bradjock

You're ignoring several points that Jeff Dickerson should have made. 1. Lovie doesn't mind small nickels. JA conferred with Lovie before giving up a 3rd for RMJ plus 24 million. RMJ is listed at 5-9 195, comparable to Moore's 5-9, 185. 2. Before the combine, Moore was listed as the best cb. Early rounds the coach & GM should unite. By the 4th, any gm worth a damn takes the best player available. 3. Lovie hates rookies. With the exception of the safety position (which is awful) I can't think of a rookie ever beating out the veteran starter in training-camp. You complain that Moore didn't see the field but we said the same about Earl Bennett. I look for Moore to break-out.

If the season started today, Josh Beekman would be the starting LG with Lance Louis as the backup. Unless we sign someone else, Frank Omiyale will battle it out for the RT spot. We've said good things about Louis, but he was a 7th round pick who might end up becoming our blocking TE. Seemingly every year we bench Beekman. Either we: a) Sign a free agent on the cheap (I can't imagine we'll add much more to our payroll), or Draft a guy in the 3rd round and hope he can contribute immediately. I'm all for plan a. Andrews was pretty damn good for the Eagles at one point. Whether it's Andrews or someone else, we need a good/cheap guard.

Did Indy cut him? Is that why he was available and not restricted? (since he came out the same year as D Manning & Hester he should have been restricted.) So I'm guessing we signed him for the minimum? D.J. Moore is a 2nd year player. He has the build for the nickel back position. I look for these two to battle it out.

With the big money we shelled out on the first day of free agency, it's not surprising we're looking to dump salaries for "fringe" type players. McKie & Vasher save us close to 4 million. I expect we'll save even more when we unload Greg Olsen.

The fact that we're devoted to the Martz system is the key here. We're not doing this half-ass, we're not trying to have Martz fit his scheme to accomodate our players. We're getting players to fit his scheme. IMO, it also means that those rumors of us wanting to get rid of Greg Olsen are dead right.

But at times, Peanut ignores the strip and lays on the wood. I don't watch other teams that closely, but I imagine most teams struggle with their corners missing tackles at times.

I pretty sure on the Monday night game vs. Minnesota game that we started D Manning at SS and Craig Steltz at FS. The first half was our best defensive performance of the year. I'm wondering if this combination might work for a couple different reasons: 1. D Manning has bad instincts and is slow to make reads. This makes him bad a FS, even though he has ideal speed. But he's explosive and he's a solid tackler. If we keep him closer to the line to be a disruptive force, this might be more ideal. 2. We mainly ask our FS to not give up big plays. Steltz appears to have good instincts, he'll be at the right place at the right time, and he doesn't miss tackles. He'll never be a super-star, but he might be good enough to fill a specific need. I'd have a heart-attack if we spent a ton of dough on O.J. Atogwe. That'd be ideal, but I don't see it happening. That leaves us signing another guy off the scrap-heap, like Josh Bullocks, or drafting yet another safety to go with Alfalava or Kevin Payne. I'm probably being stupidly optimistic, but I'm thinking Manning/Steltz might work.

Maybe, but according to PFT, if Quinn plays over 70% of the snaps, they'll owe him 5.9 million in 2011. Otherwise, Detroit only pays a paltry $700,000 a year for Quinn. Not bad for a back-up with possible potential. IMO, it's easy to determine how good a player is when you see how teams value them. A 6th and Hillis means Quinn ain't worth much. When we paid a ton of money for Chester Taylor, it's presumed that he'll be a starter. When you get Quinn for damn near nothing, he might not even make the team.

PFT had an article a while back calling Walker's contract with the Raiders the worst free agent signing of all time. He's injured to the point he can no long run. We keep talking about what kind of WR Martz wants for his system . . . I'm thinking the ability to run might be key.

http://blogs.suntimes.com/bears/2010/03/be...ng_of_bull.html You can never have too many mediocre/bad safeties.

Let me ask you this: Does Olsen look very fast to you? Is Olsen a great blocker? Does Olsen ever go up and rip the ball away from a defender? Does he have great hands? My answer to each of these questions is "no." Not to mention, there were several times last year Cutler threw to Olsen's spot, and Olsen wasn't there. Either Cutler was off or Olsen is not a great route runner. There were games last year where Cutler seemed to go out of his way to target Olsen, and at times it didn't look pretty. Is Olsen much better then Dez Clark? I'd love to see Olsen succeed but I wonder if our opinion of him is over-inflated because he was a #1 pick, and he looked okay in a really bad offense. More importantly: While Martz had some success in Detroit and San Fran, wasn't part of his problem the fact that he had to work with what he had? With the signing of Taylor and Mala, we've basically told him that we'll give him whatever he wants to be successful. If Olsen isn't part of that plan . . .

