Want A Winning Team? Do This.......

[soulman]

https://dawindycity.com/2021/11/23/chicago-bears-front-office-strategy-ravens/?utm_campaign=FanSided+Daily&utm_source=FanSided+Daily&utm_medium=email

 

Chicago Bears front office can learn much from the Baltimore Ravens

by Todd Welter 4 hours ago Follow @toddjdub

 

The Baltimore Ravens were without starting quarterback Lamar Jackson and still handed the Chicago Bears their fifth-consecutive loss on a picture-perfect day at Soldier Field.

The Chicago Bears let a late 13-9 lead slip away as the Ravens rallied back with their backup quarterback as Tyler Huntley led a last-minute, game-winning drive.

The Ravens left Chicago with a win without their MVP quarterback, started a quarterback who went undrafted while he made his first career start, a good amount of key players on injured reserved, and featured a pass defense that would struggle to stop traffic with the help of a stoplight.

Winning is all Baltimore seems to do–both this season and historically.

The Baltimore Ravens and the Chicago Bears are polar opposite franchises…

The Ravens have been one of the NFL’s standards of success in the salary cap era. Meanwhile, the Bears have been at best mediocre and at worst a laughing stock.

Since officially becoming an NFL franchise in 1996–you have to remember when the owner at the time, Art Modell, moved the Cleveland Browns to Baltimore, he had to leave all the Browns history behind–the Ravens are 232-177-1 with a 16-11 playoff record. Baltimore has made the playoffs 13 times, won two Super Bowls, and has had just seven losing seasons. Additionally, the Ravens have had just three head coaches and two general managers.

The Bears in that same 26-season span, and brace yourself, folks, are 189-221 with just three playoff wins. The Chicago Bears have made the playoffs just six times, lost a Super Bowl, and have 14 losing seasons. The Chicago Bears have gone through six head coaches and five different front-office leaders.

The Ravens currently sit on top of the AFC North. The Bears thankfully have the Detroit Lions in their division. Otherwise, Chicago most likely would be sitting in dead last.

The Bears have had a four-or-more game losing streak in four out of the last five seasons. Baltimore has had just one season where they lost four-in-a-row in that timeframe.

I could keep going but I want to avoid putting you in an all-out depression. The Chicago Bears can potentially turn things around by just studying the team that handed them a loss.

Hire Ozzie Newsome or someone like him…

Ozzie Newsome built two Super Bowl-winning teams in Baltimore. The first one was built on one of the most dominant defenses of all time and a great run game. That team also happened to have Trent Dilfer as the starting quarterback.

When you can win a Super Bowl with Dilfer as your starting quarterback, you know you got a great general manager.

Newsome is the only reason that Modell did not go on to regret firing Bill Belichick. Ozzie was appointed to run the Ravens from the first time the franchise came to Baltimore.

He built their model for success through the draft and great scouting.

This is the man that drafted first-ballot Hall of Famers in Jonathan Odgen and Ray Lewis in the same draft. He also drafted Ed Reed, one of the best safeties to ever play the game.

24 first-rounders picked by Newsome went on to the Pro Bowl. He also drafted two franchise quarterbacks in Joe Flacco and Jackson. Flacco may not fit the conventional franchise quarterback, but you cannot argue with a Super Bowl MVP, one 4000 yard passing season (the Bears do not have one single quarterback ever to throw over 4000 yards), and 96-67 record as the Ravens’ starter for 11 seasons.

Newsome also created a front-office structure where collaboration is encouraged but it also works. We all know how much the Bears love collaboration–except when the Bears collaborate, it usually fails.

Newsome handed off general manager duties to Eric DeCosta back in 2019. Newsome just happened to groom DeCosta for the role. DeCosta was so loyal to Newsome that he turned down the chance to run the Bears in 2012.

Newsome still holds an executive vice president title with the Ravens. If and when the Bears decide to move on from general manager Ryan Pace, why not see if Newsome would come in as football operations president?

Bears chairman George McCaskey needs to see how much money and power it would take to get Newsome to come out of his semi-retirement.

If he does not want to do all the scouting, drafting, and free-agent signings, that is fine. You just want him in the building to get the proper talent evaluators and football people into Halas Hall to build a sustained, successful franchise.

