bradjock

Is this guy a credible writer or blogger? He says, "If Emery drafted a defensive lineman in 14, the odds of him starting or getting meaningful snaps are nil." As far as we know, we intend to play Houston primarily at DE. That means our DT's are Ratliff, Paea, and Collins. Ratliff is old and injury prone. Paea is mediocre. Collins is a back-up. How is their nil chance of a DT we draft not getting meaningful snaps? At worst we would work him into the rotation. This statement seems particularly bad when he goes on to say that we will draft Justin Gilbert and work him in as a nickel or when someone gets hurt. Speaking of which, where are the rumors he speaks of that we are setting our sights on Justin Gilbert? Anybody else here that? I'm not saying it's impossible, but it seems like speculation. ll agree with him when he says the draft is wide open. Several of us have been saying that since we signed Allen. It would be cool to draft Ebron, but still highly unlikely.

I don't quite get your anger at Urlacher. Yeah, I don't like his attitude towards the Bears. It's disappointing. But the guy played his ass of and is a future HOFer and I appreciate all he did. His disappointment in the franchise doesn't change his contributions. I'm not burning my #54 memorbelia. When Tommie Harris was cut from the Bears, he took out a page add in the Trib thanking Chicago fans. That's classy. It's unfortunate Urlacher can't do the same. But it's not worth a "screw him" approach.

I agree Emery was responding to Lovie's input. As good as our defense was and as bad as our offense was . . . OT Riley Reiff falls to us at #19 and we pass on him to reach for an undersized DE. That's Lovie. Good luck Tampa. Although, ultimately, Emery's name is attached to the pick. That being said, Emery didn't hesitate to fire Lovie the next offseason.

How about this for an Emery trade steal: Last year, the Bears traded the #153 pick to Atlanta. Atlanta traded up so they could take DE Stansly Maponga who played in 5 games last season recording a total of 5 tackles. In the trade the Bears received picks #163 and #236. We took Jordan Mills at #163 and Marquis Wilson at #236. Mills started every game last season at RT helping solidify the offensive line. Wilson has tons of potential and will likely be our #3 WR this year. That's awesome. I'd add on how damn tricky trades are: Last year Miami traded up from #12 to #3. All Oakland received was Miami's #12 pick and their 2nd round pick #46. Then Miami takes Dion Jordan and most mocks had Jordan going in the #12 range to begin with. So Miami got a steal from Oakland, traded up, and then reached for a player . . .

How about this for an Emery trade steal: Last year, the Bears traded the #153 pick to Atlanta. Atlanta traded up so they could take DE Stansly Maponga who played in 5 games last season recording a total of 5 tackles. In the trade the Bears received picks #163 and #236. We took Jordan Mills at #163 and Marquis Wilson at #236. Mills started every game last season at RT helping solidify the offensive line. Wilson has tons of potential and will likely be our #3 WR this year. That's awesome. I'd add on how damn tricky trades are: Last year Miami traded up from #12 to #3. All Oakland received was Miami's #12 pick and their 2nd round pick #46. Then Miami takes Dion Jordan and most mocks had Jordan going in the #12 range to begin with. So Miami got a steal from Oakland, traded up, and then reached for a player . . .

Maybe, but that's speculation. For example, for this draft currently the experts are saying that most teams want to trade down but it's not possible. The Bears would have to have a partner and get decent value. Are we really able to trade down and would a similar player we want be available? With Shea, supposedly the Patriots were going to take him at #25 (They took ILB Dont'a Hightower) and the Packers wanted him at #28 (they took DE Nick Perry). Of course the Bears wanted Melvin Ingram who went #18 to San Diego. With Kyle Long, we thought so highly of him that we thought he was a steal at #20 . . . On hindsight, Shea may have been a bad pick and Kyle Long may be our eventual starting tackle who was a steal. It's early and we're looking at revisionist history. Every GM will say they were thrilled that the player they drafted was available.

