bradjock

Let's hope that Vasher sucking was about injuries these past 2 seasons. We need him to get back to being ESPN 3 & The Interceptor. I've ridiculed the notion of moving our best cornerback to safety, but I'm starting to see a lot of reasons why it makes sense: #1--Mix up the defense: I've scoffed at moving Tillman sense all we typically have our FS drop way back in coverage. That'd be a waste of Peanut's talent. Yet Lovie always says the two positions are interchangeable. Maybe they haven't been interchangeable because we don't trust D-Manning. He's started a ton of games at FS over the past 3 years and had exactly one sack. If we moved Peanut all over the field, and try to utilize to become more of a Bob Sander's type, that'd be huge. If we had a good safety we trusted we could mix up the defense more. #2--It's a helluva a lot easier to find a corner then a good safety: This is proven by the fact that Angelo drafts a safety damn near every year, yet the cupboard is bare. Yet we have a roster of solid corners. Sure it means we'll have to draft another CB but JA is damn good at that. #3--We really like Corey Graham: Remember he fell a ton on draft day due to injuries. He wasn't spectacular this season, but very solid. If we think he can take Tillman's spot at corner, that'd be huge. At 6-0, 193, he's damn near Tillman's size, who is 6-1 198. Either way, if this were opening day, we'd one our 5 best defensive backs on the field. That'd be D Manning, Tillman, Graham, Vasher, and Payne. I sure as hell don't want to ever see D Manning back at the FS spot. If this would cure our safety problem, we need to do it.

How the hell would Furrey be an improvement over Booker? These two are similar in a lot of ways. Both supposedly have "great hands Booker's slow, Furrey's probably slower. Furrey turns 32 in May, while Booker turns 33 in July. Both are listed as 6-0, with Furrey at 195, & Booker 205 (as per NFL.com) Furrey caught for 181 yards last season, Booker 211. I just don't see how bringing in a bad/mediocre WR will help things. Seemingly every WR we have is a nice #3. As for the hands, what happened to Bookers? I posted last August when I saw our WR's doing practicing catch "lob-passes" with one hand. The kind you see at the corner of the end-zone. Every other WR caught the ball by balancing it with the palm of his hand, and quickly smothering it with his chest. Meanwhile, Booker snatched the ball out of the air with one hand just like he was catching a baseball. I was sure as hell we'd found our sure-handed WR who'd be the QB's friend. I still REALLY don't understand: With hands like that, how did he develop the drops???? It's like a disease. I'm not sure Furrey would be an upgrade over Rasied Davis.

IMO, by the 19th I doubt we'll have much to discuss. My guess is they'll place the tag on Peppers, and there's a decent chance they'll have resigned Gross. I could be wrong, but who knows? The best comprehensive list of free agents by detailed position I've found is at http://insider.espn.go.com/nfl/fa Even if you don't have INSIDER, I like the fact you can have the free agents ranked by position. For instance, I was a bit disturbed to find out there are only 8 true free safeties available. http://insider.espn.go.com/nfl/fa?sort=gra...p;positionId=21 After Atogwe from the Rams, (who might get franchised) there is the 59 year old Brian Dawkins, 3 guys I've never heard of, and #6 on the list is Terrance Holt, who is apparantly with the Bears (I could have sworn we cut him after 3 weeks.) Damn this free agent class is weak.

No and No. At least not at the price they're at now. According to Profootballtalk.com, Holt is due to make 6.6 million next year and Pace 5.9. Not to mention, Holt turns 33 in June, and Pace turns 34 in November. Due to the money + age, and when you consider their bad seasons: Holt only caught for 796 yards, and Pace has been injured the last two years, neither one is worth trading for. If they were cut that might change things. Granted Holt would automatically be our best WR. But I'm not sure that an injured Pace is an upgrade over a meriocre John Tait.

