bradjock

I'm guessing if we want Melton we can easily get him at one year for 2-3 million. Last year we franchised him at 6.8 mil and there was not a big effort by the Bears for a long term deal. There was concern that he was a one year wonder. Last year when free agency opened the deals for DT's were underwhelming. He quickly signed his tender in fear the Bears would pull their offer. Since then he did little on the stat sheet, blew out his knee, and got arrested. Not to mention he still has answered concerns that he was a one year wonder. Even if we do sign him he remains a huge question mark. We could easily sign him and Ratliff and draft a DT in the first round.

But what you are saying is short-sighted and it's the thinking that led us to drafting Michael Haynes. Heck, we could likely bring back Israel Idonije for damn-near the minimum and he would likely outperform your typical rookie. On defense we need game changers. We need difference makers. You bring up a good point that so many teams will go offense. We need to make sure we get the best defensive player available.

Depends on the scheme, and it's likely to be a hybrid. We drafted Melton as a DE and switched him to DT. Heck, who would have thought Wootton would spend most of the season playing DT? Even if we resign Melton and want to play him at that spot, how much can we count on him after the injury? IMO, we can draft him regardless of what we do with Melton.

Yep. And the trades REALLY throw everything off. Currently Houston is hoping someone will trade up for Clowney so they can trade down and take a QB. Cam Newton was a projected 2nd or 3rd rounder before the combine. Neither Shea McClellin or Kyle Long were on anybody's 1st round radar at any point.

I can't disagree with you. I'm just saying it's not out of the realm of possibility. It seems strange that for the first time in well over a decade the linebacker position is such a liability. Neither Bostic nor Greene seem like heir apparent to #54 or #55. But you HAVE to get the best player. The safety Ha Ha is a popular mock-pick going to the Bears. In 2003 we needed a DE so we took Michael Haynes. For some reason we swapped picks with New England. They took DE TyWarren at #13 and we took Michael Haynes at #14. (I never understood that trade.) . . . At #16, the Steelers took Troy Polamalu. (I don't want to even talk about who we took later in round #1 in 2003). You can point out the misses with every draft, the most famous is the Tom Brady draft. In 2003 we didn't need a safety as we had Mike Brown and Mike Green at the time. But think what we could have done with Polamalu. The point is we drafted for need and missed. I have no idea how good Ha Ha will be. But we are in the unique position of needing EVERYTHING on defense. Whomever we draft better not be the next Michael Haynes.

I'd take that one step further: with his ability, it seems inevitable Long will be a LT. We could easily flip Bushrod to RT as he's good but far from from great. I know we place an emphasis on guard play, but Slauson was arguably our best. It's much easier to find guards than tackles. No way do we draft an o-lineman in round #2. I anticipate we will resign Garza. We may draft o-line in later rounds to compete, but in round #2 you hope to draft an opening day starter on defense.

Not to mention, I think we want to be good to him and give him the opportunity to find a deal elsewhere. He's been one helluva a player for the Bears and he's busted his ass for us. That and the team will want to be in "we are moving on mode." With Urlacher we wanted to publicly cut ties and sign his replacement. That being said, I'm not convinced he won't be back with the Bears. He was by far our best defensive lineman (which is like being a tall midget.)

It's cliche' but we just have to take the best defensive player available within the confines of our scheme. We are in the unique position of needing damn near EVERYTHING on defense. On Emery's drafting, I'm still puzzled by the drafting of Shea. Leading up to the draft, the Chicago media felt that we were going to take a DE. Turns out we wanted a 3rd down speed rusher . . . But I digress. I'd be thrilled with DL, but I'd be good with linebacker, CB, or safety.

Dangit. I'm stuck in the 10th spot. Oh well. I found that I can suck equally bad no matter where I pick. I'm good with it. Thanks for doing that.

Thanks for setting all this up. Can we decide the draft order in advance? I'm doing interviews tomorrow. While bad candidates are boring me to death I hope to "visualize" my entire draft pick by pick.

My only issue is didn't Mills have two holding penalties Friday night? He didn't exactly look stellar. I hope Jonathon Scott gets back quickly.

