Systemic failure

[Da Coach]

Systemic failure: failure at system level which cannot be simply described from the individual component failures of the system

Definition of Systemic Failure - IADC Lexicon

How this relate to the Bears:

• Blaming Marc Trestman isn't enough although he is an individual component error
• Blaming Mel Tucker isn't enough although he is an individual component error
• Blaming Jay Cutler isn't enough although he is an individual component error
• Blaming Phil Emery isn't enough although he is an individual component error

The Bears entire system/business/organization is an utter failure. It goes all the way to ownership. Sadly we cannot fire ownership so the next logical place to start is Ted Phillips. The entire business needs a complete overhaul and it needs to start with him. For all of you complaining about Mel Tucker and the rest of these clowns, you're thinking too small. Those are micro issues that are symptoms of a much, much larger problem.

It'll be very interesting to see what George McCaskey does. It's all on him now.

 

[toooverbearing]

Systemic failure: failure at system level which cannot be simply described from the individual component failures of the system

Definition of Systemic Failure - IADC Lexicon

How this relate to the Bears:

• Blaming Marc Trestman isn't enough although he is an individual component error
• Blaming Mel Tucker isn't enough although he is an individual component error
• Blaming Jay Cutler isn't enough although he is an individual component error
• Blaming Phil Emery isn't enough although he is an individual component error

The Bears entire system/business/organization is an utter failure. It goes all the way to ownership. Sadly we cannot fire ownership so the next logical place to start is Ted Phillips. The entire business needs a complete overhaul and it needs to start with him. For all of you complaining about Mel Tucker and the rest of these clowns, you're thinking too small. Those are micro issues that are symptoms of a much, much larger problem.

It'll be very interesting to see what George McCaskey does. It's all on him now.

Have their errors been strategic or tactical? I've been a fan of the strategy (or what I think was the strategy) but not a fan of many of the decisions/tactics.

I think the strategy has been to lean on analytics and development to get an edge (we seemed to go after coaches who had reputations as teachers and we got the analytics guy from STATS). This is great because in theory your edge should be sustainable and not beholden to the salary cap. Of course, if this is the way we're going, we should also be trying to add draft picks at every turn and we aren't as aggressive on that.

Here are some glaring shortcomings though:

1. Leadership. I wouldn't just take the guys above to task (Trestman, Tucker and Emery)... but how about Cutler and Briggs? If I were Trestman I would call both of these guys out for going through the motions and not demanding more out of the guys around them. If you're the captain of the offense, it's your offense... you own it. Not just your passes (good or bad) but the blocking the receptions and the running. If you're the captain of the defense, you own all of the missed assignments, missed tackles, blown coverages, etc. What are these guys doing out there to make their units more prideful? Personally, I think they're failing there.

2. Cutler (again). We should have franchised him. I understand he was our only real alternative this year and in the short run... but they should have franchised him and given him an opportunity to earn the contract they gave him. Had they done that, he'd probably be getting a more modest three year deal this year that would give the team more flexibility at qb going forward, more flexibility at HC as soon as next year (I think we're stuck with MT for better or for worse partially because of the commitment to JC) and we would have had more $$$ to allocate to other needs.

3. Emery's first draft. That was before the analytics guy came in... but besides Alshon that was a poor return. His next two drafts I still think are looking good, but that first draft, which came right after a series of bad drafts by Angelo, is still getting flushed through the pipeline.

Of course, I'm not happy at all with Trestman or Tucker or DeCamillis. Trestman... I understand the team has dealt with injuries and that is part of the problem. But there should be more fluency with the playbook in year two and Jay is regressing. That's on Trestman. Tucker... hot garbage. Last year we were historically bad against the run and this year we're historically bad against the pass. He has proven he can be totally incompetent in all parts of the game. I understand there have been injuries... but other teams are able to overcome much better. Joe D... just unimpressed with this guy.

 

[anotheridiot]

Emery took too much control of hiring coaches. None of the coaches are Trestman guys.

Too much respect for veteran players.

I dont care who got paid, how much they make, you field the best 11 you have on offense and defense.

Starting Garza at center over DLP is just mindboggling. Let Garza go back to the position he played his first 8 years in the league already.

