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A year ago I blasted Emery for the huge Cutler contract...dumping so many resources into one guy who'd proved so little, just like the guy before him did. I made the point that if Emery had just bothered to recognize recent Bears history, he'd have found that didn't work out so well for the last guy. One thing we know...Jerry Angelo hinged his career on Jay Cutler and, to my knowledge, he's out of the NFL right now. The gamble didn't pay off in time to save his job. Phil Emery has now doubled down. Good luck to him. Make that two GMs who didn't agree with me and two GMs who've lost their job because of it.

So is it poor character of me to say I told you so? Does anyone want to argue "that's just the going rate for a QB these days" now? I believe my immediate reaction at the time was along the lines of "25% more than any other team would have paid for Jay Cutler", and with McCown in his pocket, Emery was "totally oblivious of what their bargaining position was...as in, to the point of incompetence." I want Emery gone, and not just because of the Cutler contract. As long as he's running the show, I have to deal with knowing that nothing of consequence will ever change for the better, because the man at the top can't be trusted.

Notice the quote from our own GM, who's considered a stickler for specifics in player scouting, saying Orton has a "big arm". It's been a long time at this point but that used to be a real pet peeve of mine, because Kyle weirdly got the reputation for the opposite among some people (yes, even in these forums). Eventually though, I just used it as a sort of litmus test. If a post referred to him as being weak armed, I knew right then I was dealing with a fan who'll shape their opinion based on the blabber they read on the internet more than what they see on the field. Anyway, he might as well retire. Coming here to backup a guy who just signed a ridonkulous contract, a guy he's outperformed (statistically, albeit barely) since that guy got him shipped out of town...I don't see that happening. Retire a multi-millionaire and leave the CTE to the football heroes.

Urlacher actually said, after the dust was settled and he no longer had an investment in the situation, that he was just starting to feel really good that spring, with respect to his injury...for the first time in more than a year. Of course, some of you will probably just assume he was lying. Nevertheless, I dont' think his knee's progress directly had much to do with it. I suppose it's actually good for him in the end. He's rich enough and his body didn't need the extra wear playing on a team that didn't even make the playoffs without him.

I quit reading after the first few paragraphs. The writer was so comfortable stating half-truths and lies, it doesn't really matter what he thinks. I bet he gets a good link-click count though.

Honestly, until this Jared Allen signing I've been noticing my Bears interest waning a little more than just the average offseason lull. The bloom is off the rose a bit with Emery, I wasn't seeing much good in our D's future, and I was starting to feel the old 'been-there-before' with respect to exciting new opportunities mixed with head scratcher decisions that ultimately just result in...average. Hard Knocks would guarantee my fandom back in top gear.

Awesome! 3 seasons removed from 22 sacks...and he is only 1 year older than Cutler. I wasn't really putting much into the chances of this because it just seemed so far out there, but then I would've said that about Peppers' signing years ago too.

It's so tough to know from just a fan's perspective. The dropoff for Peppers was so sudden, it seems suspicious. How many times has a player had an off year and then bounced back the next, then it comes out that the off year there were some little nagging injuries that have now healed? ...About as often as a player who takes a sudden dive due to injuries or motivation and never gets it back. Know way to know until the fat lady has sung.

McCown is multiple times to us what Josh Freeman is. So if we aren't going to do 2.5million for McCown, are we going to land Josh for $500k? I ask that knowing the answer.

His name isn't quite French enough for my tastes. Now, if it was LeJeDe-veon Clowney, I'd bite.

Gotta say, I didn't notice Peanut being anything but within the range of what he normally is. And the only thing I've heard about him not being starter quality, let alone not even worth 2.5 mil, is on these forums. But then, some of yous are crazy. I agree with Jason. How ironic that the Bears cut Urlacher because of accrued injuries, for all intents and purposes, then the guy they get to replace him misses most of the season...due to injury. Then the defense does a slow, painful dive to the bottom of the NFL. You guys are free to think whatever you want, but if Urlacher's position was that the Bears need him and the Bears position was that they can replace him and get better in the process...well, this past season almost couldn't have gone any more in Urlacher's favor. Which brings me to Peanut. Newsflash...our defense sucks, Tillman is a starter on most teams in the NFL that don't already have two studs, and we need him.

He did some good, though. He helped make sure those decrepit, whiney old-timers got a just barely enough of a settlement to make them go away. Seriously though, Virginia McCaskey probably made more for doing way less. That's life in the big city.

Keep in mind one of the things that stopped him from getting a better oline was what he gave up for Cutler. That doesn't make JA's decisions any better, it just means all his problems were inter-related. To come out saying this now, I think it may have been a little bit of sour grapes on JA's part because JA got fired, Lovie got fired, yet Cutler got his yearly contract more than doubled after he didn't really live up to his last one. No one said life was fair, Jerry. Nevertheless, as far as the whole "I guess the scary part about this if Angelo is correct." part...who cares what Angelo thinks at this point? Cutler isn't some Div II rookie with game footage rarely available. We've seen him on the field for the better part of a decade. We should have our own opinion based on what we've seen. I can't say I've seen that Cutler lacks poise or plays bad specifically because the game is on the line, and I've seen all the same games that JA has.

Maybe "as D-coordinator", which I'm not sure was ever a possibility.

