Bearstalk

GMs, I have renewed our annual TalkBears Fantasy Football Keeper league, which is now entering its 15th season (which is crazy). At the end of last season, there were 9 GMs that said they would be returning. An email invite went out on June 17th from Yahoo, but I definitely want to get confirmation on the 9 GMs returning from last year and ask if there is any interest from the board or you know of someone else for filling in the 10th spot. If so, please let me know here and I will send out an invite (will need email address). Once we get 10 confirmations, we can schedule the draft and I can send out the LeagueSafe payment dues ($75 per team). The winning pa…

1. Why does everyone assume Olsen won't fit with the Martz offense? We have 3 pretty good "receiving" TE's on the roster. The Martz offense typically calls for 3 WR sets. Doesn't Olsen or Dez Clark become the 3rd WR??? A typical offensive set would be QB, 5 o-linemen, RB, 2 TE's, 2 WR's. Seems like a no-brainer. 2. Manumaleuna is such a unique player, who backs him up? When we drafted Lance Louis we speculated he might become a blocking TE. Is he the guy?

http://www.chicagobears.com/team/depthchart.asp Also via Zach Zaidman:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/footb...,4136759.column Newly elected Pro Football Hall of Famer Marshall Faulk had some choice comments about the Bears and the Mike Martz offense: "In this offense if you run a slant and a defender is coming down on you then you have to cross his face," he said Tuesday on "Chicago Tribune Live." "But every time I see Johnny Knox run a slant he goes behind the defender and you see an interception go the other way and everyone looks at Jay Cutler and says, 'How did he throw that pass?' That is going to be a mistake no matter who the quarterback is." On the quality of the Bears wide receivers: "I see no pure wideout.…

I still think the Bears will sign one of each, if not both, a notable at WR and/or OL. There are too many to ponder at both positions but something tells me that despite all the talk contrary, the Bears will sign a big bodied WR. And of those I have a feeling one of these will be it: Vincent Jackson, Braylon Edwards, Plaxico Burress or yes..I'll say it Randy Moss. I know the last two are troubling off camera but in both cases I think they are set to redeem themselves. And I have NEVER been a Moss fan but something tells me that he might just work out in Chicago.

per Schefter

Here is the current list of top 100 FA's for 2020 from The Athletic. I excluded the top 30 due to the expected salaries and/or projected tags. This is the remaining list. If you could pick 4 guys off this list to target, who would they be? After reading some articles about FA TE failures, I am avoiding TE in FA. I selected Fuller's brother at CB, Vonn Bell to play SS, Vaitai to replace Leno, and Glasgow at G. All are young enough to play out a full contract. I also re-signed Kwit (not counting that as a target). Then in the draft, the team can address TE, Edge, speed at WR, and depth. Top 1-30 Excluded: 31. Chris Harris Jr., CB, Broncos (31) 32. D.J. Humphr…

I especially like the brown helmets. Instead of cheese heads they could be called turd heads. The accompanying article is below. http://host.madison.com/sports/football/pr...1cc4c03286.html

Like others here, I've started to look to the draft and we've seen a lot of names thrown out. Any guys that are potential targets for the Bears you really want them to stay away from? I'll start: Jon Baldwin, WR, Pitt. Seems like the big WR the Bears need and may be around when the Bears pick in the first, but he doesn't make anyone miss, looks like a TE when he runs, and he body-catches way too much (even when he catches with his hands, he seems to need to hold the ball against his body to steady it). Mix in attitude/maturity concerns and I'm out. I'm also weary of Mike Pouncey in the first. I think if his name was Mike Jones, he'd be a third round pick.

At this point, 19 days before the draft, the direction I'm going with the 1st 2 pick is replacing these 2 guys. Those 2 guys played the biggest roles for our beloved Bears who have yet to be replaced. You can say we replaced Izzy with Turk Mcbribe and replaced DJ Moore with Hayden/Bowman but I believe we could still use an upgrade over those guys. Mcbride wasn't able to find that much time playing for the terrible Saints D, Hayden ranked in the bottom half of free agent CBs according to PFF, and Bowman was relegated to almost strictly ST work. I'm really leaning towards Trufant in the 1st, I think he would offer the most value to the Bears next year and in the futu…

Didn't wanna take away from the other thread so I'll start a new one. I'm cap illiterate so I was trying to figure out how much the bears would save if they cut him next year.... I read this on roto So to me that sounds like the bears save nearly 14 mill by cutting him while only being on the hook for a little over 4M right?

