balta1701-A

Really, nobody can tell you how much cap space the team has left, because the cap hasn't been set yet for this year, and even then no one really knows what counts. What we can say with confidence is the Bears have a large amount of space available and the largest amount in the NFC North. There's also some "Carry-over" cap space from last year that I have no idea how it gets counted.

Without knowing the money, the Bears should at least be interested here. He's recovering from an injury, so the fact that the Bears already have someone who can be a placeholder at that position (webb) is actually a positive for the team, because they have a warm body to put there, even if people are unhappy with him, while McNeil tries to recover.

I'd have said the Bears were a legit threat to go to the Super Bowl at the middle of the season last year, and they were clearly a legit Super Bowl threat the year before, where they pushed the team that won the Super Bowl nearly to the breaking point with their backup QB. There are clear needs, but a ton of cap space available. Go for broke this season. The roster is ready-made for a run.

So, the Bears have what, $40 million is remaining assuming Forte is franchised? Depending on how the deals are structured, if they went "All-in" so to speak and blew all that cap space, then there ought to be room to cover 3+ highly paid guys.

Whatever he was hired to do, I think it's safe to say that Bates, Smith, Tice, Cutler, and Emery are all ok with the roles they have.

I think you absolutely need a short yardage guy next to Forte more than anything. If you want a "Similar RB" to spell him, then that's your 3rd RB role. Forte is much less effective without a TD hog. We've all seen it, he's just not a good short yardage back.

I should add...this seems to be really tough data to find compiled, and probably has to be done play by play, so there probably would be some variance if there were any other versions of the numbers out there... But it really doesn't surprise me that some QB's would be better at avoiding the sack than others, and that some blocking schemes would be better at keeping pressures from turning into sacks than others.

Depends on whether they view Bell as a legit option for their 3rd RB spot or they view him as too much of a fumble risk. Really is that simple to me. Lots of reasons to complain about Barber (Denver game), but he's really the perfect compliment to Forte, in that Forte has always had 1 weakness in his game, and that's short yardage/end zone situations, where Barber excels. I like the Forte/Barber setup and hope that endures for a couple more years, that's as good of a strenght/weakness compliment pair as you can find.

Here's one version of that list of stats. It seems to suggest to me that Manning and Cutler were "pressured" similar numbers of times, but Manning was better at avoiding the sack. Cutler was then somewhere in the middle of the pack. Also worth noting, doesn't have enough ATT to appear on these lists, and I think eveyrone here can agree that at the end of the season, the performance of the O-line deteriorated, esp. after Williams and Forte went down.

Spencer turns 30 in March, and is only signed for 1 more year. He's not the "Anything" of the future. He might be here for a couple years, but he's not a guy the team is going to develop, he's a capable backup for another couple years.

Didn't Burress just retire?

Yes it is quite rare, which either means they expect that center to be stellar or they expect to move him to another position. Chris Spencer, for example, was a first round pick, and he was playing G for the Bears last year.

Let's be clear though, Vincent Jackson is as good of a down the field option as there is in the league. He's not exactly a possession receiver, he's not Wes Welker, and that's why he doesn't get 100 catches...but he also has never needed to be, because he's been on a team with options like Sproles, Gates, the other Floyd, etc. That doesn't mean he's not a number 1 option...Randy Moss had plenty of stellar seasons with 70-80 catches, but they were big play catches (and he then later started turning in 100 reception seasons when guys like Chris Carter retired). If you happen to have a QB who is generally thought to have a cannon for an arm, who might be exceptional at making passes down the field if given time to do so, then Jackson could be an excellent fit. Perhaps even a better fit than he was with Rivers.

Seifert:

Was Garza honestly more effective as a guard in 2010 than he was at C this year? I certainly didn't get that feeling.

A but how much are the Bears getting out of those guys though? Tillman, Briggs and Brown, ok. Conte, Steltz, Moore, Anderson, Bowman, and Harris, I can raise an issue on each of them. A few might continue to step up next year, but there's only a couple of all-pros there. And one of them is on the Pats.

THis is one thing that I think is mostly on Angelo...because a whole lot of the defensive talent that was brought in were guys that Angelo tried to "Steal" by drafting a round or two early. Bazuin, Okwo, Harrison come to mind at the front of that list.

The Trib has a big story presumably in tomorrow's paper on former Bears LB Hunter Hillenmeyer.

Trib

Unless he's older than i think he is, I'd put him above several of those.

Really?

Of course in some way that's also harder...because if a GM is available, that means he was also fired somewhere.

Demaryius Thomas was injured for a whole lot of the pre-draft period, so there are no official combine/pro day numbers for him. However, Denver leaked a report that they had him running somewhere between 4.36 and 4.38 before he got hurt.

I wouldn't be surprised if those positions are on hold a little until a GM is picked. And I wouldn't be in a huge hurry on those anyway. The Bears won't exactly be signing a front line QB in free agency, so they have time on that position.

Phil Emery from the Cheifs will also receive a 2nd interview later this week.