Bears had no answer for Matthews in the middle. It completely shook them apart. One guy you game plan for coming off an edge comes from the middle and no adjustment was able to be made.

The cutler signing showed how lost Emery is as the GM. Gotta stop this now before another offseason of deferring money, thats just like stealing from social security.

Honestly this shake up needed to be made right after another poor draft. He can pin his hat to the coat tails of Jeffrey and Long, but long was really a long shot only playing 5 career games in college. Thats just the sun shining on Emerys face. Two players out of 15-20 he drafted is no good.

 

[Wounded Bear]

Great post, DaCoach. I think it's the most logical way of looking at it. Undoubtedly Ted Phillips and the McCaskeys are at the root of this problem.

I just keep wondering what the Bears organization would look like if it went to it's rightful owner, George Halas, Jr.


Fucking McCaskeys just suck so bad......

 

[cubzzzfanincali]

interesting take. I agree with all of your premises, but draw a slightly different final conclusion. The reason I would like to see Emery canned instead of Phillips has to do with the fact that I don't really know anything about all of the other parts of the Bears organization that Phillips deals with that have nothing to do with "what's on the field." Maybe he is terrible at that, maybe he is great, I really have no idea. I guess I sort of confine my issues with the Bears to the roster and coaching personnel decisions, and to my mind that arrow points at Emery, not Phillips.

But I agree with the sentiment of what you are saying, and I agree with you, big problems require bigger solutions than just switching a D coordinator around.

 

[noonthirtyjoe]

I have no problems with the McCaskeys. I think they are top of the line owners. They hire people to run the team and get out of the way. I don't want a owner that is overly involved. This all falls on Tman. His offense is a joke and he has lost the team outright, we all knew Mel was bad and gonna fail. It was the offense that has come up short. The def is what I expected SHIT and predictable shit at that. Tman has lost this team. Emory is bringing in plenty of talent. He missed a few but every GM does. If Emory admits his mistakes and moves on from Tman then I say keep him, if not then let him sink with him.

 

[Dirk]

I laughed at the top of the line owners part of your post.

They are only interested in doing what needs to be done on the game side of things in order to not lose money.

As long as mediocrity continues to put asses in the seats(and it will, fanbase is too ingrained into the city to wane that fast) they will continue to be rich because of it. If they continue to be rich, why change?

 

[brh]

I have no problems with the McCaskeys. I think they are top of the line owners. They hire people to run the team and get out of the way. I don't want a owner that is overly involved.

Agreed. I really don't understand this whole "fire Phillips!" thing and the McCaskey hatred. Aside from possibly making a poor hire with Emery, what have they done so wrong? They don't appear to be cutting corners anywhere financially.

Being a first time coach, Trestman isn't paid all that highly, but Lovie was one of the league's higher paid coaches. So they've shown they'll pay a coach when they find one and they've also shown they'll eat a high salary by firing him. Was there some awesome coach available when Trestman was hired that they passed over for financial reasons that I'm not aware of?

I'm no expert on NFL practice facilities, but I've never heard anything about the Bears' not being up to par. They seem to be nice, state of the art facilities as far as I can tell.

They have a decent sized scouting staff and Emery was allowed to totally revamp it to his liking. So no signs of being cheap there.

Their player payroll always seems to be in the upper half of the league. They're always relatively close the cap. I don't recall any recent years where they left a ton of cap space on the table like some teams have.

So what am I missing? What is ownership and/or Ted Phillips doing to bring down the team?

Looks to me like they did exactly what noonthirtyjoe said. Hired a football guy (Phil Emery) to runt he football stuff and then got out of the way. What do those of you who think they're so awful expect them to do other than make a better choice in GM next time?

 

[Dirk]

Noone said they were being cheap.

Clueless? yes. Cheap? that ship sailed a decade ago.


Everyone wants to blame "the football guy" for the failings they attribute to him. Noone wants to blame the accountant and the guy with the owners last name(Who last worked in season ticket handling if I recall correctly?) for the decision on hiring "the football guy".

Scapegoating.

 

[Wounded Bear]

Plain and simple, the point being made is that the McCaskeys don't go for premier talent in the front office, nor do they when choosing a coaching staff. The president of the Bears, Ted Phillips, is a friggin' bean counter who is an admitted Giants fan......not exactly a "football guy."

