Butkus

Exactly...but I can understand Kyle's frustration. Most of us on here are Bears fans through and through and tend to sound negative at times... This team could have done better this year, but could have done worse. Hopefully we will enjoy better days next year!

I think some of them might take paycuts....especially since no one will pay them any more than the Bears will. Urlacher-He is WAY overpaid and not delivering. He has had a big stupid mouth the last couple of years and is not playing like his contract calls for. If he won't take a cut and we don't get crushed with the cap, I say cut him, just like I said before this year started. He woud not be missed. Dvoracek has been hurt every year he has been here, I am assuming he has a hefty contract. If he is cheap, great, he is worth keeping. If not, either cut him or reduce his contract unless he is going to kill the cap. Really, what has he done in the 3 years he has been here except keep the bench warm and look cool in his long hair? Harris-He came on strong but not to the tune of his contract from what I know, although he might not have the contract I think he does as I am not an expert. If he is costing a ton and it does not kill the cap to dump him, DUMP HIM. He is said to have an aged body, has injury issues, and this year had personal issues. If he won't take a cut and we can, dump him before he sits on the team like a big worthless turd for 2/3 of the season like he did this year. Jones=I liked but we did not use him. I don't think he will want to stay anyway with the way he was used this year. Would have been better to give him the carries instead of AP. Kreutz has sucked for the last 2-3 years. He is a dumbass who broke Fred Taylor's jaw and gets steamrolled on running plays IMO. He has to go in the next couple years, this year if there is a viable option. Garza is a great backup....maybe he is not the real problem on the OLine as I know I am not expert enough to know. I just know that Kreutz and Garza seem the most likely candidates for problems due to age and play....

I hear what you are saying, I can only speak for myself in saying that I have seen decisions made that seemed foolish and then watched those decisions not work out and hurt the team, thus the frustration. And when alot of money is paid to players and they do not even come close to warranting their paycheck, that also leads to frustration. There are some real die hard, long term Bears fans on this page who love the Bears and what they stand for. I am one of those, and that passion makes my expectations high sometimes...but that comes with being a real fan IMO. Most of the guys who are talking negative will be the guys going to work tomorrow with their Bears shirts on looking for a fight with a cheeshead or vike that has something to say, lol..... We are angry today, we will be back tomorrow....

So if they are young they are good? Anderson had one good year, Harris had two or three. Harris is known to have injury issues as well as personal issues that resulted in a suspension this year. If we don't dump the guys who are not earning their money, we cannot afford the guys who will....

Some ignorant media types thought we had no chance to make the playoffs, but real Bears fans knew we had a shot but were definitely not a dominant team. I am with you on the concept of not flaming an entire team, and to be honest I will not flame Orton, Forte, and various other members of the team that earned their keep. Who I will flame is overpaid puss$$s like Urlacher who demanded more money in the off season and then played no better than 1/3 their wage! We have a bunch of guys on D, including Url, Tommie Harris, DD, Vasher, etc, who got paid a ton of money this year and sucked! What that means is that the Bears paid those guys like superstars and they did not play that way, so the money, or some of it at least, was wasted on them when it could have been used for legitimate superstars. Lets dump them if they won't reduce their financial demands! We would not be damaged losing any of the players I named, and those very players eat up a bunch of cap money! And dump the Defensive Coach too! We have declined since he arrived! No matter what, GO BEARS!!!

OK, I guess we could keep him then if that is the case....BUT ALL OF THE OVERPAID DEFENSIVE PLAYERS WHO ARE SUCKING UP THE CAP MONEY NEED TO GO!!! How many of these D guys are earning their money? The Bears put all of their money in defense but our D cannot stop anybody! AND GET RID OF THE F$$$$$ DEFENSIVE COACH, AKA BABICH, IMMEDIATELY!

I would love to see Brown stay and be a player/coach. Can you imagine how Chicago would react to Mike Singletary returning to coach the Bears? We need to keep the Bears players/coaches who epitomise the Bears ethos and work ethic at all costs, and MB is one of those guys!

