bradjock

Um . . . didn't Emery say that Shea was great at hurries? Except he couldn't get to the damn quarterback. Typically the QB would side step away from Shea and then complete a 30 yard pass over the top of a falling down Chris Conte. I'm not complaining about the signing. We needed somebody. But disruptions are only effective if they get results. We didn't get many last season.

Several decent d-lineman still available. I'd be shocked if we didn't sign one of these guys: Jared Allen, Justin Tuck, BJ Raji, Henry Melton, Jason Hatcher, Corey Wooton, Julius Peppers, Antonio Smith.

In response to your responses: 1) I shouldn't have said slot receiver but said #3 receiver. I always think of the #3 as the slot because that's what the Rams in their hey-day labeled Az-Hakim. With Tory Holt and Bruce Irving Az would go long. With the Bears, BM or AJ would play the slot and Wilson would line up outside to stretch the field. 2) Up until this year, aside from Randy Moss, Wes Welker was by far the best WR on the team. He may have given up balls to TE's and played out of the slot, but he was the man. Steve Smith seems to have an ego. BM moped last season when he had mediocre games. And AJ could be entering Mega-tron/Larry Fitzgerald/Andre Johnson territory as being an elite and legit true #1 WR. There just ain't enough balls to go around. 3) Even if he's cheap, it would be for one year and isn't a great fit.

Agree with everything you said. More importantly, this is a terrible free agent class with few big names available. I suspect we will eventually lament the money we gave Houston. That was a signing out of desperation. What's even worse is that we are just as desperate. We added Houston and dumped Peppers.

I hate to bring up True Detective, but damn that was a good show. It's as good of a series as I've ever seen.

After Bennett took less money to stay away from his brother, I think it's safe to assume the friendship aspect doesn't have much to do with it.

He owes Lovie. The only general manager in the league stupid enough to sign him for 10 million and make him your starter. Reminds me of Matt Flynn. He had two good games for the Packers and hits the jackpot. The only difference is McCown has been in the league for 10 years and there is tons of tape on him. I always liked Lovie as a head coach, but anytime he had any input on personnel moves, he was a complete asshat.

Several reasons why this wouldn't work: 1. You'd want your #3 receiver to offer something different than AJ and BM. Ideally we would want a straight speed guy who can stretch the field. Hopefully Marquis Wilson can become that guy. No way Steve Smith has much speed left. 2. Steve Smith has been the #1 guy since Mushin Muhammed signed with the Bears. Why would he come here to be the #3? 3. Cost. Don't forget that BM is a free agent after this year. Any extra WR money, we want to save for that. I'm guessing on the cheap end he'd be 3 million.

I heard that on the SCORE. I believe he's a speed guy and a return specialist. He's 29 and turns 30 in October. I'm guessing he'd be Hester's replacement. The difference is, we may view him as a better receiver giving him more value. He would definitely fill a void we need.

Damn dude. We are 6 hours into it. There are a ton of guys still available. (Unfortunately, a lot of the better defensive players are Corey Wooton, Melton, Tillman . . . ) With the Peppers release, I am confident we will sign another quality defensive starter by 5:00 pm tomorrow. Bank on it.

It can't be good when a really, really, really, bad defense releases one of their own. Unfortunately, the Bears defense was worse.

Look for us to sign a significant end within the next 48 hours. I said that last year around this time, and the next day we signed Williams & Anderson. By significant, I don't mean a guy we pay 35 million. But someone we'd pay in the range of 2-3 million to be a one year stop gap starter. Dan Durkin mentioned Justin Tuck. Considering we need to find a #2 and #3 DE . . .

Agreed. More importantly, in our pass happy offense, he's somewhat of a liability in terms of blocking. That's why he's never been a featured back.

Mundy is a pure in the box strong safety. Good at defensing the run. Bad against the pass. It's interesting that of the top two defensive signings, both are good against the run. As for Conte, we seem to be somewhat supportive of him. I wonder what he'd do playing in a front 9 that was amongst the worst ever assembled. Our 2013 defense is comparable to our 2004 offense.

Melton is rumored to be meeting with Dallas to be reunited with Rod Marinelli.

By the shift in force, I'm guessing that is any of "Lovie's guys" that were here pre-Emery. The one exception to that might be Tim Jennings. But he was never one of the faces of our great defense. At this point, Lance Briggs is the one of those guys.

The Mundy signing probably negated Byrd. That and at no point has their been an indication the Bears are interested in going after a top tier safety. Statistically, Houston somewhat reminds me of Alex Brown. He seems to be solid all-around, will give you the occassional big play, and you're always looking for him to improve. One helluva a #2 DE. But not a #1 DE. With the release of Peppers, we need a #1 "get to the quarterback" DE.

Agreed on Peppers. I was starting to think of a defensive line-up of Peppers, Jay Ratliff, Paea, and Houston. That's not great but it's good enough to win with. Hit defensive line in the draft and we'd be in good shape. Without Peppers, our starting RDT is . . . no clue. I'm sure we will sign somebody, but immediately it's not good.

Biggs reported the other day we signed him for 1.25 last season. Same as James Anderson. When he was healthy, he was head and shoulders better than Bostic. I expect it to be Shea, Briggs, and Williams at LB on opening day.

We are rumored to not have any interest in James Anderson. Since we have a first round draft pick taking his job . . .

Yeah, but we could have always kept Rosario and cut him in August. We are talking about a back-up TE here. I'll bet in the next few days we find out he was arrested or something like that.

Wow. I just commented on this in another post. Does Biggs know this because of the brother factor? The NFL does a damn good job of making sure signings are not leaked. I agree Biggs thinks he knows what's going to happen. How can he report it? That being said, I agree with exactly what you said. I hope it is correct and I hope it doesn't set us back too much financially. Biggs also thinks we are cutting Peppers. I know it's inevitable and impractical, but wouldn't it be nice to have Peppers and Bennett???

I think you two should just make out and get it over with. The sexual tension between the two of you is killing me. Getting back to football, reading Biggs article, I feel like Biggs THINKS that Michael Bennett signing with the Bears is a done deal. He talks about 3 sources linking Bennett to the Bears and that it could happen at 3:00 pm and Bennett visiting Halas Hall . . . although he can't officially say he's visiting Halas Hall. What's strange is that there is a good chance that a deal has been agreed upon, only nobody can talk about it. It's almost like Biggs is hinting, "It's probably a done deal, but nobody can talk about it until Tuesday." It could be Biggs knows it done. He just can't report it. With my drive, I usually spend one hour a day listening to talk radio. They usually hint there is things they know they cannot report. This might be one of them. Or not . . .

Palmer did look better in pre-season. Josh was mediocre to bad. Granted, when Josh played in pre-season, he was throwing to Earl Bennett, Eric Weems, and Marquis Wilson. Not AJ, BM, and the black unicorn. Which again, makes me feel better about letting Josh go.

One year deals. I should have mentioned that. I'm guessing non-guaranteed like Kelvin Hayden's deal. This would be the point in the process where they realize nobody is calling about their services. So they settle for the known entity.