bradjock

I'll take the Rams.

And Andy Reid declared that McNabb was his starter . . . weeks before trading him. It's quite possible the Bears said, "Hey Greg, if you really want out, you need to quit bitching and help yourself." The Tribune speculated we'd be trading Olsen to New England for one of their #2's. (I suspect we'll have to give our #3 AND Olsen for their #2) Either way, I think Olsen will be gone on draftday. I'm not saying I want that to happen, it just seems inevitable.

I'm interested to know what Martz & Tice think of our O-line players. It's possible they really like Kevin Shaffer and upgrading the tackle position is not a priority. Either way, to expect a 3rd round rookie lineman to contribute this season is foolish. If we drafted a tackle he'd be no more then a back-up.

Gold might be an exaggeration, and unlike Ruben, he was expensive. But Fred Miller was very good in 2005 & 2006. (and please don't try to debate me on this since arguing how good o-line players are is damn near impossible

Now the question continues, how do we improve the offensive line? There should be a solid guard or tackle available in the 3rd round. But you can't exactly count on an immediate impact from a rookie. The media believes that we'll be moving Omiyale to the outside spot which means Beekman will continue to be our starting LG.

Agreed. But what players do we have to dangle? When you're dangling a player it implies you are loaded at a certain position . . . The only position I see us dangling is TE. We could offer Olsen, Clark, or the other TE who's 6-7 and his name momentarily escapes me. That's it. I don't see us with much else to dangle.

That's interesting. I feel like Andy Reid has Bill Bellichick smarts. I think he knows what he's doing. And McNabb turns 34 in November . . . The guy I really feel bad for is Rex Grossman. He signed as the back-up with the slight chance of winning the job.

Last season Hester went for 757 yards and 3 TD's. He missed 3 1/2 games due to injuries or he might have hit 1000. How the hell's that not a solid WR??? Knox went for over 500 yards and 5 TD's his rookie year. If we dumped him teams would be lined up to sign him. Not to mention Earl Bennett and DA who are damn good WR's. To say we don't have a legitimate solid WR/starter is flat out retarded.

Jason, I agree with you that the Bears need to make it a priority to upgrade the line. So how do we do it? There's nobody available, which means the best we can hope for is drafting a guy in round 3. So if we don't go after Sims, how do we upgrade the line?

Does anybody believe this? How the hell does Mike Lombardi know what the Bears "will do." If this came from the Chicago media I might buy it. But he's not even saying the Bears have interest, he's saying they will have interest. We could have signed him Friday. Adams getting cut wasn't a big surprise. JA struck gold in the past signing old offensive linemen like Ruben Brown & Fred Miller. But we got burnt on Pace. I don't see us going down this road.

We all agree Flozell is old and bad. What are your thoughts on Hamlin? Should the Bears make a run at him? I'm thinking the Bears will use their Alex Brown money to shore up either the safety position or the o-line posiition. Would you rather have Hamlin or Sims?

As per Mike Florio via the Sporting News: www.sportingnews.com/nfl/article/2010-04-02/five-moves-should-be-made-before-nfl-draft All I can say is, damn I miss having a first round pick. This will be the 2nd consecutive year we haven't drafted before the 3rd round. I have no regrets about the Cutler deal, but it's time to start stock-piling picks again. (And as I type that I'm hoping we give up a pick for Sims)

Agreed 100%. Flozell Adams turns 35 in May. Ken Hamlin is 29 and plays free safety. Although he had a bad year last year I'm thinking he'd be an upgrade over Craig Steltz.

"The Offensive Line was the worst part of the team, and Sims couldn't even break into the starting lineup. He started a few games this year, but was bad when he was in the game." Everything I've read says he started 14 games last season. The Seahawks o-line sucked becauase Walter Jones missed the season. Further, nearly every draft site has OL as the primary need for the Seahawks...and, yet, they want to get rid of someone? Supposedly he doesn't fit with their blocking scheme. I agree this doesn't make sense. You don't get rid of good players because they don't fit your scheme. We're not going to find a player in the draft who's immediately better. At least not in the 3rd round. What other guard or tackle is available via free agency? Some team is going to sign Alex Brown and fans are going to wonder why the Bears let him go. The fact is he was solid, but far from great. That's how I view Sims. He's never going to be a pro-bowler but he an upgrade. I like the idea of moving Omiyale back to tackle.

For 3 consecutive seasons this defense has sucked ass. We've blamed injuries, we blamed coaches, we've blamed scheme. At what point do we blame the players? Since the Super Bowl, we've continued to start the same guys on defense (and they make more then the offensive players). What we've been doing ain't working. We need to shake things up.