We are not a solid football team. IMO we are solid at QB, RB, but need help at the OLine and WR positions on offence. On D, we need help at the DTackle position and the LB position, and maybe a bit of depth at the safety position. We are paying way too much for has beens on the defense, NAMELY TOMMY HARRIS, BRIAN URLACHER, DUSTY DVORACEK, AND MARK ANDERSON. These players have done next to nothing for us this year, while Anthony Adams and Marcus Harrison have made use of their playing time to look good.... Mike Brown is finished as a player, unfortunately, but I feel we have good prospects with Payne, Manning, and Steltz and good backups. We need more strength in both lines and a game breaking WR for our QB to throw to. Orton is solid and I would not give up on him until he has some decent people to throw to and he fails. We need a better Defensive Coach, and Lovie needs to grow SOME BALLS and tell these players to get off of their overpaid asses and play hard! If he cant do that, I would rather see someone else come in and do the job. BABICH HAS TO GO! If he does not go in the off season, be sure next year will be the same sh#t, because even the best players need a good Defensive coach. This year is likely over, and even if we find our way into the playoffs we will not last long because we are not that good.

Maybe reading is a challenge for you, but if you go back and read through my post again I am suggesting several players either take a pay cut or be cut/traded... And how many of those All-Pro, icons of Bears history would you like to keep? Name some names and I can respond with plenty or reasons to dump them. We are not going to get better by keeping the same players....or do you think we should just go on doing what we did this year?

Here is my thought for preparation for next year.... Cut/Trade: Brian Urlacher-If we can trade him for a 2nd round pick or better, let's dump him and plug in a young guy, we have several young LB's that can do as well... Dusty D-Cut/too much injury Kevin Jones-Cut if we are not going to use him Booker-Cut/not working out, although it makes me sad to see him go, he was a good one but seems to be too old. Vasher-Cut unless he is willing to restructure his contract Mark Anderson-Reduce contract or cut Harris-Reduce contract or cut R Davis-Use only as a backup OLine-Consider cuts to R Garza and O Kreutz...I admit I am not sure where to pin the blame, but we need to upgrade here! Brandon Lloyd-Re-sign for a 1-2 year deal, the kid has talent and was our best receiver this year. Trade/Draft O Line-Let's pick up at least one stud and one solid player on the OLine. We need help here.... DLine-If we have to get rid of Harris when he refuses to reduce his contract, we will need a pickup here..if he stays with a reduced contract I think we have what we need if we can add a solid player in the off season. We need a DEnd prospect if Anderson goes. WR-This is our biggest need in the off season. Our lack of ability to stretch the field killed us this year. We need a real #1 receiver. DCoach-BABICH HAS TO GO! IF LOVIE DOES NOT LIKE IT, HE CAN GO TOO! Ahh, that is only what comes to mind at the moment. This team has made me sick this year with its lack of heart....it has not been an impressive team by any means. Lets hope next year is better.

I understand the arguments about best pick at the time and hindsight etc... However, for me the bottom line is we had at the least a serviceable RB who never showed any character or behavioural issues until after the CB pick who was well liked on the team. Why throw a monkey wrench into that? Surely it could have been determined that Benson might pose a bit of a behavioural problem? If you are satisfied with what you have at a given position, why try to get the next Walter Payton at the position rather than stock up on a position where there is some legitimate need? There were certainly a number of positions that could have been addressed, not least OLine...

It would seem to be fair to say that DD and TH are more suited to Lovie's defence that AA. I have always liked the big nose tackle type players for much the same reason already discussed, they stuff the run and free up others who are more suited to the more athletic type roles to play to their strength..... I don't think I like Lovie's system....

I am not educated enough on the draft to say who we should have taken to be perfectly honest, and you make some excellent observations there. However, I think we would have been better placed to draft for need, ie OLine, and if we had taken the best available maybe we would have had a starter at the very least..... I am not sure TJ would have looked that great last year or this one, and I love Forte, but we ended up taking a guy when we already had a solid player at the position and it all went tits up! And it is hard for me to understand why anyone would want to get rid of TJ at the point that he was released. You are right about hindsight, it is very easy for me to sit here now and go on about the mistakes made... My main point is that I really wonder how much being on Lovie and/or JA's goodie list has to do with starting?

