Jan. 04--Ten thoughts after the Chicago Bears wrapped up the season with a 24-20 loss to the Detroit Lions at Soldier Field, leaving them with a disappointing 1-7 record in home games.
1. If Matt Forte played his final game as a member of the Chicago Bears, it was good to see him navigate the East sideline with help from some nice blocks by wide receivers Cameron Meredith and Marc Mariani to score on a swing pass from Jay Cutler that he took 23 yards to the end zone early in the fourth quarter.
Forte's eight-year career with the Bears has been defined by his versatility on offense and that was apparent all the way back in his rookie season of 2008 when he caught 63 passes, which was a career-high before the arrival of Marc Trestman in 2013.
Forte impressed veteran leaders on the team when he broke in as a second-round draft pick in 2008 and I talked to six-time Pro Bowl center Olin Kreutz about his appreciation for Forte.
"He just always impressed by how he carried himself," Kreutz said. "He carried himself like a pro from early on and you just knew he was going to be good. There are certain things that certain young players do and you know those are the guys that are going to make it. Forte seemed to get it from the beginning. Most guys don't. Matt had it figured out, how to take care of himself, how to be a pro, how to study for the game and what it took to be good in the NFL from when he first got here. He's always understood the game.
"The big thing is Forte has been as good as he is for so long. He could do everything and you never really worried about him. And usually with a young running back you've got to worry about pass pro first and foremost. He understood every part of the game from when he first walked in the door. That's how you put together a career like he has had. He is one of the best ever for the Bears. Statistically, he matches up against most all running backs. Where is he compared to Marshall Faulk? That is the kind of back he was. I'm not saying he was Marshall Faulk, but he was Faulk-like the way he played and the way you could use him."
I always wondered what the Bears could have done in free agency had they not overpaid to sign backups for Forte. Chester Taylor, Marion Barber and Michael Bush were unnecessary additions at a time when Forte rarely came off the field. Sure, it's nice to have a veteran backup and a running back is always one play away from a serious injury. But the Bears could have used a mid-round draft pick on a solid back (not like gadget back Garrett Wolfe) and used the resources elsewhere.
The weekly mailbag has gotten questions all year about the future of Forte, who is coming out of contract at age 30. The Bears haven't said what they intend to do and they don't necessarily have to tip their hand right away. My instinct tells me Forte probably plays elsewhere in 2016 but it would be a mistake at this point to write him off.
"I was happy," Forte said about his feelings walking off the field after the game. "I was kind of just thanking the fans. I wasn't able to get everybody but I was able to slap a few hands and say thank you or whatever just because if this was the last game that I play in Soldier Field, I don't want to leave without showing the fans that I appreciate them in person. So, I was able to do some of that stuff at the end on my way into the tunnel."
Forte is one of those rare players where you're not going to find a teammate over the course of his career with a negative thing to say about him. He's been remarkably durable even having missed three games this season with a knee sprain.
Forte believes he can prove naysayers wrong about a running back turning 30 and Adrian Peterson won his third rushing title this season at age 30. Peterson, of course, is one of the best to ever play the position. Forte can be an asset next season and maybe, just maybe his future could hinge in part on what the team does at offensive coordinator if Adam Gase leaves to become a head coach elsewhere. Personnel folks I have talked to seem united in that they see Forte signing with a team that involves the running back a lot in the passing game. That makes sense. He'll be of greatest value to an offense that likes to throw the ball to the backs.
General manager Ryan Pace will talk Monday at a news conference scheduled to start around 3 p.m. Maybe he will shed a little light on the team's thoughts on Forte but I don't know that I would bet on that happening. If it was the end of the line for him with the Bears, it was an impressive run.
2. At a couple points during the season, I wrote that offensive line coach Dave Magazu did a really nice job handling some moving parts. The Bears switched Kyle Long's position the week of the season opener and then dealt with injuries to left tackle Jermon Bushrod and center Will Montgomery and later Montgomery's replacement Hroniss Grasu. That led the Bears to use a total of six different starting combinations on the line with five coming in the first 10 games.
But the turnover on the offensive line didn't compare to the issues the team faced at wide receiver. I think receivers coach Mike Groh, one of two position coaches retained from the Marc Trestman era, did a pretty credible job.
