bradjock

This is too similar to the Kreutz situation. It sucks and I hate it. Either way, what we should be talking about is who are we going to sign to play linebacker and what are we going to do with the 2 million we were offering him?

Except Seymour was legitimate pro-bowl defensive end who continued to be good after the deal. That wasn't a bad deal for the Raiders. Hester is now a mediocre return man and an awful receiver. I keep thinking about the Minnesota game where he likely has a touchdown and the ball bounces off his hands. He catches that, we might beat the Vikings, the Bears are in the playoffs, and Lovie is still the head coach . . .

Based on what Captain has done in his career, it's a one year deal for the veteran minimum. I'm guessing Panthers countered with the minimum. Their minimum beat our minimum. Now we will seek more bottom of the roster guys . . .

i'm curious Jason, as outspoken as you've been on the offense, would you have rather had Long or Bushrod? (you've probably already voiced this opinion but I missed it) Long seems to have the higher ceiling and lower floor. With Bushrod, it's lower ceiling, higher floor. And you can't answer, "We should have signed them both!"

It's too early for you to say that because you don't know that he won't say, "give me two mil and let try to win a Super Bowl." That could easily happen. He may be too full of himself, but so might be Lance Louis, Jason Campbell, Kelvin Hayden, and every other free agent out there hoping for a better offer. It's March. Free agency started last Tuesday.

i think we should give up our 2014 7th round pick for him and then give him the ax on final cut day

I'm avoiding getting into the mocks until about 2 weeks before. Partly because roughly two weeks ago, Kansas City was thinking quarterback and we were thinking LT. That being said, I have to comment on what you said about WR not being that big of a need because of the Bennett's time in the slot. I disagree. With a slot receiver, I think of a guy who can stretch the field and take the top off of a defense. What we've used the slot for, like in the Bennett's case, is to go across the middle. While Jeffrey and Marshall can both go deep, they are more big possession receivers, not the deep threat. In last years draft we really focused on getting a speed defensive end who could get after the quarterback. This knowing we'd only use him in passing downs. I predict we take the same strategy in round #1 or round #2, going after a speedy receiver who will be utilized on 3rd downs.

I disagree with that for two reasons: 1. The current major Chicago Bears news story is Urlacher. It's not in anyone's best interest for this thing to drag out much longer. One of us will blink within the next week. 2. We have "x" amount of dollars to spend. We've made what we feel is a good offer to Urlacher. If we don't sign him, we need to make alternative plans. We are woefully thin at lb & guard.

Or we have signed another free agent linebacker and moved on. The last I checked, there's a ton of LBers available looking for work. I'm not sure how they fit our system. Either way, this story of "will Urlacher sign or won't he?" needs to end sooner than later.

Who said we are looking for a blocking TE? Spaeth was only due like 1.25 million from the Bears. I only wonder because if we wanted blocking, Spaeth was the best in the league.

The Reiley Reiff thing still bugs me. Most everybody had him projected to go to Buffalo at #10. Then he's sitting there when we pick at #19. And we draft a 3rd down situational pass rusher or a possible future replacement for Brian Urlacher. The thing was, while everybody said we needed an OT, the media knew we were going DE. Was this Lovie's decision? Getting back to when you pick a QB, I'd say round #4. That's it. We need two starters in rounds 1 and 2. We have no 3rd round pick. After round #4 it gets pretty ugly. We drafted Orton in round #4 and Kirt Cousins was a 4th round pick.

Good for Spaeth. He was one helluva a blocker for us. He wasn't a bad receiver, he just didn't have the elite skill to be an explosive TE, which is what every team wants. He had one helluva a touchdown catch this year vs. Minnesota when he laid out and stayed in bounds.

Ture. Here's what's going to bug me: Did we sign Bushrod because we really wanted him or because he was ready to sign quickly and we were desperate and scared we'd miss out. Remember, we made a strong run at RT Phil Loadholt. He turned us down for the Queens. It seems as though the other LT's, Sebastian Vollmer, Andre Smith, Sam Baker, and Bryant McKinie, were waiting for Jake Long to set the market. (on a side note, has anybody ripped Pompei for his article about the rarity of being able to sign a guy like Bushrod when all these other LT's were available?) My concern is probably based on how poorly JA chose tackles. While I loved the picked at the time, if we'd have drafted Brandon Albert over Chris Williams, things would have been much different.

