bradjock

But we'd sign him with the intent that he would be a high character guy with the Bears We all hate dirty play, but raise your hand if you smiled when he intentionally injured Mr. Discount Double-Check I don't think it happens mainly because a lot of teams have a lot more money then we have. Not to mention we already have a bunch of dough tied up in our d-line. But Suh would sure as hell make a lot of our defensive positions look a lot better.

Maybe. Except when they are only asking a 6th or 7th round pick, that means most of the league views him as a back-up/special teams player. He might be a slight upgrade over our other back-up/special team linebackers in Shea, Bostic, Christian Jones, and Green. With all the offseason talk that we need to draft and develop young players, I'm real anxious to see what a competent staff does with our current linebacking group. Granted it's just a 6th/7th pick, but we are one of the oldest teams in the league and we already gave up our 5th round pick to draft Brock Vereen. Those picks are precious.

I think his approach could work with the right person. He was not. But I'm with you, if locker assignments have any real impact on the success of a team . . . what a joke.

Today I've heard a ton of talk about how the Bears could be targeting Suh. He'll get at least a 100+ million contract with 60 guaranteed and become the richest defensive player in NFL history. What are your thoughts on this?My thoughts: 1. I was really skeptical when we signed Peppers to that huge deal because he had like 1 sack the previous season. That turned out to be a great signing. Could Suh have a similar impact? 2. How much is DT a need? Lamar Houston, when healthy, will project inside in a 3-4. Jay Ratliff, Fergoson, Sutton . . . that's not a bad group when I don't know how any of our DE's will convert, we have no proven linebackers, and we are incredibly thin/weak in the secondary. DT might be our strongest position. 3. How bad was our defense the last 2 years because of stupid coaching? It'll be interesting. May 10th is one week away. The last few years the Bears have been busy when free agency opens.

Yep. And I'll add, that if we get rid of BM, we do it with the intent of of AJ being our #1 WR. At the end of next season he's a free agent, and hopefully we have extended him or even have to franchise him. I can think of several teams where Johnson would be a great fit. New Englad, St. Louis, and Indy, just to name a few. The Bears are not one of them.

If BM goes (and while I could be wrong, I get the impression that it's a forgone conclusion) Brian Hartline makes a ton of sense. And we need to draft a guy or two and sign a guy or two. Last season we had no #3 WR on the roster.

Yeah but Kiko tore his ACL and missed last season. Buffalo has Rex Ryan as coach, and he has always preferred a power run game. McCoy has always thrived as more of a receiving back. It just seems like an odd mood for both sides.

Is there a big difference in size, while BM and AJ are heavier than Hartline, they are 6-3 and 6-4. Hartline is listed at 6-2, 200. Considering he's a white guy drafted in the 4th round, I'm going to go out on a limb and speculate that Hartline does not have elite speed. That makes him a better version of Earl Bennett. Don't get me wrong, we need a #3 WR. But ideally we have a guy who is a speed guy who can stretch the field.

While I don't know, typically we always felt like we knew what the old regime was going to do . . . then it turned out we were wrong most of the time. So at the end of the day, it really doesn't matter what we think we know.

We can be creative with the cap in signing big-time free agents without further tethering ourselves to Cutler. Like with Jared Allen who only counted something like 2-3 million against the cap last year but counts for 12+ this year.

I don't think we want to do anything that would make it more difficult to get rid of Cutler in the future. Lets say we decide to cut him after this year, we want to be as free and clear as possible. We don't want for him to count against us for years to come, even if it is just one million. Teams that do that quickly find themselves in cap hell.

As per Dan Bernstein, the Bears brass told Ryan Pace that BM was a jack-ass and they wanted him gone. But it was ultimately his decision. While that may or may not be accurate, that opened my eyes a bit in terms of why the new regime would want to trade him.

Maybe. But last year I thought Jonny Manziel would have went one helluva a lot sooner. After the Patriots scouting report was leaked, you realized they thought Manziel was a jack-ass. Turns out the scouting report was accurate and the Browns should have passed. I just thought that was telling in terms of the scouting process. He might be available and we pass on him for reasons unknown.

