Pixote

Agreed, I fully expect, by the time I get home from work tomorrow and log into the forum, Williams will be signed and JA will start the watch for cuts made by other teams that might include players worth bringing in and taking a look at. I doubt Hester gets his new contract because he wants starting WR money and he has yet to prove his worth as a WR. Hester would be better off waiting, proving he is a valuable WR, then seek his new contract. I am sure that is basically what JA has told him. If he is reworked now, he will not be happy with the new contract, especially after a year or two if he works out to be a #1 or #2 WR starter.

It is amazing we were able to hold onto Harris & Briggs and rework Urlacher's contract to boot. These three are outstanding players that I am sure many other teams were hoping we would let hit the market so that they could go after them. I think all 5 of the signings you mentioned, as well as others you did not mention (such as Vasher & Tillman) were all critical to the future success of the team. JA did a great job! I am sure he will try and pull off some more signings before it is over with, including another FA or two. I certainly, to answer your question, have no regrets, none at all.

On a side note, I am sure a lot of fans of other teams are wondering the same thing about the Bears, how the hell did they manage to lock up just about every key player on their roster that was worth keeping? We have probably inked more contracts in one off season than any team in the history of the league, with exception of a 1st year expansion team. JA, you da man

Like I said in reply to another post on Urlacher, I think Bill Johnson, Urlacher's agent, is also Chris Williams' agent. Maybe this will spur things along. Could BJ have been using Chris Williams as leverage to get Urlacher signed to an extension? (assuming I am correct and BJ is Williams' agent).

If I am not mistaken Bill Johnson, Urlacher's agent, is also Chris Williams agent. Is it possible this is what was holding things up? If BJ is Williams' agent, then he may sign very very soon, like tonight or tomorrow. Great to get Urlacher happy, IMO he deserved the extension. Now Williams and Hester and I defy anyone to say the Bears are cheap or that they did not kick ass this off season!

Rodgers was a 1st round pick, highly thought of, and they would never drop him from the team. Trade possibly, but he certainly would not be just cut loose.

First off, I do not think the loss of one player, as good as he was, will effect the play of our special teams units much, if at all. AP will be returning to the unit and we have some players that will fill the void just fine. Secondly, our OL should be improved, I know our position at RB is vastly improved, and you can't tell me the loss of two WRs who dropped as many passes as they caught will hurt us that much. I think our offense will be improved over last year with the talent we currently have and I am sure Angelo will be adding a piece or two to the equation before the preseason is over. Almost everything you gave as reasons for us to be 4-12, 5-11, or 6-10 happened last year and we were 7-9. Our schedule, as far as teams we have to play this year compared to last year, is softer IMO. We seem to have a lot of doom sayers on the forum. Have a little optimism, it feels good! I see a 10-6 in our future and a trip to the playoffs.

Special Teams Article at Bears Site They just posted the 9th and final position article on the Bears Website. To be honest, the previous 8 I found very uninteresting as it seemed like typical coach-speak and gave really no information we did not already know or suspected. This one actually was interesting to me and gave an insight to some changes in special teams that might take place. If you have yet to go to the team site (my home page, LOL) you should check out the article. It talks about some changes being made in personel, a change in Goulds KO technique, players to keep an eye on with special teams, etc... Good stuff!!

Agreed, I thought all posters on the forum was aware he had a scope done. It does not mean he is a washout for the season. Scopes are done all the time.

Yep, KJ is #27, Steltz is #20. You buy a customized jersey already, LOL

Washington keeps picking up awesome players, especially on defense, over the years and yet they never seem to do squat once signed with them. I bet Taylor is a wash out. He has already said he only wants to play one more year. Doesn't sound too motivated to me.

Guys, I just do not understand the rips that Bradley gets. This opinion I am about to present is not aimed at anyone in particular, I respect the opinions of all of you, I just do not agree with this trend. In his rookie year he showed flashes of being an elite WR. I was exccited to see how he progressed. Since then he has had a lot of injury problems. However, was this his fault? Did he fail to play through an injury that he could have? He got injured. He could not play through the type of injuries he sustained. He did nothing wrong. He still has enormous potential if he can stay in the lineup. I am sure he is as disappointed in his injuries as we are. Yes, if he has another injury riddled season I think it is time to give up on him. However, why rip him as if he is a sissy, using references that questions his manhood? Hasn't Mike Brown shown the same inability to make it past training camp without getting injured during the same time period that Bradley has had his injury problems? I do not see anyone ripping MB as being a Pu&&y. Now I realize Brown contributed for years before sustaining the string of injuries he has experienced, so I do not want to hear that I fail to recognize that fact, but if we rip Bradley for being feminine for missing games do to injury, then I say Brown is a sissy also. Mike Brown IS NOT a sissy, and NEITHER is Bradley. IMHO

Wesson, Did you volunteer for an additional tour over there? I thought you would be home and safe by now. We all certainly appreciate the dedication you and your buddies show in your service for our country.

