Pixote

I still question why Bentley has not been signed by another team. We know he was once considered a STUD on the OL. He signed a BIG $$ contract, never played up to the contract due to injury/health issues, and is now a FA. He has been on the market for quite some time. He is still available. There are a lot of teams who need help on the OL, not just the Bears, as is the case every year in the NFL. So my guess is that this guy has a lot more injury/health issues than what you and I as "outsiders" know about.

The problem is for years we have no way of knowing how good our WRs really are because the abilities of the QB throwing to them directly effects how the WRs produce and look on the field. A bad QB can cause a good WR to look bad. A bad OL can cause a QB to be less effective and the running game to suck. A bad running game can effect the QBs production. Bad WRs can cause a QB to look bad. Ahhhhh... Everything is so complicated. I give up

Of course, if we were dealing with GBP front office for a trade, no tampering charges, I know that. I am saying, before this becomes official and GB gives permission, would it be tampering if the Bears made it public (and to Favre) that we wanted him to sign with us? That I believe would be tampering at this point, 7/31 @ 20:08. Tomorrow, depending on what GBP does, it might not be.

3 points: 1st, even if the Bears wanted to sign Favre, how would they be able to afford the BIG $$$ he would want? 2nd, if we were interested could we publically say so without a claim of tampering with him, ala Minny 3rd, would Minny go after him? Wouldn't this strengthen the tampering charges they are facing from GBP & NFL?

Yep, I agree, Mid round kinda sucks. I have had difficulty drafting in that position often.

I agree that I do not think a repeat of last years stats is likely for Brady, however, I could see him going mid first in a 10 round draft. I do believe there would be a half dozen RBs I would go with before Brady just because the RB position brings more uncertainty this year than ever before with so many teams going to RBBC and sharing reps amoung 2 or 3 backs.

Let me get this straight, you are down on Simms because of injury risk and therefore you want Leftwich? Leftwich poses a much bigger injury concern than Simms. If you take out the injury concerns, which are very high with Leftwich, I agree, go with Leftwich. However, Injuries are the exact reason I am concerned about Leftwich, he has had a problem with leg problems going back to his college days, whereas Simms had one major problem with his spleen but as far as I know this is nothering to be concerned about for his future days on the gridiron. The truth of the matter is, IMO, that players with previous starting experience like Leftwich, Culpepper, Dilfer, & Rattay have been available for quite some time and JA has not made any indication of interest in them. Now that the Cowboys are showing interest in Simms, I doubt he is in our future either. So, although I am not very happy with the thought, I think Caleb is our #3 QB.

I would hope all of the guys on our team would not be satisfied being anything other than a starter. However, if you are not annointed a starter, instead of complaining, get out there and prove you deserve to be one. Bitching on the bench is not going to help your cause. I still think he is on his way out. If Graham, McBride, Bowman, D Manning, Vasher, & Tillman remain healthy, it puts Ricky baby so low on the depth chart I see no reason not to trade him.

Here is an interesting tidbit:

What is your favorite draft position in the FF drafts? Every year I agonize wondering where I will draft. I seldom get a top selection and usually get pi&&ed when I wind up drafting near the bottom of the 1st round. However, looking back on it I seem to always come up looking good when I pick late. Last year I drafted last in the first round and wound up winning the championship. So in a 10 team draft where do you prefer to select, #1, #10, or somewhere in between?

Ok, let's play what if. You have the number one overall selection in your fantasy football draft. Who do you select? LT? J Addai? A Petersen? F Gore? S Jackson? B Westbrook? T Brady? R Moss? or fill in the blank!

Ok, now I am beginning to drool. Shame on me. But with the 1st preseason Aug 7th, 9 days away from today, articles like this makes me, well, I will keep it clean, LOL In the Article (a must read!!) entitled Offense tightens up It states: It then goes on to say much more on our TEs being used more this year. ABOUT TIME!

