Lucky Luciano

peanut is what he is... a decent #2 CB and certainly not a pro-bowl caliber corner. if he would have been moved to free safety 6-7 years ago he would have been an all-world, all-pro player at that position. this coaching staff, for whatever reason, just never saw this and kept him at the position we initially drafted him to do even though the NFL changed. peanut was drafted and put into service as a larger corner who could play tight coverage on the bigger (and usually slower) receivers in our division like moss and the big receivers from green bay (can't think of their names at the moment). this he did very well until the NFL started going with the smaller, faster and quicker WR's which peanut just does not have the speed to cover off the LOS. the differences between last week and this week are prime examples of his strengths and weaknesses. if he can physically run with the receivers he can play up and bump-and-run man coverage and do very well. if not you will see exactly what you saw yesterday with a quick/fast receiver. he will drop back 4-8 yards off the LOS and backpeddle at the snap trying to contain in which you eventually get eaten alive or give up the 5-10 yard easy reception that opposing qb's have done to us for years. that is why the safety help from conte yesterday was critical to stop jackson and the rookie just did not have the experience or speed to do so. conclusion: it's not peanut, it is our coaching staff that has failed to adjust correctly in this aspect for years on end.

i am going to agree with jason. this team needs to draft GOOD offensive linemen early and often. every time this team has a couple of good games (which can't even be said for our OL in this game) we think we are set for a decade. as i have stated in the past you have to draft for the future when quarterbacks or offensive linemen are thrown into the equation. it usually takes 2-3 years for an offensive lineman to get up to speed in the NFL. to top this off, we are using max protection on many sets and even that is not working consistently to give cutler the needed protection. even IF any of our players turn out to be pro-bowl players how can it hurt to hedge our bet by drafting quality linemen? if a newly drafted player is better than what we got, who cares who starts as long as it's a quality player. this also gives us trade bait if we have a glut of excellent linemen. it's a fact, the most important position on this team is quarterback and we finally have a qb who i believe could win us multiple superbowls if kept healthy. so how can drafting good offensive linemen not be a priority? if nothing else look at the packers. they try to draft quality linemen in nearly every draft and it shows. GUARD: to say spenser is a long term solution at guard or center is a huge stretch. even our other guards, lance louis and chris williams, have not shown consistency to the point that you don't cover these positions with good draft picks. at the least we need to draft one very good first day pick at guard. TACKLE: web certainly can't be penciled in or considered even in the top 20 left tackles in the NFL. so to draft a potential LT should be a priority. at right tackle? although carimi has potential we again haven't seen enough of him due to injury to make any definite decisions that are set in stone. hell, it's even possible that carimi could be given a shot at LT since he played that in college. in any case drafting a good tackle should still be a top priority. CENTER: although garza has been a decent replacement at center he is certainly not a pro-bowl caliber center. add to this his age and a replacement at center is absolutely warranted by drafting a player to take over in the near future. DEPTH: this is virtually nonexistent.