I think DM has a chance to shine at Nickle. I will be anxious to see him in the preseason games.

QB Rating Calculator A bit off topic but for those who like to crunch numbers like I do I found this QB Rating Calculator and thought I would share the link with you. I have seen others in the past but this one is pretty slick, IMO.

This one is a tough one. Like trying to pick sleepers in fantasy football leagues. I always seem to get burned. On offense it would be easy to say Forte, Hester, or Olsen, 3 players we all have high hopes for. However, not to be accused of being a "shirt tail" guy with my selection, I am going to stick my neck out and say I think the surprise of the offense coming into 2008 will be Rex Grossman. I see him having a QB rating of about 90, 25 TDs 10 INT and about 2,900 yds with a completion percentage around 58%. On defense there are some interesting possibilities. I certainly like Bowman, Seltz, & Harrison. I think these 3 rookies have an excellent chance to be top of the line starters in the near future. However, my man Dusty. What can I say? I have been high on him since we drafted him and he has had trouble staying on the field. If he can stay injury free this year, I think he will be a dominate force next to Harris and our DL will rOcK... Dusty is my man on D.

Reality Hits Quickly for the Bears Seldom do I read an article on one of the Chicago sites that I do not get pi$$ed at when reading, but this article I can not find any points I disagree with. A good article for all of us starving for football to begin!

I quoted from the article that I read when I clicked on your link. I had just gone to the site minutes before you posted to see if there was any news on the signing. I did not see the link when I went there. When I read your article I went back and again missed the link. You would have thought they would have made this story more prominate on the site since it is by far the issue most concerning Bears fans at this point, instead of a picture of Farve in a Bears Uniform. Sorry, guess I need to be more attentive in the future when I go to search for news.

It must be getting very close if they are giving out contract information. I went to this site and could not find the article you linked to. I am confused.

Colts (because of their offense), Jaguars (because of their defense), Philly (because of their defense), and Vikings (not sure why, but they are certainly getting enough press). You identified those four as the tough ones for us and I agree. While certainly any of the remaining teams could beat us "On Any Given Sunday" I firmly believe the Bears are capable of winning against any of them. So let's say we win 1 of the 4 tough ones, and then out of the remaining 12 games we should win if we play the way I expect us to, we win 10 out of the 12, blow 2 that we should have won. We would still wind up with 11 wins. I agree with you, a 10-11 win season is not out of the question, IF OUR DEFENSE STAYS HEALTHY.

Yes, and we have other 1st round picks that swore the exact same thing but came in late do to a hold out. Let's hope that is not the case here. The Bears wore out the signing dest this year with 11 drafted rookies, a slew of undrafted rookies, and a whole bunch of veteran player extensions. Now you know they did not do all of this and not work equally as hard to get the number one signed.

Shows just how great a job the Bears have done so far. Now they need to finish up with signing Williams and make the rest of the GMs in the league look like fools......

2008 Draft Class 1st Round Signings Here you go, only 4 signed so far.

I am convinced that Angelo will at least improve the depth of the OL by bringing in an OLman who is released during the preseason do to salary cap or youth movement, a veteran who can spot start if necessary. Hopefully, he can stumble across another R Brown who can start and contribute at Guard. I thought St Clair looked excellent at OG last year, whereas he struggled at OT. I know they need him as an OT now because of question marks around Chris Williams (sign the damn contract Chris!) but ideally, if we can have him next to Williams as the LOG I think our OL would be kick butt (assuming Williams plays well) with Williams - LOT St Clair - LOG Kruenz - OC Garza - ROG Tait - ROT Yes, I know,I probably misspelled a few names, LOL

Agreed, I have been saying all along we needed some kind of insurance in case Forte goes down, this gives us exactly that. Great job by Angelo to get us a good upgrade at #2 RB on the budget plan!