That's the biggest thing that scares me. Who the hell do we replace them with? Not to mention, with Lovie taking over defensive play-calling duties, it's essentially a promotion for Ron Turner. Lovie will have even less time to deal with the offensive side. If we did fire Turner, we'd have to make damn certain we replaced him with someone who has experience. I just don't see that guy out there. I've been pissed at Babbich since we have so much talent on the defensive side of the ball, and we're still awful. I don't see that talent on offense. IMO, Turner's done an ok job given what he has to work with.

Hell yes they should be . . . but has a team ever been? It seems like once the team has the stadium deal in place, the fans get the shaft and the team gets the dollars. I remember when they were talking about moving the Bears to Indiana, and Bear fans were screaming foul. After that, few bitched tax dollars became involved. Honestly, while Soldier Field is great, is there a bigger waste of money then a stadium devoted strictly to football? It cost between 300-400 million, gets used for 8 meaningful days a year if there's no playoffs . . . it hosts the occassional concert & soccer. Baseball at least gets 81 home games, the Bulls & the Blackhawks share the United Center . . . yet the most impressive stadium in Chicago is for a team that plays 8 meaningful games a year. So yes you've stirred the pot Mad-Lith. I don't give a damn about an increase in ticket prices, I'd just be happy to be able to buy a ticket for face value of the ticket price.

Last year at this time we were amazed at how the unknown Derek Anderson came out of nowhere to become a pro-bowl caliber quarterback. Cleveland franchised (I think ) leaving Bear fans to wish Angelo would make a move for this would-be savior. Cleveland gives him 3 years 30 million . . . Anderson sucks, Cleveland sucks, Anderson is benched. Doesn't Matt Cassell sound one helluva a lot like this year's Derek Anderson??? Derek Anderson is now getting lumped with Leftwich, Grossman, Losman, Simms, and all the other mediocre quarterbacks who couldn't be successful. Won't that be Matt Cassell in a year? I think New England made a rare blunder in franchising him. (Which means they really don't expect Brady to be back anytime soon . . . which resulted in aforementioned blunder). If Cleveland cuts Anderson, I'd love to have him at the garage sale rate, but I sure as hell wouldn't give money & picks for Cassell.

It's flat out silly that you're bitching about Simms for what he did in college. Do you REALLY think any of these QB's you've mentioned below are that much better or worse then another? Including Byron Leftwhich. Hell, all these guys had huge potential at one point, and now they're cast-offs who are most likely hated by the fans of the franchises who drafted them. Heck, to the normal fan, the best QB available is Rex Grossman. He passed for 3200 yards with a crappy offense and led his team to the Super Bowl two years ago. The only QB on the list of available QB's not close to forty, who's put up better yardage in a season is David Carr. He did that once in 2005 on a really bad Texans team where they didn't win much and he passed for 3500 yards. Realistically, Rex is the best of the bunch. I do mean that in all seriousness. And I don't think Rex is good. Getting back to the point, I don't see how you can say Simms is worse then any of these other guys. We need a guy who can push Orton. Simms has good size, the big arm, and he's close to the ideal QB age . . . and his pedigree doesn't hurt. I'd be happy with any of the guys you mentioned since they are all legitimate NFL quarterbacks, and we won't have to deal with a Chad Hutchinson type melt-down. I hope like hell we sign one of them AND draft a QB in one of the first four rounds. I just don't see how you can say one turd smells worse then the rest based on college.

Is the team still considered cheap if we're planning on saving this money on player contracts? Last year at this time it was speculated the Bears were somewhere between 12 to 25 million underneath the cap. With that money we resigned Harris, Hester, Urlacher, Lance, Grossman, Orton, Rashied Davis, and signed Brandon Lloyd & Marty Booker. While some of those deals were cheap, Harris, Hester & Lance each cost major coin. AND we'd have spent a ton for Berrian. How the hell did we do all that and still have 10 million to tuck under-neath the mattress for this year with Hamilton's contract??? This year the early speculation is the Bears are 25 million under. Mike Mulligan on the SCORE this morning said the Bears have 40 million to spend. I have no idea if that's accurate, but either way, we have a shit load to spend, and where will that go? At this point the team has a fairly good idea of who's available and how much we'll spend. What if we've decided to not raise prices since we'll save an assload on player salaries this season? Sure we'll likely resign St. Clair to a modest deal, and likely ink a couple other players for a couple million a year, but I can't see us going balls-out for Peppers, Gross, or Housh. It's likely we're helping the Bear fans who go to the stadium while screwing the millions of fans who don't go to the games. Granted, I'm not calling them cheap because they've spent it since the new stadium was built. But I sure as hell am not about to praise them when it appears they could be helping the fans while hurting the team. Hell, I'd much rather see them jack ticket prices up $20.00 a seat and signing Julius Peppers.