Consider what the Bears got out of the top four receivers as the depth chart looked heading into training camp:
No. 1 Alshon Jeffery: 9 games, 8 starts
No. 2 Eddie Royal: 9 games, 9 starts
No. 3 Kevin White: Did not play
No. 4 Marquess Wilson: 11 games, 6 starts
Jeffery and Wilson both finished the season on injured reserve and the availability issues the Bears faced forced Groh, offensive coordinator Adam Gase and quarterback Jay Cutler to do some scrambling. Marc Mariani, Josh Bellamy, Deonte Thompson and Cameron Meredith were all forced into action. Mariani had barely played any wide receiver earlier in his career in Tennessee and he turned into a slot receiver with a little savvy for the position. He finished with 22 catches for 300 yards. Bellamy wound up with two long touchdown receptions, including a 34-yarder and Thompson became a makeshift vertical threat. Meredith pitched in, especially earlier in the season.
Plenty more topics to get here but I thought it was important to note that Groh did some solid work and the Bears surely hope this position group looks much different next season. I fully expect Jeffery to be back. The Bears are not going to allow him to enter free agency, in my opinion anyway. White will probably be raw but he should finally get on the field and that will allow Royal to be a slot receiver, which is where they wanted him all along. That slots Wilson, who will be going into the final year of his contract, as a No. 4 and that's what he probably is. The team should add some competition too to make this position stronger.
3. It's got to be a longshot that Adam Gase has an office at Halas Hall much longer. There were seven head-coaching vacancies last year and he interviewed for five of them. At the time I filed this Sunday night, there were five openings (Browns, Dolphins, Eagles, Titans, 49ers) and more are expected on Black Monday. Gase is going to be a hot candidate, especially for teams with a goal of adding an offensive-minded head coach. My guess is coach John Fox, who is as well connected as any head coach in the NFL, and general manager Ryan Pace are pro-active. They're clued in here and realize Gase is likely headed for a promotion elsewhere. So they can start the wheels in motion on some preliminary work in the event Gase is hired elsewhere and a replacement is needed.
As I wrote last week, Fox was very close to hiring Ken Whisenhunt as his offensive coordinator in Denver in 2013 and one source told me Fox actually preferred Whisenhunt over Gase for the job at that time. Whether that's true or not, I don't know. At the time, some with the Broncos felt Whisenhunt would use the team as a stepping stone to a head coaching job in short order and that is what happened. He was an assistant in San Diego and went from there to the Titans. He might not be so quick to land a head job again. He's a possibility for sure. If Pat Shurmur doesn't remain in Philadelphia, where he was the interim coach this week, he could be in play. Fox considered him for that job in 2013 as well. Not to be forgotten is in-house candidate Dowell Loggains, the quarterbacks coach. I wouldn't discount the possibility Loggains is considered strongly for the job and quarterback Jay Cutler certainly seems to like him.
Nothing is more stunning than the disaster in San Francisco. All signs pointed to Gase getting that job last year but the deal wasn't finalized and some have said it fell apart on the team's insistence that he keep Jim Tomsula as defensive coordinator. So Tomsula wound up being promoted from his role as defensive line coach and then he made an unsuccessful bid to hire Gase as his offensive coordinator, attempting to woo him at the Denver airport as Gase was awaiting a flight to Chicago. At any rate, the 49ers admitted their mistake and fired Tomsula Sunday night. We'll see if they have interest in Gase -- again. If they do, bet they let him put together his own staff this time.
4. Shea McClellin is headed to free agency after the Bears declined the fifth-year option on his contract back during the offseason. Defensive coordinator Vic Fangio was the one that had the idea to slide McClellin to inside linebacker and he's been pretty upbeat about the former first-round pick most of the season. To get better against the run, the Bears will have to be improved at inside linebacker next season, but at this point I wouldn't rule out the possibility McClellin returns. I wondered if McClellin, 26, would be looking for a fresh start elsewhere. Sounds like his preference is to stay in the same position and learn more from Fangio.
"I haven't really thought about it but just thinking about it right now, I'd love to be back here," McClellin said after the game. :I want to stay playing inside 'backer. We'll see what happens.
"I think (Fangio) was right putting me inside. I think it is a better fit for sure and I just feel more comfortable. It's something that you have to get experience with like he says. Things will happen. You just have to keep getting reps. It would be nice if I could stay at one position more than two years. I feel 100 percent better about than I did say before OTA's just the comfort level, everything. I need more experience. That is the bottom line. Hopefully I can stay around here and do that."
McClellin ranked second on the team in tackles with 96 coming into the game. It's worth noting he missed four games and didn't play a lot vs. the Lions. So if he had been on the field for all 16 games, he would have easily been the leading tackler. Of course, an inside linebacker on a 3-4 team is probably going to be the leading tackler.