I agree with you. But don't you think we'd likely do it again? There doesn't appear to be much love out there for Olsen.

I wouldn't mind trading future picks if it wasn't so damn expensive. Remember a few years back when San Diego gave us their 3rd and next years 3rd for our 3rd round pick? That's just nuts. (I'm thinking we used the pick on Garrett Wolfe and traded down the next year so it didn't help us much anyway . . . )

Agreed dawizz. We had no timetable to dump Alex Brown. Yet we do it the same day Sims agrees to sign his tender? I'm thinking we'll have a Friday press conference and a new LG . . .

http://www.chicagobreakingsports.com/2010/...aft-safety.html As per the Trib. IMO, I see us doing something like giving up Olsen and our 3rd for another team's 2nd.

Well said Madlith. My thoughts exactly. From what I understand, he's an upgrade over what we have. If we can get him, and even give up a 4th, for a starting LG, that's not bad. But the thought of getting into a bidding war is ridiculous.

Agreed. While we likely would not have to worry about Seattle matching the deal, we would have to make Sims an offer worth siging, and he isn't going to sign a long term deal for nothing. To trade for him, he get him at the RFA tag price for one year, which is cheap. You can then, later, work on a new, long term deal for him. The only 2 times that I know of JA signing a RFA were Tait & RMJ. In both cases we were very cafeful to structure the contract so the other team couldn't match. This is a lot different in that there's no salary cap and Seattle will be happy to take the 4th round pick. For some reasons the RFA always take a while. Not sure. That is the story now, but could change after the draft. $5m sounds like a lot for Brown, but if a team were to sign him in FA, they are likely going to have to shell out more than that in terms of SB and such. If this were a normal cap year, $5m may be more prohibitive, but in a non-cap year, we may be able to find a taker for the $5m. Maybe. But we've already seen that teams aren't going to give up much. Seattle is thin at DE and they wouldn't give up Sims (who is equal to a 4th.) That just tells me he's not exactly in great demand. Basically we'd be hanging on to him in the hopes of getting a 6th round pick.

There's 2 obvious things your overlooking: 1. We've reached our limit in terms of spending. For us to sign Sims, we've got to free up money. Is it worth dumping Brown for Sims? I think it is. 2. Nobody wants to touch Brown's contract. We can't trade him because he's not worth 5 million per year.

To me, the key it was about was having in mind the sort of OG they wanted. They wanted to get bigger on the OL and play with more power. Beekman is more finese and small of frame, thus not a fit for what they were looking for. Omiyale sucked, but was more like the sort of OG they wanted. Scheme over talent. What I thought was interesting is that as soon as that the moment we benched Pace we reinserted Omiyale. We must have liked Beekman's mobility next to the statue-esque Pace. The combination of Williams & Omiyale seemed to work. I agree he is likely to move to RT. I personlly would rather keep our options open w/ a draft coming up supposedly loaded at OT, but weak as hell at OG, but it sounds like we have all but made up our minds. You've been thumping for Sims and I think you're right. That we leave us with good depth at the guard and tackle position. Hey, I was among the few saying Forte sucked last year, despite the awful OL and other aspects. But another reason (at least given) for Forte's slump was injury he was playing with. Taylor may well be the starter, but I simply do not believe this is a situation where we signed him with the plan of making him the starter, regardless what Forte does in camp, like with Beekman/Omiyale. If Forte looks very good in camp, and more like his rookie year, I think he starts. I think this could be a legit competition, rather than one like we have talked about in the past. Taylor's a much better blocker, and he'd have to be better at the goal-line. Forte is going to have to regain is '08 form or Taylor will get the majority of time.

I don't remember Bazuin being hurt or having bad character. What were the issues with Payne, Harrison, and Williams? If you're counting character, you'd have to include Dusty Dvoracek. He was a nice pick in the 3rd if he could have stayed healthy. We could also add a 3rd gropup labeled: "Guys who fell because they played at a small school." This would be D Manning, Johnny Knox, Matt Forte . . .

Everything indicates that teams really like Alex Brown, but not for 5 million per. We're hearing Seattle doesn't want Browns 5 million contract. If they don't, who will? Zac Zaidman was on the SCORE this morning. He says the Bears desire to dump Brown is purely financial. He compared it to the Jets dumping Thomas Jones. TJ's a good player and a lot of teams wanted him, but not for what he was making. I look for us to release Alex Brown. I know a lot of people are upset at the thought of dumping Brown, but if we do it to sign a starting LG like Sims, I have no problem with it.