With Tuitt, on one hand, I don't think Emery has a problem drafting a guy based on potential, as we saw with Kyle Long. But it may change things that we are drafting 14th in a draft that's loaded. Not 19th or 20th in a weaker drafter. With Glenn Dorsey, aside from injury concerns, he was a monster coming out of college and a no-brainer to go at #5. Granted, he never emerged. But he was a guy with the productivity and an elite athlete. With most of these guys we are talking about, I'm guessing they are all going to have a very similar/close grade. When that's the case, that means we draft for need. Assuming Houston stays mostly at DE, DT is by far our greatest need. You could argue safety, but if our DT's suck, they won't stand a chance. Does anyone feel that Nate Collins or Jay Ratliff can stay healthy and productive for an entire season? Did Paea do anything last year other than prove he's a nice back-up?

D Manning was pretty good once we realized he sucked in pass coverage but was good at strong safety. Unfortunately, it took us until his 4th season with the Bears for us to figure this out. In 2012, Conte was very good about not getting beat deep. He also didn't have to worry about tackling a running back every other player as they scampered through our first two levels of defense untouched. Mundy, Jennings, and Craig Stelts are all pretty good at strong safety but bad in pass coverage. I'd be ok with signing D Manning for cheap but I'm not sure how much he helps.

That is interesting. I'd add that most were shocked that we seemed to significantly reach for Shea, Kyle Long, and Jon Bostic. Shea and Long were projected to go in the 2nd or 3rd round and Bostic 4th or 5th. Confirming what the article said, we drafted an undersized guy in Shea, and Emery said he would think twice about doing that again. In two years Ermery has drafted, we've been surprised and he took guys who were not on our radar. We've mostly discussed the players the article mentions. Ebron, Mosely, Ha Ha, and Gilbert. The one interesting guy is Stephon Tuitt. He's fast and tall. Could we covet him over Donald & Jerrigan?

Question: In Phil Emery's first draft he essentially took a linebacker with the #1 pick. In his 2nd draft, he took linebackers in rounds #2 (Bostic) and #4 (Green). Do you really think he'd go back to the well at #1 seeing what he's done the past two years? Aside from that, I agree with you. There's going to be some damn good safeties available with our 2nd round pick.

The down side is that for the second year in a row, we are signing guys to "we will pay you next year" contracts. Teams that have a significant amount of "dead money" always seem to struggle. This year between Peppers and Michael Bush, we have like 12 million in dead money. We probably owe some for Earl Bennett and Eric Weems. That can't continue or we're going to be real bad real quick. Let's home Allen succeeds. More importantly, let's hope we score in the draft so we are not so desperate in free agency.

Young comes with the disclaimer that he accomplished this next to some really good d-lineman. If the Bears keep adding pieces to the d-line, he should be able to duplicate that.

Just because Houston can and probably will move inside on passing downs doesn't mean we can trot out question marks in Ratliff and Paea for running downs. I can't argue too hard with that. We've loaded up on DE's and we haven't really addressed the DT spot. I think we pretty much know Donald and or Jernigan will be available and we'll be happy with that. It's nice how forthcoming Phil Emery is. He says he wants to fix the o-line. He fixes the o-line. He says he wants to fix the d-line, and we've made huge strides. He said we want to get younger on defense . . . that we still need to accomplish. Let me ask you this: is there any indication that he or the Bears thinks that drafting a safety is a first round priority? There's no doubt in my mind we will draft one early, but I don't think it will happen in round #1. Defensive tackle is a glaring need and there will be damn good ones available.

I really don't get why signing Allen all of a sudden makes us able to go BPA? Nothing has changed at DT/FS. Maybe if we signed Clemons instead of Allen that could be something you could say, but signing another DE didn't change anything from Tuesday till now. Because we added a regular full time pass rusher that will be your d-line leader and possibly the best player on the line. It gives us the flexibility to move Houston inside on 3rd and long. That changes a ton. Sure the safety position has not changed, but I get the impression they believe Conte will be a good player with a decent line and we seem to be high on Ryan Mundy. The way I see it is 2ssibly needed to draft a DE in the 3/4 round (IMO), and today we don't. DT is still a huge need that you can't ignore to take a BPA. Jared Allen is old, Izzy is a one year guy, Young has a lot more to prove, and Houston might eventually become a full time defensive tackle. We can still definitely use help at DE. Chances are, Donald or HaHa will be the best player available and be there when we pick. But we have one helluva a lot more flexibility after the Allen signing.

