bradjock

Tice seems to love Chris Williams at LG. He loves his size and his ability to move for a big-man. Now that Tice is the OC, why would we move him? As for Chris being a bust, if he can devlop into a very good guard, I can't call him a bust.

What makes you think Chris Williams should be the starting LT? I missed what you said previously. What everyone is ignoring in this LT debate is that the Bears seem to be really high on Webb. I get the impression we feel he's the future at the position. I disagree with this, I'm just saying.

Other than trading a second round pick for a guy that died and spending a couple of 4ths in recent years, just exactly what has been invested in the 2nd DE position recently? I think that Wooten and Melton have done relatively well for 4th rounders. Wootton showed flashes year #1. Being healthy, I thought he'd be great in year 2, but he was only active 7 games and did nothing. He could get cut this year. Melton looks great at times, but how many times have we seen a young DT with potential that amounts to nothing? I'm think of Dvoracek & Marcus Harrison. D-line was easily JA's greatest failure. He drafts a d-lineman with a top for pick every year but 2005. Often years we drafted two. We still have to sign guys like Peppers and Adams. We're basically left hoping Paea and Melton develop. As for the #2 DE, we have devoted that much to it, but it shouldn't be that hard playing opposite of Peppers.

You're right, he was never deemed the starter. But when the move was made, it certainly had that appearance. It didn't take a genius to piece together a missing center with the acquisition of a free agent center implied that he was probably brought in to be a center. I doubt the move was made strictly for depth. I think it may just may be a leftover FA failure from JA's regime. They probably thought he was the replacement, found out he wasn't as good/prepared/strong/whatever as they thought he was. And then Garza became the default starter the entire year. I'm wondering if the move was a disconnect between Tice and JA. Tice said from the day Spencer arrived he would be the back-up. Nobody believed it because Spencer signed a 2 year 6 million $$$ deal. Tice likes Chris Williams, Garza, and Louis. They can't pass block but they're damn good at run blocking. It ought to be interesting.

Agreed. I get annoyed with the draft talk before FA. Cutler has talked about wanting a big target like Brandon Marshall. Vincent Jackson & possibly Bowe are available. I'll be shocked if we don't make a run at a big WR's. We sign Jackson, no way we draft a WR in round #1. That makes the WR draft talk moot. I'm curious how Webb & Carimi's grade out. Are we looking for replacements or competition? If they're the future, you don't take a tackle in round #1.

At SS if Major Wright is out. As per the SCORE. They also reported he looked pretty good in limited action Monday night. I'm happy we're playing Merriweather at SS. He had a reputation for being one helluva an athlete, but undisciplined. That's the exact same problem we had with D Manning, who finally found his niche last year with the Bears in the SS role. Conte's done one helluva a job not getting beat. If we could unleash Merriweather close to the box, that'd be huge.

Lloyd would immediately be our best WR. IMO this is possible if we cut Roy Williams. How much time do we give him to prove he doesn't suck? I don't see us adding a 7th WR, and I don't see us cutting or trading anyone else. We have: Dane Sanzenbacher--He's our best WR right now which is why we make this move Johnny Knox--Our most talented WR Hester--Bad WR, HOF return man Earl Bennett--Cutler's go-to guy Sam Hurd--he's primarily here for ST's. The fact he's playing over Roy Williams at WR is not good. Our WR group is arguably the worst in the league. Cut our losses and trade for Lloyd. He might be just as bad with us as he was before, but what's to lose? As for the "we need an o-lineman" argument, if one was available, I'd be saying the same thing. Our WR's are bad, our o-line is bad. We must upgrade both.

I'm torn but I guess I want to see the Kittens lose more then I want to see the Viqueens lose. It's too bad they can't bot lose.

And the SCORE had White Sox baseball over Doug & OB. I think contractually they have to play the games. Even when nobody gives a damn about them.

Agreed. Meriweather gets cut by New England because he took too many risks. What do you think Brees will do with that? Last week all we all Meriweather did was drop back into coverage . . . And we are moving our FS to SS. I have a sick feeling this ain't going to be good.

What's strange is that Eddie Williams was behind Ta'oh'fu (or whatever his name is). As far as I know, the other guy is still available.

Now if Drew Brees went down, that would be something. With the way New Orleans flings it around, I could probably put up 100 yards (right before I was carted off to the hospital . . . ) Either way, it's good news for the Bears.

I agree it may be a non-issue, but it's concerning based on his history. There's rumors Meriweather was cut from NE because of his "entourage." If the same story involved someone like Peanut for example, I wouldn't give it a second thought. He has a great reputation off the field. With Meriweather there's the concern that he's surrounded himself with bad guys who do bad things. That typically bites a guy in the ass eventually. Either way it's not a big deal since Meriweather wasn't involved, but it is concerning.

Nobody really knows how the cheering started??? I'm just curious why more teams don't do it. I personally feel one helluva a lot more patriotic cheering. As a middle-school principal who supervises games, I get to listen to the national anthem roughly 75 times before athletic events throughout the school year. It starts to feel more like a funeral song. Instead of cheering the team, why not cheer for the country? I loved the USA chants.