1. have i ever said that an air coryell offense is the only passing system that i would want to be implemented in chicago? no. do i believe that that type of offense or a variation of it would work in chicago with a good OC and good player personnel? yes. for some unknown reason chicago fans believe that the only type of football that will work in chicago when it gets below freezing is a running pound the ground offense. this couldn't be more untrue. 2. would game plan adjustments have to be made in a high wire passing offense due to some week by week weather conditions that occur in winter months? absolutely. but to discount a passing offense altogether because we play in chicago in a cold environment is nonsense. first of all the entire NFL is now geared for a passing game due to rule changes and not to do so leads to a great disadvantage that i don't believe can be overcome if your goal is to win multiple superbowls. second, there are some pretty proficient passers and pass oriented offenses that made careers in cold weather venues. here are a few... johnny unitis - baltimore; bart starr - green bay; brett favre - green bay; aaron rogers - green bay; terry bradshaw - pittsburgh; jim kelly - buffalo; fran tarkington - minnesota; ken anderson - cincinnati; boomer esiason - cincinnati; bernie kosar - cleveland; john elway - denver; len dawson - kansas city; drew bledsoe - new england; tom brady - new england; phil simms - NYG; eli manning - NYG; joe namath - NYJ; ron jaworski - philidelphia; donovan mcnabb - philidelphia; sonny jurgenson - washington; joe theismann - washington; i can't think of a single instance where any player in the nfl does not want to succeed. it IS the coaches job to see that they are all on the same page and striving to achieve the same goal in a professional manner. that is what he gets paid for. BUT... it is also his job to see that the goal he sets for his players is attainable and reasonable and to put each player, in relation to the whole, in a position he can achieve this goal either physically or mentally. in other words if he doesn't have the player talent to run the system he wants or a key player in that system gets injured he HAS to be able to adjust his scheme/goals to fit the situation. he ALSO has to be able to adjust or revise the scheme he is implementing if it just plain does not work well enough to win or give the team it's BEST chance to win even if he HAS the players to run it. this holds true either during a particular game (game-day adjustments) or the overall way his system works (the cover 2 style of defense in lovie's case) during a season. mentoring or coaching players to transition into the nfl from college and even take existing veterans and improve their mental skills and technique is very important for a coach. i just do not see any significant improvement this coaching staff has done to many, if any, players on this roster over an 8 year period. in many instances i see a regression in their performance if by nothing else than placing them in positions on the field that might not be their best position to play at their highest level. for instance... we play strong safeties at free safety, we play free safeties at strong safety, we transition defensive linemen from tackle to end and back again. on offense we move guards to center, centers to guard, experienced guards on the left to the right and right guards to the left. we move tackles to guard, switch sides that they have experience with and on and on and on. john tait should be the poster boy on this. we took a very good right tackle and paid him a PREMIUM price and moved him to left tackle where he was average to mediocre throughout his career in chicago. next... it is extremely important for a head coach each week to be able to focus his coordinators on not only the other teams strengths and weaknesses but importantly your own and make a gameplan on how to attack your opponent on both sides of the ball. he must understand the game day failings each week and find real solutions to correct them or at the least minimize them. yet we see the same problems crop up week after week in real game situations. in some instances we see it take 2-3 (or more) actual games to adjust to items that should have been in-game adjustments corrected on the fly. with the quality number of players on that team he should have won at LEAST two superbowls. he had HOF, all-pro, pro-bowl players on both sides of the ball in abundance. yet his stubborness, poor coaching and lack of vision squandered maybe the best all around team talent in the history of the modern NFL. if that’s not enough, look at what he did in new orleans. that should say it all. 1. the best coach of all time is not possible for me to determine. it leads back into era’s I know little about and never watched. but… the best ‘head’ coach in the modern era of football to me (as much as I hate to say it) was probably bill walsh. here are some coaches I consider very good to excellent… vince lombardi, john madden, joe gibbs, bill belichick, marv levy, maybe hank stram, tom landry, and (as much as I hate to say it) don shula with the dolphins and certainly NOT with the colts, honerable mention: chuck noll, jimmy johnson, mike shanahan, bill cowher, jeff fisher, bill parcells EDIT: after thinking about it i had to include mike holmgren in this list if you subtract his stint as a GM/coach. he was a very good coach and could put together some excellent coaching personnel under him. of note: george halas. his coaching was mostly before my time although he did win a world championship prior to the superbowl era in 1963. in my opinion he would ‘mostly’ fall into the era prior to the modern NFL era and could be considered maybe the best of all time by others smarter or older than me in that category. 2. “Toub would make a great OC plain and simple” well I guess that is your opinion and you are more than entitled to it. I will just have to strongly disagree as to how anyone without any offensive coaching experience would make a great OC in the NFL. 3. I would “rather have” a new, good, head coach who could help in the choosing of that position along with our new GM. as far as the availability is concerned, if we as a franchise never see the quality in existing coaches to be hired in the marketplace but continue to hire the cheap, never been there or done that type of coaches they will NEVER be available.

