jason

You know, if this guy ever gets his head on straight, he could be amazing. (side note: I feel the same way about Bradley, but replace "head on straight" with "body to stay healthy")

I'm interested to see the rebuttal to his last post. I've respected and believed Lloyd's work for several years now, and his reputation as a solid cap analyzer gets proven more and more as he posts numbers different than that of the media, and then the media eventually changes to what Lloyd posts. Until I hear him say, "You know what? You're right hoof...I missed that one"...I'll have to believe LT2_3.

Agreed. Culpepper should have been the guy they drafted to begin with. As far as Simms goes, pass...he's all hype and has made it long enough on his daddy.

http://myespn.go.com/blogs/nflnation

DAMN! How many teams are in some of your leagues!? Bears88 & VenomSox...your teams, like Devin Hester, are ridiculous. Are there a few retarded owners in your league?

I'm in a 12-team, $200 per team league. I ended up with the following: Player, Team, Position - Bye, Round drafted Anderson, Derek CLE QB - 5 4.09 (From week 1-13 had just as good of fantasy stats as Peyton Manning last year) Warner, Kurt ARI QB - 7 10.09 (Strictly backup, but tons of upside provided Lienart doesn't win back the job) Johnson, Larry KCC RB - 6 2.09 (Great value in the 2nd round) Jones, Thomas NYJ RB - 5 5.04 (I think he's going to have a huge year with Favre and two FA OL additions) Westbrook, Brian PHI RB - 7 1.04 (Solid #1 pick) Cotchery, Jerricho NYJ WR - 5 6.09 (Not a sexy WR, but seems to do well. Will improve with Favre) Ginn Jr., Ted MIA WR - 4 12.09 (Just an upside pick) Houshmandzadeh, T.J. CIN WR - 8 3.04 (Will put up huge numbers again, and with CJ's injury, it could be more) Stallworth, Donte' CLE WR - 5 9.04 (Will benefit from being a top-two WR on an explosive offense) Olsen, Greg CHI TE - 8 11.04 (Pretty good for my backup TE) Shockey, Jeremy NOS TE - 9 7.04 (Will EXPLODE this year with Brees throwing 40 times a game) Akers, David PHI PK - 7 15.04 (kicker, who cares) Dawson, Phil CLE PK - 5 14.09 (kicker, who cares) Bears, Chicago CHI Def - 8 8.09 (Oh yeah!) Eagles, Philadelphia PHI Def - 7 13.04 (Going against a weak offense on the Bears' bye week) I think I had the second best draft.

The thing is, I feel that my analysis of them as talented is just as valid as someone's who says they are not talented. Until the Bears have a competent OL, QB, and OC...we'll never really know. Just for shits and grins, however... -Booker - Solid vet who has large vice grips for hands. He is a good route runner, albeit not spectacularly fast, but makes smart plays -Hester - An enigma with undebateable talent. In limited time last year he blew past people when they knew he was pretty much only going to run deep. If he gets an even rudimentary understanding of what it means to be a pro WR, he'll be one of the top 30 in the NFL. -Bennett - A highly touted rookie who destroyed the toughest college conference in college football. He played on a weaker team when compared to other SEC teams, and still managed to look like a complete stud. When he gets comfortable, his talent will shine through. -Bradley - Despite being often injured, when Bradley has been on the field, he has looked faster, stronger, and bigger than nearly every other player in the Bears' WR corp, not to mention the defensive secondaries. If this guy can manage to stay healthy, he has legit #1 WR talent, IMHO. -Davis - A former Arena league guy who is just tough as nails, makes the clutch catches, goes across the middle, runs solid routes, knows how to work the inside of the zone, and has a good enough combination of strength and speed making him difficult to stop in the open field. -Lloyd - A guy with tons of talent that just hasn't translated to NFL success. Was absolutely lost on a horrible Washington offense after doing well on a horrible San Francisco offense. Nobody doubts his speed, size, or talent...it's just his heart. -Rideau - Don't know much about him, but he has looked pretty good every time I've seen him. At 6'3" and 200lbs, he's got the size to cause trouble for defenses. -Haas - From all accounts, catches absolutely everything. Not to mention the fact that the Bears are 3 deep at quality TE. I'd say that's talent. If this receiving group was on the Colts, Pats, Browns, or Bengals (all teams with at least 2 of 3 out of the good QB, OC, OL combo)...three of these guys would have been drafted in fantasy this year.

That's hilarious. I can't wait until he gets traded to a team that already has a player with 85, and that player refuses to give up the number.

Either way, the mere fact that a fairly respected journalist said the guy is the best WR on the roster, and then the guy gets cut, says something about the lack of balance talent-wise on the Bears. Somehow the Bears have enough WRs that arguably their best WR gets cut, and meanwhile there's a bail of hay and a tackling dummy on the OL.

I admit that I'm drinking more koolaid than most others, and I think the Bears D/ST are good enough to bring about a winning record. However, if things don't go well, and the Bears' do end up with an early first rounder next year, they better not draft a dumbass WR in the first round. That would be an atrocious move.