Yes, they have a nice facility and they dump a lot of money on players, but they do not put tons of money into their front office nor do they put it in their coaching staff. And these are the captains of the ship. These are the decision makers.

When we were anticipating who the Bears would snag as their new GM, was Phil Emery on the top or near the top of anyone's list? Not just the fans, but any of the other teams' lists?

So when you grab a bargain bin GM like Phil Emery, you shouldn't be surprised when he has been underwhelming in the draft. You shouldn't be surprised when he sews you into an elite contract with an average QB. You shouldn't be surprised when he hesitates early on in Free Agency and then acts out desperately late in Free Agency. You shouldn't be surprised when he snags Marc Trestman out of the CFL and then quickly hires Mel Tucker without giving a talent like Rob Ryan an interview.

And when you look at the recent history of coaches they snagged, it's not exactly a premier group. Dave Wannstedt, Dick Jauron, Lovie Smith, and now Marc Trestman. All of them B-list guys willing to take a B-List salaries.



These are the very real reasons why some of us are not happy with not only Marc Trestman and Mel Tucker, but unhappy with Phil Emery, Ted Phillips, and the McCaskeys.

 

[cubzzzfanincali]

Noone said they were being cheap.

Clueless? yes. Cheap? that ship sailed a decade ago.


Everyone wants to blame "the football guy" for the failings they attribute to him. Noone wants to blame the accountant and the guy with the owners last name(Who last worked in season ticket handling if I recall correctly?) for the decision on hiring "the football guy".

Scapegoating.

Enlighten us, then. In what way is this the accountants fault? It is a salary cap league, the owners couldn't cheapen the roster if they wanted to, and the Bears haven't been shy about spending money.

So explain the scapegoating to me, and why, because I am not getting it.

 

[cubzzzfanincali]

Plain and simple, the point being made is that the McCaskeys don't go for premier talent in the front office, nor do they when choosing a coaching staff. The president of the Bears, Ted Phillips, is a friggin' bean counter who is an admitted Giants fan......not exactly a "football guy."

Yes, they have a nice facility and they dump a lot of money on players, but they do not put tons of money into their front office nor do they put it in their coaching staff. And these are the captains of the ship. These are the decision makers.

When we were anticipating who the Bears would snag as their new GM, was Phil Emery on the top or near the top of anyone's list? Not just the fans, but any of the other teams' lists?

So when you grab a bargain bin GM like Phil Emery, you shouldn't be surprised when he has been underwhelming in the draft. You shouldn't be surprised when he sews you into an elite contract with an average QB. You shouldn't be surprised when he hesitates early on in Free Agency and then acts out desperately late in Free Agency. You shouldn't be surprised when he snags Marc Trestman out of the CFL and then quickly hires Mel Tucker without giving a talent like Rob Ryan an interview.

And when you look at the recent history of coaches they snagged, it's not exactly a premier group. Dave Wannstedt, Dick Jauron, Lovie Smith, and now Marc Trestman. All of them B-list guys willing to take a B-List salaries.



These are the very real reasons why some of us are not happy with not only Marc Trestman and Mel Tucker, but unhappy with Phil Emery, Ted Phillips, and the McCaskeys.

You know, I'm not really unhappy with the McCaskeys either, for reasons someone else mentioned above. Thank God they aren't Jerry Jones, Al davis, Dan Snyder clones. Their job is to put up the football money, not put up the football brains. I think Phillips is debatable, but even here, he is supposed to run the organization...yes, that includes the team, but it includes a lot more, and maybe having the president delegate that authority to the GM is fine. Do you want that to change really? Do you want to president to micromanage the GM?

I don't. I want the GM to run the football and coaching personnel. That's why my firing bullseye is on Emery. It seems to me that's where the problem is.

 

[dirtboy068]

I have no problems with the McCaskeys. I think they are top of the line owners. They hire people to run the team and get out of the way. I don't want a owner that is overly involved. This all falls on Tman. His offense is a joke and he has lost the team outright, we all knew Mel was bad and gonna fail. It was the offense that has come up short. The def is what I expected SHIT and predictable shit at that. Tman has lost this team. Emory is bringing in plenty of talent. He missed a few but every GM does. If Emory admits his mistakes and moves on from Tman then I say keep him, if not then let him sink with him.