Without intending to, you've just described exactly why Leftwhich won't come here. With Warner unofficially off the market, and Cassell franchised, Leftwhich, based on a couple good games with the champions this season, is clearly the #1 QB available. If he came here, he would have to beat out Orton. Wouldn't he automatically be the #1 if he signed with Minnesota? Or San Fran? Detroit? All three of those teams would clearly be more motivated to outspend the Bears, and guarantee him that it's his job to lose. If Orton is due to make 2.8 million (I can't remember who it was & I'm too lazy to go back . . . thank you for posting that) there's not way Leftwhich will get that with the Bears. Hell, I look at him & Orton being fairly similar at this point. So if we don't go after Leftwhich, Chris Simms is the next best QB available who's not close to 40 . . . after Simms it's Grossman, which ain't happening. I really do hope that Angelo brings in someone to give Orton a run for his money.

Thanks for posting that in this boring ass time. Three things that jumped out at me: #1. Greg Olsen is the #1 reason we're not desperate for a WR. Sure our WR's are still not good, but Hester & Olsen were 1 & 2 in receiving yards for the Bears this season. It makes a helluva a lot more sense to draft another WR in rounds 2 or 3 and let those two continue to develop, rather then going all out for Boldin or Housh. #2. I suspect the AP to FB is nothing. We've heard about the 2 RB formations since we drafted Benson and it's NEVER happened. AP is a good blocking RB, but he's no lead blocker. If we're serious about him playing FB, we'll hear stories in July how AP bulked up 20 lbs in the off-season. If that don't happen, there's no way it happens. I take that back, if we acquire another RB we really like we might convert him, but didn't we like Jones? #3. Turner explained why Wolfe doesn't touch the ball on offense. Based on Turner's comments, does anyone think this will change?

As per profootballtalk.com, in summary, Warner said he's staying in Arizona or retiring, and 1/3 of the teams in the NFL have interest in Leftwhich. This is news to Bears fans since after JA's state of the Union address, many of us have taken his comments to mean that Angelo will pursue a QB in free agency. Now Warner, the top QB in free agency, is off the market. That will drive Leftwhich's price up, since as PFT pointed out, there are a ton of teams in the NFL desperate for a QB. Early indications suggest there won't be a QB really worthy of the #18 pick. Anybody we draft won't likely provide immediate competition for Orton. I mentioned in a previous post that the SCORE has suggested we're interested in Simms. Either way, I can't imagine we'd pay any QB more then Orton, who's set to make 2 million this year. (please correct me if I'm wrong on that.) It'll be interesting. Either way I can't wait for free agency to start so we can begin pissing & moaning about Angelo's lack of moves.

Easy!!! It's February 4th . . . the combine doesn't strat until the end of the month, free agency doesn't start until around Feb. 27th, the NFL draft isn't until April 25th. Meanwhile, the Bulls suck, pitchers & catchers don't report for another week, and hockey sucks. In other words, there's not a damn thing else to do. Although I will say that they were talking about this guy on the SCORE this morning, how he's a "winning" quarterback, is like 18th on the all time big 10 list for passing, he's very mobile, and his senior season he kicked Purdue's ass in a game where Kyle Orton was so bad he got benched. Agree with NFO that it'll be him versus Hanie. If not, it means we failed to sign or draft a good QB to push Orton, which is unacceptable IMO. It seems impossible that JA would talk about fixing the QB position, and then do absolutely nothing to fix it. That being said, the SCORE is talking more & more about the likelihood of the Bears wanting Chris Simms. How good Simms was before he got hurt, and how he has the "big arm" the Orton does not have. Supposedly, Tennessee wants him back, but why would Simms return as the #3? Either way, as far as talkbears is concerned, in the middle of a boring sports week, this is by far the most interesting thing going on. (Illinois don't play until tomorrow.)