a pass oriented offense is “Not a Bears trait”? by that do you mean we should basically be a run oriented team with a strong defense? if so that is the mindset this franchise has had for nearly 50 years and it has failed miserably. yes, you do need good defenses but anyone who believes that multiple superbowl wins will result from a run oriented offense is clearly wrong and especially in this day and age. I understand the cover 2 system does not run this set exclusively (more like 30-40+% of the time). I have gone over this with other posters in the past years in regards to the importance of key defensive players that are needed to make this system work at ALL and in truth we don’t even come close to implimenting it with the talent we have. 1. you need at least one good bump and run cover corner when running the cover 2 and the variations involved. if you don’t believe that then look at the tampa system with their all-pro/pro-bowl caliber CB ronde barber. he was a great cover man right off the LOS whether playing man coverage or running the cover 2. add donnie abraham a one time pro-bowl caliber player and that is pretty good company. compare that to anything we fielded since lovie arrived. bump and run coverage? hell, in our system we play/played our CB’s so far off the LOS it was a free-zone for any qb to get a sure uncontested reception. for whatever reason people believe that you don’t need to be able to cover man in this zone type of scheme which is total nonsense. this is one reason I have been pushing to pick up players like charles woodson a number of years ago and this asumga (sp?) corner more recently. 2. you need at least one very good safety. think of john lynch. since mike brown’s injury riddled final seasons here we haven’t even been close to fielding one and it shows. 3. you need at least ONE killer DT to collapse the pocket with CONSISTANCY and give the qb nowhere to step up. throw in a pretty good tackle in mcfarland EDIT: along with sapp and compare it to what we have fielded since tommy harris started falling apart. 4. you need at least 1 very good DE to rush the passer. rice in tampa fit that bill. we had nothing to compare during lovie’s tenure here before pepperman. 5. linebackers… here we can compare with tampa’s hardy nickerson and derrick brooks. sounds like you need a lot of very good players to make a cover 2 work? the answer is yes. we have never had half of the key players together at one time with the quality to impliment it correcty or efficiently. to top this off the cover 2 system has been figured out for years. it is not a mystery to offensive coordinators around the league yet we continue to draft and acquire players through free agency to run a poor man’s version of this which does not work. huh? players decide their own destiny and coaches coach? what the hell does that mean? lovie is mentoring? in what way? who has lovie made a better player through mentoring? daniel manning a safety who we let go when we are desperate to field one? urlacher and others thinks he connects with the players on some level? who cares? so did jauron. I want someone who can coach players to be better at what they do on the field. whether blasphomy or not, I don’t believe ditka was a good coach so most of what he says I take with a grain of salt. unless you believe the angelo, lovie, martz system should continue every single year you delay just prolongs the inevitable by 1-2 years. lovie and angelo are lame ducks and should have been fired at least 2 years ago. in fact read the post from me to you on feb. 27th 2011: http://www.talkbears.com/forums/index.php?...amp;#entry89366 that pretty much sums up the problems we face for player needs in our near future with the exception of POSSIBLY T gabe carimi, DT paea and FB cluttz (sp?) not even counting the quality depth we surely don’t have. are you serious? you want to make someone our OC who’s ONLY qualification is that he is “innovative” on special teams with absolutely no experience on the offensive side of the ball at all? even as a head coach there is no possible way he will succeed without very good coordinators. final note: I just want to add that some of the reasons for toub’s success in the nfl in chicago is due to an idiot GM who drafts are almost exclusively special team talent at best. add to that he actually aquired some top special team players in free agency like hurd and (can’t think of his name) the linebacker who went I believe to the ravens.

