balta1701-A

I think the only thing that stops him from getting well over 10 of those this year is if the Bears decide to use either Jones or Wolfe as a change-of-pace guy in the last 5 yards. Is there any reason they'd do that? He'll get more scores just because the passing game will march them down the field a lot more often.

What's his contract status for next year? How much do the Bears save if they let him walk? If it's very small then there's no reason to cut him.

And if the loose gun in his pants had shifted slightly and instead of shooting himself in the leg, went off and someone else was hit on the ricochet, what would he have deserved then?

However you feel about Denver, Orton, etc., this is way, way too early in the season for you to be wanting to have articles where the coach is standing behind you as your starter written.

Another good Don Banks piece from Bears camp.

Seriously, I want to see him on the field for a couple weeks with the team at least. You've got at least a month or two of the season where you can still put stuff on this year's cap.

Found this Don Banks article to be a solid read.

It's entirely possible that his scouting metrics could be right in a number of cases and scouts or viewers or coaches could be wrong. But I'm not sure I've seen that established. What I want to see before I buy in to a new scouting metric is more detailed data and actual ability to predict future performance. If his metrics say an O-lineman was good or bad at something, what does that translate to in terms of rushing yards, sacks, or total points? How much variance is there from year to year? If I took away the names and numbers, could you tell who is a HOF lineman using his metrics versus a guy who plays 1 season and falls apart? Take OPS in baseball. It's a fairly new stat, but everyone knows it now. Why? Because OPS correlates quite strongly with runs scored. Higher OPS, more runs scored. High OPS in one season tends to be something a player keeps, and you can use it as a rough metric to guess at future performance

Not disagreeing on that. Just pointing out that I think the basic idea behind the Sun Times's point or this thread is bogus. Yes, you can win without a dominant WR. But you better be darn good somewhere else to make up for it. You can say that about most positions on the field. The Giants, Steelers weren't the greatest on WR's. But they had solid guys who you couldn't neglect and usually couldn't single cover, and they combined that with QB play that fit their system well, solid running attacks, and ridiculous defense. The key for the Bears and Cutler is to have some of these guys wind up at the "they can beat you if you single cover them" level.

But...but...but...not having a pro-bowl receiver does not equal not having a top flight receiver. The Giants may not have had a pro bowl receiver in 07, but they had Plax on the outside as their main threat. The Steelers may not have had a pro-bowler but they had former pro-bowler Hines Ward out there. The Patriots teams may not have had pro bowl receivers, but the guys they had were excellent in their system and worked very well with Brady. There's a lot more to it than simply saying "They didn't have a pro-bowl receiver".

The questions are though...how much of the fact that those teams were horrible was because of the organization and how much was because the guy wasn't that skilled in getting the most out of his players or putting them in a position to succeed. Mangini...yeah, I think the Jets kind of screwed him, but without being behind the scenes it's always hard to comment on these things. Also never know how much input guys have in who their teams draft. Weis may be doing decently with his rebuilding project, but that team has been really bad the last couple years.

Until they go out and prove something on the field, he's right. GB's receivers were in the same boat until a couple years ago where they all stepped up together.

The Bears are also going to have a number of positions where they're carrying a glut of players in to the season it appears. D-Line, possibly O-line, WR absolutely, possibly DB. Roster spots for the Bears are going to be absolutely huge this year. If there's not a big dropoff in performance between your regular FB and the guy you have who's a hybrid FB/TE, then the guy who can cover 2 positions is clearly going to be more valuable.

The other side of the token with Arizona is that if Warner does stay healthy...the kind of confidence they picked up with that playoff run is the kind of thing that can carry a team for much of the season. The Giants in 2008 rode a huge emotional high from their super bowl run, for example. Suddenly that team believes it can beat whoever its playing. That's something Arizona hasn't felt in my lifetime as far as I can remember.

Green Bay...it's all about their running game and O-Line. Are you convinced that they improved that?

It's entirely possible that the Bears' coaching staff and supporting cast could just completely flop around him and turn him in to Rex Grossman. Hopefully though...that won't happen. And there's plenty of good reason to think that it won't. Like the 0.0 Rating game, the complete flop grossman games, etc. If it turns out that Cutler completely flops given his current record, that's a huge indictment of the staff around him. Because he ought to come in and be a lot better.

Quite frankly, he could easily be right...and he could also be dead wrong. That's the NFL; you can do everything right and sometimes wind up 7-9, and you can make a bunch of mistakes and go 12-4 because someone steps up.

Link. Lots of other good position/OTA updates as well.

Goodell leaning towards indefinite suspension for Burress. May be willing to act before the legal matter is settled.

Per request, topic moved to water cooler. Link left in main thread so everyone knows where it went. I think it's everyone's right to speak out on an issue if they want. In a lot of cases though, the people speaking out have no idea what they're talking about (That doesn't just go for athletes, it goes for Celebrities, Congresspeople, Fox News, etc.) and thus by speaking out it makes them look worse. There are places where they could be very useful, and that's on issues that they know. Trent Green coming out and talking about how teams should handle recovery from concussions; excellent move. He knows that as well as anyone who isn't an M.D. If an athlete knows politics, even if I think they're wrong, then what's the problem (Heath Schuler, Lynn Swann are fine examples there).

Denver fans.

This is America. When a wealthy individual wants his court date moved so that he can do something, it gets moved. He may piss off some prosecutors, but he has enough money to make sure he serves whatever penalty is coming to him at a time that is totally convenient for him. After watching this charade, I'm fully convinced that the only time he'll miss is whatever suspension Goodell hands down.

Don't forget though that they also lost one of the best juiced-up linebackers in the game to injury last year in training camp.

Without a 1st rounder to offer I'm just not sure the Bears have the ammunition.