I cannot explain as a barstool OC. I'd say he is holding former first rounder Geno Smith back from greatness. Also a brilliant strategy at taking a playoff roster out of the playoffs. My only guess because you have a very good brain is that you just haven't watched Seahawk games. If the Bears select Waldron I will have to stop watching football.
I get your point that it may be a hard sell since Eberflus wasn't extended, but at the same time if whoever comes in at OC has success right away they would likely have the inside track for the promotion to HC should Eberflus not be the guy after next year or 2025. He wasn't extended but he's still under contract for 2 more years, so it's not as if he's a lame duck HC next year.
Ok. tomayto, tomahto.