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LAKE FOREST, Ill. -- The first attempt by the Chicago Bears to hire a former member of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers proved unfruitful, but that won't stop the team from speaking with former Bucs quarterbacks coach Alex Van Pelt about the same position, according to a source.

The Bears plan to interview Van Pelt sometime this week, according to the source. But it's unclear where the meeting will take place because as of Monday evening, Bears coach Lovie Smith hadn't yet returned to the Chicago area. Smith owns a home in the Tampa area, and it's likely his meeting with Van Pelt could take place there.

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MOBILE, Ala. -- The Chicago Bears assuaged concerns about the potential departure of offensive coordinator Mike Tice on Monday with an announcement that the coach is no longer in the running for the Oakland Raiders head coaching job.

“I would’ve loved to go through the process,” Tice told ESPNChicago.com on Monday night.

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The Chicago Bears have narrowed their list of candidates for offensive line coach to "five or six," including recently hired University of Pittsburgh offensive coordinator Bob Bostad and former St. Louis Rams offensive line coach Steve Loney, according to a source.

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Apparently, recently promoted Chicago Bears offensive coordinator Mike Tice could be in line for another bump up the coaching chain, as the Oakland Raiders are scheduled to bring him in Tuesday for an interview, according to an NFL source.

The Raiders requested permission from the Bears to interview Tice for their head coaching vacancy on Tuesday, according to sources.

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CHICAGO -- The Chicago Bears signed special teams coordinator Dave Toub to a two-year extension, the organization announced on Tuesday.

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The Chicago Bears announced plans to bring in candidates to interview for the vacant general manager position on Wednesday, but they followed that with an actual interview Thursday of former Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive coordinator Greg Olson for the position of passing games/quarterbacks coach, according to an NFL source.

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CHICAGO -- Tennessee Titans quarterbacks coach/passing game coordinator Dowell Loggains is emerging as a candidate for a similar position with the Chicago Bears, according to a source familiar with the situation.

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The Chicago Bears will promote offensive line coach Mike Tice to offensive coordinator, replacing Mike Martz, according to a source familiar with the situation.

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In some ways you almost have to admire the half-crazed, half-full philosophy of Lovie Smith.

As the Chicago Bears coach put it Monday, “When you’re 7-8 and some disappointing things have happened during the course of the season, the only thing you can do is get to 8-8 . . . ”

He also ticked off the many other good things that happened with the Bears’ first victory in their last six games Sunday, like the offense getting to 2,000 rushing yards for the season; special teams reaching plus-40 net yards; Charles Tillman returning a team-record fifth career interception for a touchdown; and of course, the team extending its winning streak against the Minnesota Vikings to five games.

“All those things were important for our football team,” Smith said.

How can you not admire that sort of rationale?

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LAKE FOREST, Ill. -- Conclusion of the Chicago Bears' 2011 season provided zero clarity concerning Mike Martz's prospects for a return in 2012 as the team's offensive coordinator.

A day after his team defeated the Minnesota Vikings 17-13 in the season finale, coach Lovie Smith remained tight lipped about Martz's future, saying he and the offensive coordinator haven't yet met to discuss matters.

"I haven't talked to the coaches, so I'm not going to talk to you about any of them right now, and I think you can understand that," Smith said. "This is the process we've gone through: we get off the plane last night, and we came here today, met the team, and eventually I'll meet with the coaches. I'll meet with our administration, and give you a better idea of what direction we're going with everyone then. Mike did a super job for us. He had a lot of injuries this year. I think you guys know how I feel about him. But this is a new year coming up, and we'll see how that goes."

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LAKE FOREST, Ill. -- Chicago Bears special teams coordinator Dave Toub will interview for the Miami Dolphins' head coaching vacancy, a league source confirmed on Monday.

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LAKE FOREST, Ill. -- Chicago Bears offensive coordinator Mike Martz continued to express a desire to return to the team in 2012, while coach Lovie Smith became perturbed with more inquiries about his assistant's future.

Asked whether he planned to bring back Martz next season, Smith frustratingly asked a few questions of his own.

"What kind of a question is that, anyway, at this time?" Smith asked. "What kind of a question is that? Why would you ask a question like that any way?"

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CHICAGO -- Here are five things we learned following the Chicago Bears' 27-17 loss to the Green Bay Packers on Sunday at Soldier Field.

1. We have much to learn about the offense: What is this offense exactly? Are the Bears a running team? A passing team? Can they score on a consistent basis? The trends we witnessed in Week 3 were alarming to say the least. The Bears were unable to run the ball at a historic rate, the quarterback was all over the place, the receivers either dropped balls or failed to make plays on the football and the offensive line committed penalties and failed to open up many holes. Not good. There were a few individual bright spots from Johnny Knox, Devin Hester and Kellen Davis, but the Bears can't depend all year on the occasional big play. The Bears held the ball for only 22:31. How are you supposed to knock off the defending Super Bowl champions when that happens? Forget about trying to shift the blame -- which is exactly what the Bears did after the Saints game -- this entire unit needs to come together and correct the problems. If they don't, key members of the defense will break down, and the season will spiral out of control. If you think it's too early in the year for that to happen, think again.