I never loved Berrian, but he is better than anyone we have now and there was not anyone else available that could take his place...I think we should have tagged him.

That is exactly my point. It really seems that there are certain occassions, whether it is related to Lovie or JA, where it seems a guy cannot lose his job no matter how he plays and others where a guy cannot get on the field for love or money....I still cannot understand the Bradley decision etc.... Just a thought, I have not read any article on it etc.... I just cannot understand how a guy can come in like AA has and look so strong, it makes you wonder why he wasn't in before and why it took an injury to get him in the lineup...

I love Forte too, don't get me wrong. But I remember that when CB was taken he seemed a solid pick, but it was not a position we really needed with TJ already there and AP as backup. Now looking back at it, wouldn't it have been nice to have an Olinesman or something? I would also agree that CB seemed a safe pick at the time and I was not one of those that was crying for Pope or one of the great tight ends on offer.... Don't misunderstand, I really like Forte.....but I still look back at that decision and think we could have done better.

But don't we wish we had Berrian now? Wasn't he worth the money we would not pay him? I sure wish we had him now....

Can you imagine what coud have been had we not taken CB in the draft? We could have kept Jones, had AP as a backup, used the 2nd round pick we used on Forte on Oline, Dline, or LB, and had a good laugh! Now, I love Forte, but the Cedric pick was a huge mistake in retrospect and the loss of TJ completely unnecessary.... WAS THIS ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF A PLAYER NOT BEING ON THE LS ASS-LICKER LIST? I am not sure of this issue whatsoever, but I really wonder how some of these players have gone on to prove themselves elsewhere after being exiled from Chicago.

What about Anthony Adams? Has he not proved a bona fide starter and potential star? That guy was a monster against the Saints and great in the previous game as well! We need a big body in the middle stopping the run, I long for the days of Ted Washington! WHY HAS THIS GUY BEEN INACTIVE FOR MOST OF THE SEASON, WHEN DD WAS MEDIOCRE AT BEST FOR MOST OF THE TIME HE HAS PLAYED? I am more and more suspicious that if you are not a JA/LS ass-licker that you do not hit the field....is that why Bradley is gone as well?

Wasn't Adams looking pretty good earlier in the year? Might be worth trying some different guys, if nothing else to give DD and Harris a bit of rest.

Thanks for that, I have tried Stoogetv but either my computer or line, or both, are far too slow to enjoy the game. I have tried some of the other sites as well and had the same difficulty...

There was someone recently that was claiming that DD was playing ProBowl level ball, but never mind, I cannot remember who it was and did not mean to make a big deal of it. Sometimes the way I mean to write things comes out differently than I intend... That being said, I wish I had the time or technical ability to really analyze game film. I would really be interested in knowing what the problem is. Being in the UK I only get to actually see a handful of games, the rest I am following on nfl.com and reading about. What I can gather is that Harris is gathering a bit of steam recently whereas DD seems to be slowing down from what was a solid performance earlier in the year. The secondary seems to have been really poor all year. Linebackers, besides Briggs, mediocre at best, same with DE. A sad state of affairs for a team that spends the majority of its cap on D.

Hmmm, who was it that was saying Dvoracek was a beast and was heading to the Pro Bowl??? Who needs to eat some CROW?????

It does appear that the team continues on with its plans regardless of reality, ie a cover 2 scheme everyone seems to feel does not really work and a roster full of guys with big names and no production. Url, Harris, Vasher, Tillman, haven't been right for the last year at least and they seem to be going downhill further. We may have to build from the ground up with new players, and the scheme/coaching might be in the same boat. I feel very sure that there are some overpaid "superster" players that will either get the axe or have a forced salary cut this off season if things continue to go this way, and I hope that the coaching has the same scrutiny. How can everyone feel Babich isn't getting it done except for Lovie????????

Exactly! After the game Url was quoted as saying something like "I know what we have here" in relation to his appreciation of the defence. Remember his arrogance when asked by the reporter after the Colts game about the upset? I wonder if he still has the same attitude, and sadly I reckon he does. I hope that the scheme has at least something to do with the problems, because if our players suck this bad we are in for a bad year or two at the very least, with a bunch of overpaid defensive players eating up cap space...