balta1701-A

Oh and come on Indy, kick it to Hester! I'm sure you can stop him this time!

While I've spent the offseason focusing on the O-Line...now it's time to bring up another issue...Orton needs to help his O-Line out too. He needs to keep his feet moving and get the ball out of his hands quickly.

Out of that group I'd normally lean towards Taylor or Green (esp. early in the season on him) but just off the stats last year, Tennesse and Pittsburgh (playing Jax and Hou respectively) were #5 and #3 in the NFL against the run. Cinci is playing Baltimore and they were #2 against the run last year. Going off of the quality of the defenses, you sort of lean towards one of the Williams's, the Jets were at the bottom of the league in run defense last year and the Chargers were in the middle of the pack.

Even as a Bills fan, I'm still not sure what they'll have in their offense this year. They're going to try to go to the west coast style attack, but that's still Dick Jauron at the helm, even if there's a new OC. They have other options in Lynch and Hardy, but last year Evans suffered a fair amount because he was the only one that anyone feared on the Bills offense. With Trent Edwards, a new OC, Jason Peters still holding out, there's plenty of Evans related question marks right now.

Yeah, they've managed to get the other sites running but the server issues have knocked out ST, and some of us have spent the day running in circles and panicking and bouncing our heads off the walls because we don't know what to do.

Check this thread.

Folks, let's also try to keep the personal attacks out of here. It doesn't help anyone to just start insulting everyone else, you never get anywhere with that.

Mercy those were some disastrous draft picks.

FWIW, here's a list of the current most likely #2 quarterbacks for the rest of the league. With Grossman there, the Bears are actually in one of the better spots in that boat.

BTW, pinned for importance.

If the Bears are anywhere in the top 5, that means that the offense totally fell apart and the defense got hurt. But that also means Grossman and Orton both flopped, because even decent performances out of them will push the Bears out of the top 5. If the Bears are drafting that high, I think they have to look for a franchise QB.

I'd just like to add that I hate the 53 man roster limit in the NFL.

Some solid news on the injury front.

The Tribune is saying that Williams could be ready in early November.

If they didn't think he'd be able to play this year he'd be on IR already.

Because the Bears have never taken anyone off of some other team's scrap heap and turned him in to a key piece. (Thomas Jones).

There is always, always a surprise team or two suddenly finding its stride, especially if their lines perform well. Don't count out the Jets until we see them in a few games. Honestly though I think what's probably actually going to happen is that Brett Favre is going to come in to this season feeling like he has a chip on his shoulder, something to prove. He's going to go out and try to do everything himself. And that's going to wind up costing him. He won't want to play within whatever system the Jets try to set up, he's going to want to be the man all the time, and that's what was hurting GB a few years ago when they had no talent around him.

So, here's the 2 questions I have. 1. Let's say Williams misses the first couple weeks. How bad of a wound is that? Is that something recoverable? 2. What other moves could the Bears have made to avoid this circumstance? Was there an O-Lineman out there at a reasonable price that someone else signed that the Bears should have picked up? Or should the Bears have sacrificed one of Harris, Urlacher, or Hester to get the cap room to go after a higher priced guy? Or not drafted Forte in the 2nd or that WR in the 3rd and focused on the OLine instead? Also, aren't there still options available on the market if Williams can't go?

I think it would at best push the team to a "C" grade. If he turned in to Carson Palmer or Drew Brees, a "B", Peyton or Brady an "A". But basically, if your #1 pick, the guy you dump a crap load of cap space on from the top 5 busts horrifically, you better find the next Tom Brady if you don't want to get a failing draft grade.

There's no way this isn't ripping their locker room apart.

If you're having a legit QB competition...then they ought to see a reasonable amount of time. 1 quarter or more each. Regardless of Rex's injury history. Play em.

Coming in to Training camp, the Bears were 1 of 12 or so teams that actually had the cap space to trade for Favre straight up. But that was before the Urlacher and Hester deals. The Bears simply don't have the cap room right now to trade for him straight up for a draft pick, they'd have to clear a fair amount of cap space on their own in the deal. Either that or there'd have to be a contract renegotiation to cut down his cap hit.

Problem is...is there no team out there that could give him a better offer, shot at least at being a backup?

Well, let's hope this turns out to not be the only way he's the anti-Benson.

On this one I totally agree. The Hester of last year is worth probably more to me than Berrian, just in terms of how much damage he did, and that's with only a handful of big plays on offense.