balta1701-A

Beat ya by 1 minute.

Link. Although the Bills are reluctant to use cap space since they are actually a small market team, after last year, this is a good signing. Sort of helps replace London fletcher, bolsters a LB corps that was very weak after Pos got injured, and he's only 28.

ST's? No idea what you're saying there. Here's my problem. The Bears have spent a 4th and a 3rd round pick grabing those 2 young LB's. If they're going and not only spending draft picks on those guys, but are also spending cap space to bring in other guys to fill those same positions, then the Bears are retty much flailing trying to fill that hole. If they can't count on the guys they drafted, then they might as well just sell off and rebuild entirely, because you can't win in this league if you can't draft well.

Brady Quinn therefore is on the market I assume?

None of this should matter to the Bears, simply because they have the cap room to make things work. Angelo did a great job of using his cap space last year to start locking up guys like Tillman and Vasher. There is plenty of room for Harris in the next couple years, especially with an uncapped year coming, if he's smart about it.

Or Okwo for that matter? Seriously, we spend 2 picks getting ready to replace Briggs and we're not going to play either one of them? That's a recipe for NFL franchise futility.

Moose was still not a bad signing when it was made. SOmetimes you can't predict at what age the player will fall off a cliff. With guys like Hester and Bradley, a veteran alongside them wouldn't be a bad thing at all.

Carr has just had a lot more chances to learn how to not suck or to prove that he doesn't suck any more.

I do find this interesting but not for the reason you suggest. In recent years, teams have strongly shied away from hiring guys who are head coaching retreads in favor of the guy getting his first shot at the HC position. Some people have even been surprised how head coaches who put up decent records out there have struggled to find jobs lately.

The Bears already have 2 QB's, who have been in this system, who show at least the same quality that David Carr has shown in the past few years. Stick with the guys you have. If you want a replacement QB, David Carr isn't it any more.

Not exactly Bears news, so thread is moved.

Play the kids. You live and die in the NFL based on how well you draft. You drafted these guys to replace Briggs, play them. I wonder if this is a strong signal that the Pats are taking a LB with that 9ers pick.

I believe I heard earlier today that Phillips had overall a disappointing combine that didn't make up for some disappointments during the season, and this draft is probably such that there isn't a first round safety in the bunch.

Cut Griese, open competition in training camp.

I dunno...next year the Pats might truly not be able to videotape anyone...

For all we know, Moss could walk and the Pats could cut Stallworth to avoid a bonus he has coming up, and he could be the 2nd/3rd option next to Gaffney.

Part of the evaluation has to be the fact that the Bears decided they were deep enough going in to last year's draft to take 2 guys who they thought would be good players and essentially give them a redshirt year (Okwo and Bazuin). Both of these guys should see non-trivial amounts of playing time this year (there's no reason why a team can't play 4 deep at DE), so next year will be the year to evaluate those guys. And at least for now I'm willing to give a "pass" on the Wolfe pick, because I still contend that it would have taken Barry Sanders to put up a 3.5 yard per carry average on the Bears last year when you combine the horrendous play of the O-Line with the lack of a solid passing threat. But these are the 3 key guys (aside from Olsen) that will determine the quality of that draft. They all need to play like 2nd and 3rd round picks when they get time next year.

The issue with Stallworth is always injuries. And I'm still not sold on his attitude, although he survived a season in NY. If the 2 options are signing Stallworth and tagging Berrian, I'm all for signing Stallworth because the cap hit would be less. But that's if those were the only 2 good options.

I think right here you've given the best argument possible for why it doesn't make sense to use the cap for any team that is looking at anything more than a 1 year shot...it's a terribly inefficient use of salary cap space. Except in the uncapped year, you're eating up a gigantic chunk of your cap space with that guy, and more importantly, the cap space you're eating up on that guy could be used to cover 40-50% of his guaranteed money/cap hit anyway.

Any reason why you're so down on Williams so quickly? The impression I got last year was that in the games he played towards the end of the season he at least did an adequate job, perhaps a good job. And then we still have Okwo sitting behind him.

Yes, both of them are. Berrian, interestingly enough, seems to put up numbers on Stallworth's level and is vastly healthier in most years.

Don't forget...the league is on tap for an uncapped year coming up here pretty soon, aren't they? Just from memory, last year's cap space for the Bears was enough to franchise Briggs, pay to bring in Walker, Archuleta, and to write extensions for Vasher and Tillman. Pretty sure the Bears have quite a bit more room this year than they had last year.

I wouldn't trade any of the guys to add a draft pick. But if I could swap Ogun or Anderson in a deal that brought back a key piece (ie Chad Johnson?) at a position where the Bears are weak wouldn't you do it? Johnson's not moving because of the cap hit the Bengals would take, but as an example, if you could bring back a stud WR if you packaged your 2nd rounder and one of those 2 guys...

Doesn't the cap hit murder the team if they try to trade Benson? And, IMO, I don't care which RB they put back there. If they don't fix the O-Line first, then it'd take Barry Sanders before this team had a good looking RB.

Upon giving this some thought...I think that the best move for the Bears is 1/2 big signings. Yes, the Bears have several needs. But there are several other factors that play in to the decision. First, while they may not have a stud at a lot of positions, even at those positions they tend to have some depth. Running back for example, or WR. They don't have a guy who tore up the league last year, but they have a set of recent high round guys at RB, they have a variety of pieces at WR, and even when you look at the O-Line, they still have a couple of anchors in a guy like Kreutz. Second...the Bears have 5 draft picks in the top 4 rounds this year, including one at #14. Add that on top of the fact that they essentially red shirted a bunch of their guys last year (Bazuin, Okwo) and, when you throw in injuries (Dvoracek, Brown, Vasher) they have guys coming back who can make them a lot better already on their roster. Even without FA, if this team went in to next season, it wouldn't bear much resemblance to the team that lost those games in a lot of ways because it got banged up pretty early. So they still have players at a lot of positions, so they don't really need to spread out their $ that much. And third...and perhaps most importantly...they ought to have a clock ticking in their head. Specifically, not just on the O-Line, but on their key player, Urlacher, who is starting to get up there, with neck surgeries, etc. Throw in Harris moving towards FA, Kreutz getting older...the Bears need to try to make that jump back to the top again next year. They can't afford to just plug a hole or two with an average guy and hope to rebuild slowly, they have some reason to want to move quickly to make another run while they still have a few of these key guys. That's why I think you re-sign Grossman, maybe draft a QB somewhere but not in the first, and try to hit that one big success in FA to plug your biggest hole, which in my eyes last year was the O-Line. Spend the 1st pick on an O-Linemen, go all out and sign Faneca if it's even remotely reasonable, and see if a playoff run isn't still within their grasp with this roster.