The New York Giants were 4-12 last year, three games worse than the Bears.
Rebuilding was in order for both teams, starting with the coach and the quarterback. The approaches differed. The 5-2 Giants appear to have remodeled quickly, while the 2-5 Bears continue to lay a new foundation.
The Giants traded up to secure the No. 1 quarterback in the draft, Eli Manning. The Bears had traded down the year before for their future quarterback, Rex Grossman.
The Giants hired a coach with a winning track record as an NFL head coach and a college head coach. Tom Coughlin hired 13 position coaches with a total of 111 years NFL coaching experience.
The Bears hired Lovie Smith, who had been a successful NFL defensive coach for eight years. He hired 14 position coaches with a total of 28 years NFL coaching experience.
The Bears also fielded the least-experienced team in the league; the Giants went with the 13th most-experienced team.
Instead of throwing Manning into a lineup predicted to finish last in the NFC East Division, the Giants hired two-time league MVP Kurt Warner and told him he could compete with Manning for the starting job.
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The Bears, predicted to finish third or fourth in the NFC North, got rid of their only experienced quarterback, Chris Chandler, and gave the job to Grossman.
“There are different ways to win in this league,” Warner said Sunday after beating the Vikings in Minnesota.
The Bears, who travel to East Rutherford, N.J., to play the Giants on Sunday, hope so.
Warner was referring to styles of offense more than administrative styles. If the Bears had been willing to offer Warner a chance to compete with Grossman, the former St. Louis Rams hero would have considered Chicago.
The offensive style of the Bears under coordinator Terry Shea is supposed to resemble the offensive style of the Rams, although Shea cannot afford yet to take the risks Rams coach Mike Martz routinely takes.
In New York, Warner is adapting to a more conservative approach. Against the Vikings he looked awkward at times as he held the ball in the pocket and took five sacks. But he was protecting an early 17-0 lead set up by two turnovers and a penalty. He completed only 13 passes for 144 yards, but the Giants had no turnovers.
Warner, who threw 98 touchdown passes from 1999-2001, has thrown only four in seven games with the Giants. Against the Vikings, he handed off for four touchdowns, including an audible to Tiki Barber when a pass play had been called.
Warner acknowledges that the change in philosophy has been “challenging, and at times frustrating.”
“When I was playing in St. Louis I thought this was the only way to play, the best way to play,” Warner said. “But here we have a different team. You have to play the game completely different from how you played it before and still find ways to be successful.”
Warner feels more pressure operating the Giants’ system than he did as ringmaster of the “Greatest Show on Turf.”
“When I was in St. Louis the philosophy was be aggressive–if you make a mistake, so what, we’ll make up for it,” Warner said. “Here it’s be aggressive but don’t make any mistakes. So it puts more pressure on me to try to be perfect in every situation. You know one or two mistakes can turn a game around.”
Warner has thrown only two interceptions in 202 attempts. After he threw 11 interceptions in 220 attempts in six 2002 starts in St. Louis, he looked washed up. Now he’s on a prolonged audition for next season, when he will be 34 and a free agent.
“At some point, obviously, Eli is going to be the guy,” Warner said.
“I just want to play out this season and give everything I have to help this team win a championship, and we’ll take the future as it comes.”