balta1701-A

A 4th round pick? Do it in half a second.

Harris, I don't think anyone really knows what they can get out of him right now. He had a really good game or two late in the year, but has been mediocre for so long since his injury, and he was really the key to making all the other guys better in 2006. The Bears really need an upgraded outside pass rush, even more so with Ogun as a FA. They were reportedly really happy with the progress they saw from Adams late in the season, but they're starting over there again. In terms of pressuring the QB, it's also worth noting that in 2007-2008, the Bears ran as many or more blitzes than any other team in the league, and still were ineffective in getting to the QB.

IMO, part of the problem is that in the NFL, if you count coaches, assistant coaches, kickers, kick returners, broadcasters, owners, management guys, there are probably 25+ legitimate positions that are being filled, sometimes by legends, and the NFL HOF only inducts 6/7 guys per year. There are just more guys you look at who dominate a position for 8+ years who you think "This guy is probably a HOFer" than there are slots for them to get in.

Where are you getting your numbers from? The place I looked had the Bears showing better TOP numbers by a full minute in 2008 over 2009.

A question in reply (I already know the answer, and I think you'll get the point quite quickly). When were the Bears better in average time of possession, in 2008 or in 2009?

The only position the Bears need to spend less effort at this offseason than WR is QB.

I'm usually the optimist. So I think it's appropriate for me to express doubts in this thread.

There's probably as much reason for skepticism as their is for hope. Maybe more.

Is there a defense that works well without a good DLine? Or doesn't that argue instead that you need to fix your DLine?

But...look at the kind of success he's had developing talent in the secondary for the Colts. That's sort of exactly what the Bears have talked about needing; people who can take guys and get the most out of them, or put them into a solid system and allow them to have more success.

And he'll probably cost a lot less than Peppers just on reputation.

The big problems with comparing the Bears' running game and the Rams's...Marshall Faulk vs. Matt Forte, and Orlando Pace vs. Chris Williams.

I think this is going to be an interesting experiment. The Bears' biggest need in my mind coming into this offseason was a bigger, run-blocking RT. In this offense, that may be less of an issue; pass blocking comes back to the forefront. On the LT side, that's what Williams is supposed to be good at; he's not a big bruiser, he's a technique, pass-blocking kind of guy. In that sense, the Martz offense might be playing somewhat to the Bears' strength. On top of that, they've got RB's who aren't bad coming out of the backfield in receiving routes (Forte in particular, possibly Wolfe if he still hangs around). And they have receivers who can be major deep threats because they have some serious speed in Hester and Knox. Furthermore, the Bears went out and spent what is basically an NFL fortune bringing in a QB with a shotgun for an arm. But at the same time last year, they weren't able/willing to use it effectively except for in a handful of games. There's the TE questions and the rest of the O-Line questions and the "Can the WR's learn the system" questions, but it's an interesting experiment on paper at least.

How much for Harris is motivation and how much is injury?

Who out of Derrick Brooks, Ray Lewis, Joey Porter, Zach Thomas, Brian urlacher, and DeMarcus Ware do you take off of the LB list?

2 points. 1. There's already a Peppers thread on the front page. 2. For copyright reasons, if you're going to post long excerpts from another source, it protects the site a lot if you at least include a link to the original source. Hope you don't mind the little reminder, but that 2nd one can occasionally be a bit important. Thanks.

He'll wind up with whoever ponies up the most money, I can say that with no hesitation. Instincts of course suggest that means Washington.

Even in an uncapped year, the amount of money it would cost to tag him for another consecutive year is just crazy. Peppers might well be a good fit for the Bears needs...they really need pressure from the outside after Adams, O-Gun's loss, etc., but my only question with Peppers is whether or not he's worth it. He seems to be worse than Harris in doing disappearing acts. When he's on, he can totally take over a game (see: Minnesota) but he only seems to do that a couple times per year, the other games he just seems to be a non-factor, and not simply because of the blocking/offense. After the loss of Adams though, the Bears seriously need to add some power at that position.

Since there are people who read this, after the customer service I've received over the past month, for God's sake, don't use AT&T for your home phone service or internet. My God, this is awful. This is the 3rd time in the past month and the 2nd time this week my service has gone out for no reason, and now it won't be back on until next Tuesday.

If that were true, then I'm surprised Cowher couldn't maneuver to get Gailey in as the OC this year.

I thought the same thing after how the Jets totally melted down around him last season and threw all their blame at him. He still came back. He was physically worse last year, more beaten up, more injured, needed surgery, and still came back. I think the Vikes will tell him he's got until game 4 of training camp to show up next year, since he already knows the personnel and the playbook, and he'll be back then. The only question is whether he'll retire again first.

I think the Jets lost this game in 1997 when 18 decided to go back for his senior season at UT.

Frankly, I think Marty is a much better coach overall.

I think the reality here is that there are 2 big debates going on; the owners vs. the players and the small market owners versus the big market owners. Increased revenue sharing is definately a big deal for the smaller franchises (i.e. Buffalo) and that's going to make it hard for the Owners to get the players to agree to anything until the owners agree about what they're after.

Which one of them is the best blocker?