bradjock

Disagree. IMO DA will lead the team in catches & TD's . . . Knox will lead in yards. I'm convinced DA is the man. Cutler loves him and Knox is so damn small.

In 2005 Dr. Z ranked us dead last. We finished 11 & 5 and won the division. Talk is cheap, words are plentiful . . . opinions are like a-holes . . . all I care about is if we win on Sunday.

I personally think the distrust in Martz is valid. What has he done for us? Until he actually does something better than Turner during real games, everyone supporting the navy and burnt orange has reason to distrust him. On one hand you're correct, on the other, why not drink the kool-aid? I'm blissful in buying what he's selling. The offense sucked because we didn't game-plan. On Sunday vs. Detroit we'll be lights out (I'm choosing to ignore how bad the line is and what will happen when we face a real defense in week #2 . . . ) 1. He had obvious success in STL...helps when you have HoF'ers and serious probowlers on offense True, but man that offense sucked the year before Martz and Indy was thrilled to dump Faulk. Lots of stars aligned just perfectly. Living not too far from St. Louis, I'll tell you not even Ram's fans expected the team to do what they did. Checking back at nfl.com, in '98 the Rams were 4 & 12 and had the 24th best offense. The next season they're 13 & 3, with the greatest show on turf. Nobody saw them coming. 2. He had succes with Kitna in Detroit, but not so much in SF. Friends that are SF fans say that he was trying to fit square pegs in round holes...which sounds eerily similar to many a coaching mistake lead by our current regime. Disagree. Other then benching Alex Smith, I don't remember Martz having much say in personnel. Then Singletary takes over, and he wants to pound it and ground it. We let Martz prioritize that a blocking TE & RB were key and he appears to be in complete control of the offense. The biggest question IMO is whether he can co-exist with Cutler. I'll admit that scares the the hell out of me. 3. Our O line is crap. So anything he tries could be de-fused by an aggressive pass rush, thus negating everything but a dump off. I might be foolishly optimistic, but I think Martz has been ordering bad schemes to not show our hand . . . I admit you might be right. 4. He was brought in by Smith and Angelo. I do not trust them, so by default, another "pal/chum/buddy" has me worried. On the bright side, at least JA didn't appoint Lovie as offensive coordinator How, with all that said, I do thinkg Martz will be an aimprovement, and that we will see the fruits of that labor midseason on. However, the start will be tough and ugly. However, it may all be for nothing as we may finish with a por enough record to oust everyone inovled and start anew with another staff. Martz has to be better then Turner. I still don't think Lovie gets fired since he's owed too much money and there will be a threat of a lock-out. Martz has 2 years, Lovie has 2 years . . .

Once you're on IR you're on IR. We lost the pick. All I care about is if we've found some safeties who can play.

He looks like the real deal. IMO DA has a much better season. It'll be interesting either way.

This is an odd move for a few reasons: 1. He's started most games the past two seasons and he plays all 3 inside-line positions. 2. We are replacing him with two unproven players in Asiata & Louis. Asiata wasn't drafted & Louis was a 7th round pick. That scares me. 3. He was the heir apparant to Olin Kreutz.

Hey, I finished with Jaml Charles. That's the only reason I placed as high as fourth. Can I keep him? Assuming I can't, with the 10th pick in the 14th round I'll take Tashard Choice. This is a huge gamble on my part since there's a good chance Choice would be available when it came back around to me in the 16th . . . Thanks for keeping an eye on things.

Good point. Last year as a rookie he beat out Craig Steltz and Josh Bullocks for the starting job. Now he can't beat them out for a roster spot? What's even worse is last year he wasn't competing with them for a starting job. He was competing with Kevin Payne. Now we have Chris Harris. He was going to be cut by Carolina so we gave them a 6th round pick? We originally traded him to make room for Payne . . . As of pre-season week 3, D Manning looks like our best safety. Will someone please shoot me?

First don't you need to know who's taking a keeper in the 1st round? Doesn't that automatically vault them to the top? I don't give a damn. We could keep discussing this until we die. The draft is 5 days away. Lets roll.

When do we know the draft order? That does make a difference on whether or not to keep a guy.