The McCaskey family and Bears CEO Ted Phillips are admittedly, non-football people. They are notorious for not having the proper connections to identify the correct football head. They have had to use consulting firms or consultants such as Ernie Accorsi (and whatever is growing on his head) to hire guys like Pace and Phil Emery.

That is why making a call to Newsome is all the more important. If he says no, find someone similar to Newsome. The Bears need a veteran front office football head with deep connections to the talent evaluation world.

At a minimum, they need to bring in a former player or two like what Modell did with Newsome to be groomed into a football executive.

The Chicago Bears need to stop repeating the insanity of going with consultants to find another first-time general manager to make all the football decisions. All that has done is led to the Bears being owned by Aaron Rodgers and pretty much the rest of the league.

Hire head coaches who can lead and adapt…

Leadership being a top trait in a head coach is not a new concept. The Chicago Bears have been sorely lacking when using that concept to identify a head coach–although, we will get that to a moment.

Baltimore on the other hand has never had that issue. The Ravens have only had Ted Marchiborda, Brian Billick, and John Harbaugh as their head coaches.

Marchiborda failed while Billick won a Super Bowl. Harbaugh also owns a Ravens’ Super Bowl ring and is currently leading Baltimore’s recent run of success.

Billick came to Baltimore in 1999 as the offensive genius behind those Minnesota Vikings high-octane offenses. He won a Super Bowl on defense, running the ball, and asking Dilfer to manage the game.

Billick’s tenure was never known for explosive offenses. The Ravens only finished once in the NFL’s top-10 in scoring. Billick had success in Baltimore because he could lead a team and he could adapt.

He did not force his offense down his team’s throat–like a certain current Bears’ head coach. He adapted his offense to the strength of the team which was a top-notch run game.

Harbaugh replaced Billick after being a special teams coach. John has never been known as an offensive or defensive genius. He is a natural-born leader–his dad is a legendary college coach. He fits the current NFL CEO-type head coach.

What makes him an even better head coach than any Bears head coach the last decade is he will adapt to his talent. He overhauled his entire offense to fit Jackson’s talent. He brought in Greg Roman to run the offense and call plays that would maximize and develop Jackson into an MVP.

The Bears have gone back-and-forth between supposed offensive geniuses in Matt Nagy and Marc Trestman and defensive geniuses in Lovie Smith and John Fox. Only Smith showed the ability to lead but was never adaptable–he lived and eventually died with running the Tampa-2 defense and never paying attention to his offense.

Harbaugh stayed cool on Sunday while Nagy unraveled down the stretch. Nagy was cursing out the person charged with making sure the headsets worked and then kept calling inexplicable timeouts. Harbaugh stayed focused and kept the team focused despite having over 15 players on injured reserve to get a win. Harbaugh did all that because he can lead no matter what the situation is.

The Chicago Bears should look at leadership ability as the top quality the next head coach should have if and when Nagy is fired. The second trait would be the ability to adapt a philosophy to the talent to win and then work down the rest of required traits checklist. It seems to work out for the Ravens.

Create a team identity and stick to it

The Chicago Bears have ping-ponged between wanting to be an explosive offense team and a hard-nosed defensive team over the past decade.

Former NFL executive Michael Lombardi pointed out on 670 the Score that the Bears are suffering from an identity crisis.

“They’ve lost their identity in terms of ‘here’s who we are and what we represent as a football team.’ They’ve gotten away from it. You often thought of with (Mike) Ditka, with all the great defenses, as a defensive team that would run the ball and play tough. Well, that’s not who they are now. That’s not who they are. They lead the league in sacks. They’ve given up over a zillion yards in sacks. They had their first 200-yard passing the game last week. They’re trying to be a finesse team that really isn’t a finesse team. I think at the end of the day, that’s the core. I think Ted Phillips and (George) McCaskey have to sit down and say, ‘This is the kind of football team we want, this is who we are.’ And the general manager has to fill in those blanks and go from there.”

The Ravens have never suffered from a lack of identity. They are a tough, physical team that runs the ball, gets big plays off play-action passes and bootlegs, and plays great defense–this current defense might not be the best example.

