bradjock

That sounds great in theory, but who do we get? What FS is out there that would be worth the money that fits our scheme? The top FS's available are Darren Sharper and likely Rolle. The thinking is that in the Bear's system, neither of these guys would be able to duplicate the success they've had. You also mention drafting a guy, but players who have the ability required to play the FS spot at a high level, are likely playing cb. There simply aren't that many available coming out of college. So while it sounds good to just go get a guy, it's not that easy.

http://blogs.suntimes.com/bears/2010/02/wh...viate_from.html I keep hearing this but I haven't believed it. The one thing this article mentions is that Lovie & JA must win NOW. Cap question: I'm assuming the Bears aren't going to spend more then they would normally. In other words, if the cap would have been around 120 million, we'll likely spend around 120 million. I can't see JA given an unlimited amount of money to spend. That being said, how much do the Bears have to spend based on what the cap likely would have been?

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/footb...0,6125465.story He's 6-2 TE and almost 300 pounds. Wow. I like this idea of basically having a 3rd OG on the field. Since Turner became the OC, I've wanted us to get a "bowling ball" type player to clear the way for our RB. My only concern is I hope we have a plan for Olsen. The obvious solution is to utilize him as a 3rd WR. I also wonder if we'd look to get rid of Dez Clark.

I'd be thrilled to have him back but he'll likely want too much money. IMO we need an experienced RB who can block and catch the ball to compliment Forte.

The country of Chile is unbelievably long and narrow. There's a very good chance the earthquake hit far away from where he is. I really hope that's the case. We're still waiting to hear from you Chile!

That's not an insignificant concern. Tillman's a decent-sized corner, but he'd be pretty undersized for a safety, and he's already had enough shoulder and back injuries as it is. If he's getting hurt when he has to drive 5 yards or 8 yards to the ballcarrier as a zone corner, how much worse would it get if he were driving 15 or 20 yards from the deep middle and going that much faster before the collision? I'd be surprised if he made it 16 games as a safety. Aren't safeties short because they're too damn small to play corner? If he's a free safety, he won't take that much abuse. That being said, for this to happen we'd have to sign Robinson. I don't see that happening because he'll cost so much. Even if he could stay healthy and make the transition smoothly, Peanut's getting close to 30. How many years could he be the solution at safety? Two? Three? Even in the unlikely event that he didn't get injured again, he wouldn't stop the safety carousel for long. Darren Sharper is 34. How old is what's his name from Green Bay? We could get 5 years out of him. But again, we'd have to pay one helluva a lot of money for a corner to replace him with, and I don't see that happening.

I don't think Kampman's really a situational guy. He's not a liability against the run like Anderson. Maybe he's not a total run-stuffer, but I think he's definitely an every-down DE in our system. I think it's got to be either him or Peppers, unless somebody gets released. I'm not real high on the rest of the market this year: it seems like there are a lot of guys pretty comparable to Wale. Vanden Bosch, Leonard Little, Tyler Brayton, Phillip Daniels...it's a lot of guys on the wrong side of 30 who haven't been productive pass rushers in a while. They're saying Kampman might not be ready until mid-season. Is Kampman better then Wale at this point? Just wondering. In 2007 Peppers had 2.5 sacks. How the hell does that happen? I just don't see us paying Peppers what he'll be asking. Too many red-flags. Also, I've been hearing that BOTH Melton and Gilbert are being tried inside at DT. I don't know if that means that the team's planning to leave both of them there, or if the better of the two stays at DT, but either one or both might be out of the mix at DE. We're trying them both at DE AND DT . . . which indicates they're not good at either one. Not encouraging.

I personally have always had a higher opinion of Adams. No, he isn't a big pass rusher, but he does play solid or better vs the run, and is an all around solid DT. The staff doesn't value his play as they want pass rushers, but I have always been of the opinion that you need a run stuffer at one of the two DT positions. If Adams was a free agent he find work but teams wouldn't be beating down his door. He's an average starting caliber NFL player. Many have said OT is Omiyale's more natural position. Further, that is the position he had developed at since entering the NFL. I think there is very much a legit rationale to believing he could play better at RT than what we saw at OG. That reminds me of Terry Shea deciding Q Mitchell sucked at guard because LT was his natural position. That's not a fair comparison, because unlike Mitchell, Omiyale is a legit NFL player . . . just not a very good one. IMO, if he's mediocre at guard he'll be mediocre at tackle. Since we haven't purged Pace, doesn't that mean we're still looking to keep him at guard? I think Forte is more similar to a RB like TJ than Benson. In the former blocking scheme, Forte was able to find more holes to run in than he was this past year. OL was a problem, but frankly, even when there were holes, I felt Forte did a poor job of taking advantage. True, but it's tough to tell because all season long, Forte never looked as fast or explosive as he did the previous year. Man, we could not disagree more. I thought he was flat out awful in pass protection as well as run blocking. He lacked the bend in run blocking and the quickness in pass protection. DEs seemed to turn the corner on him nearly at will. As bad as Omiyale was at the start of the year, I often pointed out how poorly I felt Pace played as well. With Pace I think about the 49er game. Pace was great in pass protection. As soon as he suffered the head injury, we replaced him with Schaffer and the DE was all over Cutler. There was a noticeable drop-off. I concede the o-line looked one helluva a lot better overall without Pace. I think the only reason we have not cut him is the expectation he retires. If he doesn't retire, I would expect to cut him. Why keep him? Williams played well at LT, and there is zero reason to move him back to RT at this point. Pace has said he doesn't want to move to RT, and I can't see him being content to simply ride the pine to provide depth. Pace is done. His flat out awful play last year should have proven that to all. As for him not wanting to move to the right side, there is no team in the league that will sign him to be their starting LT. It's either move to the right or hang it up. JA likes to give veteran players a chance to find a new home, so why have we kept him? I'm guessing it's because he might be a fit for what Martz wants to do.

