balta1701-A

Yeah, I think there's a good chance they'll hold on to him for another year or two and then try to get the "Matt Schaub" type deal for him, with multiple draft picks, right before he hits free agency.

And a game thread appears.

But let's just be honest...their O-line scouting sucked. They drafted 2 guys who fell a bit in the draft because of injury concerns and then those injuries bit the Bears in the arse. That's not the only thing they tried though, that's on top of failed O-line signings like Orlando Pace and Frank Omiyale. And on top of that, Omiyale has been better since leaving the Bears, so there's a level of coaching as well. They didn't scout well for the O-line and they did a rotten job of finding people who could coach it.

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Game thread is on.

The Bears should destroy this team.

To be fair, very few 4-3 teams could have both of their starting DT's out and have anything other than "poor depth" at that spot.

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If Cutler gets injured and the current backup plan is insufficient, then that is a failure on the part of the current administration. In that case they will have gambled and lost. You can only have so much depth in a salary capped league. Sometimes that does happen. But, you'll recall, Cutler getting injured and the backups being incapable of winning games/advancing 5 yards helped lead directly to the replacement of both coaches and the GM last time it happened. That's the penalty if they gamble on the guys they have now and lose. The Texans, OTOH, lost 2 QB's 2 seasons ago, threw a rookie out there, and still made a solid enough showing to wind up in the playoffs because they made solid personnel decisions. The time to bring in another backup QB was March. It's too late now.

For reasons others have noted we can talk about this in the offseason when we're deciding what to do about both Cutler and the backup QB spot. Other teams with struggling QB's might offer him more money and a better shot.

Suh talking a bit about facing Long, Long responds with respectful comments.

Welcome to division play.

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Really, their D is solid? Serious Q since I haven't watched them this year but 2 years ago when they made their super bowl run their D was one of the worst in the league, and I remember them having so many problems in their secondary last year that they traded for that one guy from the Bucs to just add some sort of veteran presence back there.

But you''re still out $8.3 million in cap space by cutting him. That's one where the Bears might conceivably be able to come to a deal with him dropping his 2014 salary down to like $12 million since they're going to have to take the cap hit anyway.

Oh, I also should add to this, Soldier Field and Heinz field are some of the toughest places to kick in the NFL (even though it's not yet winter) and Gould has hit what, a 58 yarder and a 48 yarder in 2 weeks in those stadia?

You know what? The yardage here doesn't bother me quite as much as it did in the previous games. The Bears had a big lead early. That meant the Steelers were going to be throwing the ball up in the air, taking high-risk chances to try to have a successful big play and get back into the game. Meanwhile, the Bears were in the perfect situation to "Bend but not break", the more high-risk plays the steelers attempted the more likely something was going to go wrong for them. That's the ideal situation for a team to pile up yards and an ideal situation for the defense to pull off a couple big turnovers, which is exactly what happened.

Here's the thing...tell me where there's an elite team in the league? Seattle is playing like one for now, but other than them? 12 teams will make the playoffs in the NFL and right now 11 of them feel "aight" (or worse) about their performance so far.

Looking through, does anyone here have a clue how much the Bears have committed on next year's cap? They have a ton of guys who are free agents obviously, do they have space to play with? Emery's "Signing guys to minimum contracts to maximize the space" might help the team a ton this year but it definitely leaves some openings next year, with Slausson in particular being a guy from that group I'd like to see signed again.

The problem is, him being a #3 pick in 2012 doesn't matter one bit right now. Teams have a full season plus of video, scouting reports, and injury reports on him. Once you're on the field, your draft slot matters 1% as much as it did that April; you either perform or you don't.

And a game thread for a trip on the road.

That of course is the problem I'm having trying to figure this trade out too...I haven't watched him play, because who watches Browns games outside of Cleveland?

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The other thing you could take from that is that Jay Cutler is another 2006 Rex Grossman What happens if you look at the defensive number?

They aren't going to win games making this many mistakes if they're on the road.