i have to disagree (i know, not a surprise but i have to call em like i see em). a "do-over" is very much needed and before this team again becomes a serious challenger to WIN a superbowl it is going to have to happen. this team IS like the lions of the past and maybe worse whether anyone wants to admit it or not. we need to burn it down and start over from the ashes. an identity crisis does not explain the near complete lack of quality starters and the complete lack of depth at any position. it does not explain the incompetence of a GM and his entire staff which caused this mess by poor drafts for TEN years and his poor choices in coaching hires. it does not explain the poor quality of the coaches that run antiquated systems that are incapable of making not only game-day changes but any serious changes at all on both sides of the ball to be more competetive for EIGHT years. this starts right at the very top of this system where the people, mccaskey's, have almost no understanding of how to run a successful franchise. if they did, would ted phillips have had a job as president of football operations for THIRTEEN years? really??? also to me, ownership is not a "right" or "privilege" whether it be a democracy or not. there are no requirements or standards for whether you will be a good owner of a franchise or not. it is just someone having enough money or luck by birth to buy into a mega corporation called the NFL. lovie smith is an unmarked dead-end road that drops 200 feet off a cliff into a quarry. the best you will ever get out of him is the road we have seen already and to me that isn't even CLOSE to enough. there are no mystery issues of wait a year or even another eight. he has nearly ' 0 ' concept on how to evaluate and adjust an offense. don't you think that is strange even for someone who is defense oriented after eight years? he has played nearly the same defensive scheme since the day he arrived no matter what the personel he is forced to work with when the entire WORLD knows how to beat it and has for a DECADE. we have to be the easiest team in the NFL for the past 6-8 years to game plan against. the cover 2 as we run it with the personel we run it with DOES NOT WORK!! he is stubborn to a fault. if possible he only hires or supports coaches that he worked with before, whether they do a good job or not, and fires the ones that differ from his philosophy or are used as scapegoats to protect his job. do the players like him? probably. but who is running this circus? it's lovie's job to win superbowls, not be every man's best friend. does he need to go now (it should have been 3 years ago at the least)? the answer is YES. there are at least 2 very good coaches on the sidelines that are better coaches by far than what we have. so it's not like just firing one coach without a clue who we could replace him with. if angelo keeps his job for any reason look for a long bare winter for the next 5+ years. quite frankly i don't know what it takes to get fired in this organization (a large guaranteed salary?). it seems the more you fail the more they try to keep you. look at phillips, angelo and lovie. it's a complete catastrophe yet they keep on giving them the support as long as they have to pay out big contracts. as it stands right now we are 3-5 years away from a superbowl WIN if we start a total rebuild right now and actually hire a competent GM and staff and have drafts we can accumulate good players with. this and a GOOD new coaching staff. every year we keep these eunuchs around we are 2 years further than the time it takes to build a good team away from winning a superbowl. on a final note... i hear everyone asking for toub to become either the OC or even HC. why?? he has absolutely no experience at either. other than strength and conditioning coach and special teams coach in the NFL the ONLY coaching experience he has was with university of missouri where he was a defensive line coach for three years. that's it. i don't see how he has even close to enough experience to run an offense as an OC and would need some very good coaching talent under him to run a team if he were HC. kind of like what we have now?

i will agree on firing everybody but i am not so sure about gruden. at one time, in oakland, i liked gruden a lot. but after watching him in tampa i am not so sure. watching him on monday night football has done nothing to temper that feeling that something in his head is rolling around unattached. it's almost like he is trying to live up to the 'chucky' hype that came from oakland. i don't know if it's an act or he IS just crazy. me? i go for jeff fisher or bill cowher and hire a new GM that can actually evaluate the information he gets from scouts to draft real football players. even better, give teddy boy a new job description... mike mccaskey's personal deep massage therapist, and send him packing. i would hire a competent president of football operations and let him hire a GM and put the cowher and fisher suggestions out there for him to choose his coaching staffs from.

first quarter report card on the bears by dan durkin... http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2011/10/05/dur...er-report-card/ i sure can't argue with much of it although i would have liked to see a report card on our coaching staff and front office. but then i guess there is just so much misery you can put in one story.

jeff fisher or cowher would be my choice and also NOT have these guys play the GM role. it just doesn't work 90% of the time and they do a bad job at both. holmgren is the perfect example. 1. fire phillips, get a football minded president of football operations instead of a freakin bean counter. let him find a REAL gm without having to hire some firm to take 6 months to come up with the likes of angelo. give him complete control of the football side of the equation with no say from the dumbest group of owners in professional sports. 2. fire angelo and bring in a real gm and the staff that goes with it that can actually DRAFT football players. 3. fire lovie and company and hire bill cowher or jeff fisher. both have coaching credentials, can put together talented staffs, understand what talent really looks like, and can freaking coach players who have talent to be better players. 4. steal the scouts from the packers by promising them the moon.

ted phillips is the FIRST person that needs to be fired. this is his afterbirth (or in reality mikey's) we have been watching for the last 10 years. then kick angie to the curb like a sack of seeping sewage. where else but mccaskey's chicago does a person who knows virtually nothing about the job he does is made the president of that division for over 10 freaking years and showcases the results we see every week!!!??