I thought the same thing. Although J Webb looked "iffy" at times at LT yesterday. Time will tell.

I didn't mean to dis-credit Peppers in any way shape or form. Peppers was great as always. Peppers did what we expect him to do. He's awesome. That being said, Henry Melton was in the back-field all day long. He had a tremendous impact on the game. Granted, it's only week one, but he looked all-pro.

Still, you'd have thought he was running down the Fridge . . . not a pro-bowl RB. I want to watch the replay. It appeared Jennings closed a big gap quickly. Forte doesn't have game-breaking speed either. Somehow he escaped on his long TD run.

How about Henry Melton??? As usual I listened to Joniak & Thayer while I watched it on TV. With the exception of Cutler, the name I heard more then any other was Henry Melton. Hell, listening to the radio, Peppers was fairly quiet (I'm guessing he was double teamed which opened up lanes for Melton.) Melton was big, big, big this game.

I will say the Texans were beating the Colts like 28-to-0 in the first half and did very little in the 2nd half. I'm more concerned about the "strange" play-calling. The "end-around" plays almost never work, yet we loving calling them. It would have been nice to run up the score a bit more, but I'll take it.

How the hell did he appear from out of the screen to run down Michael Turner and save the touchdown??? Is Jennings that fast or is Turner that slow? I can't remember that last time I saw any running back getting caught from behind like that. He had so much space, it should have been an automatic 6. Either way, it was pretty damn impressive and helps explain why Jennings starts over Bowman.

All I can say is keep disrespecting us. Talk is cheap and words are meaningless. While I knew the Bears could win, Atlanta was a damn good team last year and I figured it would be one helluva a game. Did anybody think we would dominate them in all three phases of the game? I sure as hell didn't. When was the last time we had such a convincing victory against a supposed really good team?

I think you're wrong in your premise. The bottom of the roster is for developing players. Also, teams can't afford to have proven vets at all positions. Agreed 100%. I just think we've taken it to the extreme this year. Enderle -- I think that we can probably sneak him on the practice squad after a few weeks, but we learned our lesson about a drafted QB getting sniped during final cutdowns last year with LeFevour. So then why wouldn't we just sign LeFevour? Reed and Addison -- Those guys both looked REALLY good from what I saw in the preseason. I wouldn't get too hung up over them being UDFAs because I personally think . . . I hope like hell you are right. It just reminds me of last year when we said we had two starting guards in Asiata & Louis. Dicicco - He has PLENTY of room to improve, but didn't look too incredibly awful. Maybe if he's your 6th LB. We might actually need him to play which is very concerning to me. Venable -- He is good at special teams AND I thought he looked decent for a UDFA. IMO, with the addition of Merriweather, one of our safeties needs to go. It's either him or Craig Steltz. Adams -- Considering he's a backup fullback, backup TE, and plays special teams - This one's just a no brainer. And btw - Dez looked like crap in preseason. He'll likely be inactive unless someone's hurt so it doesn't matter . . . Sanz -- Did you even watch the preseason? He won't play? I think he certainly will. His playing time with the 1s increased as the preseason progressed. Martz AND Cutler like him. He'll play. IMO he'll be a victim of the numbers crunch and be deactived weekly unless someone is hurt. Sanz isn't very good on special teams. Do you really think we'll keep 6 active WR's? Sam Hurd's been hurt, but we want him to be our special teams ace. Hester & Williams are the starters, and Bennett is our most reliable WR. Would we play Sanz over Knox? You might not be wrong about these guys, but you are wrong about the type of players at the bottom of a roster - any NFL roster. Give me an UDFA who's been in the league/practice squad for 2-3 years and had a chance to learn about NFL life, spent time in the weight room, and become a professional. Those are the guys I want filling out the bottom of the roster. I don't mind one or two undrafted rookies but this is ridiculous.

It's tough to say that after Manu was a bust and he was a legitimate 6th O-lineman. Manu was 6-0 300 pounds. That's an o-lineman. Meanwhile Spaeth is 6-7 260. That's Greg Olsen & Kellen Davis. I keep hearing that Spaeth is a great blocker but I just don't believe it. You can't be that tall and that long and be that effective. We just signed FB Tyler Clutts who is 6-2 and 260. That's more like it.

Wow. A million $$$ signing bonus & a 2.25 base salary. Although we are paying Spencer to be the back-up center at 3 mill. What's mind boggling is that we probably could have given the Pat's a 7th round pick and paid him less. The guy gets cut from the team and receives a pay raise. Weird. The Bears seem far more content then ever to give one year deals to players. This seems to be a change in our philosophy.

Maybe, but I've always thought that DT was a position that required the most experience to be successful. You have to be a man among men, and the Bears have quite a few men with Adams, Okoye, Toeneia, and Melton. I'd also add that Paea wants to play 3 technique, and mid-way through camp we moved him to NT where he struggled. Tommie never started his rookie year until the mid-way point when we were really bad. The fact that we have so much quality & experienced depth makes it understandable that he's so low on the depth chart.