jason

I wouldn't LOL just yet. Regardless of what "it" is, the dude has "it." I could see the packers using him in such a way that would cause the Bears defense fits. I hope they don't sign him.

That would be excellent. Not only would it put the Wisconsin connection on the field together, it would have the one added benefit of moving Garza back to his better position (OG) like you've stated, and would also have the extra benefit of benching Webb, Louis, and E.Williams. OL of the future is set, Cutler gets to relax behind a solid OL, and the F.O. only has to worry about depth at that point. Behind that OL, Cutler would turn Marshall, Hester, Bennett, and Knox into a deadly WR corp.

I don't like the draft for various reasons. RD 1: I don't think Floyd will be there, and I dislike the notion of picking someone because they had an outstanding combine that doesn't jibe precisely with his college production. We still don't know if he can get off the line or actually run polished routes (neither of which he was required to do at GT). He's boom or bust in my opinion. RD 2: Osemele, yes. Sanders, no. Again, dude fell asleep during a play in college. That reeks of a player without full focus on the game. I think he'll be a bust. On top of that, virtually every scouting report on him says he's physically weak and not ready to start. RD 3: I like Trumaine Johnson. He appears to lack great speed, but he's got good positioning, field awareness, route and defensive understanding, good hands, and he's physical. Definitely would fit in Lovie's D. RD 4: There is no way Bruce Irvin lasts until the fourth round. And if he did, does Lovie and the Bears' FO want to bring in an apparent trouble-maker? RD 5: ANOTHER OT coming out of college with serious injury concerns? No thanks. RD 6: Unless Lovie and crew see something I don't, Randall is not a fit for the Bears' defense. He is definitely too slow to be a 4-3 DE, so he'd obviously be drafted as a 4-3 DT for the Bears. The problem is that he doesn't possess the explosive first step, the inside rush, the gap-pressure that Lovie loves/needs from his DTs. RD 7: Seems like a decent pick for a 7th rounder.

Click the link I provided. It explicitly states he replaced Garza at LG. On top of that, Garza's Pro Football Reference page states his position in 2010 as LG/RG. You might also want to check out the camp report from Bourbonnais that year, where the switch from right side to left side is discussed. Here's an article that actually reports of playing time on the left. Yet another article showing the move. Homework done. Extra credit done. LT is more important, but when Garza went down Tice had Williams coming back, and he had to shuffle the deck to fit things as he thought they best fit. Was he wrong? Certainly he was wrong on Omiyale. Williams probably should have gone back to LT. It was Williams' versatility, or maybe Tice's low opinion of him, that caused the move inside.

You will see it when Legarratte Blunt rushes for a career high this year. I'm all for drafting Olinemen, but following up your first statement when Nicks' draft placement is disingenuous. Nicks was a 5th rounder, but that's not to say finding a stud OG in the 5th round is common or easy. He's the aberration. I would counter with this thought: What's cheaper? Is it cheaper to build a team with FA skill position players; or, is it cheaper to build a team with FA OLinemen? I'd say it's probably cheaper to go with the latter option. This kind of thinking goes back a long way. I can think of Alvin Harper right off the bat. David Boston. Javon Walker. All went from teams that had pretty secure QBs and OL to teams that had neither QB position security nor OL protection. Look what happened. Other FAs may buck this trend - I didn't dig hard - but it seems to me signing OL to protect the #1 investment is a much better way to build than going out and signing skill position players who usually get set up to fail based upon the Peter Principle (i.e. a #2 signed to be a #1) and are more likely to be tempermental. Give Jay Cutler an all-pro OL, and he'll elevate guys like Knox and Hester into what everyone is currently clamoring for. Thought of another way, since Manning is all-sports all-day, look at the collection of scrubs that have run through Indy, a place with a stable OL and incredibly stable QB, but have fallen off the map otherwise: Torrance Small - Career Year with Manning Terrance Wilkins - Dropped off the map without QB/OL Troy Walters - Out of football shortly after Indy Brandon Stokely - 1000yd season with Indy, not close after Anthony Gonzalez - Blew up first two years, got injured...we'll see how he does with N.E. Austin Collie - Blew up first two years, will probably never do as well Blair White - Blew up rookie year, nothing since To be fair, the one player who radically bucks the trend is Jerome Pathon. He went from Indy to New Orleans, a place with a steady QB (Aaron Brooks) and a decent OL. Signing a guy like Carl Nicks makes a lot of sense to me. It's just too bad the Bears are apparently happy with the collective of guys that other teams would throw away like trash.