Lovie always had a lot of emphasis on importance of turnovers...at least on D. I think it's possible those other teams would've been more competitive than Denver. But then, it's hard to say because if Denver played Seattle 10 times in a row, the worst performance by Denver would look about like the real SB did. Throw in Sherman pointing out that a lot of Denver's problems had to do with strategy, and it's hard to say what that SB says about each team's on-field talent.

It was a duck forced by getting hit, yeah. Doesn't matter to me. There's lots of differences; it's the similarity that's important. And it went for a pick 6 because his WR fell asleep on the play, just like ours did, which is the part that makes it enjoyable. What goes around, comes around.

Did anyone notice how the Broncos became effectively out of the game upon a duck thrown by Peyton where his WR just stood there and let the CB return it for a TD? Remind you of Mushin Muhammad/Rex Grossman in our SB appearance? What a beautiful coincidence. Now Peyton knows exactly what that feels like.

Good ones. For me it was Mike Brown's walk-off defensive TD to end a second straight game. With respect to tonight's SB, I'm watching this game thinking "Great, the only team Peyton can beat for a championship is the Bears."

Absolutely, part of Url's leagacy was that he was a classy individual off the field too. Now of course, it's all relative, but heck, Barry Sanders had an out-of-wedlock kid too. For most of the other things...standing up for his teammates, giving back to the community, his pride in being a Chicago Bear, maturity as a everyday "show up to work with your lunchpail" player (to my knowledge, no problems with being late or starting fights or being lazy or stupidly giving other teams bulletin board material, or all the myriad things that go on with so many other guys in this league), being an ambassador for the game through his extracurricular appearances in media like tv and radio talk shows, the respect he gave and received (in return) from his fellow NFL'ers, staying out of legal troubles (far from a given in the league, or even on this team! --looking at you Lance Briggs, Tank Johnson, Mike Ditka, ahem, Sam Hurd). The list goes on. Url's bane was that he was never one to worry about what was the easiest thing to say, but instead kept his mouth shut or spoke what he felt was the truth with conviction. I feel it's a quality he shares with Cutler, and Cutler gets bagged for it too...though with Cutler it's usually the apathy more than the conviction that riles people. Either way, it's worth a tip of the hat in this day and age.

So ridiculous! haha

I've seen Hard Knocks before. I wouldn't be scared. I would love for the Bears to do Hard Knocks. Having said that, I fully believe it is a distraction that reduces a team's chances of success, but I watch football to be entertained, and that would be very entertaining. By no means would I say it guarantees a disappointing season. I think the Ravens won the SB the year they did it. I, too, think Jay could actually benefit from it. He's liked by his teammates and is usually said to be aloof, not so much a jerk. One way to warm up to an aloof person is to be more exposed to their personal side.

That extra meaningfulness for 2 teams comes at the expense of all the other regular season games for all the other teams...not to mention that teams that would've been on the bubble before, would now be comfortably in, which is less meaningful for those teams. Basketball's playoffs are a joke. All they do is eliminate the teams that outright suck. It's not even a big deal to make the playoffs in the NBA. So I don't like it at all. The NFL already has a system where the regular season isn't nearly as important as NCAA's regular season. We don't need to add another 4 teams to the mix who don't have to worry about how they fell short of expectations because "hey, we made it in barely, so who cares about all that now?" Having said that, I'd prefer this over a 17th regular season game.

Yeah, but it's the Lions. There's a reason Barry Sanders retired rather than play another year for them.

The thing to keep in mind is that the modern NFL has a salary cap. There's parity. Every GM is trying to field a great team. To be better than the next guy, you have to be smarter, do a good job at identifying talent and then get more bang for your buck than the other GM who also did a good job evaluating talent (you don't have to worry about the GM's who suck). It's not good enough to have a really good QB. You have to have a good entire team. Short of miracle worker coaches, you then have to have money to pay all those guys. The alternative is to end up like Dallas. And I don't want the Bears to be Dallas (Dallas is the big team around here so I get to follow them without even trying). I admit, that's the negative thought that keeps running through my mind about Cutler's deal.

Heh, if you don't know by now, you're not paying attention. Also, I know you realize that Cutler didn't come anywhere close to "took less", regardless of what you're willing to write on an internet forum. I agree things hinged on Cutler, but the problem was that he didn't step up, so how do you get a big deal done quickly when Cutler left things murky by his own play? If he'd been 2/3s as valuable to this team this year as the contract he just signed, we'd be in the playoffs right now. Here's a quote from a Tribune article coming from the agent that inspired the movie Jerry McGuire: http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/footb...,7503115.column "Cutler, obviously, has not performed at the level of Drew Brees, Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady or Peyton Manning," Steinberg said. "And he has been injured and all the rest of it. So those are all the doubts that have to go through your mind because they are paying premium dollars for a quarterback who's not consistently great." Steinberg believes Cutler must have won over the McCaskey family to receive such a commitment. He goes on to describe past players who got in good with owners and it paid off...Bledsoe, Rothlisberger, etc. The McCaskey's are no Jerry Jones, but it does put some doubt in my mind that this was all Emery. One thing we know...Jerry Angelo hinged his career on Jay Cutler and, to my knowledge, he's out of the NFL right now. The gamble didn't pay off in time to save his job. Phil Emery has now doubled down. Good luck to him.