I'm guessing this is an 8 team league? 1. No way I trust Steven Jackson at #1 2. Aaron Rogers is a crappy but nice pick. Yahoo! has him pre-ranked 20th 3. No way I trust MJD with the 3rd pick 4. Love Roddy White here 5. Is Montee Ball the guy? This is a gamble. Will Denver EVER run it? Bad pick 6. Gronk is a gamble . . . worth the risk IMO 7. Tom Brady's stock has fallen since he has no WR and NE may run it. But why did you draft another QB? 8. Wes Welker is a steal at #8 9. Mike Wallace--he'll give you 20 points once in a while but mostly it will be 2 or 3 10. Anquan Boldin--never draft a 49'ers WR 11. Kenny Britt--Worth an 11th round pick 12. Pittsburgh--too soon for defense 13. James Jones--Booooo 14. I love the black unicorn! 15. I don't know who Dan Bailey iis Final grade--I prefer to wait 2 years before I make a judgement

Is he even the 2nd string? There's always a reason when nobody wants to sign a guy.

Agreed. That sucks for Buluga. But how can we not be happy about something that weakens our #1 opponent? Not to mention increases the odds of Rogers getting knocked out of a game?

Yep. I remember I was ticked off that we decided to draft Dannieal Manning and Devin Hester instead of Leonard Pope. Then he was taken the pick before we drafted Dusty Dvoracek. Of course us missing on him allowed us to draft Greg Olsen the next year.

I disagree with him just being a "camp body." Depth is so important and we had nobody behind Bennett. If he's injured, do you feel good about Kyle Adams, Brody Eldridge, Steve Maneri, Gabe Miller, or Fendi Onobun? He was probably holding out for more money or a better opportunity. But he looks damn good as a back-up.

Good. I'm glad he made this decision now as opposed to us making the decision for him later. If he ain't that into it why would we want him? Sometimes when there is news like this it is followed by bad news. Like the player is facing a suspension for a banned substance, he's been arrested, etc.

Agreed. Robbie's one helluva a kicker and possibly one of the best ever. But he's making 3 million. You can find a good kicker for the minimum of roughly $500,000. Robbie costs 2.5 million more. Heck, the majority of our starters aren't making 3 million. I love Robbie and I hope he retires as a Bear. That being said, I don't blame management for at least pondering, "Is a kicker worth 3 million per year?"

I would venture to guess that every team is "pre-ranked" 5 spots within where they finished last season. The top 10 will consist of the playoff teams from last year. The Bears were the best team who didn't make the playoffs. That means we finished 13th. New unproven coach from Canada--drop us five spots. I have fun reading the pre-rankings but they're stupid. Some of last seasons playoff teams included the Colts, Vikings, Bengals, Redskins, and Seahawks. All the experts projected them to be near the bottom of the league.

Are rookie first round contracts now for 4 years only? I was just surprised it wasn't a 5 year deal. Either way, it's nice to be done.

Prediction: Carimi beats out Slauson for the starting guard spot. Slauson ain't that good. Carimi has talent.

I pretty much agree except for two things: 1. Are we thinking Long will be the starting LG or RG? Slauson initially lined up at LG during mini-camp. 2. I wouldn't completely count out Carimi. If he's healthy, his talent is superior to Slauson. No team was willing to give Slauson more than the minimum. Why does everyone think he's that good? In short, I think Carimi, Long, and Slauson will battle for the 2 guard spots, and it will be Webb vs. Scott at RT.

Maybe. It's just a continuation of things that indicates Webb will never live up to his potential and that the Bears are foolish for thinking he can start at tackle. This goes back to him going to 3 different colleges. Sending out stupid Tweets and calling himself "J Webb Nation." Mike Tice called him out last year saying, "Webb thinks he's got the starting job . . . " In short, he has the physical ability to be very good, but not the mental ability. This is one more indication of that.

As for Unga, I don't think he's ever been active. He's been on IR or a practice squad player. Right now we have an 80 man roster. That means 27 of these guys won't be on the team. I'd be shocked if Unga wasn't one of them.

That's not true. You forget he was fired for blasting Terry Shea and management during the Bears broadcast. I was listening when he said it was unacceptable the Bears weren't close to being an NFL offense. That's what got him canned. Technically he was a douche before the Bears fired hiim. On this point he was a correct douch. Maybe he was wrong about Dick Jauron, but docile Dicky has had staying power in the NFL.