bradjock

As bad as our season was, the scary part is we're likely do have damn near all significant players returning. The only significant contributor likely gone is Wale. He might resign, but considering we traded for Adams and we're saying all the right things about Melton . . . As far as I can tell, that's it for significant players. Pace is gone, but he quit being significant. Vasher's proven to be a mediocre corner. Is it worth eating his salary now? Pisa might go . . . or not. Isn't Adriant Peterson a free agent? It's amazing that we'll have the whole squad back with most of our starters returning.

Yep. As I understand it, this became a rule so guys like Dan Snyder couldn't hire coaches left and right away from his opponents. We saw this a few years back when the Bears wanted to interview Rod Marinelli for the DC position and Tampa blocked it.

You mention the Rooney rule, but I believe that only applies to head coaches. As far as I know, he's only a popular DC candidate, not a head coach candidate. (With the exception of Buffalo.) That means he's legit. Although his anxiousness to join the Bears indicate the Giants aren't really an option. Reguardless, assuming we hire him, on paper we have a very good defensive staff. We can't be accused of going cheap.

The article has been deleted. I remember that guy and he was annoying. On a side note, the Chicago papers are saying Martz is a leading candidate. My problem is this: Martz's system does not favor TE's. This is a bad idea for the Bears since TE is arguably our best and deepest offensive position. Look at what Vernon Davis did after Martz left San Fran.

That has to be the most misleading statistic ever: Rod Marinelli: Coached the worst team in NFL history Perry Fewell: Coached a bad Bills team after a bad former Bears coach got the ax mid-season. Lovie: The defense gets worse the more he gets involved. I'd rather have one great coach then 3 mediocres.

From what I've seen, Connor is always polite and would only devalue your opinion if needed. If you don't want your post corrected, don't make mistakes. Accuracy is appreciated.

Last season the Bears finished 17th in defense . . . Buffalo finished 19th. http://www.nfl.com/stats/categorystats?tab...mp;d-447263-n=1 Our defense was real bad. So we're going to hire a guy who helmed a defense that was even worse? Given that we want to continue with the cover 2, he's probably the best choice. But after what Marinelli did with the d-line, I'm not confident.

Agreed. Can we teach Olsen how to block? After 3 years and he's horrible.

Would you rather have kept that second rounder in the hopes of getting the next Dan Bazuin or Tank Johnson? Three years ago this April, Adams was arguably the best player in the draft. Unforunately he hasn't seen the gym since then. He's 26, he has 3 years under his belt, and if he can get his head out of his ass he could be a monster. He's no more of a gamble then any other player we'd draft in round 2. The only difference is that he has more talent.

You should have added "other." My vote is for a new DC . . . who would likely be Rod Marinelli. Which is kind of like, "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss." But our defensive play has been unacceptable. Hell, the fact that we gave up 23 points to the Lions . . . My concerns with a new offense are twofold: 1. We seem to be headed in the right direction. I want to see us build on the continuity. 2. Who the hell do we bring in as our OC? I want somebody with experience. We're just as likely to hire the next Terry Shea.

I'm hoping like hell the answer is B. I've thought since the beginning of the season that D Manning and Hester were best when they have a part time role and also serve as return men. Seemingly, year after year we keep trying to have these guys do to much and their production suffers. Let Manning play nickel & Hester play the slot and serve as return men. As for the trade, how much is Hester even worth right now? IMO we couldn't get our 2nd rounder back for him.

Damn! I thought we'd be trading him to Denver for Orton!!! (We'd probably have to give up 2 #1's also) I'm smiling! For better or for worse, he's our guy. I admit I'm a little suprirsed it's just for 2 years. I'd have thought he'd have gotten a deal similar to Eli or Rivers . . . one of those 100 million $$$ deals.

I love this move for a ton of reasons: #1 While Adams has under-achieved as a #4 overall pick, he hasn't been a bust. The guy has talent and we believe Marinelli can make him great. He's 26, he plays every game, and he's cheap in terms of $$$. He's signed through 2012. Did I mention he's young and talented? I see only up-side. #2 Wale's headed for double digit sacks & he's going to command a ton of $$$ after under-achieving for several years. Do you really want to pay a guy who only produces in a contract year? #3 This tells me we're not thrilled with Mark Anderson and Melton's likely a bust. So with our 2nd round pick next year we'd have been drafting a DE. No way we get a guy this talented in the 2nd round. #4 This helps us immediately--We LOVE to rotate our DT's, but we've never had the depth to rotate our DE's much. Mark Anderson is only a 3rd down guy. Adams gives us a vicious 3. The only thing that sucks is not having a first day pick next year. But chances are 1) We'd trade down anyway 2) We'd have taken a defensive lineman who's not as good as Adams. Think Dan Bazuin and Tank Johnson. Gilbert could prove to be great, but not this year. I love this move.

