LT2_3

I can change the settings to anything we want.

Not true. He was in the mix for Indy's head coaching gig last year - and they gave him an excellent reference. It's part of the reason that Emery considered him.

I think that pretty much no matter what happens, Cutler gets franchised. Even if they decide to move in a different direction with a drafted rookie, they'll still keep him around for a year because that decision happens WAY before the draft.

Jason - I'm glad you clarified. I actually kind of agree with you, except that I don't trust Pompeii's evaluation based on what little he might have seen from them running around in shorts this early. I think the number one challenger at this point is Scott - who Emery praised in his end of season press conference for the work he did filling in at RT last season. While it usually seems trite to point out that the challengers could get coached up in TC, I don't think it is in this case. After seeing Kromer work with the rookies on the mothership website, somebody might take to the coaching better than Webb and actually prove better in the new blocking scheme. So, while it's disappointing that we couldn't afford a better challenger in FA, I do believe that the improved coaching will bring the younger guys along more quickly, and the change in style kind of puts everyone in the same bozt.

Jason - Are you suggesting that there is "no real competition" because there aren't players in the mix good enough to challenge Webb seriously, or that the players that are in the mix aren't being given a fair shake at the competition? I think that Pompeii is suggesting the former. I think he is expressing his opinion that he feels Webb is the best player in the mix and should win the job handily. I don't think that he is suggesting that the other players in the mix at RT aren't being given a fair opportunity because he could easily have said that or that the competition has already been won. I also think that if the other guys in the mix weren't obviously getting a fair shot, that other and more salacious reporters would have also noticed that and would have happily written an article taking the coaches to task for "no real competition" as you like to say. So if you want to say there is "no real competition" at RT because Emery didn't have the resources to bring in a candidate with a skill set obviously better than Webb to a sportswriter, then you may have a point. Otherwise, your "coaches lie to the media so we can't trust them" theory is kinda weak with no evidence other than a personal interpretation of one writer's offhand comment.

Exactly. The only difference I see if Lovie had stayed would be that Urlacher might have been re-signed. A new OC would have been required, a new TE would have made sense, and while the new olinemen might have been different if the scheme was different, I can't see how any of these moves could be considered a house cleaning much less a slap in anyone's face.

I don't get the perception that anyone is cleaning house. We signed a new TE, an OLT, a couple of cheap FA guards and let Urlacher retire. I don't think any of our draft picks would have been any different if Lovie had stayed. Sure the OL has been upgraded and 2 of 3 LB will be different, but that is hardly a "house cleaning".

I guess he needed to "smoke" football too.

Wow that's a bit over the top. He wasn't risking his career by having a small amount of pot on him. Even just getting arrested with the charges dropped put him in the league's substance abuse program - the same punishment as if the charges had stuck. Now if he does it again, he'll be up for a 4 game suspension. But the first act in no way jeopardized his career. Even if he got cut, there would some team to pick him up. If Chris Williams can get picked up mid-season, Webb would certainly get picked up in the offseason. I'm not saying it's irrelevant, I'm just saying that what he did isn't seen as a big deal for most teams. I think the fact that one incident caused him to re-evaluate his life is a good sign.

Just curious, but how does a guy smoking a bit of weed and drinking alcohol relate to a guy becoming a coke dealer? When I consider the story of Hurd, the lesson that comes out of it for me is to not become a drug dealer, not stop drinking alcohol and smoking weed - 2 things that were never issues for Hurd as far as we know.

We aren't over the cap. In the offseason, only the top 51 cap hits count against the cap. That's why he calculates the number for the top 51 listed at the bottom.

That's not the best site for contract info. They are often wrong and had their IP blocked by overthecap.com because they were copying their data in bulk to update their numbers. After they did that their numbers were a lot more accurate, but they can't continue doing that and their numbers will be wrong again in the future.

No worries. I guess I've been annoyed by too many south side Sox fans that insist that I declare a preference for a Chicago baseball team.

Why would they be south side anything? They're based in Lake Forest (Northern Suburb) and play downtown which is the middle of everything.

