It's a decent article, but here's the one area where I do agree with Bernstein.

It's easy to say 'this guy was the wrong guy to get'. Yes, Houston hasn't been good so far. What about Willie Young? Looks to be the steal of the free agent signings so far. What about De La Puente and Ola?

Bernstein says this and I agree - 'ok, you don't like the guy they got - NAME the guy you wanted them to get?'.

There were very few quality D Ends available in free agency. Houston was at the top of that list and Emery got him. Would have loved to see him get Browner or Talib or TJ Ward, but there are 31 other teams in the NFL. You aren't going to get every guy you want.

Now, it's fair to criticize him for picks like Shea which didn't pan out and force you to have to go to the FA market, but every GM misses on picks.

DJ Williams - ok great. Name the other guys that were available that you'd rather have instead. Then, balance that against the cap and the other teams vying for the same player.

It's one thing to say 'draft pick - should have taken Chandler Jones over Shea'. Ok, fair. One can do that with EVERY draft, EVERY year. There were 32 GMS who had 3 chances to pick Russell Wilson before Seattle did in the 3rd round. It happens.

So, I'd like Morrissey to right a follow up. Consider the Bear's cap, consider other positions, consider what other teams are/were trying to do and NAME the player he'd prefer to have over Lamarr Houston and explain how that could have/would have happened.

My problem with the article is that I keep seeing schematic breakdowns and deficiencies that tell me it would matter little the talent level as Tucker's players are either asked to do too much or are susceptible to getting beat because of the scheme's flaws (i.e., alignment, predictability of reaction, pursuit angles)

exactly this. and let's not forget that this is the bizarro-version of the lovie-bears where it was all focus on the defense and just hope you have a good enough offense and if you do hey rex grossman and thomas jones and the ghost of moose with a little... ok the best damn returner i've ever laid eyes on, well, that's enough to get you to a super bowl.... where you lose to a really good quarterback in the end.

Bernstein says this and I agree - 'ok, you don't like the guy they got - NAME the guy you wanted them to get?'.

wow ruby.... since you made two identical theads at 5:05am and i slammed morrissey in the other one, i'll just copy and paste what i wrote there here for the sake of literary symmetry.

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blow me, morrissey. mel tucker needs to go cuz the guy is unmitigated shit at calling a defensive game, coaching up players, etc. he inherited a good jaguars defense and turned it to shit. he inherited a really-way-more-old-than-we-thought bears DEF and promptly watched it turn to shit, and now we're gonna run phil emery out of town because he was busy fixing the offense and getting a line that will give you and the offense a chance.

and emery has a pass with me because when he got in here he realized "you know, this team needs a #1 WR. i know, let's go get jay's BFF" and that has been an unparalleled success in bears history because at the rate he's going if this ankle ever heals he'll get all the bears receiving records in short order until alshon possibly sticks around to take them at a later date.

maybe it's because he's black and as a society we don't wanna pile on a brother who tries, or maybe it's just to be edgy and contrarian.... but don't give me a column like WAAAHHHH EMERY SHOULD GO BEFORE MEL TUCKER. get the fuck out of here with that dumbass column, you idiot. go sell newspapers to.... people who need change for a $5 to get on a bus in 2mins because that's all i can figure your market is. everyone else who wants a newspaper gets the trib for a reason.

exactly this. and let's not forget that this is the bizarro-version of the lovie-bears where it was all focus on the defense and just hope you have a good enough offense and if you do hey rex grossman and thomas jones and the ghost of moose with a little... ok the best damn returner i've ever laid eyes on, well, that's enough to get you to a super bowl.... where you lose to a really good quarterback in the end.

it's almost diametrically opposite now, and when you've got a defense where you know it's pretty much going to be some level of suck you need to get a guy in here who can take wayward players and outcasts from other teams and band them together into something servieable. mel tucker is not that guy. we need a dave toub type for defense basically, and well special teams too while we're at it but hey that's part of the trestman experience, as when he was on his canadian football odyssey he kind of lost touch with the NFL football circles he wasn't ever really much of a part of (creepy guy over there mumbling to himself about quarterbacks status) so when he became a NFL head coach he didn't exactly get the picks of the litter in terms of coordinators/coaches/etc, and i reckon if/when the bears give him a 5-10 year run at the job that's something that will improve over time.

man if i were a young and hungry defensive coach and i saw what the bears offense could do and now they've got a GM with thoughts and a pulse, man, i'd want to show up and work a few miracles get a ring and then go on to be a head coach after said ring. that's for sure. i think they just didn't wanna shit-can good ol mel for last year since they tried to have him run a few miles literally in lovie smith's shoes, and yeah, this year is FINALLY his vision for defense.

and btw weren't we hearing talking points like phil emery was the REAL WINNER against SF and all that just 2-3 weeks ago? and now we should wanna run emery out of town because the defense sucks? wtf?

I miss this version of the Bears. In a league where everything was/is about passing (and racking up pass interference), it was fun to watch the Bears excel at absolutely everything else except what they were supposed to do. It was sort of like watching a dog walk on its hind legs. One time the dog walked like half a mile.

In defense of Tucker, he had a good game plan against SF.

Now, it's fair to criticize him for picks like Shea which didn't pan out and force you to have to go to the FA market, but every GM misses on picks.

yeah that whole part of the game plan where he got the niners to start colin kaepertwink at quarterback was fucking brilliant. remember early in the game when the niners were gashing the bears for 15-25yds like nobody's business and kaepernick was STILL throwing those balls to them high and wide so they had to lunge jump and dive just to catch a ball while nobody was within 5-10 yards of them?

yeah. that part of the gameplan was brilliant, i will definitely give mel that one.

and i like to think somewhere martz saw marshall's 3TD receptions that night and thought "that's not how you do it! he's too big and slow. where's my guy manemanuseless?"

The defense did force 4 turnovers and firmed in the second half. How else to you explain that, if not game plan and adjustments?

As good as you say the 49ers were, they only scored 20.

But Emery missed on EVERY pick in his first draft. And his second draft doesn't look so good either.

I thought 2012 was his first draft ... I don't think he missed on Alshon.

The scary part is that the draft is supposed to be Emery's best work. Isn't he basically a glorified scout?

I see Alshon as an all-pro receiver. I see a barely-above-average Long. I see a number of "m'eh, whatever". And I see a shit-ton of "why bother going to the microphone".

I thought 2012 was his first draft ... I don't think he missed on Alshon.

But Emery missed on EVERY pick in his first draft. And his second draft doesn't look so good either.

He got Jeffrey in that draft, which is no small thing. If you get a Pro Bowl player out of each draft, as Emery has done so far, you are doing something correctly. The problem is that you need to get some depth in each draft as well, which he has not done