Durkin: Trestman Addresses Report On Job Security
By Dan Durkin-
(CBS) Addressing the media for the first time since a national report surfaced that characterized his job security as "tenuous" and that players have begun "tuning him out," Bears coach Marc Trestman conveyed a message of support both from upper management and his players on Monday.
"The support in this building has been outstanding," Trestman said. "That's all I can say. Everybody upstairs has been extremely supportive of the way we're handling things. Our team has been unbelievably compliant in doing everything that we as coaches and myself have asked them to do That's evident on the field. It's evident in the locker room. It's evident in the meeting room that these guys are an amazing group of men that have been extremely compliant. And the support has been there."
Safety Ryan Mundy said that the locker room -- at least from his perspective -- hasn't lost faith in Trestman. Mundy noted that Trestman's calm demeanor and thoughtful messaging resonates with players.
"When you have a thoughtful coach like that, he means exactly what he's saying," Mundy said. "So, it's never a response out of emotion or anger or excitement. It's always well-thought out and calculated. So you have to take that into account and realize that this is exactly what he means because he thought about it."
Trestman said last week that the bye week was coming at a perfect time for a team in need of pushing reset on a disappointing 3-5 mark in the first half of the season. The Bears have lost four of their last five games and have slipped into last place in the NFC North.
Not only did Trestman take time over the bye to schematically self-scout his team's tendencies in all three phases, he used it as an opportunity to reach out to players and determine what more he can do to help them. Trestman noted the feedback from players was a message of personal accountability and responsibility and a need for everyone to pull their weight in order to turn things around.
Undoubtedly, it's a tense time at Halas Hall. This team needs a win in the worst way possible, but looking at the next entry in their series of 16 one-game seasons, it's hard to look at a trip to Lambeau this Sunday night as an opportunity to right the ship.
"We understand the disappointment that they have in our productivity over the first eight weeks," Trestman said. "We have a sense of urgency that starts not just in our building but outside of our building because we know how important this team is to everybody in our community. This group of coaches and players are doing everything on a daily basis to put ourselves in that position where we can go out each Sunday, Thursday, Monday, whatever it might be, and win a football game.
"We've got to do to the things on a daily basis to get it done. We can't wait for Sunday and decide we're going to play on Sunday. We've got to do it today. We've got to do it each and every day, and that's what we're working to do in a disciplined and focused manner. That's how we're doing it, and we've got a bunch of passionate guys in the locker room who want to get it done."
Sound bytes to fans via the media don't win football games. Talent and coaching does. Thus, the onus is on Trestman to pull this together, otherwise media speculation about his job security won't be his ultimate undoing.
His team's performance will.
Dan Durkin covers the Bears for CBSChicago.com and is a frequent contributor to 670 The Score. Follow him on Twitter at @djdurkin.