Baltimore drafts and signs free agents to this identity. They have been magnificent at knowing when to let players walk away and bring in the next man to fill that spot.

The metrics say pass, pass, pass to score points and gain big yards. The Ravens have found a way through their identity to still get chunk plays and score points. In the past ten seasons, only once did Baltimore finish in the bottom 10 in both yards and points.

The Bears do not need to go back to the days of Walter Payton to the right, Walter Payton to left, Walter Payton up the middle, punt, and hope the defense dominates to win games.

The Bears can make a decision to be a team that will be physical in the trenches on both sides, run the ball, and get chunk plays out of play-action and rolling out the quarterback. It has been working for Baltimore and even the Tennessee Titans are getting success leaning on that identity.

Related Story:10 Matt Nagy replacements to start watching closely

Justin Fields is at his best when the pocket moves. Fields can throw a great deep ball and running the ball opens up play-action which can give Fields the chance to make big throws. Run a few pass-run options plays and screens to add to getting big plays. I feel like I am describing another team that does that, oh that is right, it is the Ravens and how they use Lamar Jackson.

The Ravens are not the perfect franchise. There was the Ray Rice scandal, they have had their fair share of draft busts, and also lost a playoff game to Tim Tebow.

They have built a model that gives them chances at the playoffs and hopes of Super Bowls. The Ravens have had stability in the front office and on the sidelines. The Bears are in constant upheaval.

The Bears can mirror the Ravens in one more way–transition ownership like the Ravens did a decade ago, but that is wishful thinking.

[abstract_thought]

59 minutes ago, soulman said:

I think Ted Phillips and (George) McCaskey have to sit down and say, ‘This is the kind of football team we want, this is who we are.’ And the general manager has to fill in those blanks and go from there.

I strongly disagree with this point. Creating that vision for the kind of football team you want should be up to the GM or President of Football Ops. Ted and George's only input should be that the team must win.

I'm not even sure the Bears have gotten away from a physical gameplan. They have the fewest pass attempts in the league. They sack the opposing QB a lot. And only 1 team runs the ball more (Philly). The Bears have an identity. But what they do well just doesn't outweigh what they do poorly.

What the Bears really need is a group like Harbaugh, Acosta, and Newsome. Finding that right set of people is the most impactful thing the Bears can do this offseason.

[Madmike90]

The Baltimore way is 2nd only to the "Patriot Way" apart from being less successful...to replicate it you need to have a combination of guys who have been in it but are also smart enough to understand that it can't be ran the exact same way...you use the elements of it you can but the stuff that can't be replicated you need to be really clear on and find what works for you.

[soulman]

8 minutes ago, abstract_thought said:

I strongly disagree with this point. Creating that vision for the kind of football team you want should be up to the GM or President of Football Ops. Ted and George's only input should be that the team must win.

Yup, I agree with you.  GMcC and Teddy Bears are the very last guys who should be defining the Bears "identity".  In fact no one really needs to re-define it because it already has been defined.  We're just not living up to that definition because we keep hiring the wrong people.

I'm gonna fall back to where I was and have been for years.  The Bears need top leadership in the form of a Team President or Exec VP who is in charge of the entire operation.  Hire the right guy for that job and give him all of what he needs to put others in place downline who can accomplish his vision and his goals.  This is the guy you want working for you for a decade or longer much like Newsome has in Baltimore.

If your GM and personnel staff aren't getting the job done replace them.  It doesn't take 7 or 8 years to know whether or not they can handle the jobs they've been hired to do.  The same with a coaching staff.  Don't gimme this Nagy kind of "it takes 4 years to learn my offense" BS.  If it takes that long you're the wrong guy for us and we should've known that from the start.  Stop giving HC 5 year contracts.  You get 4 years.....GO.

IMHO this is it.  The McCaskey Family is facing the last bridge left to them.  Either get someone who can do that which you cannot do yourselves or sell the team to someone who will get it done correctly.  This is precisely what GSH did in 1974 when he hired Jim Finks.  This team needs another guy like Jim Finks or like an Ozzie Newsome.  So in that regard the author is correct.  This time GMcC....go big or go home.