balta1701-A

The issue that scares me isn't pass/run, it's polished versus raw. Think about this...how many more years do the Bears have where this group could make a legit run? Do the Bears have time to try to develop a guy who is starting off somewhat raw?

I wouldn't be surprised if a significant chunk of the league was. Even when the NFL had their testing routine going, we still had back in 03 for example a bunch of the Panthers players (including the bloody punter!) going to a doctor for steroid doses around the time of the super bowl, and none of them ever tested positive. But Harrison I can at least say with some certainty has been on stuff. Because he actually got caught.

The same way the current Pats keep up with the rest of the league. Ask Rodney Harrison.

It's also worth asking whether or not he'd fit with the Bears' QB situation. A guy like 85, like Owens, Moss, etc., seems like he would try to be the dominant personality in almost any relationship with a QB at this stage in his career. He'd be the guy blowing up on the sidelines if his QB wasn't getting him the ball (picture Owens and McNabb). At some point in their career, a QB gets to a stage where they can tolerate this behavior, or the WR gets to a stage where he mellows some. Moss may want the ball more in NE sometimes, but he knows beyond any shadow of a doubt he's not in charge there. If the Bears' QB situation doesn't stabilize, then what's going to happen the first game where Johnson gets unhappy about not getting the ball? Can you see Kyle Orton, Joe Flacco, or Brian Griese having the balls to stand up to him and put him in his place? After last season, I think there's a chance Grossman might have finally reached that point based on how he finally seemed to settle in more before getting hurt, and that matchup might work, but I think that if you stick 85 with a rookie, or with Orton, or Griese...you're just asking for trouble.

If the Bears have anhy confidence in those other couple guys based on how they performed at the end of the year, then there's no reason to hold on to Walker. Even if all you do is dump him for a 6th round pick or something like that.

I wonder, if reports of the Bears considering drafting a DT are accurate, perhaps that suggests they're considering moving Harris before he hits FA. If they were convinced they couldn't afford to keep him, or they were convinced his leg would never really recover from that injury, they might well consider moving him for something and filling in that hole.

The reason Barber doesn't make sense for Miami is, IMO, not that they have Brown...a 2 back setup wouldn't be the worst thing in the world, especially with Brown coming off an injury this year. The problem with Barber is that I'm pretty sure he's an RFA this year, which means he's right on the doorstep of getting paid, which is not the kind of guy Miami should be looking to get.

Whether or not it makes sense...I bet you the Patriots are smart enough to realize that a couple of picks in the late first round are more valuable to them than a top 10 pick...regardless of what the standard "Draft value chart" says.

Link. The Redskins have now fully cleaned house, removing some expensive coordinators.

No. Like every rebuilding project in the NFL, you need an average coach, an average system, some level of patience, and a little bit of luck. If you take any one of those parts out, then you fall apart. The Raiders right now are missing the patience part. You can't rebuild if a QB and offense has to learn a new system every single year.

Both Brohm and Woodson are supposed to be first round picks. If you can pick one of those in the 2nd round you have to grab them. Sweed might also rate as a late first rounder, so if he's on the board but the QB's are gone, look at him. Doucet and Thomas might be good backup plans. With that group of people remaining, I might avoid the RB group (the 2nd round type people seem to already be gone), and I still think the Bears are set at DT.

SI has a possible look at the behind the scenes stuff. Kiffin not being allowed in buildings, Davis wanting Dennis Green, etc.

If the Wikipedia source doesn't do it for you, I used that one out of laziness. I can start adding additional press reports on top of that.

Quoting from the Wikipedia entry, you can look elsewhere if you don't buy that as a source:

Actually again, no it wasn't. This was a full year after the Bears had acquired Jones, who didn't give the Bears 1000 yards the year before that and who had been passed on by 2 teams in the couple previous years. The Bears had Jones for a full year before drafting Benson.

Wait a second, are you insisting that Mike Williams wouldn't have hamstrung the Bears with his contract if he'd gone 4th and not 10th? Wouldn't Williams have put himself in almost the same boat as benson, demanding a contract of the sort deserving of a #4 pick, and thus be just as unmovable as Benson now, except even worse of a player?

Since, as people keep pointing out, the 2004 draft was the first one where Angelo had real control, basically what you're saying is you're really unhappy with Benson, since Angelo's 3 1st rounders are Harris, Benson, and Olsen, and he had no first rounder in 06.

With that guy, it's basically mostly info he compiles from videotape. His job right now consists of watching an awful lot of football video tape and putting out stat and fantasy guides with all the details he's seen. So if he says a guy has a bad season, in general, it's believable.

I have a lot of difficulty evaluating picks 1-4 there, for a couple reasons. First and foremost, the Bears had no where to play their 2nd and 4th picks because they just didn't have the roster spots, so we haven't seen these guys really in a position where they even had to compete at all. I am not going to criticize a guy who is basically in a redshirt year until we see them on the field. And even if the guys were a "reach" or people had bad things to say about them in camp, they have a full additional year and another camp before they're counted on for anything. Secondly, I really can't evaluate either Olsen or more specifically Wolfe, because to my eyes, both of their performances were dramatically hurt by the lack of quality in the Bears' O-Line. We will see a lot more from this draft this upcoming year, hopefully. If it struggles, specifically Bazuin, Wolfe, and Okwo, then I'll say you're right. But I can't criticize based on these guys when either they didn't play at all or they had to play behind that O-Line.

LOL, could you imagine that D-Line. Brown, O-Gun, Anderson, Haynesworth, Harris, Dvoracek. The QB might just want to start kneeling down to cut down the sack yardage.

Even if the Bears had the #1 pick this year, do you see an obvious candidate for a guy who is going to step in and tear up the league right away? Heck, even guys who step in and win right away (Roethlisberger) do so when the rest of their offense carries them and their job is only to throw it a few times a game. Unless you've got an obvious trade candidate, there's not really anyone out there who fits your demand here for a person who can step in right now and be a starter.

Since he said he'd be Irate if the Bears traded down and one of those guys is available, I think there's a solid chance you might be right on that. We all know JA loves trading down and stockpiling picks, even if he doesn't have the room to play them. I could certainly see him doing that even if one of those big QB names was available (and I bet several will be).

IMO, this doesn't appear to be the best use of either the Bears' cap room or the Bears available tradeable talent. Not with Harris, Dvoracek, and possibly Walker and those couple other guys they picked up later in the year at that position.

He has the ability to throw a football...something the Bears have struggled with for the last, oh, 25 years or so.