2. Earl Bennett's injury hurts the offense: Bennett is one guy Jay Cutler truly trusts on the field. Rookie Dane Sanzenbacher is another. After that … I don't know. Knox and Hester both have their moments, but Knox simply can't drop that long pass in the third quarter. That was a killer. I'd love to see the Bears feature Hester one of these days, however, it just never seems to happen. You could see Hester's frustrations boil over late in the game when he got a personal foul for engaging in some Hurricane-on-Hurricane crime with Miami product and Green Bay cornerback Sam Shields. But at least once in a while Cutler gets something going with Hester and Knox. To put it nicely, the Roy Williams experiment isn't going well. Granted, Williams is still bothered by a groin injury, but he and Cutler appeared to be in different area codes. Either Williams fooled the quarterback or the quarterback fooled himself, but something is not right between those two. If teams go into a game with the intent of taking away Matt Forte (which Green Bay obviously did), who can the Bears turn to on offense? Now that's a scary question.

3. Green Bay out-schemed the Bears on offense: Of course, weapons like Aaron Rodgers, Greg Jennings, Jermichael Finley, etc. make it easier to call a game on offense, but the Packers exploited the Bears defense in several impressive ways on Sunday. First of all, Finley is a mismatch like no other in this league at the tight end position. Coming to the line of scrimmage, then shifting to flex him out wide to face off in single coverage with safety Craig Steltz is criminal. How can the Bears possibly expect Steltz to win that battle? Predictably, Finley moved the chains on a 24-yard completion, then caught one of his three touchdown passes a few plays later. The Packers also hurt the Bears in the running game by using such wide splits on their offensive line. Those splits made it nearly impossible for Bears defenders to fulfill their two-gap responsibilities, which allowed Ryan Grant to pick and choose his spots on the cutback. It's a genius design by the Packers, but one they use every week. It's not like the Bears didn't know it was coming. Despite all of this, the defense still hung in there and forced a few turnovers in the second half to keep the Bears in the game, which is a testament to players like Brian Urlacher (interception) and Lance Briggs (forced fumble).

4. Jay Cutler isn't Aaron Rodgers: At least, not on this team. However, it's interesting to imagine what Cutler would be like with Finley, Jennings, Jordy Nelson and Donald Driver. Maybe, with all his natural talent, Cutler would be at the same or even a higher level than Rodgers. Cutler can make throws other quarterbacks can only dream of making. But right now, the quarterback looks uncomfortable, unsure and downright annoyed by the circumstances. In a way, I don't blame him; the pieces around him are flawed. But let's cut to the chase: Cutler got paid when he signed the extension. The Bears gave him a $7 million signing bonus. His base salary was $14.944 million in 2009 and $7 million in 2010 and Cutler is set to make $7.6 million in 2011, $7.7 million in 2012 and $8.470 million in 2013. To put it nicely, he needs to try and make it work.

5. Carolina is a pivotal game: Every game is critical in the NFL, but the Bears absolutely cannot afford to drop next week's home date against the Carolina Panthers. With a Monday Night game looming the following week in Detroit against the upstart Lions, the Bears must take care of business when they square off against their former defensive coordinator and current Panthers head coach Ron Rivera. As we all know, it did not end well for Rivera here in Chicago, and I'm sure he would love nothing else than to beat the man responsible for his departure: Lovie Smith. From a talent standpoint, the Bears are a better team. From an emotional standpoint, they better be ready. I'll be amazed if the Panthers aren't sky high at kickoff next Sunday.

The Chicago Bears had a guest of honor break practice on Wednesday, and it was an honor the young man isn't likely to forget.

Collin Wehr, 10, of Northbrook, was at practice as part of the Make-A-Wish-Foundation's effort to let him become an NFL Network Bears beat reporter for a day. Wehr was joined by his favorite NFL Network personality, Tom Waddle.

"We interviewed Lovie Smith, who could not have been more gracious and sincere in making sure Collin had a great experience," said Waddle, a former Bears receiver and ESPN 1000 co-host of "The Waddle & Silvy Show." "He interviewed Julius Peppers, Robbie Gould stopped by, and Charles Tillman was there.

"But probably one of the most exciting parts of the day for Collin came with 30 minutes to go in practice. We were watching with NFL Network people, the Wehr family, and some Bears people, and Lovie Smith comes over and talks to Collin. They had a nice conversation, and Lovie says, 'We have a few more plays to run, in about 20 minutes, I'm going to have to Brian and some of the guys come out and wheel you out to the middle of the field and you're going to break practice.'"

Waddle can't remember that happening before.

"So Brian Urlacher and Julius Peppers and Jay Cutler come over and wheel Collin out to the middle of the field, where the whole team surrounds him, and he gets to break practice."

Waddle said Wehr was able to do intros and wraps to his report as well as talk to an NFL Network anchor.

"The Bears could not have been better," Waddle said. "Lovie Smith, sometimes you just don't know who Lovie really is, because you never get to look behind the curtain.

"I've been in Chicago since 1989, and Mike Ditka has done a lot of great things. I've been around a lot of players who have done a lot of great things. I've never been around a guy who was more willing to participate and make sure this was a special day for a kid than Lovie was yesterday. Lovie was engaging. He was completely involved with it. He was very humble and humorous in the interview, and he had a great sense of humor with Collin. It was just a great experience."

The piece is expected to run next week on The NFL Network.