You're over-simplifying things a bit. Vasher just turned 27 in November. We paid him to be the guy who had 16 interceptions his first three seasons with the Bears. The hope is to get him healthy, and get him back to where he was. Do you really want to pay him to leave so he can go to another team and have an 8 interception season? It's not always neatly cut & dried.

Well said Madlith. Going into the season, who the hell thought we'd get beat by Atlanta? Or Houston? Yet by the time we played Jacksonville, that was damn near a guaranteed victory. If you'd have told me that last year at this time . . .

The Bears signed a quarterback? Hell yes that deserves all caps!!! That's likely the biggest news we'll have until the end of February when free agency arrives. I agree with Pix's comment that he's just another body that's not likely to make the team. But who knows? At some point this offseason we'll sign a punter and we'll sign a place-kicker, while Gould & Maynard aren't going anywhere.

Remember McBride has turned into a good special teams player so he seems likely to remain our 5th CB. We'll probably draft a CB late or sign a second/third tier FA for competition. Agreed that MrBride has turned into a nice special teams guy & back-up CB. As for drafting or signing a cb, JA should draft a cb every year. On top of that we have the annual question of what to do with DManning, is he our nickel CB or is he our FS, or is he our KR who backs up those roles? Right now D Manning is our FS, but I wonder how much of that is by default? Kind of like when Mark Bradley was declared our #1 WR. That was basically us saying, "We don't have anyone else right now, so looking at the roster, theoretically he's our #1." Just because D Manning is our FS, doesn't necessarily mean he'll stay there for long. Bottom line for Nate is that he really needs to end up as one of the top 3 outside CBs to stay on this team. Did you notice Terrance Metcalf stayed on the team even though he was buried on the depth chart? It's amazing what being owed money will do. I will add however that if Bowman and Graham are playing far better than him he could be cut or traded in camp. Graham can't get a damn interception to save his life and Bowman was cut then hurt. Meanwhile, I'm actually excited about both of these guys. Either way, there's still plenty of room on the roster for them, McBride, and Vasher.

Do we have much leverage to get him to restructure? I can't remember many players restructuring when the deal is relatively new. You hear of teams eating the contract but that's about it. When we already owe him so much money . . . You mention that he can have value as a nickel, has anyone ever mentioned this other then message boards like this one? Of course that makes D Manning our FS . . . . ugh.

Not with the mix of DE's we have we shouldn't sign him. In 2004, when we had a 26 year old Wale, and a 24 year old Alex Brown, that's the ideal situation to bring a 35 year old into the mix. If the guy tanks, it's no big deal. At this point, with Wale 31, Alex Brown 29, and Mark Anderson a question, it's essential we draft a young stud DE. Hell, hopefully it would have a "Thomas Jones" type effect, where the play of the other three becomes elevated. While DaBearsdabomb mentioned dumping Wale to save money, he's still considered our best DE. There's no way in hell you dump him unless you're upgrading. More importantly, why would you dump him to save money when we have 25 million to spend, & there's not much to buy? Even we dumped him to add Peppers, IMO we'd still want to draft a DE at some point.

Thanks Pix! That makes sense. Good luck again.

