AZ54

With the owners having just voted to approve the new collective bargaining agreement I though it would be good to have a single thread to cover the various new rules that will be coming out in the next few days from FA, salary cap, rookie salaries, etc. Item 1: Bears Rams Hall of Fame game is cancelled. All teams will have identical preseason practice time and games

Roach needs a contract before he gets and extension.

My guess is that many players agents already have deals in place and people will be surprised at how quickly many signings get done. While players won't say it, they have to be nervous knowing there's just a few days to find a job. Now for the top tier FAs it's going to be very interesting to see how that shakes out with so little time. For these big deals player usually like to play one club against another but with teams reportedly required to spend a certain amount of money they can't sit back and wait for very long before jumping to their second option.

There is the matter of being ready to run plays versus being ready to get hit. I agree that the players need a couple weeks to get in the flow of things and prepare for full contact.

Word is that Carimi is headed to RT and Webb will be our LT.

As the only one to vote so far I think the fans will have to collectively find a way to boycott. If games are missed certainly those who bought PSL and tickets deserve money back. Once games begin to be played the fans will be right back in those seats, and they should be. I'll be right back at my TV watching Bears games. Then how to impact the teams and players revenue stream? Perhaps refusing to purchase any NFL licensed gear. Yet I think that is a very small percentage of revenues. In the end the only real way to impact revenue is a long term loss of fans as happened to baseball for several years. I think both sides understand what happened there and that's why I tend to think this deal either gets done soon or goes on and destroys this season with no middle ground. Once they start taking games off the schedule each side will start pointing at the other and blaming them, which only forces them to dig their heels in further to defend their points.

What are you guys hearing about the negotiations? I heard tonight the players and owners had agreed upon a revenue sharing split. I don't take these rumors too seriously until it's repeated from multiple sources. If true, I would think that was the biggest hurdle in negotiations and now it's a question of details on things like FA, rookie salaries, retirement benefits, etc. Word is the 18 game season is a goner too, not that I mind.

I don't think Jenkins is going to command that much salary that we can't also pursue one of the better Oline FA out there. Adding Paea and Jenkins would be a significant improvement in interior run defense. While neither of these guys is an elite interior pass rusher the combination of the two should be good enough to keep QBs from stepping up to avoid Peppers on the outside. Definitely it takes us out of the running for an elite WR like VJack but we're a team with too many holes and we can't go after a hail mary solution. The combination of adding a good interior Dlineman, interior Olineman, and find a good WR to boost the depth on the roster should make the team better overall versus throwing all the cash after an elite WR.

I think Conte is at least one year, if not two, away from being ready to start in the NFL. Remember he was a converted CB so he doesn't have a lot of experience at FS.

He's a good option.

Not surprised to hear that. My rumor mill of at least one AZ Cardinal player indicates he has been in contact with at least one team and possibly a couple about future contract offers. He's confident enough to have moved to his prospective new city to workout all summer. Based on that it seems clear many teams have contacted agents (I assume that means they didn't contact a player) to let them know of not only their interest but their salary expectations. Smart agents and players knowing this is going to be a very short FA season would likely want to have some deal in place behind the scenes so they can get signed right away. With so much uncertainty on timing, salary cap, FA rules, etc., how much risk are older players willing to take to find the best offer? I expect a lot of short term deals, thus leaving veterans open to more money as the rookie pay scale kicks in the next year or two.

Since it's so slow while we wait for players and owners to agree on how they can all be rich I decided to post this article I found on the Bears website. Great story with some great names in it. I only copied one small paragraph below http://www.chicagobears.com/tradition/hof-connor.asp During his eight years in Chicago, Connor gained the rare distinction of earning all-NFL honors at three different positions-offensive tackle, defensive tackle, and linebacker. Although George is remembered as one of the finest of the post-World War II tackles, it was as a linebacker that he enjoyed his greatest stardom in pro football. He was one of the first to become a regular linebacker and he still ranks as one of the very best!

I could see the "right to match" being agreed upon. Gives both sides a fair shot at what they want. On a positive note we have really progressed in the negotiation talks to be have rumors about what FA rules will be in place.

Let's see we could lose 3 decent players, even a solid contributor in DManning but the market opens up a lot more options for us to sign in positions of need. I'll take that. I'll also guess that both Roach and DManning return. DManning's value as a KR went down with the new rules so he might not be seeing the kind of money he was hoping for. Of course his value as a DB has been the source of much discussion on this board. In the end I think the Bears will try to match what he gets offered.