I'm not saying he won't contribute, I'm just saying he won't be an immediate starter/impact player. Aside from safety, name one starting position on this roster that is up for grabs? Maybe DT, but Tommie Harris as a rookie didn't start until mid-season and we have Collins, Paea, Ratliff, and Houston moving inside. Upsets can happen, but it's not easy to unseat the veteran incumbents. The cool part about signing Allen is that we now have enough depth on the d-line, that our #1 pick doesn't have to be an immediate starter.

Good point. And right now, our greatest needs are kick-returner, punt-returner, and punter. Seriously. You can argue our safeties suck, but at least we have guys who have played. Last year our return men were Hester, Weems, and Bennett. They are gone. Seeing as that's our greatest need, it's a good problem to have. But it's still something we need to address.

I agree with the Bears interest. Although for me personally, Hard Knocks has nothing to do with. I've just been thinking that no matter how damn good our offense is, our defensive play will be too bad to over-come. I don't feel that way after signing Jared Allen.

Teams always say that, but is there any correlation between Hard Knocks and team success? I know plenty of teams on it have made the playoffs and vice-versa. Look, I've always been glad the Bears wanted nothing to do with it. The great franchises like Pittsburgh, New England, and Jacksonville (kidding) want nothing to do with it. That being said, if we are forced into it . . . wouldn't that be awesome? I know it's a weird conundrum.

Even when he was in his prime, Lance wasn't even't the best LB on the team. Not to mention, the last time we saw him he looked fat, slow, and old. Look, it speaks to how far our defensive has fallen that we are debating Allen vs. Briggs. But on those pre-game shows, they will never high-light Lance Briggs as being the face of the defense.

Immediately the best in the league? That's flat out crazy talk. Greg Olsen was getting similar attention going into the drafts and mocks had him going as high as number 8. He fell to the Bears at #31. As for D-line and safety, the Bears have more draft picks to address that need if they desire. At this point I think we'd be drafting a guy who can challenge or be depth. Not necessarily a starter. On a side note, this is how bad the Bears defense was/is: who is the best player on the Bears defense right now?

Except he wouldn't be a backup TE. We'd be playing dual TE's almost full time, similar to what NE has done. How many times this year did we hear, "#62 (Ebon Britton) is reporting as eligible." Christ that was anoying. Instead of a 6th blocker you'd be adding a 2nd TE. An extra TE is a luxury, but with Allen in the fold, I think it's a luxury we can afford. Similar to when we drafted Hester as a return man in the 2nd round. That's the beauty of what we did today. Listen, I don't think we should draft him in round #1. Besides the fact we have so many needs, when was the last time a TE drafted in the first round became an elite player? Off the top of my head, Vernon Davis, Kellen Winslow, Greg Olsen, Heath Miller . . . I'm sure I'm forgetting a bunch of guys, but they all turned out to be serviceable/good NFL players, but not worthy of a 1st round pick. The best TE's like Gronk, Jason Witten, Tony Gonzalez, Jimmy Graham, none of them were drafted in the first round. With the first round, you hope to take a game changer. Most importantly, with Allen in the fold, I really feel like we can draft whomever we want to draft. There is no desperation at this point.

I like what you said about hating Allen. He's that guy you absolutely hate . . . until he's on your team. Then you absolutely love him. Until he's not on your team.

Yep. The Vikings broadcast guy was on the SCORE and said at this point in his career, Allen is more of a situational pass rusher. It's one helluva a lot of money, but if he can situational pass rush for double digit sacks, I'm good that. I also agree with what you said that it will be two years before we draft his replacement. I'm penciling in Young, Houston, and Allen in at DE for the next 2 years.

The Bears are one of eight teams eligible to be forced to be on Hard Knocks. So if no team wants it, HBO/NFL gets to choose one of those eight teams. That would easily be the Bears. Aside from the fact we are the biggest single team market. Angles include Jared Allen, The Black Unicorn, Cutler/Kirsten Cavalleri, Peanut . . . that would be huge. I know the Bears would hate it and management would so no. But I'd love it. I'm currently not an HBO subscriber but I'd sign up to see that.

Agreed 100%. Lovie was always good about rotating players. When our defenses were really good, our top d-lineman like Tommie Harris and Julius Peppers only played about 70% of the time. Having Young, Houston, and Allen, it makes it easy to rotate guys and keep them fresh. Also, even though we moved Shea to linebacker, if it's 3rd and long, I still look for us to line him up as an edge rusher.