CrackerDog

I also forgot to mention she's tainted by being a former Packer too.

My biggest worry is that nfoligno is starting to make sense. Seriously, I'll just second his post. If the line can't protect Gross/ton than we're going to get killed in week one. Anyone happen to notice who will be lining up opposite our LT that week? A demoralizing loss where our QB gets his ass kicked (or injured) that early in the season would be the start of the spiral. #2 is the injury bug biting the defense. If Urlacher and Mike Brown can stay close to 100% all season at their ages and with Brown's history, I'd be pleasantly surprised. If the line gels and we stay reasonably healthy, this team wins 10 games and we're in the playoffs. If not, we lose 10 games.

Glenn is a bigger sissy than Bradley! His own coach called him "she"! PASS.

I don't think Olin is back in camp yet. A fumbled snap this early in camp is meaningless. The only reason people are fixated on it is because of Rex's history. By the way, ESPN Radio reported Kyle fumbled and threw two picks within 4 or 5 plays from scrimmage today. He had a really bad day today. Of course, if I'm keeping this straight, he was working with the #2's today.

Precisely. He and the Bears got together and made the decision it would look better if he were in camp, even if he wasn't practicing. His hammy is as hurt as mine. He'll heal when the ink on his new deal dries. And that isn't me slamming him, this is a wise move by both parties. And it suggests that things are moving in the right direction. I just hope the Bears don't cave to him too badly. I really see this as a deal that could go south very quickly.

I agree. And from what I heard, that's a $3 to $4 million number per season. So now you're FOR an incentive type contract? OK, glad you've come around to where I started like 237 posts ago. I agree with this also. Did you take smart pills or something? I like it. Probably combine the big bonus in 2010 with year to year roster bonuses before and after such that if he gets hurt or declines they won't get paid. He's protected because the Bears will need to cut him and let him be a free agent to chase a deal elsewhere. These probably step up in amount over time. If he makes it at WR, he'll be worth every penny. If not, the Bears can look at their individual cap circumstances each year to determine if they can afford to have a luxury player like Hester (only returning kicks) on the team.

Man, I can't believe some of you guys have thousands of posts here already. I've been MIA for a while with personal issues to sort out. Not home free yet either but the new season got me back here. I had a bazillion posts on the old site and now I look like a chump breaking Nfo's balls. Ah well... I'll catch up someday.

Crackpot? Who you callin' CRACKPOT!?!?! That hurt my feelings NFO. I think you owe me and the whole board an apology... BWAAAAAAAAAAAA HA HA HAHA HAHA HA HA HA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1111111111111111 Meanie.

I don't know. Berrian is probably a bad example anyway since he's a true #2 getting #1 money from a team desperate to add WR help. I will say my guess is we'd get offered more for Hester in a trade than we'd get offered for Berrian which says the same thing you're saying, Hester is worth a lot to this team. But whoever got him either as a free agent or via trade would face the same dilemma JA faces today. And I don't know how you balance it out. All of those other positions making more these days actually kinda makes my point... you've got to pay those dudes! How can you do all of that and still have a guy like Hester eating up a ton of cap space while not playing a position that traditionally gets that kind of money? How can you invest that much in a position that's considered very high risk? There's a reason those jobs are usually held by guys who aren't that important to the team...

Yep. Particularly in this case since the guy is friggen SIX SEVEN - TWO SIXTY! No reason he can't block other than technique and wanna. I can forgive the technique part as he may not have been involved enough in college. This is a coaching issue and I'd expect he'd learn plenty to become solid during this camp. I mean, all you need to know is how to bend your knees at the correct angle, position your shoulders and shove as hard as you can. Or dive at a guy's legs. TE blocking isn't exactly an art form! I can't forgive a lack of motivation. Nor would the coaches.

Probably has some paperwork with JA and his agent to fill out.

I'm a fan. As a fan, I agree with you 100%. Unfortunately, as a GM, JA can't afford to think that way. He won't draw double coverage unless he can prove he's capable of running the correct routes and making the right adjustments. He's not proven that to me and I don't know if he's got the smarts for it. Of course, he's only got 1 year as a WR under his belt, actually less, and WR's typically take two full seasons to learn their craft. So, we should know more at the end of the year. All of our guys besides Booker are working off their rookie contracts. They're cheap because they're young and haven't proven anything. Hester hasn't proven anything at WR either, IMO. When/if they do prove themselves, the Bears will pay them more. They gave a lot of coin to Moose so it isn't like they don't understand the value of the position (although we can all agree he wasn't what we paid for.) You can't spend our WR money on Hester assuming we'll always have cheap WR's. If he doesn't develop or he gets hurt, we're screwed. Me too. But as to Hester, he ain't getting paid by "someone" not named McCaskey for at least three more seasons. That's just a fact of how the NFL draft and the franchise tag works. He has zero leverage outside of crying to the papers every day and frankly, that'd get old pretty quick and the press would stop giving him a microphone after a short while. Bears fans love the team, not one player. So, he isn't going anywhere and he and his agent realized that, it appears. His butt is in camp where it belongs. The fair thing to do is to structure a deal that makes him wealthier when/if he produces.