I wanted to get other fan's opinions on this topic because I am stuck in between on this one. On one hand, if Cutler and Forte don't get hurt, IMO they finish 12-4 with an outside shot at beating GB in Lambeau to finish 13-3. That would suggest that they are right there and only need a few tweaks to get there, mainly a #1 WR and a LT. OTOH, the Bears defense is aging with all of their stars on the wrong side of 30, and on offense, Cutler is going to be 29 this season, so he probably has 4-6 years left of being a reliable option before his skills start to erode. I would probably go for it in the 2012 season, and win or lose, dismantle the team after the season. They s…

Specifically, I'm having the pipe dream of Marvin Harrison and Torry Holt. What if the Bears signed them both? That makes the WRs: Harrison, Holt, Hester, Bennett, and whoever else That thought makes Jason happy.

I think we can say that the Bears have a game plan, and what they have did so far is clear. A #1 WR and they have Marshall. In the last 5 years they is only one WR that has more catches, Welker. Fix the backup QB spot, they now have 2 that could give us good minutes. Resign who they wanted back from our own. Ildonije, Stelz, McCown, Davis, Bell, Jennings.(I think they still may sign Okoye. They chased Mincey and didnt get him, so that tells me DE will probably be our # 1 round pick. They wont be going after Wimbley.( to much money) That they are satisfied with the Oline, but are trying for Herrera, and a 2nd or 3rd round pick at OT. They resig…

Bulls Head Coach Tom Thibodeau fired today. Very unfortunate.... http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2465606...paign=editorial

Guess I'm just an old fool who after watching the Bears Packer game. During a stopage in play, I believe it was the 4'th quarter. Cutler and Rogers were yucking it up on the sidelines. A first I thought it was a split sceen pregame thing, but no! I don't understand how things have changed since the days of Halas, Lombardie, Forest Greg and Ditka. I know many Bears have gone onto play for the Packer, and vice versa. But never during a game, have I seen players yuck it up like I did during this game while getting your ass kicked, as I did today!!! Maybe it's just time to move onto something else. Really sad old fart! Bill

I called this happening a while back and its now a reality/possibility. THIS is the type of guy you trade for and who would fit perfect for us. I dont know what it would take to get him, but it definitely would be worth exploring. If we sign somehow find some competent FA O-lineman, Id be fine trading our 1st rd. pick; or next years and.....? ANQUAN BOLTIN'? Now that the Cardinals have locked up receiver Larry Fitzgerald at a more affordable (or, as the case may be, less unaffordable) price over the next four seasons, they might have to deal with another thorny issue at the position. According to Adam Schefter of NFL Network, Anquan Boldin could want more m…

http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/here-are...fls-qb-shuffle/ We know I'd be all for this move. I didn't post the excerpt, but evidently reports are the Jets have a very high grade on Jimmy G as well, but don't view him as a realistic option as the expectation is Pats wouldn't trade him within the division and would prefer to trade him outside of the conference.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BENCH PRESS TIGHT ENDS Name Reps Harbor, Clay 30 Pitta, Dennis 27 Hoomanawanui, Michael 25 Dickerson, Dorin 24 Dickson, Ed 23 Gronkowski, Rob 23 Quarless, Andrew 23 Graham, Garrett 20 Gresham, Jermaine 20 OFFENSIVE LINEMEN Name Reps Petrus, Mitch 45 Okung, Russell 38 Hawley, Joe 35 Olsen, Eric 35 Campbell, Bruce 34 Byers, Jeff 33 Washington, Tony 33 Lauvao, Shawn 33 Veldheer, Jared 32 Ducasse, Vlad 29 Wang, Ed 29 Welch, Thomas 29 Young, Sam 29 SPECIALISTS Name Reps Malone, Robert 19 Mesko, Zoltan 16 …

Link Pretty interesting. They've covered a lot of ground and plugged plenty of holes already.