Ahhh...I get you now. I share the concern but will reserve overall judgement until the draft.

I'm actually thinking a trade down at 19 wouldn't be that bad right now. The bulk of the value appears to be in the early second round, and if the Bears could figure out a way to get two picks in the second they could reap serious rewards.

Starting to get worried? Was the last four or five years not enough to get you fired up?

I don't understand your post. The Broncos had nearly twice the cap room as the Niners, and that was BEFORE the Niners went out and signed Moss. The rest may be true, but this absolutely looks like the almight dollar had a lot to do with the decision.

Will not be played in Broncos locker room:

I don't disagree with the "arm length helps at LT" and in pass-blocking, but where do you get that Chris Williams struggled at LT? 2008 - Didn't struggle. Injured. 2009 - Didn't struggle. Replaced Pace at LT. 2010 - Didn't struggle. Got injured at LT. After injury replaced Garza at LG. Never given another shot at LT. 2011 - Didn't struggle. Never given a shot at LT. Other than the 2009 game against the Packers when Matthews made him penalty prone - interestingly enough, it wasn't so bad that we all gave him a nickname like "False Start Frank" - I can't remember him ever really doing poorly or struggling at LT. In fact, I'd say we haven't seen him enough to properly say how well is capable of performing at LT.

Bingo. It's not about simply investing. It's about investing smartly. How could the Packers know? Beats me, but they always seem to know.

Unless this is entirely about not wanting to play in the same conference as Eli, it just reinforces that greed is rampant amongst professional athletes. The obvious play for him should have been SF. He had a much better chance to win, and to win big. The division is weak. Their defense is outstanding. They have a ton of weapons. SF would have been the odds on Super Bowl favorite if he signed with them.

I would love that idea. Liked Zeitler from the get-go. I also happen to think it would maximize the talent on the OL, shore up the LT hole, create a battle for the LG spot between E.Williams and Louis, demote Webb to a backup where he belongs, and create a two-headed monster on the right side between two players intimately familiar with one another.

I actually like Harrell. Dude was a beast at Texas Tech. And this is exactly why the Packers, as much as I hate them, could teach the Bears a thing or two about team building. They get rid of Farv, have Rodgers waiting. Rodgers has Flynn as a capable backup. Flynn departs to huge money (overpaid), and a good prospect sits in the wings. Meanwhile, Cutler goes down and freaking Hanie takes a steaming dump on the rest of the Bears' season.

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. He never "lost" the position. 2008: Drafted to play LT. Obviously injured. Fell behind the power curve for the rest of the season. 2009: Was slotted to play LT, but got moved to RT for 11 games when the Bears got Pace. Note the words, "flip-flop positions." Then finished up strong the last five games of at LT after Pace sucked. Game 1 - Chris Long, 3 tackles, 0 sacks. Game 2 - Clay Matthews, 5 tackles, 1 sack, multiple penalties (his one bad game) Game 3 - No DE did well, and only 1 sack was given up (Kelly Gregg, a NT) Game 4 - Jared Allen, 2 tackles, no sacks. Game 5 - Cliff Avril, 2 tackles, 1 sack 2010: Started the first two games at LT, did well. Then injured his hamstring. And instead of keeping him at the position he was drafted for, suited for, and starting in, when he returned from injury Tice moved him to LG because he needed Williams, who was probably the Bears best OLineman, to substitute for Garza (who was injured). And to pour salt in the wound, Tice thought the best starting five included Omiyale at LT. This can't be stressed enough. Williams did not lose the LT spot. Tice made a bad decision because he was worried about replacing Garza at LG. Instead of keeping Williams at LT and finding someone to replace Garza, he went the other way. He finished the season at LG (11 games). 2011: Started nine games at LG, got injured vs. the Lions, got placed on IR. Never given a chance at LT. To recap... 2008 - Injured 2009 - Got screwed because of the Pace signing, ended up replacing Pace 2010 - Started LT, got injured, then got screwed because he was versatile and Garza was injured 2011 - Never given a shot at LT while Webb sucked ass He should never have been moved inside in 2010. And he hasn't outlived that poor decision by Tice yet. Williams has never lost the LT position to another player.