5. There's been plenty of talk about what to do with Kyle Long in 2016 and the one thing that is clear at this point is he will be playing tackle and there will not be a return to guard. The question is right tackle, where he started all 16 games, or another position switch to left tackle. We'll see what GM Ryan Pace and coach John Fox have to say about this Monday afternoon but they've got a potential left tackle in Charles Leno, although he had a couple rough plays against Pro Bowl Lions right end Ziggy Ansah.
I had an interesting chat with Leno after the game and he's confident the job is his at left tackle heading into 2016.
"You can have 70 good plays and two bad and that's what they remember you by," Leno said. "That's just how the game goes and it's the nature of the position. I'm not taking anything away from (Ansah) but a lot of that stuff was really on me. I just have to be more consistent for those two plays, three plays.
"I'm gonna be grinding in the offseason, workouts with my strength coach in California, Dave Spitz. Keep working with him and keep working with my offensive line coach Guy McIntyre. I'm just going to keep getting better. This year was a helluva year for me to be honest with you. I know I have played against some pretty good football players. Ziggy Ansah is one of them, he's a Pro Bowler. I see myself doing better against him next time around."
The progress Leno made as a seventh-round pick in 2014 to where he is now is pretty remarkable and the Bears didn't have a player who made more progress physically last offseason than Leno, who showed up much stronger.
"I am going into the offseason with that mind-set (I am the left tackle) for next year and that's my focus right now," Leno said. "Nothing is going to change. This last game is not going to define my season at all. I have played some really good football this year and went against some really good opponents. I know my ability and I am confident in myself. I can't wait for next year. It's kind of weird because I know this is the last game and it's a long time 'til we play again."
6. Zach Miller really wanted to play on Sunday. Given everything he's been through the previous four years, he wanted in worst way to put together a complete season with 16 games. But a toe injury (Miller said it was "something like that" when asked if it was painful turf toe) led him him be inactive for the first time.
He tried to go on Friday when practice was inside the Walter Payton Center but wasn't able to.
"It was a bummer," Miller said. "I wanted to play. I did as much as I could and it wasn't going to work. I tested it out on Friday over at the dome and it just wasn't going to happen which sucks. Had a fun year. I wish we could have obviously played better. I think we all feel that way. Certainly this is headed in the right direction."
Miller will be a free agent and he has expressed an interest in returning. I'd imagine the Bears would like to have him back but the business side of things always requires a couple signatures before things are done.
"Hasn't really been a focal point yet," Miller said. "I think there is a chance. I think there is a little interest there but we will see how it plays out."
7. There have been some mailbag questions about outside linebacker Lamarr Houston over the last couple months and I've been skeptical Houston could return in 2016 when you consider he's scheduled to earn $6 million ($5.95 million base salary with a $50,000 workout bonus). But get to the end of the season and Houston, with a sack of Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford, led the team with seven sacks for the season. It's a career high for him and his playing time really didn't pick up until the final third of the season or so.
It's not like the Bears need to look to trim some contracts to free up salary cap room. They've got plenty of cap space. I think they need to make a concerted effort to beef up the pass rush and I wouldn't view Houston as a top-flight pass rusher. But if he's a little better next year another year removed from the torn ACL, he might add some real value as a complementary pass rusher and a guy who already knows the scheme.
"I feel great right now," Houston said about the knee. "We'll just see and continue to work to try to get better. I think my leg is doing really good. I just need to maintain that."
Asked if he thinks he will return to the Bears, Houston admitted he has no idea. The contract does not include any more guaranteed money.
"I have no idea," Houston said. "I don't work in the front office. I play football, my man. I don't make contracts, I just sign 'em."
8. Lions free safety Glover Quin iced the game late in the fourth quarter when he intercepted Jay Cutler's pass intended for Deonte Thompson. Cutler was hit by Ziggy Ansah as he was releasing the ball. I asked Quin if he thought Cutler looked different this season.
"With what they were doing, they were running the ball and throwing a bunch of screens, it's hard to throw interceptions on screen passes, you know?" Quin said, referring to the storyline that Cutler has reduced the turnovers this season. "Today we were able to kind of take the screen game away and force them to throw it down the field a little bit and get some pressure and make a couple of plays on them. They've got certain formations they run the screens out of so it's recognizing those formations and taking that away and forcing them to run the ball and then getting them in longer down and distance."