How about Boldin and Kurt Warner for Hester? Boldin wants out of AZ and Warner still has enough that he could be our starter if/when we become unhappy with our current options. Hester is honestly worth all of Boldin/Warner and a 1rst round draft pick but I doubt anyone would give up that much. Frankly, I hope we can keep Hester happy with whatever deal JA comes up with and Kyle/Rex develop along with some of the young WR's we've got on the team now. Best case scenario, we don't have to trade him. I really love watching this guy play football!

OMG... Remember how some of the folks here went on and on about Hester? Sheesh. JA was killed for that pick and now some of the same folks are killing him for not signing him to a 50 year deal worth TEN BAGILLION DOLLARS. OMGZZZZZZZZZZ!!!!!! I found this on Kellen Davis. http://www.nfldraftcountdown.com/scoutingr...ellendavis.html All it says is he has character issues but doesn't spell it out. If anyone has the details please post. I don't mind rooting for a guy who got caught with a joint when he was a freshman but if there is something of real concern here, I'd like to know.

Wow. Strong statement! The only concern with this guy was character, correct? He slid because of something he'd done? Hopefully he can keep his nose clean.

Which is simply incorrect if you know anything about how the team is forced to slice up the cap money. He isn't as valuable as a #1/#2 WR. Period. His position dictates that. You can argue all day long that the field position makes him as valuable to the team but the reality is, it doesn't work that way. Glad we see eye to eye on his current value. I didn't misunderstand, you didn't make yourself very clear. PS. Learn to use the QUOTE button you dope.

He's in two plays from this footage of yesterday's practice and he really stands out as being BIG and looks like he's got some speed too. Maybe another steal? Wonder if he can run block?

Yep. Well said. And I'll just add that Brad was there on the day Orton was working with the #1 offense while Rex was with the #2's. Unless they enact a new rule whereby every team has to have at least one female player... In which case, we'll just keep Bradley.

I assume that post is from KFFL by the formatting. If so, they're reporting something I believe I heard Clayton say on ESPN yesterday morning on Mike & Mike. If that's the case and there isn't something more recent where he made a stronger statement, his comments yesterday weren't as direct as KFFL is making it sound. His comments yesterday were along the lines of he would put Orton down as #1 right now for the factors stated by a few above. He didn't really say he felt really strongly that the Bears saw it that way which is kinda implied in the KFFL short. Like many here, I think it's a complete crapshoot. And I'm not going to guess or even root one way or the other. I just hope that everyone agrees when the decision is made that the winner really won the job. I hope one of them stands out so much that the choice is easy. It'll make life around here a lot easier.

Actually, I used my Blackberry. I'm really liking it. It was easy to ignore Mike North and just become a Mike & Mike listener but these guys are good and they talk Bears all the time! Probably. Nate Vasher got that lesson. Once you show the inmates they don't run the prison, you have some level of discipline. Plus, JA has said all the right things about recognizing it needs to be addressed. I think they'll get something done that puts a few extra bucks in his pocket at a minimum for this season with the promise that they'll tear up his contract for next year and get a longer deal done. Or they'll do something with incentives as I mentioned yesterday. The problem is the cap. Think about the entire amount of money you have to spend as this line: ******************** Most teams spend it like this: Offense: ********* Defense ********* ST ** If you need to take a big chunk from O or D and put it into ST, you don't have the money you need to pay that rookie QB we'll sign next season, Forte if he turns into a stud, Rex or Kyle if they really pan out this year and take the next step, etc etc etc... You can't play it for just this year. You've got to look at the long term impact of what you do. So, if Hester turns into a #2 WR he gets another $4 million bonus. If he turns into a #1 WR he gets $4 million more. Something like that. I know NFO makes a good point about what he contributes given our offensive problems but you can't just look at this and resign yourself to being mediocre on O forever. If you hand a ST's guy a big check, even the potentially best ever ST's guy of all time, you're hurting the team elsewhere. So, his agent and he need to come to that understanding and JA needs to hold to his guns or the cap will be messed up for a long time. And let's not forget, playing ST isn't exactly great for your health. We could cut him a big signing bonus and his career could end in week 1 this season. We'd need to cut players and not resign some of our own who panned out just because of the cap hit a career ending injury would cause in this case. This is yet another reason roster/incentive bonuses make sense here. Like I've said, it'll be fun to see how this one comes together. Glad it ain't me making the decisions.

You're right Pix. The Bears will need to watch the cap cuts and get someone with the ability to float in and out at the various positions in the O Line. Olin having issues this early combined with the kid being hurt makes me worry and it's only July. The O Line was my major concern last season and now the things they've done to address it aren't looking like enough. If Rex/Kyle have significant pressure, they'll suck. Our running game with go down the toilet. Season over before it started.

Ha. I was in the car when I heard. Got out and bought my coffee and decided to see if anyone had posted it yet. Used my Blackberry which works surprisingly well for this site! Beat Brad by seconds, it appears. It'll be interesting to hear WHY he's back.

Heard on Score a minute ago.

I just heard Lovie on the Score and he didn't sound as positive as JA did. We'll obviously need to watch this one closely.

I agree. Although, Palmer at QB makes Chad what he is. Gross/ton still needs to prove that having good WR's on this team isn't like putting earrings on a pig.