bradjock

But we also created him. How good is Hester if he played for a gawd awful special teams his entire career? Do you blame the staff for Hester's terrible decision making last year? Calling "fair catch" and letting it drop to the ground for a 15 yard loss? Calling fair catch when the nearest defender is 20 yards away? Catching the ball and running backwards 10 yards? Was he coached up to do these stupid things? I'd love to see him reinvigorated. If not, he'll be cut.

True. But what I keep going back to is that last year we made our first round pick ASAP to take an undersized DE who could only be used on passing situations. Shea looked good at times last year and he's gained 7 pounds. He still won't be able to stop the damn run. He's a weapon we can utilize but I don't see how he was worth the #19 pick. I mention this because I could see us using the #20 pick on a 3rd down WR/return man like Austin. Early indications are the Rams would love to take Austin at #19.

That's encouraging. I just worry it was because Drew Brees is so damn good. Cutler is more likely to get an offensive lineman fired. It could also have to do with Sean Peyton's influence. Kind of like Bill Bellichick always has great assistants who suck elsewhere. I hope you're right and Kromer is the difference maker.

Chris Johnson was great. Adrian Peterson is great. Matt Forte is very good. He's made one pro-bowl in 4 years. He blocks well, receives well, he will break a long run once in a while. One helluva a solid and good football player. I'd compare it to Briggs & Urlacher in their prime. Briggs is and was very good. Multiple-time pro bowl player. But he's never going to be considered defensive player of the year and he's never going to have any real consideration for the hall of fame. Very good player. Not great. Urlacher was a game changer. He was great and likely first ballot hall of famer. It's a slight distinction but it's a big difference. Very good vs. great.

As for Cooper or Warmack, I suspect that either we know they'll be gone by #20 or we have no interest in drafting them. I say that because last year Phil Emery took the Jerry Angelo approach of trying to find guards on the cheap. Since then, we let Lance Louis go, moved Carimi to guard, and signed Slauson and Britton. As for Carimi, I get the impression we think he could be a damn good guard. If we are correct, isn't that a win? If we put him in a position that he excels at then everybody is a winner.

Interesting list. After Tommie Harris, that's a pretty brutal list. Hester was a game-changer, but even our top picks, like Forte and Melton, are just very good players . . . not great. If we hadn't struck gold in free agency we'd be worse than Cleveland.

True, but you can't admit that. Why would you? My favorite was the year Angelo declared the Bears weren't going to be major players in free agency. Two days later, the minute free agency starts, we make Peppers possibly the highest paid defensive player in NFL history. Not major players huh? For some reason I enjoy playing the stupid game of trying to read the tea leaves such as, "Emery says he likes Teo . . . that means there is no way we will draft him!!!" I have no idea if that is true, but I believe it. Now if we draft Manti Teo, Emery is a straight shooter and means what he says. If we don't, Emery is crafty for throwing other teams off the scent. Not to mention, whoever we draft, 1/3 of us will be pissed, 1/3 will be thrilled, and 1/3 indifferent. (It occured to me that I've been blogging with this bearstalk/talkbears group for 10 years, and the only time everyone was happy witha pick was Gabe Carimi. Even Greg Olsen had naysayers.)

So the only change was Carimi over Brown? That makes sense from a talent perspective. I was surprised to here Zaidman say Brown was with the first group. Although I got the impression that Carimi was moved around during practice from RG, LG, to RT. i'd prefer we give him one spot. It might be wishful thinking, but I was thrilled when Carimi fell to us at #29. I'm hoping he can still be a stud.

Zak Zaidman was on the Boers and Bernstein show @ 4:00 this afternoon. He reported is was Bushrod, Slauson, Garza, the godfather of soul, and Web. He emphasized how damn early this was and that a ton can change. He was mainly pointing out the uncertainty about Carimi. Who did Michael Wright say were the starters? You can go to 670thescore.com and listen to the podcast.

Hopefully Idonije signs and it's a done deal. He's been one of the most underappreciated players on this team. As for the CB position, I wondered if that was a smokescreen. I believe he said it was deep in CB, Safety, o-line and d-line. That and he really likes Manti Teo . . . with the exception of maybe drafting a linebacker because we are so thin at the position, I really can't see us going defense.

Love the idea of no Hester on offense. I was cringing that the new coaching staff would talk about "utilizing Hester" or "The Hester package." This is Devin's chance to cement himself in history to not just being the best return man whoever lived, but to setting the bar so high, no other return man can reach it. This is especially true as they make returning more difficult. It's amazing what good field position teams still gave us last year even though Hester was mediocre at best. He's expensive, but if he's dynamic, he's easily worth it.

I wouldn't jump to him getting cut any time soon. Our starting guards are Matt Slauson and James Brown. As for Slauson, the Jets o-line sucked last year and the best offer he got was a one year minimum deal with the Bears. He signed with us because we guaranteed him $200,000. That's the best offer he got. James Brown was on the practice squad last year. Meanwhile, Garza is old and Webb sucks. Not to mention Bushrod was mediocre last year. If Carimi can be close to being an average o-lineman, he has a place on this team. On a side note, why does everyone forget that we claim to really like Walter Scott? He could be our starting RT.