i think the major focus here is that sooner or later (or never if you are jerry angelo) you need to draft good ball players for the FUTURE. players that will take time to develop their potential so you don't HAVE to throw them into the fire right away. the only problem we have with that scenario is the talent these rookies (even IF we had them) need to replace is even worse than a good rookie starting on day one because we have NEVER drafted even average talent to take this into account!!!!! "we have faith in them"? "we trained them"? you can teach a dog to fetch too but i wouldn't have any faith in him learning to fly no matter how much we trained him. "you want those five guys the same week-in and week-out"? well let's see angie, you want them even if the quality of their talent wouldn't land them a freakin job in the canadian football league as a depth backup? "they don't have to be the best players"? hmmmm... as long as they "know each other the best on the field"? you simplistic moron. they at LEAST have to be average talented players to start with. if you can't even see this reality from past years performances you are completely worthless to us as a GM.

not sure what wbbm carries on game day but here is the link: http://chicago.cbslocal.com/station/670-the-score/

i will agree with the statement "chronic" relating to our offensive line problems. we ran the linemen finks drafted as long as possible and replaced them with some 'decent' players or at least average players who most did nothing to distinguish themselves. some very poor choices by our fearless leader mikey. but if you thought we were bad before, our REAL problems started when angelo took control of the reins as our GM. didn't they have a fair line in '99-2000 with a young brockermeyer, who was fair to good, and big cat at tackle? the guards were vilarale who in my opinion was an above average guard on the right side and todd perry who seemed to have injury problems on the left with kreutz at center. they had some decent depth with wiegeman at G/C, and rex tucker at G but were weak for depth at T. in 2001 they got rid of perry and went with tucker at LG and wiegeman a pretty good player also was gone. brokenmeyer was injured (i don't remember)? their depth all around on the offensive line was poor with an aging big cat. this was the beginning of the angelo dynasty. by 2002 it was a catastrophe. at tackle brokenmeyer was gone. we drafted columbo who was promptly injured after 5 games at LT (playing out of position?), and replaced by bernard robinson (a 5th rd pick in 2001) and big cat was getting up there in age at 34. at left guard angelo must have gotten rid of perry and he was replaced by tucker who was always injured who was replaced by gandy (a 2001 3rd round pick), and kevin dogins a ham and egger from the bucs. this was the year the mighty metcalf was drafted in rd. 3. by 2003 we fielded gandy at LT, 2002 undrafted steve edwards at LG, kreutz, vilarrial at RG, got rid of big cat and replaced him with the always great aaron gibson at RT. our depth was horrendous with metcalf, rookie josh warner G/C (another walk-on), scott sanderson T, rookie q. mitchell (another walk-on?) at G/T and corbin lacina G. great talent you put together there angelo. 2004 - 2011 the mess just goes on and gets even worse.

who have i taken to the woodshed other than jerry angelo? i just see our GM spouting nonsense and it does piss me off. but even that said it is truly legitimate to ask if he is an idiot (at least in a football sense), in my opinion, when i see the same exact problems year after year after year and the same solutions to these REAL problems ignored or made worse by him it seems to me a logical conclusion there is something very, very wrong in our front office. this stuff ain't rocket science. i can't emphasize enough that a healthy franchise is built THROUGH the draft and not in free agency especially in this day and age of the salary cap. a good GM has to be able to see this and draft not just for the immediate but for the future with players that will take time to develop at certain positions like the offensive line and quarterback specifically. the offensive line is like no other position in football because it relates not just to wins/losses but to the health of this key player in your franchise. so starting rookies or questionable talented players is extremely dangerous for the health, not only physical but mental health of your quarterback. thus it directly relates to whether you win superbowls or just make it to the wild card spot or less each year. that leads us to the now... we have paid a great amount of value to get a 'supposed' franchise QB and to risk his permanent health the way this team does is not sensible in any shape or form. this should be the key importance that is on a GM's mind from the moment he made this transaction, yet he seems to believe he has done enough to get our offense in a superbowl run and the protection of this most important player on the entire team seems like an afterthought to angelo. now, you asked about what i like about this season. the only answer i can give you is i like the prospects of our defensive line. i feel fairly comfortable with our linebackers. i think url has a year or three left and briggs plays lights out. i like what we have done with our runningback situation over the offseason. i believe we have made it stronger than last season but again with reservations that depend upon our offensive line to be even average. now having said that it brings me full circle with our problems stemming from the front office. every strength on this team is NOT due to angelo's drafts. it comes from free agency or someone he has not drafted himself (briggs exception) which as good as he seems to have been at times in this area it shouldn't be needed as a crutch for bad drafts. if that was not your intent then i apologize. it seemed to me that the correlation i referred to was being rebuffed by you to question my team loyalty which i have seen on this board numerous times and if you want a pissing contest just state something like that and i will see red. in truth the point i was trying to make was that people, even fans of any particular team, don't remember the losers of particular seasons or much about them. case in point, how many bear fans if you asked them would even know that we made the playoffs in 1977 and 1979? or why we didn't go further than we did in those respective seasons? what you do remember is the superbowl winners. you remember the steelers winning multiple superbowls in the 70's, you remember the dolphins doing the same, and even the raiders. the 49ers of the 80's or the more recent pats. nobody remembers the losers as much or even at all as a winner. case in point... ask anyone about the 85 superbowl no matter what team he is a fan of. even if he wasn't born at the time he should be able to give you information about them to at least a limited amount. ask the same person to give you information on the 79 bears or any other team that didn't go to or win the superbowl that year.