Everytime Mariani touches the ball, I feel like there's a good chance he'll be leaving the field on a stretcher. His current style of running is not conducive to longevity. We could draft a guy, but it's not like we have the depth to be able to draft a guy specifically for the position. We do need a #3 WR and a #3 CB. Either way, I'd be ok with Ginn.

This is really a non-story IMO. Fox & Co. have said they're in the process of evaluating every player and no decisions have been made yet. In other words, everyone is on notice. Forte is saying he wants to be here, but they have to want him here. That really doesn't mean anything.

Yep. The only bad part is that he's 31. The Jets met with his agent about resigning him and there is speculation the Falcons are also interested. In other word, he's old and won't be cheap. That being said, we are desperate for elp at the position and he might be the best 3-4 LB available who won't be franchised. I notice the PFT article doesn't say we are actually interested, just that they expect us to be interested. As weak as we are at the position, I'm guessing everytime a lb becomes available there will be speculation they'll be coming to Chicago.

Do you have a link? I haven't heard this from the SCORE. I might have missed it. Either way, how does that help his trade value? We can more easily cut him so teams are more willing to trade for him? That makes no sense. If we let him go, who is our QB? Early word is Marioti is killing it in the interview process. We'd likely have to give up a 1 and a 2 and a 1 and a 2 to get him. And he might not be better than Cutler (See RG3).

Do we get ANY cap savings from his release? I haven't heard. No team will trade for him with his current salary. Considering the one thing Fox mentioned about defense was the importance of being able to get to the quarterback, why would we dump Allen? We misused him this past year as more of a run-stopper. Wouldn't it benefit us a ton more to find a way to make him work than to let him go?

Show me a team that has recently stock-piled picks and had success. I think of St. Louis, Jacksonville, Oakland, Cleveland, Jacksonville, Minnesota . . . lots of really good picks. Lots of bad teams. Jimmy Johnson believed in that philosophy but eventually ran out of top end players. The Bill Belichick Tom Brady situation is unique. Aaron Rogers seems to make every offensive pick the Packers make look real damn good. Winston and Mariotti are likely going to go 1 and 2. To get one of those guys, we'll likely have to give up next year's #1. Are they worth it?

You can't throw that out as being bad unless you quantify what we should have done that would have been any better. We were desperate for QB. So are you suggesting we should have stayed at #4 and drafted Byron Leftwich? Blah. Ideally, we make that trade and draft Troy Polomalu at #14 instead of Haynes. Except we didn't need a safety at the time. It's revisionist history. On trading down, we have to look at who we would be giving up when we traded down. For example, we don't want to trade out of the #7 spot to see a 3-4 linebacker taken that would have improved our team. If we trade down to a team who takes a WR, that's awesome.

The SCORE reported that after Brandon Marshall met with Pace and Fox, he doesn't know if he's going to be on the team next year. Why does he say that? It is possible Jason Cole made it up, but Marshall's uncertainty indicates that there could be something to it.

Interesting thought. We would have almost 34 million in cap space. The problem is, who plays WR? After AJ, can Marques Wilson even play? He's done nothing. We have nobody else. We need to add 2-3 WR's as it is.

Agreed 100%. Just to have a good return man again would be awesome.

Is he a #1 WR? He had 780 yards last season, turns 31 in March and he bitches in the locker room. The funny thing is the trend in the NFL. Neither the Patriots or Hawks had good WR's. Rookie WR's looked awesome this past year. Like the RB, all of a sudden, the value of the position has diminished. If we plan on demanding he take a pay-cut, we obviously have our reasons. We don't need the cap space and the new staff has no reason to hold a grudge against him.

I concede I don't know a damn thing about Landry. All I know is that Mundy was probably our best safety last year and he wasn't very good. Conte has shown flashes but can't finish a game. (I have forgiven him for the Green Bay blunder, but the guy probably needs to retire before he gets another concussion.)