Dave Toub's the best special team's coach in the league. Granted out ST's have mostly sucked, but I have 100% faith we'll right the ship on opening day. Ditto with Martz. I might be foolishly optimistic, but I think he's playing his cards close to his chest. IMO, once the season starts, the blocking schemes work, and we'll carve the defense apart. You won't see the Wild-cat and you sure as hell won't see Dez Clark lined up as a FB on a run play. I belive 2 of the 3 can get it together. I wish I felt that way about the defense. In the pre-season, we can't get to the quarterback, we can't stop the pass, our safeties suck, and we can't get off the field. We've had 3 years of this. (although the one year we sold out to stop the pass but couldn't stop the run . . . ) Seemingly, no matter who we add, or what we do, it all amount to the same.

MY GOD, you aren't suggesting that God Urlacher be traded are you? Head for the hills, you are about to be pilloried around these parts. As for me, the sooner he went the better if we could get a decent player/pick for him. He is well past his prime and a loud mouthed lout. Let me ask you this: Are the Bears better without #54? Are you saying you want Hunter in the starting lineup against Detroit? Granted, we'd shed his 9 million salary (I THINK that's what it is) but we couldn't use it to immediately improve the team. It's September and the only thing I give a damn about is winning now.

Here's what Dan Pompei said in the tribune: "On third-and-13, they dropped seven men to cover four Cardinals who ran routes. Yet no one was within 7 yards of Steve Breaston, who accepted the gift and ran it in for a touchdown." That's from http: http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/footb...,3168528.column On a side note, I will say it's amazing how often we hit the quarterback . . . right before a huge gain. This is typical to what we've seen the past 3 seasons.

Urlacher said that he was fine and from the look of it last night it didn't seem serious or anything as he was walking around pretty good. I am guessing that he was pulled more as a precautionary reason and had this been a regular season game he would have been back out there. Yep. Listening to the radio broadcast last night, Zack Zaidman said they didn't even both taking him in the locker room. That's what they do if they think it's serious. I also agree that we should keep him out the rest of the preseason as we need him on the field for the season. Disagree. We obviously need to be cautious, but we've learned from Tommie Harris that guys need to be on the field. After missing a year, he needs work. I also would like to see more of Iwuh back there. We have heard nothing but great things during camp so of course he needs to bring it to the field with pads on and going against someone. Maybe, but I was under the impression that Iwuh's mainly a special teams guy.

voted

I voted two also . . . hopefully we can get this figured out by the bye week

-Aromashodu looks great, shields with his body well, and has rock solid hands. He MUST start. Agreed DA looks great. But there's too much emphasis on him "must starting." Keep him hungry. Martz will do what he wants. Things I didn't like: -QBs took hits, hard ones Damn good point. This is a problem. -Hanie looks completely lost, and "nobody is open" when he's in the game...if you know what I'm saying -Hanie has bad vision. On the DA touchdown, he completely overlooked Ta'ufo'uo standing by himself at the goalline Another good point. We've made an offer to Todd Collins the 15 year veteran. He always seemed to torch the Bears when he played against us. -Did not like the running calls -Did not like the run blocking Was it just me, or did you feel like Martz was saying, "This is a pre-season game and we're going to show you that we're going to run the ball straight up the middle no matter what the hell the defense is anticipating." The run-blocking sucked. However, it seemed like they had 11 defensive players in the box. If we can pass the ball consistently, the running game will open up.

You have to remember that "starter" is just a title. Just because he's listed as a starter, doesn't mean he'll be out there with the opening offense. Last year Hester was our best WR. Not to mention that aside from Cutler, he's the most recognizable offensive weapon on the team. Not long ago he was a rock star. Not to mention, IMO, Knox is better suited for the slot position. Either way, as Bowling said, all 3 guys are going to see plenty of action.

That's one helluva an analysis NYC. Great job. I can't wait to rewatch the game. It was amazing how wide open our guys were. Especially compared to late in the game. Our offense in the 4th quarter looked like we typically looked. Fortunately most of those guys won't be on the team. I will ask this: What happened on the o-line breakdowns?

I don't recall anyone talking about Webb as anything other than a project and that means practice squad IMO. Maybe it was the SCORE guys bragging him up or hearing the coaching staff talk about him. Either way, I was convinced there was a good chance of making the 53 man roster. Now I'm not sure he can even make the practice squad. I don't even know if Beekman can make this team although it's not like anyone else really stepped up so it's possible he's the best of the worst. Beekman's a lock to make the roster. For two consecutive years he beat out the guy in front of him. He's experienced, reliable, and can play 3 positions. While he's not a great starter, he's an ideal back-up. Jarron Gilbert may not make the team either. With 4 DEs ahead of him and no swimming pools in sight what's he good for? I still want to know who the hell thought it'd be a good idea to play him a DE? "He's big, he's slow, let's move him to the outside." And Marinelli's a d-line genius? Chris Harris is still Chris Harris in coverage. Yeah, but he's way better then Aflava.