I didn't notice this when it happened but they were talking about it on the SCORE. I went back and watched it and Knox appears to be dropping/spiking the football simultaneously as he's crossing the goal line. There was no official close and the next closest player was a Bear. So it probably wouldn't have mattered, but still . . .

The radio said the trainers had given Knox is helmet back and he was okay to go back into the game. We scored with a little over 6 minutes to go and right after that they said Knox was heading back to the locker room. I'm just speculating but I'm guessing if it was a close game he could have played. When it reached "blow-out" level, it made sense to shut him down.

Housh signed a 5 year 40 million $$$ contract with 15 guaranteed. Granted it's WAY early, but after 2 weeks: Housh: 10 catches, 110 yards, long of 22, 0 TD's Johnny Knox: 8 catches, 152 yards, long of 68, 1 TD Knox is making damn near the minimum and he's not bitching about Seattle's GM while missing practice with a bad-back. Housh should ultimately have a better season, but Seattle over-paid for him. Just like they over-paid for Deion Branch and Nate Burselson. Good luck with that.

I'm getting a bit tired of the "Cutler loves big WR's" talk. Does that mean he wouldn't want Steve Smith on his team? Cutler LOVED Eddie Royal who's listed at 5-10 (which means he's probably 5-8). They don't get much bigger then Olsen at 6-5 255, and he caught one freaking pass last week. Good is better then big. All this size talk is over-rated.

Great work as always Noots. I always enjoy reading your work.

Davis is not expected to do jack as a WR. I think it was Angelo who said that, when deciding on the 5th/6th WR spot, you are looking heavily at special teams play. I don't think there is a lot expected of the 6th WR except to play special teams. True, but you're ignoring the fact that Davis is a good route runner who can fill in at all 3 WR spots. I never remember him quitting on a play. Hell, we might have been better off with him out there on Sunday. He's a nice back-up IMO. What surprised me was, if I am not mistaken, Iglesias was not even active. Iglesias did absolutely nothing all pre-season. He'll see less time this year then Earl Bennett did last season. That means we went into the game w/ 3 WRs (Hester, Bennett & Knox) and a 4th who was not expected to play WR. W/ Aromashodu out, I would have expected Iglesias to be active. Don't forget that Olsen is often used as our slot receiver, diminishing the WR position. Did I mention Iglesias sucks? What I'm curious to see is if we even have room for DA with Knox making the big-play. Hub Arkush on the SCORE said he felt Knox was our best WR . . . and he added Knox was a really bad WR at this point. IMHO, our only going into the game w/ 3 WRs expected to play WR really shows what our plans are on offense, and how heavily we intend to lean on our TEs. True. I'm anxious to see what Kellen Davis can do with Des Clark out.

I'd feel better if all these guys had looked better. Seemingly, Iglesias & Moore made the team because of their draft status, but because of anything spectacular. I'm still trying to figure out how the hell Lance Louis made the team. I don't think I heard his name mentioned all pre-season. Knox, Gilbert, and Sfalava may not produce much this year, but they at least look like nice picks.

The most pressing need is to resign Wale. It's been assumed we'd let him go, but what are our other options? Mark Anderson continues to be the invisible man, and Henry Melton didn't do a damn thing. A top tier DE costs an arm and a leg. Wale is our best option. As much as Lovie is in love with D Manning, I'd think we'd look to pay him. Otherwise we use it to extend Cutler. You figure he'll get Eli Manning money. We didn't get of all those picks and Orton not to pay the man. I'm sure we'll roll some of it into next year's cap by giving someone an unlikely to be earned bonus in their contract.

Let this trade go through. I can argue all damn day and night about who's getting the better deal . . . that makes it a fair trade IMO. Holmes & Olsen should be stable fantasy players. The other 3 I have no idea what the hell to expect. Housh & Marshall both could approach last years numbers . . . or it could get ugly. It's a gamble for this owner. I'd let the owner decide. If it was Drew Brees for Kyle Orton you reject it immediately. If you have to ask, it's probably okay. You're the commish, not a dictator.

Man I hope Rex can cut down on the mistakes and make something of this. He's the #2 QB and there's a chance Schaub might not even play this week. I can't believe Rex is 29 already. Sheesh. Dan Orvlowsky? What the hell was Houston thinking??? Seriously.

How often do we think Angelo uses this tactic? I can think of 4 examples: Airese Currie, Dan Bazuin, Michael Okwo, and Dusty Dvoracek. The first 3 we thought we'd hoped would develop. They sucked. Dvoracek I think was a numbers issue. We had Tank, Tommie, Idonije, Ian Scott, and Alfonso Boone. I would say this worked with him. He looked like a beast at times. His only problem was staying healthy. Are there other guys we've done this with that I'm forgetting? It is weird how we moved Melton around. We played him at DT some. Either way, it he's not good enough to make the team, why not hide him for a year?

Do we really need another bad/developing WR??? The biggest shock IMO is no Marcus Freeman. Being a 5th round pick I thought we'd at least make him a ps player.