Why the hate for McKie? He seems okay for a fullback. Does the Martz offense even utilize a fullback?

The SCORE guys were saying that we're not the least bit impressed with Gilbert. They speculated that since we signed Peppers, we'd likely move him back inside. After all, we have Peppers, Brown, Anderson, and Idonije playing DE. That's a solid group who never gets injured and is sure to be activated every week. The inside is far more precarious with the ever-injured Tommie, the solid but under-appreciated Anthony Adams, the dissappointing Marcus Harrison, and the possibly gone Matt Toeneia. We're also tinkered with moving Melton inside (who is far too light IMO). It seems obvious to me that Gilbert would be an inside player and we'll likely draft another.

All right, so Olsen can't play TE in the Martz system . . . we've establish that. And the slot receiver is the Az-Hakim type who just runs like hell down-field (see Hester, Devin. And Knox, Johnny) Can Olsen play the #2 WR spot? Can he be the "across the middle" type player? Or will cornerbacks just eat him up . . .

So Sheppard signed a huge deal with Philly and was benched. Eventually traded to the Jets, and was benched. Now he's a FA and there are only two teams showing interest. If the Bears had real interest we'd have signed him by now. Not to mention he's on the wrong side of 30. With the exception of being traded, he sounds a lot like Vasher. I'm guessing we're looking to sign him for one year close to the minimum. It'll be interesting to see who we play in the nickel now that DM has been moved to SS.

Great work Noots!

We played Carolina back in '05 and that was the game Fred Miller missed because Kreutz broke his jaw. It was a huge deal because it meant John St. Clair had to line up against Peppers, and the thinking was that he'd get like 10 sacks that game. He ended up not even sniffing the QB (I'm guessing we had him double teamed???) I say this because he was a LDE at that time and a pretty damn good one. IMO the key is for our RDE to be able to get to the damn QB and vice-versa. Both sides need to be fairly disruptive. The bad part is that Alex Brown can't do that. One option would be for Brown to rotate with Mark Anderson like they did in '06. You mix the run-stuffer and the guy who can get to the QB.

How has nobody posted this yet? Here's what Mike Florio from PFT has to say: "Cut last week by the Jets, veteran cornerback Lito Sheppard is looking for a new home. We're told that two teams are in the mix for his services. Per a league source, the Detroit Lions and the Chicago Bears have expressed interest. To date, no visits have been scheduled."

Agreed on most parts. Not to mention, it's already been noted on here that Martz has little tolerance for guys who don't run precise routes, and Hester and Knox both struggle with that. Knox gets a pass because he was a rookie, but it's unacceptable for Hester. Our WR's have shown potential and we're waiting to see what they can do, but there's a good chance we might not like what we find. Why the hate for Davis? I like him as a back-up WR and special teams player. That's it. No more, no less. He's a good route runner and he'll learn the positions. He's just not very good. As for WR's, we'll have Hester, Knox, Bennett, DA, Iglesias, (5). I'm sure we'll draft at least one.

I heard that also. I have to agree with Mad-Lith that it's a low-ball deal at this point. The thought around the league is that Martz wants nothing to do with Olsen. He's not want he wants in a TE or a WR. Not to mention I get the feeling most teams want to add no more salaries and Olsen wants and extension. I'm convinced he'll get dealt but it will be for more then a 6th. Although we might have to settle for a 4th which would be dissappointing.

The point your missing is that we're basically using Mana as a 3rd OT. Having Kellen Davis or Dez Clark back them up would be as silly as having them back-up Chris Williams. Somebody will have to back him up and it shouldn't be one of our receiving TE's.

He's not a huge salary cap issue, but we'd save money by letting him go. It's a combination of him not being a good fit for Martz's system and we don't have unlimited funds.

Thanks for the info. But this is speculating that the Bears are interested in Clark, it doesn't indicate we're actually interested. Considering we spent over 100 million, IMO there's no way we spend much on a safety. We still have a 3rd round draft pick and there's a good chance we'll trade Olsen to get more.

Wouldn't it be a novel idea if we just played the best guy? Agreed with NFO's comments that you need an oc who knows how and when to rotate guys. In his rookie year, Forte would sometimes look great and he gets yanked out of the game for a series or two in favor of Kevin Jones. Many times there would be a noticeable drop-off. Heck, last year there were more times he should have been yanked. I was pissed last year when we yanked Forte for Bell. I'm sitting there wondering, "Who the hell is this guy?" Next thing I know he breaks off a 72 yard run. I even liked the way Minny rotated Taylor and AP, using Taylor on 3rd downs.

He's been injured pretty much the last two years so we'd be signing him for the mimimum. While he hasn't done much in his career, the one thing he's done is make some huge plays. That's worth something. Either way, it's never stupid to bring in a guy for depth and competition. Although if we signed him it could mean the end of Rashied Davis . . .