During the 2nd half, I was able to focus on a few specific things. As we looked bad, there's not many positives. Here's my thoughts: 1. Ja'Marcus Webb can't play. He plays high giving him awful balance. Physically, he reminds me of Pace last year--big & slow. The d-lineman would give him a push back and go right around. He's a big reason LeFevour looked terrible. How do we keep hearing the staff likes a guy who's this bad? He might develop but right now he's not an NFL player. 2. While Webb couldn't hold a single block, Jarron Gilbert couldn't shed a single blocker. When he wasn't attacking the wrong part of the field, he was being stood up and unable to get anywhere. He doesn't have the speed to get around anybody, which makes me wonder why the hell we're playing him at DE? 3. I haven't thought much of Garrett Wolfe, but I'm starting to love the guy. He's a gamer and he threw out some nasty blocks which saved LeFevour. It's obvious that Martz doesn't want anything to do with him as a running-back, but he's too damn good not to have a role on this team. 4. Assuming Hanie's ok, I expect the plan is to keep just two QB's and put LeFevour on the practice squad. I'm not right LeFevour off yet. A big problem was the line was awful and Chico kept blitzing. But lets face it, there's nobody who's going to put him on their active roster right now. 5. Iglesias had a bad drop & a penalty. I don't want to read too much into 1 preseason game but it's not a good start for a guy trying to impress.

2 things: 1. The height & weight listed typically aren't accurate. For instance, Beekman is listed as 6-2, but I've heard the SCORE guys say he doesn't even look 6-0. IMO, there's no way in hell Johnny Knox is 6-0, his listed height. If that's the case DA must be 6-6, since there appears to be roughly a half foot difference between the two. 2. Size can also refer to such things as arm span and how wide a guy is. These two things favor Louis.

All right, where's those who said the Bears don't or can't "Red-Shirt" players? (LT?) My first reaction was, "How bad is he that they need his spot on the 85 man roster?" My 2nd reaction: Nice move. He was obviously out of shape which is why he fell to the Bears in the 7th. This gives him a year to learn the system, learn to block, and get it together. Those who say, "Why would he take the red-shirt?" First, who wants him? Second, hell, he'll make the rookie minimum, which is approaching $400,000 . So for a year he gets to work out, learn the system, hang with the team, and make far more money in a fiscal year then I ever will. Nice.

I have no problem with the names out of the hat. But I do like giving managers the choice of where they'd like to draft. Heck, I'd normally prefer to be #5. After that top pick, it's better to be in the middle. I just threw this out to make the pre-season slightly meaningful. Considering one of the most important things to watch for this presason is, "Who will win the starting job between Idonije & Anderson!" (Ok, the real story is, "How will the Martz offense look") Either way, I'll be happy if I can finish as high as 4th again

A couple interesting things from last nights practice. I'm assuming you went? So how was it? I've only been once and I was dissappointed to it compared to Bourbannais. The nice thing about Bourbannais is being so close to the players. 1) Lance Louis got the start at RT. While Tice said he just "wanted to give him some more work" this is a a pretty good sign he's standing out in practice and the coaches wanted to see how he'd handle a little more pressure (Soldier Field, night lights, 26k fans). I assume you meant RG. Camp started with Asiata, Louis, and Beekman battling for the LG spot. Later, Louis gets moved to RG and Asiata runs with the first team. Now Garza moves to LG and Louis runs with the first team at RG. Basically we're screwed at this position. Despite what we're saying, these moves indicate we're not happy with Asiata, Louis, or Beekman. 2) Garza started at LG for us. The o-line success begins with consistency and continuity. Is moving one of our stable pieces a good idea? 3) Olsen continues making plays downfield in this offense. Olsen has to be the best training camp player in the NFL. I'll be happy if this carries over into the season. 4) Peppers is just dominating our OTs. By all accounts he's working hard and I'm beginning to think we're going to see a really strong season from him. The glass half empty: Do our offensive tackles just suck? 5) Tommie Harris practiced and it didn't make the news. Very nice (in the sense that the last two camps it was news when he practiced). Agreed. Although, like with Olsen, I'll be happy when this translates to game situations. 6) Bowman with 3 pass deflections. Seems he's continuing with strong play all through camp. That's awesome! Bowman was one helluva a pick by JA.