COACHING CHANGES
This is the part where it's hardest to remember and/or look up what happened with who. So you better appreciate this part, goddammit. And I can't find a definitive list, so I'm just going down the list of guys that the Bears website says joined the team in 2007.
DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR - Bob Babich - The biggest news was Ron Rivera heading off to do whatever in San Diego, with this guy, one of Lovie's old homeys from way back, taking his place. And the biggest complaint with Rivera was that his "bend, but don't break" philosophy gave up a lot of yards and put the Bears in a lot of bad situations. In the first week or so of the season, Babich had a much different philosophy, which was more along the lines of "BLITZ THEM! BREAK THEM! CRUSH THEM ALL! THEIR WOMEN SHALL BE OURS! THEIR CITIES SHALL BE AS DUST! FLESH! MORE FLESH FOR THE FIRE!" Which was then followed by an assistant coach frantically running up and telling him that Mike Brown and Dusty Dvoracek were injured, followed by him going "oh snap, maybe we should try bending, but not breaking," which was later followed another assistant notifying him that all the Bears' defensive players capable of only bending were on injured reserve, and with just easily-broken dudes out there, all hope was gone. At least I think that's how it went.
QUARTERBACKS COACH - Pep Hamilton - Apparently, his main task was going to be to help "bring consistency to the quarterback position." And hey, mission accomplished. Instead of the Sex Cannon having a few superlative games and a few godawful ones, he was just consistently bad all year. So he did his job well. Aside from that, all he managed to do was to bring shame and dishonor to the traditional African name "Pep."
OFFENSIVE LINE ASSISTANT - Luke Butkus - Hey, that's Dick Butkus's kid. Or grandkid. Or something. Who knows. But she sure did assist in a whole lot of the coaching of unblocking, that's for sure.
OFFENSIVE QUALITY CONTROL - Charles London - I think the thought of the Bears having an "offensive quality control" guy is something that could only happen as like a joke or a snide comment or something. But yeah, controlling something that doesn't exist had to have been an easy job.
DEFENSIVE LINE COACH - Brick Haley - Holy shit, I think they only hired this guy to overcompensate for having a dude named Pep on the team. That's the best name ever. I think I'm going to register to vote, just so I can write in "Brick Haley" for every governmental position. That's like the name of a guy who would parachute in with nothing more than a knife and a canteen and then slaughter the entire Viet Cong army. The name of a man who wouldn't wait until you were finished talking to slap the shit out of you. Wow.
LINEBACKERS COACH - Hardy Nickerson - THIS IS HARDY NICKERSON'S SHOE, MAN! BAAAAD THINGS, MAN!
THE DRAFT
Aw, hell.
Round 1, Pick 31 - Greg Olsen, TE, Miami - The Bears did Jerry Angelo's "we draft to our strengths" thing, and picked a guy they pretty much didn't need with Desmond Clark still around. Still, I suppose it worked out okay, because he seemed fully capable of turning into Jeremy Shockey, except a lot faster and without being as bad a blocker or as big an asshole as Jeremy Shockey.
Round 2, Pick 62 - Dan Bazuin, DE, Central Michigan - Another one of Angelo's annoying little things is his "look how smart I am for picking someone no one would have drafted at all in the second round!" strategy. Sure, Danieal Manning hasn't been completely embarrassing, but that crapshoot seems to have failed this time around, taking a bad player at a position the team was already three deep at. In fact, I'm pretty sure the fact that being on injured reserve freed up his roster spot is the only reason this dude didn't get cut in the preseason. Unless he's put on twenty pounds and learned how to play football against dudes who didn't get turned down by real colleges during his down time, he might be screwed in 2008.
Round 3, Pick 93 - Garrett Wolfe, RB, Northern Illinois - Another possible reach from a school that has to have a direction in its name, so people will know where it is. But despite the dude being five-foot-nothing and about 68 pounds, I honestly don't think this one was too bad. A little speedy quick dude with wide receiver hands is always useful, especially when you need a change of pace from your starting running back, who's supposed to be a big, bruising dude. But until a lot of coaches get fired, I don't see him doing much. Why? Because this is what we see when we look at Garrett Wolfe:
But this is what offensive coordinator Ron Turner sees when he looks at Garrett Wolfe:
I think what I'm trying to say here is AAARRGGGH WHYWOULDYOURUNA175POUNDRUNNINGBACKUPTHEMIDDLEON3RDAND7 AAAAARRRGGGGHHHHHHHH. Or something.
Round 3, Pick 94 - Michael Okwo, LB, Stanford - Well, with Lance Briggs's future as a Bear uncertain, of course you would draft a linebacker to replace him. Well, unless you had already drafted Jamar Williams to do that a year before. Oops.
Round 4, Pick 130 - Josh Beekman, OG, Boston College - Here's another real winner. This guy couldn't get a single snap of playing time as a backup behind what was one of the worst offensive lines in the league even before everyone started getting injured. In fact, by the end of the year, he was no longer a backup guard and was called a backup center instead. And in case you didn't know, no one has backup centers in the NFL. They just hope nothing happens to the starter and throw a guard in there when something does. Josh Beekman had an imaginary position this year. And I'm guessing he won't be back next year.
Round 5, Pick 167 - Kevin Payne, S, UL-Monroe - Hey, he was actually pretty good. Until he remembered he was a Chicago safety and got injured. Dammit.
Round 5, Pick 168 - Corey Graham, CB, New Hampshire - I honestly don't remember a thing about Corey Graham. He's a nice enough fellow, I'm sure.
Round 7, Pick 221 - Trumaine McBride, CB, Mississippi - Hey, he wasn't bad, either. Hell, he even jumped ahead of Ricky Manning Jr. and started most of the year after Nathan Vasher went down. I mean, he didn't exactly set the world on fire with his amazing pass coverage, but he's got a future.
Round 7, Pick 241 - Aaron Brant, OT, Iowa State - Hell, I dunno, practice squad?
NEXT TIME: QUARTERBACKS! Oh... Oh god...
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