Funny you should mention that. Hub Arkush and Matt Bowen were on the SCORE tonight talking about how Mel Tucker would like the safeties to play more man . . . yet Wright and Conte both suck in man coverage. Meanwhile, Hardin, if healthy, has the size and speed to run with guys. Hardin has to actually get healthy and play before we should consider switching him positions.

Who's ever even seen this guy play? I don't know a damn thing about him. He's likely only even mentioned because of the Canadian Trestman connection. Can he fill in for a couple games without wetting himself? That's all I need to know. That being, in the Tribune Dan Pompeii wrote that we should draft an heir apparent to Cutler fairly early. It's a good idea and it makes sense as these guys have value and the guy with the Redskins looked great. The problem is we have so many needs, how do you justify it on a possible eventual replacement/back-up?

Is it as high as 8 million? Even if it is, key positions we still need to sign include LG, RG, MLB, OLB, nickel, and back-up quarterback. Not to mention adding depth at every position on defense which is threadbare. We'd love to add a speed WR to take the top off the defense. We can address some of this in the draft, but we only have 5 picks and you don't want to count on drafting a player to start. Not to mention guys we need to resign for next year like Cutler and Tillman. You pay Urlacher what we project his value to the team will be for next year, not his past performance.

I like the Rex Grossman idea as long as the idiot fans don't blow it out of proportion. In Chicago Bears history, there has never been such an over-heralded and over-criticized player as Rex Grossman. We declared him our savior and hated him when he wasn't. Right now we need to sign a veteran QB for the minimum who could win a game in a pinch. Campbell's cap number for last season was 3.75 million. Did Jason Campbell do anything to earn that last year? Hell, 3.75 million is about what Bushrod's cap number is this year. If Rex signs for the minimum, I'd trust him to win a game as much as I would Campbell. He sucked in the San Fran game.

By that logic, we should should bring back Dick Butkus to play for us. Look, I hope he resigns, and I hope he does have have plenty of gas in the tank. Most seem to believe he is too old and too slow. I'm not saying I like it. We currently have almost no cap room and there are a ton of linebackers available. Get the best player who will help your team win.

And it's a good thing Matt Cassell sucks

Maybe. But did you really think last year we would select 6 players and not one be an offensive lineman? I agree we'll sign another option on the cheap. The question is will he be worth a damn. More importantly, how was offensive guard not a priority last year? As of right night, we're all happy with the Alshon Jeffrey pick, but nobody would be upset if we'd taken ANY offensive lineman over Brandon Hardin or Evan Rodriguez in rounds 3 and 4. I don't know how i couldn't remember the name of the Godfather of Soul. Silly me.

If Louis is the RG, who is the LG? If Louis isn't healthy, who is the RG? We have Edwin Williams and the URFA who started a few games at guard last year. I haven't heard anything to indicate we want them competing to be a starter. We may not resign Scott and this could be a moot point. But if he's signed, Carimi's going inside.

Maybe. But it's extremely nice to be buyers each year. There are so many teams in cap hell right now. Meanwhile the Patriots are in great shape. The trick is going all in to win each year while giving yourself flexibility to sign guys in the future.

If we sign Scott, IMO we start Carimi at guard. Emery said he liked Carimi's versatility, meaning his ability to play inside. Last season Scott and Webb were both better at tackle than Carimi. I don't think we plan on carrying 4 tackles on the roster, especially when we have no guards. If we sign Lance Louis, there's no guarantee he'll be ready by opening day. If we draft a guy early, you can't count on him to start. I'm not sure what we see in Carimi at guard. He plays too tall and doesn't have the lower body strength you want from the guard position. But i've thought playing him at guard was a good possibility since Emery's versatility comments.

Agreed Connor. I'd love to see him retire as a Bear, but there's only so much of the cash pie to go around. With his skills, if he was anybody but Urlacher, he'd be getting the veteran minimum.

Nothing's obvious. At the moment it's wide open. We currently have no guards or linebackers on roster. Assuming we patch that up with scrubs, we could draft in multiple positions.