How's he not needed??? Every team is going with a 1-2 punch at rb. He's great at pass-protection and he's a great receiver. Kevin Jones has been hurt for 2 years, Garrett Wolfe is a good special team's player, and I'm guessing Khalil Bell doesn't fit what Martz wants to do. What hurt Westbrook is the way Philly over-used him. I'd love to have him. More then LT because I think he's a better fit for the pass-happy Martz.

I am not saying such an idea has no value, but I disagree where you say we upgrade two positions at once. The is potential in a move such as Tillman to safety, but I would not call this an upgrade. He has never played safety. There is an adjustment just moving from playing RCB to LCB. Moving from CB to FS has a considerable adjustment as well. Yes, I realize numerous others have done it. I am not saying it is impossible. I am saying there is a considerable adjustment factor and question the assumption that such a change would be automatic or seamless. Isn't Peanut automatically better then everybody else we played at safety last year? Even if he struggles adapting to the position he's still an upgrade. Okay, and lets say for a moment that we start Robinson (I am assuming you are saying we sign him) and Bowman, w/ Tillman at FS. Bowman goes down, now what. Do you keep Tillman at FS, or move him back to CB. If you move him back to CB, you now have an issue of replacing your FS w/ someone who frankly, isn't any good. That is the problem you face when your top backup at one position is also a starter at another. That's a no-brainer, you leave Peanut at safety. Heck, I like Corey Graham. You hope D.J. Moore develops and maybe take another CB with our 3rd round pick. I am not saying the idea shouldn't be considered, but (best case) I would much rather seek out that long term solution, and I am not sure Tillman to FS is that solution. How can he be a good cover-corner, be the best in the league at stripping the ball, and not be able to make the move to safety? That makes zero sense to me. My only concern would be injuries.

We obviously aren't happy with our DE play, and plan A was to use our top draft pick early to develop a guy we hoped could be the answer . . . not only did Adams die, but our season went in the crapper making it a really high 2nd round pick. Ugh. So how do we fix our #1 priority? Since it's an uncapped year I'm guessing some team will go nuts and give Peppers way more then he deserves. Kampman's name comes up a lot but he's more of a situational pass-rusher like Mark Anderson. The only other name I've heard mentioned if Kyle Vanden Bosh who's had 7.5 sacks over the last two years (and we thought Wale's 6.5 last season was pathetic.) I'm guessing if we thought Henry Melton, Jarron Gilbert, or Mark Anderson was the answer, we'd never have traded for Adams. So how the hell do we fix this mess? Do we resign Wale?

The difference w/ Adams, IMHO, is that Adams seems to be held back because he doesn't fit what the staff wants in a DT. Schaffer I think is simply an average player. I get the comparison, but just see a bit of difference. Like Schaffer, Adams is very average. He doesn't make big plays and I'm guessing he'd be average on any team. The only reason I called him "good" is that he's the only DT that doesn't look awful at times . . . which isn't saying much for our DT's. Either way, Schaffer doesn't seem to be a bruiser or a finesse player. I get what, in theory, the staff likes about Omiyale. They wanted to get bigger and more powerful on the OL, and thus why they prefer him to Beekman, who wins battles with leverage and technique rather than raw power. Problem is, Omiyale may be more powerful, that just didn't equate to better play. Either way, if Omiyale couldn't play better then Beekman at RG, how the hell's he going to beat out Schaffer at RT??? What still drives me nuts is the inconsistency. We had a more drop step, finesse blocking scheme, but had a power back in Benson. In other words, we didn't have a blocking scheme that seemed to match the RBs strengths. Then we get rid of Benson and add Forte, who seemed initially to be a good fit for that blocking scheme, but after one season, we then tried to alter our blocking to a more power scheme. That would have been good for Benson, but not so much for Forte, who would have been better off if we simply kept that more finesse system. I disagree. Forte is a nice powerful straight-line runner. How does a finesse system help him? It's not like he's a scat-back who will make a ton of guys miss. The main problem IMO was Pace who was just god-awful in run-blocking because he couldn't run or get up-field. I sure as hell don't blame JA for gambling on him though. That is something I hope Tice can bring. We need a scheme that matches both OL strengths and RBs. What I think will be interesting is what we'll do with Pace. We haven't cut him and he hasn't retired which leads me to believe we're thinking about keeping him around as a RT. I thought he was pretty good in pass-protection, just awful in run-blocking. Since Martz likes to fling it a ton, he might be okay on the right side. We seem to like the combination of Chris Williams and Omiyale on the left side.

