Windy City Gridiron
It’s the time of NFL year when fanbases either look forward to the playoffs or the offseason, and for six different organizations that offseason is going to involve a reset at head coach. This is a cycle Chicago has been through a lot recently, and from Trestman to Fox to Nagy to Eberflus and finally to Johnson…well, Chicago has seen a lot of head coaches recently. As a fan of the Bears, I know what it looks like when a team needs a reset. With that in mind, I wanted to look at how the different vacancies stacked up. For each opening I am listing my basic rationale followed by some key data points, and then I am also recommending someone currently employed by Chicago to assist the team in question in its rebuilding process.
The organization with the hardest road ahead is probably the one where Chicago’s organization has the strongest chance of actually contributing to the solution.
Offensive/Defensive Ranks: 23rd in points scored and 19th in points allowed.
Quarterback: The Falcons have either Kirk Cousins (95 ANY/A+, 89 Rate+) or Michael Penix (108 ANY/A+, 95 Rate+) at quarterback, neither of whom inspires hope of anchoring a franchise. It’s likelier than not that Cousins will be gone, but it’s hard to feel secure that Penix will recover from his most recent knee surgery.
Cap Space: Thanks to a reworked contract with Kirk Cousins, Atlanta starts the year with $21.4million in cap space, and with $17.8million in effective space once all obligations are taken into consideration (after they sign their rookie class and accounting for any empty roster spots with basic deals).
Top 50 Picks: #48. That’s it. They lack a first-round pick due to the trade with Los Angeles that brought in defensive standout James Pearce.
Bears Personnel Fit: Ian Cunningham (General manager). When Ryan Poles took over Chicago, the Bears had a terrible cap situation inherited from Ryan Pace mortgaging the future to win a few more games, and he left a dozen zombie contracts with void years. The team also lacked a first-round pick due to the trade to secure Justin Fields. All that was left was promising defense and a few pieces on offense. Sound familiar? The man who helped Ryan Poles sort that out was Ian Cunningham, and Cunningham will hopefully avoid the mistakes that made the rebuild take longer than it had to under Poles. After all–he was right there to learn from those same mistakes secondhand. It helps that the Falcons’ situation is actually better in some ways than what Chicago faced.
The Browns have long been the Bears’ twin in the AFC, a team in search of answers at quarterback and trying a multitude of approaches in the hopes of getting it right.
Offensive/Defensive Ranks: 31st in points scored and 14th in points allowed.
Quarterback: The Browns have Shedeur Sanders (69 ANY/A+, 64 Rate+), who is either a horribly maligned superstar waiting...