Hi flea, can't wait, 1st preseason game August 7th, 9 days to go, yeah baby, bring it on!

Here is a must read article that says it all about the maturity of Forte (he has shown more maturity in his 1st few months as a Bear than CB did his entire stay). It also dicusses other aspects of the Bears as well. Good stuff!! Forte earning respect for his attitude

You forgot R Davis, who just might be our best WR this year. He makes it 6, I do not think we go 7 on the active roster. Davis I believe will surprise many this year.

Now that is sweet. I would have probably gotten into an accident trying to get a closer look at that while trying not to rear end the car ahead of me, LOL. Did you take those pics while driving?

I agree, he is "probably?" not an improvement over Rex or Kyle. However, I do think he would be a big improvement over our 2 undrafted QBs as a #3 in case Rex &/or Kyle have injury/performance problems this year. Let me ask you this, would you want one of the 2 undrafted QBs to have to come in and be the starter this year if Rex & Kyle go down to injury or are sat do to performance issues? Simms does have some, limited, but some, experience as a starter and has been around the NFL a few years longer than our 2 kids.

After we signed Rex, Kyle, Alex, Robbie, Nathan, Dallas & Charles, I thought there goes our cap and we are done. Then we sign Briggs and I am wondering how we had the money? Surely we are now finished for the year. Then we land the contract for Tommie and I am scratching my bald head wondering what the heck? Then we go on to sign Urlacher & Hester. I have no idea where all the money is coming from. We are putting Danny and the Redskins to shame. If we did all of this along with signing 11 drafted rookies, a handful of undrafted rookies, Booker & LLoyd, who knows what is in store next? My guess is we will see a serviceable 3rd string QB brought in, no one that we will all agree on, and 1 or 2 veteran OL men. Should be interesting to say the least.

Not to worry, we will pick up Chris Simms soon!

And now he will want to be a WR as well and follow in Hester's footsteps.

My bad, I thought he was playing a lot bigger than 295 this year. For some reason I thought he was in the 320-330 range. Blew that one. My understanding is there will not be a typical wedge buster in this years scheme. Here is the copy of a post I made about an article on special teams from the Bears website:

I agree. How many times do we see a player sign a big contract and disappear until the last year of the contract when they are again playing for a big pay day? This gives him some excellent incentives to work his butt off. I wonder how many other contracts we have written like this? The reason I ask is that in an article on the Sun-Times site it mentioned a similar clause in Tommie Harris' contract that I was unaware of until now. He has to be voted to 4 straight Pro Bowls and play 74% of the defensive snaps in each of those four seasons to get an extra $8 million in his last year as a roster bonus. And so much for the critics saying we are cheap. In the article it mentions we have spent $185.39 Million with $59.2 Million Guaranteed on 10 contracts with veterans in this past off season. Article on Hester's Contract with a lot of great details

My understanding is they no longer plan on using Idonije on special teams as a wedge buster. I am surprised they had him gain that much weight as in our scheme the DTs are not usually that big, they want them quick and able to penetrate into the backfield, not the big body run stopper which it appears Idonije might be more built for at his new weight.

From what I understand he is beginning to live up to the hype he had coming into the league now that he is reunited with Turner. Now, it is just training camp and we really will not know what he is doing until we see him on the field but if the reports of him in camp are true, he could be an excellent receiver for us with experience that Monk yet possesses.

My guess is the best this guy can hope for is a shot at the practice squad. With Hester, Booker, LLoyd, Davis, Bradley, & Bennett, looking to be the front runners and players like Hass, Rideau & Monk lurking in the background, Ryan would have a very tough time breaking into the main roster. If I had to guess right now, Hester, Booker, LLoyd, Davis, Bradley, & Bennett will make the main roster, Monk will go on the Practice squad, and Rideau, Hass, & Grice-Mullen will leave us when cuts are made (and I hate to say that because I like Hass a lot but from what I understand he does not do much on special teams and that will cause him to be cut).