Prediction: Kevin Shaffer will be the "Anthony Adams" of the o-line. Adams is always good but not great. So he gets bench for a player with a better "up-side." We see something we really like in Omiyale. I'm not sure why since he looks fat & slow. I'm predicting he'll get handed the RT job and inevitably lose it to Shaffer. As for Omiyale, he was a great back-up swing-tackle in Carolina. Not worth what we paid for him but it makes him worth keeping him around IMO.

Agreed Giant. The safety spot is a need for us and Rolle is likely to be the best who's realistically available. Atogwe would be better, but he's restricted. While he's not a pro-bowl caliber player, he'd immediately be the best safety on the roster. That being said: 1. We'd likely need to change how we use our safeties. Lovie swears they are interchangeable, but they are not. Our FS almost always drops way the hell back. I remember in 2007 we played Mike Brown at FS. He was basically invisible. We move him back to SS and he gets an interception right away (Detroit). He's starts making big plays . . . then he gets hurt. My point is if we get a guy like Rolle, we have to make our safeties interchangeable. 2. I like Craig Steltz. He's slow, he doesn't wow you, but he doesn't screw up, he doesn't miss tackles. He's solid. I like the Steltz/Rolle combo.

Old habits die hard. We have Cutler. PLEASE stop debating who the #2 will be. For better or for worse, he's our guy. We've had a bad QB for so long it's like we can't let the old habits die. Our back-up should be Hanie or whatever guy we can develop. Either way, Bulger deserves a chance to start and he won't get it here.

I was thrilled when I heard Martz said he thought Hester could be a better version of Az Hakim. I'm thrilled because it would appear we have an offensive guy who's not retarded. Martz understands exactly what Hester is and what he is capable of. Thanks christ we've gotten away from coaches saying, "He's our #1 WR . . . ) As for Vasher, I keep having to stop myself from asking, "How much cap room would we save?" (What cap?)

Agreed. After the Super Bowl it was, "We're going to go back and win it" which led to a 7 & 9 season. The following year there was all the talk about the Super Bowl hangover and injuries and they'd be sure to bounce back . . . to 9 & 7. Leading into the 2009 season it was more of the same. I know these guys have to say this stuff and we'd be pissed if they said anything different, but it's annoying.

If we're looking at no new CBA by this time next year, I'd bank on Lovie being back no matter how bad we suck.

Just rumors and speculation at this point. http://blogs.suntimes.com/bears/2010/02/ho...with_martz.html

Williams was going to be an unrestricted FA. Since there is no new CBA, he'll be a restricted FA. That makes it probable he'll be back for one more year. After last season, Hunter's a lock IMO. I'll feel better when Pisa is signed and it's not just speculation.

The Bears have been criticized for hiring coaches without experienced, and we could have 4 coaches with HC experience. (Lovie, Marinelli, Tice, & Martz) It seems like we're going to go after a defensive coach from the Colts as our new DC.

Great video! It's amazing how much things change throughout the course of a season.

Barring just a complete and total breakdown next season, Lovie has 2 years left IMO. Not only just the money and the impending lock-out, but we'd have to clean house with our players and staff. Net system, etc.. Either way, I could see a scenerio where Lovie is fired and Martz stays. We weren't 7 & 9 because of our offense last season . . . The SCORE is saying that if the Martz/Cutler meeting went well yesterday, we could announce Martz as our OC as early as today. They also mentioned that Shaun Hill finished the season as the 11th or 12th best QB in the league under Martz. Nice. In addition, they had a St. Louis sportswriter who commented on how everywhere Martz has been, the offense and quarterbacks improved immediately. In St. Louis, 1999 was his first year and they won the Super Bowl. Kurt Warner, Trent Green, John Kitna, and the current St. Louis QB all showed huge improvement immediately. I've got to admit, I'm starting to salivate at the idea of Martz coming here.

No kidding!!! How is it I had never heard DA ran a 4.35 at the combine? He's 6-2, 201 pounds and can move that fast? We've heard so much about Johnny Knox running the 4.34 . . . I will say that DA doesn't "look" as fast as Knox, but he appears to be a legitimate 6-2, as opposed to Knox who looks about 5-7, but is listed as 6-0. Either way, DA appears to have great hands, and he has the size and ability to be a legit #1 WR.

In this particular case, I don't think Martz being Lovie's BFF will have an impact. This has been a problem since Lovie's buddies coached the defense and they are basically "yes men" to whatever the hell he wanted. With the offense, Lovie has input, but on game day the OC has had the freedom to do their jobs. Martz is particular is known for being stubborn and having his own way. If Martz is hired, and I think he'll be strongly encouraged to listen to Mike Tice and the running game.