Cutler got criticized (once again) because he wasn't doing what people wanted with workouts as soon as Drew Brees was. I was on the side because I didn't think starting passing drills in May was that big of a deal but wanted to see the offense together in June. I've read the Bears offense was working out with Cutler but I figured it was more routine passing drills. After reading Bennett's comments below I am rather impressed because it appears Cutler is actively working with the WRs to expand our offensive plays. Those parts of the playbook we didn't use last year. "We meet about four days a week," Bennett said. "We go through plays, route running, coverages … just making sure we remain crisp on our routes. "We have a couple guys on offense who will step over for a Cover-2 look and things of that nature. But we don't have anybody out there pressing doing 1-on-1 drills. "We have some new stuff in. We have a lot old stuff. Some of the stuff we have, if you would see it, it's unreal. We have a lot of stuff to go off right now." http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/footb...0,2986256.story

Saw Plax' press conference. He has certainly been humbled. He knows he has a tough road back to get the millions he's lost and time is not on his side.

I think the 2000 Ravens should be ranked higher. No offense at all on that team but an incredible D. The 85 Bears on the other hand had the incredible D and a solid offense and totally dominated teams throughout the playoffs including a massive defeat of the New England Patriots in the Superbowl.

I agree that Moss can still play at a pretty high level but I disagree that he's the type of WR we need on our roster. He's not the big physical type who hits the quick slants well, he's a soft outside type who takes some plays off and doesn't always block well. Would he make our WR corps better in terms of talent? Yes but only because our depth is so weak. Would he fit into Martz' precision offense? On that I'm not so sure and I'll leave that up to guys on the board who are better at knowing how well WR run routes.

Nice article and then he totally contradicts himself all in the last paragraph. How can they have too much power if that's what must be done to have a well-run organization? Brilliant.

This hype around practices in May is too funny. What do we normally have here....rookie minicamp. Then a few OTAs where the team basically works the rookies into the schemes and gets a view of their athleticism. No contact. Suddenly in May if you aren't out there tackling it's the end of the season for your team. In June I'd like to see Cutler out there with his WRs and to a lesser extent TEs working on their timing. They know the routes the plays, run them. It's silly to assume that if the Oline is standing in front of Cutler as he throws he'll somehow be getting better because it replicates what he'll see against GB. Drew Brees has had plenty of opportunities to pay for practices for his teammates in May over the years but never felt the need until now.

I agree with that. It might not be his ideal spot but he's better there than any of our other guys. However, I can see the logic where the club thinks he'll be rock solid at RT and can handle that spot with zero help. If that's true then you put JWebb, Williams, on the left side and tend to roll your help to the left side (i.e. TE lines up there more often than not). If you can set up the line so that you only have one weak spot (ok this doesn't resolve the OG issue) then it's easier as a team to mask that problem rather than trying to plug occasional leaks across the line.

Like him or not Cutler took his team to the NFC championship game without much of an Oline.

Yes, I'd take one of those guys over Hester but who are they on that list? To me Hester often does influence every down as a game changer because of what he can do with field position. He doesn't have to return many punts all the way just a couple for 20 yards in a game and you've changed field position enough to help both offense and defense. The two players on that list behind Hester who singlehandedly can do that IMO are Cutler and Brandon Marshall. Marshall has had more than his share of character problems but produces on the field. So grab a name off the list from that draft. Cutler, yes I'd take him before Hester. The DEs... Dumervil, he has his moments early in the season but fades quickly (Tommie Harris style). Tamba Hali? I'd still take Hester. Ray Edwards? Nope. The CBs... Jonathan Joseph, Cortland Finnegan. Good players but I don't think they influence every game the way Hester does with his returns, unless Finnegan punches someone.

I'm sure ESPN is still reporting how self-centered he is.. http://www.suntimes.com/sports/football/be...te-lockout.html In the morning, Cutler served as the grand marshal of the Holiday World Walk to Cure Diabetes. He signed every autograph request, including arms and shoes, and he posed for dozens of pictures with many of the 1,600-plus walkers. Then, he walked more than a mile through the park — mostly in pouring rain. ..........People had such a good time, the event ended about 90 minutes later than scheduled. And Cutler was among the last to leave. “I can’t remember the number of times people came up and said, ‘It was a great event. Hope you come back and do more of it,’ ” Cutler said. “It just reinforces to me how good these people are, and it makes me want to come back more and have some stuff here

One thing to add: If Hanie wants to workout so badly why isn't he making all the calls necessary to set this up? In fact he should be glad if Cutler isn't there with the WRs because he'd be getting more reps with them and shouldn't that help him secure the #2 spot? You would think some of the WR would have the same interest. Perhaps we are getting a bit of insight into why Martz wasn't too confident in Hanie last season?