i don't know... you tell me what it makes me. if you don't GET the point, fine, just ask but don't give me that nonsense bull$#!& LOVE EM OR LEAVE EM or imply someone is not a fan who doesn't fall into lock step with poor management practices.

isn't the point of all of this that if angelo could draft anyone with talent we wouldn't have to pick up these types of players and hope for the brass ring year after year? angelo has drafted FIFTEEN defensive linemen in 11 years and not a single one is even a starter on this team!!! by the way, brady was a 6th round pick. actually this is the top of the mountain of my critique of angelo. within 4-5 years we will have absolutely nobody we have drafted to replace anyone on this team as it stands right now. on offense we have no young prospect for any guard position OR left tackle at all. we have no prospect for a #1 receiver. we just traded away our first round TE who was the only one with any chance of being a pro-bowl caliber player. on defense we need 2 cornerbacks, MAYBE 2 safeties, 3 linebackers, 2 probable defensive ends, and unknown at defensive tackle. this is not a half empty glass scenario. this is the reality as to how this franchise has not drafted quality players for over 10 years to fill our roster as starters. finally, let me say this... close to me is meaningless. ask any fan, especially non-bear fans, what they thought of the 77 bears, the 79 bears, 86 bears, the 87 bears, etc. etc.

well, what do you call someone who faces the same problems every single year for 11 years and fails to even see what is plain to any layman, let alone nfl expert, and does nothing to correct the problem? someone who makes the same mistakes every year and still expects different results? insane? i call them stupid but if you prefer insane i can live with that.

do you think maybe there is a 99% valid reason why people criticize him? let me ask you to define your definition of the duties or job description of an NFL GM. here are mine: 1. he has to find and hire the best coaches. this is paramount in how well your franchise will perform. let's look at how he has done... he extended dick jauron's contract when it was completely unnecessary. he extended the contract of maybe the worst offensive coordinator in the history of the NFL in john shoop. he fumbled the hiring of chris sabin and finally hired a coach in lovie smith who wasn't even stellar in what he did in the nfl. smith had no idea how to even give input into an offense let alone decide who should be hired. a coach who was unbending in his philosophy on defense whether is works or not. someone who DOES hire and promote cronies instead of qualified personel and sticks by them to a fault JUST like jauron did who he just fired. on top of all this angelo extends HIS contract when it was unnecessary also and we are stuck paying a lame duck coach enough money that the owners won't cut him loose when the president, gm and head coach all should have been fired for gross incompetence. he hires shay another candidate for the worst offensive coordinator in NFL history. he then fires him and hires someone who has failed in the worst way in the college ranks as an OC. in the mean time he fires a DC who actually is doing his job well to replace him with someone who is a crony of his HC who is one of the worst DC's ever hired in chicago and keeps him around for 2 years before demoting him. then hires another OC crony of his HC who nobody else in the NFL will give a contract to in martz. will that turn out? who knows. it nearly got our franchise qb killed last season. 2. he has to be able to draft successfully and especially in the first 3 rounds. of the 26 picks that he actually made and didn't trade away in rounds 1-3 there is 2 penciled in quality starters (who are on their last leg in the NFL) in tillman and briggs. i could possibly give you forte so that would make 3? so, in 10 years (not counting this draft) that is IT!!! that is not bad, that is pathetic!!! now you say, but what about the other 53 picks in rounds 4-7? i can't think of a single quality starting player on this entire team he drafted in these rounds that are here and starting. if a GM can't draft even average starting players over TEN YEARS that is failure in the first degree. why do you think we have so many free agents on this roster? wouldn't it be fantastic to just have to worry about resigning good starting players we drafted or drafting short to long term replacements for quality players we already have? so yea... whatever.