Most be a new fan. although the McCaskeys have gotten better they are SOME OF THE WORST OWNERS IN SPORTS HISTORY. no exaggeration.

 

[thunderspirit]

And when you look at the recent history of coaches they snagged, it's not exactly a premier group. Dave Wannstedt, Dick Jauron, Lovie Smith, and now Marc Trestman. All of them B-list guys willing to take a B-List salaries.

I'm not the biggest McCaskey family fan in the world, but I have to take issue with this part.

• Wanny and Smith were both "hot" coordinators the year they got hired to be head coach.
• Jauron was (and still is) well regarded around the NFL.
• I freely acknowledge no one in the NFL was beating down Trestman's door. Still, he was a bold gamble and his hiring took some stones.

The Trestman hire clearly hasn't worked out, and Emery has to own that; it's up to him to fix the mistake. And you may be right that Emery was the wrong person to hire too, but again, Emery is highly regarded around the league as a talent evaluator.

 

[noonthirtyjoe]

Most be a new fan. although the McCaskeys have gotten better they are SOME OF THE WORST OWNERS IN SPORTS HISTORY. no exaggeration.

New???? I was here before dirt was invented.

 

[Dirk]

Enlighten us, then. In what way is this the accountants fault? It is a salary cap league, the owners couldn't cheapen the roster if they wanted to, and the Bears haven't been shy about spending money.

So explain the scapegoating to me, and why, because I am not getting it.

Wounded put it well in the post right above.

The accountant is our team president. Great for getting shit built/milking money out of us fans (PSL Anyone?) IMO Not so great when he's the guy responsible for running the team.

The scapegoating is a ton of people calling for Trestman/Emery's heads but not the guy who was responsible for hiring THEM. If Emery is so bad he deserves to be dismissed 2.5 years into his GM stint, why does the guy responsible for hiring him get a pass(and the guy responsible for hiring a god damn search firm to hire Angelol...)

 

[brh]

So if I'm understanding you guys right, you think the problem with ownership/Phillips is that they're cheap when it comes to hiring the GM & coach. Is that correct? If so, can you provide some examples of it? Just saying "Emery didn't cost much" doesn't prove anything. Who are the options that you believe they passed over for financial reasons? Who are these high priced awesome GM candidates that were available when Emery was hired that they passed over?

As thunderspirit already pointed out, both Wanny & Lovie were considered hot candidates at the the time they were hired. I already pointed out that the team wasn't afraid to pay Lovie after he made the superbowl and also wasn't afraid to eat a year of his high salary (and his assistants) when they fired him. So the coaching thing isn't really holding water to me. You may dislike who they hire, but there's little evidence to suggest that ownership being cheap has anything to do with it.

 

[Da Coach]

So if I'm understanding you guys right, you think the problem with ownership/Phillips is that they're cheap when it comes to hiring the GM & coach. Is that correct? If so, can you provide some examples of it? Just saying "Emery didn't cost much" doesn't prove anything. Who are the options that you believe they passed over for financial reasons? Who are these high priced awesome GM candidates that were available when Emery was hired that they passed over?

As thunderspirit already pointed out, both Wanny & Lovie were considered hot candidates at the the time they were hired. I already pointed out that the team wasn't afraid to pay Lovie after he made the superbowl and also wasn't afraid to eat a year of his high salary (and his assistants) when they fired him. So the coaching thing isn't really holding water to me. You may dislike who they hire, but there's little evidence to suggest that ownership being cheap has anything to do with it.

If we don't take the term "cheap" too literal, and I am not a "the McCaskeys are cheap" pundit at all, a case can be made. Here are two irrefutable facts that illustrate how inept Bears management has been staffing their front office and the head coaching position with experienced NFL people over the years:

1. Phil Emery represents the only the 2nd true GM since Jerry Vainisi was fired in 1986
2. The last Head Coach the Bears have hired a Head Coach who had previous NFL head coaching experience is Paddy Driscoll in 1956

Let that soak in for a minute.

