balta1701-A

On the other hand, wasn't the guy who at least did most of the calling-out named Terrell Owens?

Given that Rex is a FA next offseason, and the guy the Eagles just drafted will have a season on the bench under his belt @ that point, I'd say that this may be much more likely a topic next offseason than this one. I can't imagine the Eagles going into this season thinking that AJ Feeley and Kelley Holcumb are going to hold down the fort @ QB. Not if they still think their super bowl window is open.

"And down goes Grossman!"

It seems like with the running attack the Bears should be able to throw out and the fact that Grossman doesn't seem like he's big into the Shotgun, it's only logical for the 2 TE set to be one of the Bears key formations. You're set up for both the power running game and the play-action passing game quite well.

The best way to protect a QB in those situations is to not have many of them. If everyone and their grandmother knows you're passing, then I don't care who you have in the backfield as your blocker, eventually a good defense is going to be all over the QB.

He's probably trying to wait out a contract hoping for what he would have gotten if he'd gone in one of the middle rounds of the draft. Part of me hopes he just keeps waiting, because eventually the only team that's going to want to sign him is going to be some crappy team with a poor offensive line behind which he'll look terrible and wind up out of football in a few years. UDFA's...think before you sign. You're a UDFA RB? How about a team that features the running game heavily and could use some RB depth behind a solid O-Line? Maybe sign a contract there and wind up getting some decent yardage? Eh? Eh?

If Cedric Benson can be the back the Bears were hoping they'd get when they spent a #4 draft pick on him...then it won't matter all that much how good he is at picking up the Blitz. You put a 1300+ yard back in the backfield, a guy who's a major threat to break a 5-10 yard run on every carry, and teams will simply not be able to afford to blitz because that'll put them out of position to stop the run. Especially if Benson can bounce the first tackler off of him most of the time, because if a team is blitzing, usually there's only one or two defenders who have a shot at the RB before they hit the secondary.

I for one am thinking there's a difference between turning into something special and turning into a solid QB. A solid QB would have mostly Grossman's stats last year, but would have a little higher completion percentage and a bunch less picks. I'm not expecting Grossman to turn into Manning/Culpepper from 04, but he can and should develop into a quality NFL starter this season. If not, then it's Orton's turn and time to draft.

Link

This one I'll give a real answer to. Yes, this is Mr. Grossman's breakout year...simply because he's at the point of his career where it should be. He's started more than 20 games now, he has plenty of film on himself, and he should be just about getting the feel of the blitz down. Almost every quarterback worth his gatorade shows significant growth sometime between their 16th and 32nd starts. I see no reason why Rex Grossman should be that different.

I think, if he stays healthy, he should be a 1300 yard back. Maybe even better, he was dynamite last year when given the chance. I just don't know if I'm convinced he'll stay healthy. He's gotten hurt 2 times in 2 years, last time in the Super Bowl.

So much of this depends on whether or not he can stay healthy it's not even funny.

So much of this depends on what Rex Grossman is spending the offseason doing it's not even funny.

It seems to me like the Bears are doing very, very well in the UDFA market this year. Perhaps that Super Bowl appearance was worth something after all.

With jail time...I really think he's in the 8 game category.

You're completely right in that the Bears ability to return to where they were last year depends in large part on the ability of Rex Grossman to grow up as a QB, as QB's are supposed to do after playing a full season or so.

I'm pretty certain that if he sits out games, he doesn't get paid. He can also be fined if he skips practices once camp starts.

Bears turn down pick swap

Redskins put the Bears on the clock, leak a deadline of this afternoon and say they will call off the talks if the Bears ask for anything else other than their original pick swap offer.

Just think about how much cap space the Bears save because of Archuleta's year in Washington.

There's a pretty darn good chance that one of the first round type LB's available in the draft should last until #31 based on the draft positioning and mock drafts that are out there, although if there's 1 guy you like it's never going to be 100%, so that would be a very smart way for the Bears to do things if they wanted to put a 1st rounder in that OLB spot.

Personally, I think if Washington is proposing giving the pick swap, the Bears should fire back "Ok, pick swap and throw in a 2nd rounder" and then let Washington Fire back with something like a 4th round pick and try to come to a balance, but I enjoy bargaining. It's also still worth noting that even with this swap, the Bears would still have the early-2nd-rounder they got from the Jets in the Jones trade, so it's entirely possible they can still grab an OLB at that spot as well.

So, I'm not sure what this means, but I stole it from the ESPN chat room.

Who are you, John Gruden? How many QB's do you guys need?