BearFan2000

Like it, but think it could stand to be bigger, looks tiny

Nice, and with a little photoshop magic.

Was not expecting this to happen, I figured we were tapped out in FA and was waiting for the draft. It was a nice thought to read posts on here about the possibility but I didn't think it would come to fruition. Then this morning I saw a notification on my iphone though the Bears app and then the NFL app, I was soo shocked and excited. I hadn't read about the Cutler contract conversion the other day which was a sign something was up. I absolutely love this move. While it will be weird rooting for Allen as I grew to dislike him (mainly cause he's really good and not on our team and he has tormented our offense for the better part of his time in Minny). He is an all go all out type player and he brings a nastiness to the D-Line. He's a high motor guy who is younger and more productive than Peppers at this point. While he's not young, he's still in the prime of his career, and is one of those guys who takes great care of his body. I think he'll provide excellent veteran leadership on and off the field and his tenacity could be very contagious. Piece by piece Emery has been rebuilding out DL. We may have lost melton, wooten, cut peppers. We've added Houston, Young, Allen, resigned Ratliff, brought Izzy back, to add to Collins, Paea. Moved SMC to LB, resigned Anderson, resigned Peanut, resigned Jennings. This has at least on paper been a great offseason for out defense. I like that it it gives us a lot of flexibility in the draft. I'd like to see us look hard at CB, SS, FS early. Let's get some young play makers into our secondary. One other thing I like is we've focused on getting guys who are good against the run as well as pass rush. If we can get the offense and defense humming look out NFL!!!

two words….. butt fumble But seriously I've never been a fan of Sanchez and he has shown a lack of smarts or mental toughness. Could partly be from playing in the NFL's Purgatory that is the NY Jets where he's not exactly surrounded with exhibitions of greatness on a team perpetually mired in mediocrity. But given our loss of McCown to Tampa, and our only backup being Jordan Palmer, for the right price it couldn't hurt to bring him in and see if he can be a capable backup. Perhaps the QB whisperer can help bring out the best in him. He may still be convinced in his mind that he should be a starter.

Plus nothing like having to explain why that's on my screen to the boss who happens to walk by as I take 5 to check out the site. The avatars already make browsing this site at work a little tricky.

Just read that too, I hope we can bring him back but Seattle has a lot to offer coming off a dominating super bowl win and cap space to overpay. We payed melton a lot of cash to sit on the couch last season. It'd be nice to get some use out of him for a reasonable contract to stay here.

Seems I got here after the title was changed does make me curious what the original one was lol

Great news, he still has plenty left to give on the field and we need his presence. Probably one of my favorite Bears class act on and off the field. No one has a nose fore the ball and strips it like peanut. My only con is that it's not more than a 1 year deal meaning after this season we'll be asking the same question "will they resign Peanut or let him walk?" I'd have liked to better to see a 2-3 year deal to finish his career as a Bear and never put on anyone else's jersey. But that said I was thrilled to read that he re-signed and will be a Bear this year. Bear Down!!!

he'll be playing for Tampon Bay under Lovie Smith. I'm betting the Bucs will be offensively challenged.

Looks like Hester will be gone, just saw this Rapoport article stating that the Bears will not try to re-sign Hester

I'd like it to be either Bostic or Shea. Shea could surprise a lot of people if he's put in a position to succeed. The move to LB could be just the thing to help him realize his potential.

Doesn't stop us from digging and going nuts wondering what they'll do LOL But that's the fun of being a fan. We've been pretty active on our coaching staff changes, but aside from early extensions they've been pretty mum on what they plan to do in free agencey. But I'm sure Emery, George, and Tres are not asleep at the wheel. I bet there is a trick or two up their sleeves before the draft.

I will weigh in and try to keep it brief. I think in this topic as a whole there are some misconceptions. The word homophobic or any variation of it is often thrown out too loosely. What I mean by that is in many areas be it media, public, etc. Anyone who as a part of their religion believes that the gay lifestyle wrong, is automatically labeled a homophobe when the term means fear of homosexuals. Simply disagreeing with a belief on an issue does not necessarily equate to fear, hatred, or bigotry. Christians are one group that are regularly slandered as bigots, haters, and homophobes and often on assumption only. Some who call themselves Christian do in fact earn the labels, and aren't really Christian at all and deserve the slander due to their holier than thou attitude. As Christians we are taught to love the sinner and hate the sin, whatever it be. It's hypocritical and very much like the pharisaical religious leaders of Christ's day to point the finger at every one else's sin while ignoring the self righteous pride in their own hearts. In that light for me while my personal beliefs and views on this topic may conflict with others on here or in society as a whole. I fully respect and will defend the rights of anyone with differing views. To quote a line from the Matrix Reloaded (even though the movie kinda stunk) When Lock says to Morpheus "Not everyone believes as you do" Morpheus simply replies. "My beliefs don't require them to" I feel like we should be respectful of each other's views just as we'd like others to be respectful of ours. Just like our agreements/disagreements when it comes to Bears football, NFL, Sports in general. A little respect goes a long way. I think sometimes it's easy to get entrenched and be more focused on proving the other wrong than actually engaging in intelligent discussion or simply agree to disagree and move on. As for myself I feel if I'm disrespectful of other's views, beliefs, etc. then I shouldn't expect others to be respectful of mine. In Sam's case if the kid can play football and make an impact as a player in this league then he should be drafted. As far as should he have or have not publicly announced his orientation or was it motivated by desire for attention, etc. Who knows the choice was his to make and he made it. None of us can for sure know what his motivation was both in making it public or his timing to do so. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt as his track record leads me to think it wasn't a selfish move. He told his teammates in college and he performed well there without incident, which tells me he's not one to be a distraction or grab attention. The media will do whatever the media does, can't control that either way. What we can debate is will his success at college translate to the NFL, where would he fit as a DE or LB. He's currently graded somewhere in the 3rd round. He may drop, or he may climb a little it comes down to need of the teams drafting and who thinks he'd fit their team. I personally haven't seen him play as I haven't seen much of Missouri play so all I can debate on is stats and his measurable. If he can help the Bears and is on the board at our pick I would have no problem taking him.