Just thought I'd share two nickames I've read over the past few days for Fred Miller. 1) False Start Fred 2) Drive Killer Miller 3) Turnstile Miller

Like Mariotti or not, he's got some very good points in this article. 1) What happened is that the Bears fell in love with Williams, who filled a desperate need, while underplaying the possibility that a herniated disc could burn them. Sure enough, they were scorched on the second day of training camp, when Williams suffered a new injury to the same disc. It led to surgery that will sideline him for most, if not all, of his first season. Granted, anyone who suggests Angelo wasn't aware of the injury isn't being fair. On draft day, he pointed out that the team's medical staff examined the back ``once, twice and a third time'' -- I love it when he borrows from old Lionel Richie songs. But where Angelo blew it is when he shrugged off those three examinations as if they were frivolous when, in fact, the necessity of three exams only screamed potential trouble. Aside from the Lionel Richie thing, I don't see where this is wrong. 2) Point is, Angelo never has manufactured enough credibility as a drafter (on offense) to allow himself the benefit of doubt to gamble. (insertion mine) Once again, this is dead on. Angelo has a horrible record of drafting offense while here.

Notice I never chimed in on this one. HOWEVER, when two players are similarly rated, the best bet, the move with the most common sensical foundation, is to draft the player out of the two who is not, and has not been injured. It's not all that difficult of a decision to make, to be quite honest. If JA did know, then he probably should have gone after one of the other two or three guys still there if they were ranked similarly on the overeall draft board.

If the Bears got a top 5 pick, I'd be ill. If the Bears then picked a damn WR with a top 5 pick, I'd be friggin' pissed off.

I keep reading reports and articles about this Bolt guy. I know he's the fastest man in the world, and it doesn't appear to be close. His races have been amazing, and his size is impressive. The thing is, I keep hearing/reading stuff about this guy becoming an NFL receiver. For instance: Bolt as a WR. What do you guys make of the idea? Willie Gault turned out pretty good for the Bears. Imagine a guy who is not only easily faster than gault, but also bigger and stronger? I don't think the Bears should do it considering their WR logjam, but it's an interesting idea. Nobody in the NFL could cover him one-on-one.

That's pretty much the reason why I have optimism, and why I tell people that the Bears will be back. They got severely discounted last year because of the injuries on defense, and nobody seems to be aware of that. Without the injuries, they should be a top defense again, will have the top ST again, and with a semi-competent offense, they'll be a tough team. I hope people keep doubting...

Amen. Preach it. I am constantly disgusted by the fact that the DEs do the outside, speed rush 99% of the time. Also, the fact that the Bears DBs are never near the WRs when the play starts is infuriating when the opposing defenses seem to have such success with slants and quick-outs against our D. Can we please have some defensive adjustments in game?

What I know is this: When Bradley is on the field, he looks to have a better combination of speed, strength, explosion, and size than any other Bears WR. I hope they don't cut him, and that he doesn't get hurt - knock on wood. He has all the tools to be a star...if he could ever stay on the field.

After watching only the first quarter in the NFL replay, one thing became abundantly clear: Rex Grossman is scared. Even though he was facing heat the entire first quarter, Rex Grossman was throwing like he had a gun pointed at him. Timid movements, bad mechanics, late reads, and unsure throws combined to make him look rough. With or without pressure, an NFL QB needs to be more pocket aware, needs to understand when a sack is better than a lame duck pass, and what to do to avoid either the sack or the intentional grounding. There is absolutely no mystery why Kyle Orton was named the starter.

no way it's that bad. 8-8

Nonetheless, they were both 1st round WRs selected in the previous two years, and pretty much made it impossible for Mike Williams to have any major impact. I'd disagree with you on MWilliams, however, I think the guy was damn good coming out of college, and had one of the best sets of hands in recent college football history. In a different situation, where he was the red-zone go to guy (like he would have been with the Bears), I think it would have been different.

It's cool...I admit that he would be considered one of my "misses". However, like I have said, and since that which has never happened can't be proven or disproven, it's an unknown. On the other hand, I was screaming for Randy Moss, and absolutely despised the Curtis Enis pick...proven by the following that was submitted years ago. Say It Ain't So - Curtis Enis Essentially, what you are saying is what I agree with. It's impossible to know whether or not a player would have done well with another team. Moss ended up on the Vikings and became one of the best WRs in history, IMHO. If he had come to the Bears, there's no guarantee he would have done the same thing, something with which you agree. I'll tell you though, I'll take the talent Moss has from the knees down over an entire team of Curtis Enis' all day.

Read the whole thread thus far...thoughts... 1) I say it's a combination of bad talent (i.e. drafting) and bad coaching. So, blame lands on JA for drafting (or not drafting) an adequate number of talented OLinemen, as well as Lovie and staff for not competently preparing the guys they have. 2) If the Bears do stunt in practice and preseason, I know that I can't recall seeing it more than a handful of times over the past several years. It's something I've screamed for, especially considering the fact that any of our DEs can just be pushed up the field on their outside rush move. 3) No man who is married truly wears the pants in the family.

The Bears v. Seahawks replay is tonight at 11pm (CST).