I'd still probably take Boldin. He's 3 years younger then Houshmanzadeh. All things being equal, I'd much rather have Boldin. Hell, the guy's fearless. But things are not equal, and acquiring him will cost two high draft picks PLUS a ton of cap space. If we just needed one player to fix this team, I'd say do it. But we have multiple holes to fill. I don't get your last statement- giving up 3 very good players for 1. Are you saying that if we kept our 3 picks and picked up Housh, that that would be the smart move because our 3 picks will be great? I think we all agree that our first 3 draft picks WILL NOT all be great and there will be atleast 1 crappy player. I can't guarantee our draft picks will be great any more then you can guarantee Boldin won't become Mushin Muhammed if he joined this team. How's Boldin going to react when Orton can't get him the ball? I can predict that one of those picks we'd be giving up would likely cost us losing a stud player. If we'd have given up our #1 and #3 in 2004, that'd have cost us Tommie Harris & Bernard Berrian. For every Dan Bazuin, there's a Greg Olsen, Devin Hester, Matt Forte, and Charles TIllman. It's tough to comment on Chris Williams, but he was good enough that we named him our starting LT, who we hope will solidify the position for years to come. So at the very least, including whoever else we could sign in free agency, Boldin will cost us two damn good players. Considering Boldin's production won't be nearly the same as if he'd joined this team, we're much better off not putting all our eggs in one basket. We're in need of a DE, FS, WR, QB, and o-line help. Through free agency and the draft, we ought to be able to upgrade every one of those positions. Making a deal for Boldin would severely limit the areas of the team we can improve.

So we don't get Atogwe, but what about T.J. Housh? Hypothetically, let's say we devote all of the 25 million we have available in FA this season and get Housh. Wouldn't you rather have Housh, and our #1 and #2 or #3 over Boldin? You look at their stats from this past season and they're not far off: Boldin: 1039 yards, 89 catches, 11 TD's Housh: 904 yards, 94 catches, 4 TD's I wouldn't mind giving up the picks, and I don't mind spending the money. But when you're doing both, you're essentially giving up 3 very good players for the price of one.

I'm excited to be in this cause it makes the game more interesting. But how the heck does it work? I've never done this before and the rules are pretty damn vague. I'm guessing that it's each time a team scores? So if after the first quarter, the score is tied 7 to 7, the winner for the first quarter would be the guy who had AZ 1 and Pit 1? Good luck to you too Pix. I don't know about you, but I refuse to go to Super Bowl parties or bars to watch the game for the simple fact that nobody ever actually wants to watch the damn game. That annoys the hell out of me.

First, let me throw out boring numbers: Moose had 750 yards, 64 catches, & 4 TD's his first season here in 2005. On one hand, he failed to live up to expectations from what he'd done in Carolina the previous year. On the other hand, considering in 2004 we were arguably the worst offense the NFL had ever seen, and he was getting the ball from a rookie QB, it wasn't that bad. He did follow that up with 860 yards, and 570 yards in 2006 & 2007. Hell, I'd have loved to have had a repeat of his 570 yards last season. Hester led the team 664 yards. The two guys who replaced Moose were Lloyd with 334, and Booker with 211. Rashied Davis was actually #2 with 445 yards. While our crappy offense is usually blamed on Orton, Turner, and our bad WR's, why isn't anyone bitching that it was a horrible mistake to let Moose go? I mention all this, because Boldin would make this team one helluva a lot better. Yet at the same time, if you're going to give up a #1, #3, and #5 PLUS 10 million per, you'd better make sure it's for a top-tier QB, and not just a guy who's going to make your QB look better.

I'm jumping back into this argument late, so let me just say this about Vasher & Tillman: 1. There's been times when they've been called on to press the WR's, and as far as I can tell, they've never been burned. Hell, with Graham's size & speed, he should be ideal at bumping WR's at the line. 2. When has JA ever over-paid or under-paid a player? He keeps his finger on the pulse of what the market is. He gave Vasher a 5 year 28 million $$$ deal and Tillman a 6 year 41 million $$$ extension. I mention that because if we paid that, chances are other teams would pay the same. You don't pay that kind of coin for players who only have the ability to back-peddle. Peanut is a top corner, and Vasher was a good corner. Either way, there's no chance that our coaching staff hasn't had confidence in them. Chico was smart enough to mix things up at times. Babbich wasn't. Let's hope Lovie gets things back on track. Either way, we already have 67 million invested in two cornerbacks. If you count the 21 million deal we gave RMJ, it's 88 million. Yet our secondary sucked. Asa from Oakland will probably cost 88 million by himself. That ain't going to fix the problem.