I asked Quin about the play he got the interception on and here is what he said: "In that situation, we knew they were probably trying to get a shot at 14 (Thompson). He was their deep guy. We knew whenever he came in the game to be alert for shots and they put him backside, 1-on-1 by himself and that is normally when the shots come. He tried to look me off and I didn't fall for it. Ziggy got great pressure and Nevin (Lawson) got a great jam on him and forced him inside so it shortened the distance that I had to go and he threw it up."
9. Tight end Gannon Sinclair was the only player to spend the entire season on the 10-man practice squad. Sinclair, an undrafted rookie from Missouri State, was claimed off waivers from the Arizona Cardinals on Sept. 1 and signed to the practice squad six days later. The Bears had a total of 30 players spend at least one week on the practice squad. Of those 30, 13 got at least a week on the 53-man roster (Jonathan Anderson, Lamin Barrow, Nick Becton, Brandon Dunn, Jacoby Glenn, David Fales, Demontre Hurst, Deonte Thompson, Bryce Callahan, John Timu, D'Anthony Smith and Terrance Mitchell).
Sinclair is expected to sign a reserve/futures contract and return but nothing is official. He projects as competition for Khari Lee, the tight end the team traded a 2017 sixth-round draft pick to Houston for, in the year ahead.
Listed at 6-foot-7, 270 pounds, Sinclair dropped 10 pounds over the course of the season at the direction of the staff and his body fat percentage dropped from 16 to 10.8.
"I felt like I had my back against the wall starting out," Sinclair said. "On the scout team you are going against the first team defense every day. Now, I have made enough plays against them, I know I can make that play and I know I have the confidence. So now I feel like I know I can play. Not only do I know more about the position, I have the confidence to do it."
The Bears can begin signing players to reserve/futures contracts on Monday. Expect a good number of the players on the practice squad to be offered deals.
10. Mitch Unrein will be a free agent in March and he will get to training for the season ahead soon enough. His wife will begin her training sooner. Unrein's wife Corey Cogdell-Unrein is a world-class trap shooter and is in competition to represent the United States in the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. She won a bronze medal at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China. She placed 11th at the 2012 Olympics in London.
Their offseason home is in Colorado Springs, Colo., where Corey trains at Fort Carson. Corey is in second place now in pre-Olympic trials and the U.S. sends only one shooter for women's trap so she has some climbing to do. If she makes it, Unrein hopes to get some time off from training camp next summer to travel and see her compete.
"Wherever I am at, I am going to talk to the head coach and try to get out of a couple days," he said. "That's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, to get to watch your wife in the Olympics. I am sure Foxy, if I am here, will be cool. I gotta go."
10a. The Bears own the 11th overall pick in the first round of the draft. Taking a look back at that position over the last 10 years, three names really jump out at you. Some players have been so-so. It's like most of the positions outside of the top few every year, a crap shoot. Here are the 10:
2015 Vikings CB Trae Waynes, Michigan State
2014 Titans OT Taylor Lewan, Michigan
2013 Chargers OT D.J. Fluker, Alabama
2012 Chiefs NT Dontari Poe, Memphis
2011 Texans DE J.J. Watt, Wisconsin
2010 49ers OT Anthony Davis, Rutgers
2009 Bills DE Aaron Maybin, Penn State
2008 Bills CB Leodis McKelvin, Troy
2007 49ers LB Patrick Willis, Ole Miss
2006 Broncos QB Jay Cutler, Vanderbilt
10b. Want a focus for the offseason ahead: Playmakers. The Bears finished the season with 17 takeaways, setting a new low for the franchise. As bad as the defense was last season, the team had 24 takeaways. The last time the Bears had less was 2003 when there were 20. The Bears also had 20 in 2000 and 1982 (when there was a nine-game season because of the strike). The team's media guide only goes back to 1965 for such statistics but the Bears always had at least 27 or more takeaways from 1965 through 1977 when there was a 14-game regular season. That was a different era of football and interceptions were far more common. This season, opposing quarterbacks threw 512 passes and there were only eight interceptions. That's a lack of pressure and a lack of playmakers.
10c. Full 2-yard improvement for punter Pat O'Donnell on his net average this season. That's probably the most important statistic for punters. O'Donnell finished with a net of 39.7 yards -- up from the 37.7 he was at in 2014 as a rookie. That puts O'Donnell in a tie for 19th this season. I'd expect him to be better next season.
10d. Want to say thank you to everyone for following 10 Thoughts the morning after every game this season. Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season and that the new year is off to a tremendous start. Stay tuned in the offseason. I'm thinking there will be occasion for a 10 Thoughts or two or three.