Damn I miss Mike Brown and Tony Parish back at Safety.

Would definitely be in favor of this. Especially the age/production combo that Bennet could provide vs an aging Peppers who's clearly lost a step.

Why does it seem like everyone here is convinced we should or will switch to a 3-4? Because guys on our staff have experience with a 3-4? If you have the players to make it work then great, but I don't see a change just to change as a good idea either. I'm all for whatever best suits our players come next regular season. The draft/FA will give us a much better idea of the direction. I guess I just dont' get the love affair with switching to a 3-4. But maybe I"m the only one here. But as I said as long as we put a defense on the field that suits the talent, and gets the job done I don't care what style or format they go with. I just want to see our D improve to at least average or a little better than average. I don't expect it to be dominant, with our offense it doesn't need to be.

My bad, I haven't been on here for a bit, kinda been tuned out to Bears news since there hasn't been much and life's been kinda busy. Hopefully it is the first of many, and that maybe some of his line mates will join him in future years. Kudos to Emery, Trestman, and Kromer for bringing in some fresh blood and vastly improved O-Line play.

Just read on my phone that Kyle Long will be going to the prow bowl. That's quite an honor for a rookie. Last Bears rookie to go to the pro bowl was Johnny Knox back in 2009, and last bears offensive rookie to go to a pro bowl was Gale Sayers many moons ago. Who'da thunk we'd send an offensive lineman to the pro bowl.

I agree, and there is no denying this D went from one of the best to possibly the worst ever in various categories. I think we are all embarrassed as fans and extremely disappointed in how the season shook out defensively. But to have one bad season on D and to say let's can everyone from GM down to water boy, IMHO is too reactionary. Last years focus was fix the offense let the D go as it had been dominant. What made that unit dominant was guys like Melton, Briggs, Urlacher, Tillman, Jennings, Peppers, Wooten, Izzy, etc. The key as scs787 pointed out for this D is the line and getting pressure and containing the run. The front 7 is the key particularly the interior, which is the area most hit. We then lost two vet starters at LB Briggs being out for large chunk of the season. Tillman in and out of the lineup due to injury and finally placed on IR. The lack of depth/talent exposed our weak secondary. QB's had all day to throw against guys who have poor coverage skills. We didn't contain the run, didn't tackle and didn't take good angles. For a long time we got by with our highly talented vets who till this point had stayed relatively healthy, and played at a high level. This season exposed how poor our defensive depth is. Some of that is coaching, some of that is drafting/FA (though we've focused more on offense the previous two off seasons). What this season proves is the Bears must improve both the on field product and starters but also do a better job of bringing in youth and developing them. I don't think the injuries can just be brushed aside as if to say in spite of them we shouldn't skip a beat or at least shouldn't have fallen that far. I don't think it was the only reason but it was a contributing factor. My issues with Tucker is that our defense didn't look prepared, looked to be confused on field. We were missing some on field leadership when we lost Melton, Tillman, Briggs, and the retirement of Urlacher. But IMO even if your team isn't talented enough to compete, doesn't have the skills to match the oppositions offense but plays it's heart out, understands their assignments, and shows sound fundamentals. Then that's all you can ask. But what we saw was poor fundamentals, confusion on the field, blown assignments, poor tackling, etc. That does come down to coaching, your job as a coach is to get the best out of the players you do have, and I didn't see that. So personally I would have liked to see a new DC, but who? I can understand giving him one more chance to redeem himself and if not he's gone. I just don't look at this as it's all coaching, so we must now fire everyone. If we fired everyone every time we had a bad year in one area or another we'd be constantly turning over the staff. The Bears are a proud organization, and have till this year been known for their D. The goal this offseason will be to do everything the feel they can to fix this D. But I think we do need to step back and give Emery/Trestman a chance to correct what went wrong this season.

Not just today but almost every game they get favorable officiating. They're allowed to hold, grab, interfere, and are so used to getting the calls their way when they don't get a call they act like babies out there. So sick of the media slobbering all over them and that smug arrogant Rodgers. He gets that smirk on his face and I just want to go there and smack it off. There are no redeeming qualities to the Packers. Hate the team, it's players, it's coaches and their fans.

This and the fact that I have tomorrow off due to the blizzard made my day. Seeing them get beat in their house while doesn't make up for our last loss does bring a nice smile to my face.

He's always been better suited as a LB'r than a DE. He's been put in the wrong position since he got here. His athleticism has been wasted on an un natural position. I think he could play MLB.

what are Detroits and GB's schedules home/away. How do we compare to them?

Wow Stafford is dumb, and clearly can't take an honest look at himself. I heard the team chemistry there was awful. People think Jay's a prick how'd you like to have a QB with serious flaws in his game and refuses to do anything to fix them because in his mind he's good.

I like both Nix and Tuit. The thing about Nix is his knees and overall health he struggled with health this past year and didn't seem as dominant as he had in previous years. Now if he gets healed up and can put that past him, he can be very disruptive in the run game and can create pressure. He's very athletic for a big guy. Tuit has had a strong college career and is very active in the run and pass defense. Quite often over the past few years it's been nix and tuit in the backfield. We need guys who can do that. If he can stay healthy Nix would be the more disruptive in both the run game and pass game and would likely draw double teams.