Every year I make the same points: 1. The front offices definitely have more information at their disposal than any mere fans do regarding the prospects. 2. The front offices definitely have a better idea what the true team needs are than any mere mere fans or even the draft "experts" for that matter. 3. Mock drafts can be entertaining, but are ultimately a waste of time. I cracked up when after the 5th pick, Mike Mayock said "Well my mock draft is completely useless now. I have absolutely no confidence on any of these picks going forward." Going into the draft , I felt that LB was by far our biggest need as we had 2 starters on the wrong side of 30 on one year contracts and that we could use some more legitimate talent for the OL. Now I wasn't married to any particular players or positions in any particular round, but am very happy with the outcome. I think the "experts" tend to go about it backwards and fall in love with a player and then try to match it to a team with even a minor need somewhere in the vicinity of the draft that they think they should be picked. IMO, taking a TE in the first round would have been completely moronic unless Trestman was saying that another good TE was more important than keeping Cutler from being creamed or creating lanes for our RB or than making sure our defense doesn't collapse with a few key injuries down the stretch. Now I like big guys who can create mismatches down the field as much as the next guy, but we picked up a pretty good one in FA and we've got a couple of pretty big WRs too. A TE would have been a luxury pick that we couldn't afford. I do have to admit though that it was a particularly effective smokescreen. Anyone panning the Kyle Long pick or calling it a reach wasn't watching the actual draft closely enough. Did they miss the fact that 3 of the top 4 picks were OT and 2 of the top 10 were G? We got a guy that currently plays guard (albeit with little high grade experience) but played well at the end of last year and also projects to OLT ultimately. Isn't there incredible value there? I haven't found anyone that says they didn't like like Long as a prospect, but that he was taken too early - or was a reach. The problem with that perspective is that the NFL didn't agree with them - probably because anyone calling it a reach didn't predict that six of the top 11 picks or 7 of the top 19 picks would OL either. That run on those positions automatically bumped all the remaining prospects up everyone's board. Simply put, even if the Bears had traded back a few picks, there's no saying that he wouldn't have been gone by the position they had traded back to either by someone one taking Long with their pick (I read that Indy and Dallas were interested in him in the first too) or someone trading up ahead of us to take him. Anyone who would call him a reach in those circumstances is probably stuck too close to their own opinions that were formed before the draft and the run on OL began. In today's day and age, the concept of BPA in a pure form doesn't exist. Good teams will trade up or down (if possible) to get the guy they want where they are roughly projected to go. The problem is that you have to have a plan B in case your guy gets sniped (online auction term) before your traded back position comes up. In the case of Long - there were only 2 more OL taken in the next 20 picks - and one of them was Jerry Jones taking a center that completely delighted everyone picking behind him and confused everyone else. On the subject of whether we should trust the FO or not, I don't think it's a matter of trust. It's not like we can do anything about it. It's whether we feel the need to bitch and moan when they don't do precisely what we think they should. I judge things based on my feeling on how they addressed my perception of our needs (which they did) and whether any of the "experts" liked our draft - and some of them did. You can't expect them all to like it. They get paid for controversy in the form of page hits. If you didn't like some decision they made, I'm pretty sure one would be able to find someone to agree with you - at which point some people post the link and go "See! See! This guy agrees with me! I must be right!" I'm satisfied with this draft - I like what they did there.

You're missing the key dynamics. Long signed a HUGE contract as the first pick of the draft for 5 years $58 million. That contract had an average above the current generic franchise tag number of $9.8 million. If they franchised him, it would be 120% of his cap hit last year putting it over $15 million for one year. They won't franchise him before he hits the open market because, arguably, no OLT is worth that much money. The Dolphins hold exclusive negotiating rights until free agency begins, but Long is looking for $11 million per year. We don't know what was offered, but even a solid offer of $8-9 million per year would be a pay cut that he doesn't want to take. So they are at an impasse. Long needs to hit the open market and see what offers he gets before the Dolphins can really talk to him again. The main reason that an assumption that the Dolphins aren't very interested in signing him based on negotiations so far is erroneous, is because the normal path would have been for the team to franchise him - which would be over $6.2 million more than the regular franchise tag. While they have the cap space to tag him once, they most certainly wouldn't want to do it twice. Also, this is probably the perfect year to replace him if his demands are simply too much. They have an excellent opportunity to replace him in either the draft at #12, or get a guy like Albert or Bushrod in the pay range that they want to pay - more likely $6-8 million per year. It's looking like The Chiefs will do the same thing with Albert - saving money by drafting a guy with the #1 pick that is younger.

LOL yeah - I had to do the math, but 2.5 grams is eight one hundredths of an ounce. Sounds like he forgot to clean out his ashtray.

The rookie pool doesn't count against the cap until they sign the players to a contract and I would guestimate it closer to $3 mil since we only have 5 picks.

Still around. I'd jump in if anything important needed to be pointed out. We're in decent cap shape and will probably be able to do anything we need to. If we franchise Melton, things get tighter. I think the biggest opportunity for cap savings is to extend Tillman and get his cap number down. I don't think we should restructure Peppers because it would just make matters worse. Also, as for the cap supposedly going up in 2015, that's not set in stone as there are conflicting reports in the media.

Do all of those things get resolved if we get a speed guy?

I agree that it doesn't mean we never take shots downfield, but I'm saying that we don't necessarily need a new guy to do that since Marshall, Jeffery, and Bennett have all done it in the past from time to time. As you have said, there's more to it than just 40 times and if those guys can sell the short route, then head deep, and keep their step on the DB, they should be fine. I guess to clarify, do we need a speed guy to be a top 5 offense? Probably. Do we need one to be a top 10 offense? Probably not. Significant improvement should come from an improved offensive line and an offense not designed by Mike Tice.

Which guys are saying that and I'll tell you if they are idiots or not. (For instance, guys that have said in the past that we needed a 1st round cover corner in the Tampa-2 ARE idiots because they didn't understand the scheme) I think Jeffery will get better with experience. We got more out of him as a rookie than I expected. I haven't done exhaustive film study on this, but I think Jeffery was mostly used as a possession guy. A receiver can only run the routes they are assigned and I don't think Jeffery had that many deep called for him, but when he did, they worked if Cutler had time to throw the ball deep. I also don't think that there will be all that many deep routes in our new west coast offense that can't be run by the guys we already have. I'm not sure your position here as at one point, you're mentioning that 40 times aren't the only issue with HR receivers, and at another spot, you're saying that Jeffery definitely isn't one. Are you suggesting we spend in FA for one or draft one in the first or second? I'm not sure how else we would get one and I think we have greater needs.

Maybe I'm confused by the baseball reference, but if a guy has enough speed to stay ahead of a DB that he juked and catch it over his shoulder, that's a HR hitter IMO. Perhaps you meant more of a speed guy that keeps the safeties playing back consistently. Kind of a Hester - but with hands and technique. I actually prefer the bigger guys that can do a bit of both because the small quick guys are almost useless in the red zone but the bigger guys can win a jump ball. (to mix up the sports metaphors even more)

Just curious, but did you see this play? http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-game-highlig...-long-touchdown

And to take that a step further, if a player you really like falls, even if it's not one of your positions of need, you take them, or even trade up for the right guy at a position of need. I've always believed you should try to draft a player and not a position.