not half as useless as a reply like this.

not to be facetious, but progressively better than what? we gave up 52 sacks last season!!! if everyone thinks tice is such a genious by getting the most out of the worst talent in the nfl to rank an offensive line at the bottom of the league then think what he could have done with even AVERAGE talent to work with. even just starting training camp can you possibly believe that without an unlooked for miracle this offensive line could possibly rank in the top 10 by seasons end?

Dan Pompei On the NFL 9:26 p.m. CDT, August 8, 2011 Chicago Tribune - http://www.chicagotribune.com/site/newspap...,6161371.column this is why our GM should have been fired 4-5 years ago and we are in the position we are in now in regards to this 'offensive' line. by neglecting the draft for quality offensive linemen over the last 10 years he has put this club behind the 8-ball with this mind-set. every player he mentions, except tait (who in their collective wisdom they played a very good player out of position nearly his entire time in chicago and wasted his career), was a stop-gap short term player who you bring in when you do have GOOD young linemen you are grooming to become quality starters or a young quality starter that may have been injured. what "young guys" is he talking about bringing along? walkons and 7th round draft picks? does he really think tice or any coach in the history of nfl football can turn players without quality talent into HOF players? before it was marinelli and now it's tice's turn to make up for angies lack of expertise as a GM. they are "unknown" for the most part, you idiot, because it is HIGHLY unlikely they will turn into very good players. the league, INCLUDING you, have passed on drafting them high or even drafting them at all because they looked the least likely to succeed because of limited talent or physical attributes. no angie, WE didn't make our bed, YOU did!!! you bet the farm on a quality free agent quarterback, that i might add you couldn't find one to draft, and surround him in a system not just to fail, but to physically end his career in the nfl!! then you state "you can't have stars at every position"???? are you completely nuts? in an nfl GEARED to give the offense every advantage in the rules they play by YOU fail to even give this team the basics to succeed. by poor drafting at every single position, offense AND defense, over your tenure in chicago. the only quality players left to give this franchise a flying chance is to bring in free agents to make up for your failure. it is a lose, lose situation. you not only don't have the ability to cure it but to even REALIZE what is wrong!!

hmmm... the seahawks think max unger is a better option at center than spencer? yea, me too. too bad jerry angelo didn't just draft max unger like he SHOULD have in 2009 in the 2nd round instead of *trading out for the all amazing 3rd round pick jarron gilbert (where is he now again? oh, that's right, we already CUT him) and 4th round pick henry melton who can't beat out idonije. seems we would have a pretty good center for the next 10 years. *the seahawks drafted max unger with OUR pick.

sounds kinda like an iffy pickup... some interesting fan comments: http://network.yardbarker.com/nfl/article_...ob_bell/5817961 then again, he just might fit in LOL!!

toub and maynard infighting? http://espn.go.com/blog/nfcnorth/post/_/id...bears-dave-toub

we don't need to go any further than this. QB was a HUGE need at this time and getting a franchise qb instead of hester along with the two first round picks we gave up to get him later there is no doubt about it. whether the clowns we had running the offense could have taught cutler anything is another matter.

i'm sorry, but the overall 8th pick in the draft for any special teams player is not a good deal even if we are going to use 20/20 hindsight. if i were using hindsight, as in this case, i would pick a primo qb, de, or cb. a player who is a game changer on every down and not just on change of possession.