This represents a conscious effort to NOT bring in experienced NFL personnel to lead the team. Yes, there are likely a myriad of reasons why this has happened but an argument could be made that money was an issue. This needs to stop if we're ever going to put a consistent winning product on the field.

 

[anotheridiot]

Agreed. I really don't understand this whole "fire Phillips!" thing and the McCaskey hatred. Aside from possibly making a poor hire with Emery, what have they done so wrong? They don't appear to be cutting corners anywhere financially.

Being a first time coach, Trestman isn't paid all that highly, but Lovie was one of the league's higher paid coaches. So they've shown they'll pay a coach when they find one and they've also shown they'll eat a high salary by firing him. Was there some awesome coach available when Trestman was hired that they passed over for financial reasons that I'm not aware of?

I'm no expert on NFL practice facilities, but I've never heard anything about the Bears' not being up to par. They seem to be nice, state of the art facilities as far as I can tell.

They have a decent sized scouting staff and Emery was allowed to totally revamp it to his liking. So no signs of being cheap there.

Their player payroll always seems to be in the upper half of the league. They're always relatively close the cap. I don't recall any recent years where they left a ton of cap space on the table like some teams have.

So what am I missing? What is ownership and/or Ted Phillips doing to bring down the team?

Looks to me like they did exactly what noonthirtyjoe said. Hired a football guy (Phil Emery) to runt he football stuff and then got out of the way. What do those of you who think they're so awful expect them to do other than make a better choice in GM next time?

Emery was considered as a candidate as the next hot GM. Trestman was hired in the same respect that Emery was, someone that wasnt gonna bring any NFL teams plays and coaches with him that might have been overlooked as a head coach. Seems he is a great coordinator, great player guy, turns careers around, its just not someone you bring into a contending team with an old QB.

Problem with Emery did not really start with Hendry, it started with Emery getting rid of players Hendry drafted. It festered with second and third round picks being failures, first round picks being brought in as defensive ends in a 4-3 when they were rushing linebackers in college. If they played end in college, thats where they play in the pro's. As soon as he made a comment as "Shea is a guy we see as a defensive end" I lost all hope. Thats not a first round pick, thats a flyer on a third or fourth rounder that you plan to change so you can teach him a new position.

Shea might have had a great career as a strong side linebacker or end if they would have flushed the 4-3 for the 3-4.

As far as the bears always being at the salary cap, there is almost 17 million being paid to players that are no longer on this team. Believe it or not, that is a problem when its 17 million dollars that is not being paid to your current players on the active roster and forces you to go to the waiver wire or nearest grocery store to find some guy off the street.

Emery also hired Tucker before Trestman was in the mix, pretty sure Kromel was too. Thats a head coach that does not have ownership of his coordinators. When last year passed and Tucker was given another year, it was a scapegoat for Trestman. Nobody thought the offense was gonna be this bad.

I really dont mind that nobody was fired. I mind that there were no changes announced. Either Trestman will not have some head coach responsibilities if he continued to call plays, or just give the play calling to the OC from the box upstairs.

This deer in the headlights look Trestman has seems to be the same look the organization has. Snap decisions would be wrong. They just got embarassed by two teams that might meet in the superbowl. If they lose another home game to Minny this sunday, something needs to change.

 

[brh]

This represents a conscious effort to NOT bring in experienced NFL personnel to lead the team. Yes, there are likely a myriad of reasons why this has happened but an argument could be made that money was an issue. This needs to stop if we're ever going to put a consistent winning product on the field.

To hire a guy, they must be available. So to hire a GM with experience as a GM or a HC with experience as a HC, it must be a guy that is no longer doing that job. Typically there's a reason for that and the most common reasons are that they either failed or retired. Occasionally you'll see a guy that failed in his first go around, succeed the second time (Belichik for example), but it's not terribly common. I think that probably has more to do with it than money.

But by all means, please provide some examples of the guys you're referring to. Who are these experienced GM & HC candidates who were available when the Bears were hiring for those jobs, but you believe were passed over because of money? Key word here is "available". So listing names like Belichik or Ozzie Newsome like in that other thread don't count. It has to be guys who weren't already working as a GM or HC somewhere else at the time.