Todays starters were LT-Bushrod, LG-Slauson, C-Garza, RG-James Brown, LT-Webb

Yep. I remember I was hoping the Bears would draft him before we made the Cutler deal and signed Orlando Pace. That being said, is it the Bears goal to have every o-lineman be able to play inside or out? James Brown was drafted as a tackle and played RG today. Same with Carimi and now we add Britton to the mix. Ideally, guards are between 6-2 and 6-4. Garza is 6-2, Lance Louis 6-3, Ruben Brown was 6-3. Jonathon Cooper and Chance Womack are 6-2 and 6-3. Now we have declared Carimi is a guard at 6-7 and I'm guessing Britton will compete as a guard at 6-6 and Slauson 6-5. I think of guards as being more squat and powerful and tackles being longer and leaner like Carimi. Are tall guards something the team hopes to have or is it just a coincidence?

This is a very debateable list. Just because Larry Fitzgerald has no QB doesn't change how damn good he is. I may be biased, but Marshall is #2 IMO. He's no Megatron but there ain't nobody else better than BM.

I keep hearing about how the sweet spot in this draft is between 15-30. I see a lot of "meh" there. Fluker has the potential to be a solid starting RT at best. Ogletree has the potential to be the next Lawrence Phillips. Eifert and Trufant? Meh.

I agree completely. I'd LOVE Brown in round #2 or even later in round #1. He's likely a safe pick, but he's not a game-changer. At #20 you draft what you think will be a pro bowl player. Brown is limited. Brown has a low ceiling and a high floor. Ogletree has a high ceiling and a low floor. The Bears are hoping to trade down. It's just a matter of if that is possible.

It has nothing to do with it being Chicago. The locals and the talking heads believe we're convinced our young players can develop. Carimi is a #1 pick, Bushrod was paid, for whatever reason, we think Webb can be a player, Slausson is solid, and the NFL network can't quit showing the stupid commercial with Garza wearing Cutler's jersey. While Slausson replaces Lance Louis, we have not indicated where he will play. I suspect we plan on playing Carimi at RG.

That's one helluva a good point. Now that you mention it, all the guys we are interested in are guys you hope might be there with the #30 pick. I feel like we'd be looking at Womack, Cooper, Tavon Austin, and Ogletree. Hell, especially Ogletree. It could be we've completely taken Ogletree off our draft board but I'm surprised we haven't brought him in. While Trestman and Emery are very secretive, they are both very thorough. They'd take research over secrecy. As for Ertz, we can't discount the talk that Trestman wants to utilize the dual TE threat. However, you don't take a #2 TE in the first round. Emery said we are open for business and have the flexibility to trade down. While we are prepared to stay where we are, I'm guessing we hope to get a 3rd round pick back.

I agree with you that based on the nature of talent, it makes sense to trade down. I'd add that it's more critical this year since we have so few players under contract for the 2014 season. Sure we will sign guys one way or another, but you want some degree of stability. It would be ideal if we had 10 draft picks this year in order to add competition and form a young core that would be together for the next few years. Angelo's poor drafting hasn't left us with much of a young base to work with. That being said, for being a "draft guy" Emery didn't hit any home runs in his first year. We need to see big strides from somebody this year. Be it McClellen, Jefferey, Hardin or Rodriguez.

Everytime I hear the cap number it changes. There's always money to move around. For example, Hester is due 2.9 million. Not sure what the cap hit would be, but he's a bad WR and last year he was a mediocre return man. D.J. Moore was injured, and made some comments to the media that were not favorable. (I'm thinking he criticized the offense or Cutler). He was done with the Bears after that.

Why are you 100% certain we won't resign Izzy? He recorded 7 sacks last year so I'm guessing he wants paid. We previously stated we want to sign him back and he's still available. Turk McBride is a definite downgrade and Izzy is flexible. I see your point since we only have 3 DT's on the roster. Since DJ Moore wasn't a factor, he's not a concern. In both cases it's a matter of need. Yes, we want to take the best player available, but chances are, at #20 we have 5 guys ranked close to equal. When in doubt, you pick the one of the five your team neeeds the most.

Does Ogletree fit as a middle linebacker with what Mel Tcker wantsto do? As per Profootballweekly, Mel Tucker wants to play more of a traditional 4-3 defense, not the cover two. In the traditional 4-3, Ogletree projects as an ILB, the position that Briggs plays. I love the idea of getting Ogletree. I concede that's partly because of the comparisons to Urlacher . . . and ultimately it will be impossible to replace what Urlacher has done for this team. I'm just curious how Ogletree fits.

Agreed. But he'd have to be the clear cut #3. We would need to be very specific about his role. IMO that's where NY screwed up. They kept hinting at having a secret plan for him. Meanwhile, Dirty Sanchez sucked, Tebow was worse than the #3 QB, and there was no package.

Where did the one year 4 million come from??? If that's true, that's crazy. I've check PFT and the Chicago new and there is no mention of money.