balta1701-A

Without commenting on which side is right, there's one more thing the owners are thinking here; they think they can break this union fairly quickly. Their example is the NBA in 1999. The number of players who are smart with their money is surprisingly small; a lot of them manage to find ways to live paycheck to paycheck, just like me except making 1-2 orders of magnitude more money each year. In 1999, the NBA union basically broke, because so many of their players couldn't get by without a paycheck that the owners got serious concessions through a lockout that they couldn't get otherwise. The NBA owners are probably going to be doing the exact same thing next year, breaking the union again. As a business decision, it makes sense for the NFL owners to push the same thing; they can simply outlast the players.

For anyone who wants to discuss the business or football side, there is now another thread. This thread can be for discussion/remembrances/condolences for Mr. Adams.

The other thread suggested an independent thread for discussion of what the Bears should do about their Defensive Line, given that they're now even more undermanned there and have no picks in the first 2 rounds.

Done.

You realize that if you wrote this about 1.5 years ago, you'd be laughed out of the state?

He also got quite lucky in having Minnesota hand him the equivalent of 3 Super Bowls worth of draft picks in exchange for 1 RB.

Normally, my instinct is to take one's time with this decision. Problem is, the last time a Chicago Franchise took their time in finding a coach, the Bulls wound up contracting VDN.

FWIW, the actual news from local TV actually is that while it appears no official offer was actually made, there was contact again this year and at least a mention of UT being willing to go up to about $4 million a year on a salary if Smith was interested.

Most important thing the Bears can do, IMO, is to spend money at the RT position. I'm not sure how the URFA setup will work this year, but a name that comes off the list as a guy already playing that spot is Willie Colon, RT for the Steelers. There appear to be more quality LT's available than RT's so a conversion might be worth considering also.

Who do the Bears have that would bring back that kind of return in a trade? Cutler obviously, possibly Hester and it's a stretch at this point, maybe Tillman, Briggs obviously, Williams, but other than that?

No offense...but 2nd best.

When does Angelo's contract end, and hypothetically, what happens to Angelo (and his salary) if there's no football in 2011?

BUT...if the Bears make a coaching change, isn't that exactly what the fanbase, including here, seems to be demanding? This is all the fault of Lovie Smith and his schemes, and if all the Bears did was get rid of him, suddenly the team would be free of his poor coaching schemes and poor playcalling and poor motivation and they'd be a 15 win team. Yeah, there have been some murmors about drafting and player development and those would fall into the category of things you're referring to, but that's not what most of the rants about the coaching staff aim at.

I really, really don't think Cowher wants to coach anywhere but the Southeast Coast, supposedly close to where he lives. When he thought there were going to be openings in Tampa and Carolina, he was putting together a staff. Suddenly neither of those openings appears and he doesn't want to coach.

Found this interesting.

It seems to me that there are replacement options of adequate skill usually available midseason for cheap trades or after they're cut, most years. The Bengals, for example, have picked up a pair of them the last 2 years. There are also a multitude of UDFA RB's who have made impacts when put in behind solid O-lines (Ryan Grant, Willie Parker come immediately to mind).

Even if it's still running Lovie's defense, a defensive coordinator can still have serious importance. See: Ron Rivera's defense versus Bob Babich's defense.

No word yet on coordinators, probably learn more at today's presser.

Of course you would. Not just because of performance either. Orton's an unrestricted FA this year. Either the Bears were going to have to tag him and pay him $15 million for next season, destroying whatever cap space they might have had, or they'd have risked having him walk and thus be forced to start rebuilding completely with a new QB with whatever pick they were holdilng.

This is perhaps the most interesting question you could ask about any position. WR there's some debate, perhaps OLB, perhaps CB, about whether the Bears need to make changes. This position, wow. Forte is 1 year removed from a very good season behind what was at the time at best an average O-line with at best average-to-poor QB play. On the other hand, he struggled mightily this season, and it wasn't just O-line related struggles; as noted above, he didn't show some of the explosiveness that he showed last year, even though teams were much more likely to be focusing on the pass. He also had the same coordinator calling plays both years, so you really can't blame the OC. I'm inclinded to give Forte at least 1 more year, for 2 reasons. First, I do think he's better than he showed this year. Perhaps some of his struggles were injury-related, perhaps some were conditioning related, perhaps there was something mental going on, not sure, but cutting ties with him completely after 1 down year with a bad O-line seems like overreacting. I'd consider bringing in/drafting competition, but that brings to the 2nd reason; the Bears have no 1st or 2nd round picks and they have other needs for their latter picks. If you find someone in the 7th no one will complain, but it makes little sense to me to spend a pick at this position when the Bears have so few. Furthermore, the Bears have obvious other needs for whatever FA money they're going to spend, and attempting to sign a #1 back would be a very expensive proposition. My prescription; work on improving the O-line. Focus on filling the RT spot and perhaps the LG spot depending on what you think will happen with Beekman; a FA at RT would probably be best. Let Williams develop at LT. See if an improved line and hopefully therefore less of Cutler scrambling also works to bring out a 1300 yard season from Forte next year. If you want to bring in a FA #2 option, that's not unreasonable, but it's also not worth spending a fortune on. If Forte struggles again next season, then you have to look at a replacement in the 2011 draft.

Is there a reason why they can't keep both Williams and Pisa?

One thing I'd like to point out...WR's can take a long, long time to develop, even in a good system with a good offensive coach. Look at Vincent Jackson's stats, for example. Catches by year for him: 3 27 41 59 68 (1 game remaining) It took him 4 years to become a legit #2 receiving threat and 5 to become a legit home run hitter, and that was on a team with Rivers, Tomlinson, Norv Turner coaching the offense, Gates drawing coverage, and a constant supply of other receivers coming through (i.e. Chambers, etc.) trying to fill that #1 receiver role. IMO, WR is not the problem for the Bears. They have a young, inexperienced group that they need to develop. That will take time, but I wouldn't be surprised to see major strides next season, esp. if Cutler spends the offseason working with this group. What will make them better though is a strengthened offensive line keeping the QB in the pocket and setting up a running game so that they're not all being double covered over the top by a safety. The mantra is the same as the last 2 offseasons; the greatest need is O-line, and if the O-line is improved, then the rest of the offense will be lifted up with it.

Ground up and seasoned pork shoulder, specifically (in the early 1900's, that was the one cut of meat from the pig that Hormel couldn't figure out how to sell until they came up with Spam).

Typical 1st half for this season I see.

Man, that LB corps went from looking really strong at the start of the season to looking like Briggs + others after only a couple weeks.