Their production may equal their "cheaper than dirt" value. I'd rather pay "dirt" to a guy who has a productive, professional resume.

So, because of two WRs who have done fairly well recently, and two OLinemen who had injuries their rookie year, you think the concept of OL in the first is bad but WR in the first is good? That's a pretty small sample size. What about the slew of WRs drafted in the first round who put up pedestrian or underwhelming numbers their first year? And what about the ton of OLinemen who started their first year and did very well? And what about the fact that with the signing of Marshall, LT is now unequivocally the #1 area of need? When it comes down to it, now that Marshall has been acquired the hole at WR is not as glaring. Meanwhile there is a still a gaping hole at LT. What the Bears need at WR now is an upgrade over the following: Player A: 37 Rec, 727 Yds, 2 TDs Player B: 26 Rec, 369 Yds, 1 TD Player C: 37 Rec, 507 Yds, 2 TDs I would say the Bears need to focus on one or two players instead of trying to get all three receptions. Then you end up with a #3 WR who gets something like 50 Rec, 700 Yds, 5 TDs, while Marshall gets the lion's share and Bennett works as the solid possession WR. The result would be an upgrade because one player could excel with more focus, targets, etc.

For the life of me I just do not understand this rationale. Could you try to explain it to me? I seriously don't understand how an intelligent Bears fan who has seen the games the last few seasons could not consider the OL to be either the #1 priority or at least in consideration for the #1 priority. Any 1st round OT would start over Webb, and any 1st round OG would start at RG over Louis/E.Williams. This is especially true since you call for a first round WR, a position that traditionally takes a while to develop.

Beats the shit out of me. I hope it's just not more of the same ignoring the OL. If it's not addressed significantly in the draft, then we know which of JA and Lovie was the one behind nonchalant attitude about improving the OL.

Don't get me wrong, I think he put out the best five that he was given. Or at least he tried. But I think he probably has some influence in the backroom meetings, particuarly pertaining to the draft, and he is more likely to stick up for his hand-picked player (Webb) than not. And the result of that could be the potential for him to speak up for Webb, to preserve his reputation as an OL guru. I have seen very little to make this thought process seem unrealistic. All we've seen is one or two comments about how Webb is the guy "unless some miracle happens and an elite first-round draft pick that we couldn't pass up fell in our lap, which I doubt. Yeah, he's our guy moving forward."

Plain and simple, he should be an option. With Winston and Carimi, the Bears could move whichever one they think fits the left side the best - ideally Carimi for longevity issues - and keep the other guy at RT. I don't care if neither is perfectly suited for LT, because if each is a poorly shaped round peg in a perfectly circular hole, Webb is a square.

I don't want any OLineman on the Bears who does this. We already have Webb.

Getting a rookie DE who is known as a pass rush specialist helps the defense. At the very least it's another young, quick, high-motor body he can substitute into rotations and situational pass rush opportunities. Wooten and Idonije may stink, but they smell like roses compared to Webb, Spencer, and E. Williams.

Fixed that for you. There is only one reason the Bears have put so much faith in Webb, and it points directly at Tice's reputation being bruised if his hand-picked guy doesn't turn out. That hubris should be set aside for the betterment of the team, and for Cutler's health.