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A year ago I blasted Emery for the huge Cutler contract...dumping so many resources into one guy who'd proved so little, just like the guy before him did. I made the point that if Emery had just bothered to recognize recent Bears history, he'd have found that didn't work out so well for the last guy. One thing we know...Jerry Angelo hinged his career on Jay Cutler and, to my knowledge, he's out of the NFL right now. The gamble didn't pay off in time to save his job. Phil Emery has now doubled down. Good luck to him. Make that two GMs who didn't agree with me and two GMs who've lost their job because of it.

So is it poor character of me to say I told you so? Does anyone want to argue "that's just the going rate for a QB these days" now? I believe my immediate reaction at the time was along the lines of "25% more than any other team would have paid for Jay Cutler", and with McCown in his pocket, Emery was "totally oblivious of what their bargaining position was...as in, to the point of incompetence." I want Emery gone, and not just because of the Cutler contract. As long as he's running the show, I have to deal with knowing that nothing of consequence will ever change for the better, because the man at the top can't be trusted.

Notice the quote from our own GM, who's considered a stickler for specifics in player scouting, saying Orton has a "big arm". It's been a long time at this point but that used to be a real pet peeve of mine, because Kyle weirdly got the reputation for the opposite among some people (yes, even in these forums). Eventually though, I just used it as a sort of litmus test. If a post referred to him as being weak armed, I knew right then I was dealing with a fan who'll shape their opinion based on the blabber they read on the internet more than what they see on the field. Anyway, he might as well retire. Coming here to backup a guy who just signed a ridonkulous contract, a guy he's outperformed (statistically, albeit barely) since that guy got him shipped out of town...I don't see that happening. Retire a multi-millionaire and leave the CTE to the football heroes.

Urlacher actually said, after the dust was settled and he no longer had an investment in the situation, that he was just starting to feel really good that spring, with respect to his injury...for the first time in more than a year. Of course, some of you will probably just assume he was lying. Nevertheless, I dont' think his knee's progress directly had much to do with it. I suppose it's actually good for him in the end. He's rich enough and his body didn't need the extra wear playing on a team that didn't even make the playoffs without him.

I quit reading after the first few paragraphs. The writer was so comfortable stating half-truths and lies, it doesn't really matter what he thinks. I bet he gets a good link-click count though.

Honestly, until this Jared Allen signing I've been noticing my Bears interest waning a little more than just the average offseason lull. The bloom is off the rose a bit with Emery, I wasn't seeing much good in our D's future, and I was starting to feel the old 'been-there-before' with respect to exciting new opportunities mixed with head scratcher decisions that ultimately just result in...average. Hard Knocks would guarantee my fandom back in top gear.

Awesome! 3 seasons removed from 22 sacks...and he is only 1 year older than Cutler. I wasn't really putting much into the chances of this because it just seemed so far out there, but then I would've said that about Peppers' signing years ago too.

It's so tough to know from just a fan's perspective. The dropoff for Peppers was so sudden, it seems suspicious. How many times has a player had an off year and then bounced back the next, then it comes out that the off year there were some little nagging injuries that have now healed? ...About as often as a player who takes a sudden dive due to injuries or motivation and never gets it back. Know way to know until the fat lady has sung.

McCown is multiple times to us what Josh Freeman is. So if we aren't going to do 2.5million for McCown, are we going to land Josh for $500k? I ask that knowing the answer.

His name isn't quite French enough for my tastes. Now, if it was LeJeDe-veon Clowney, I'd bite.

Gotta say, I didn't notice Peanut being anything but within the range of what he normally is. And the only thing I've heard about him not being starter quality, let alone not even worth 2.5 mil, is on these forums. But then, some of yous are crazy. I agree with Jason. How ironic that the Bears cut Urlacher because of accrued injuries, for all intents and purposes, then the guy they get to replace him misses most of the season...due to injury. Then the defense does a slow, painful dive to the bottom of the NFL. You guys are free to think whatever you want, but if Urlacher's position was that the Bears need him and the Bears position was that they can replace him and get better in the process...well, this past season almost couldn't have gone any more in Urlacher's favor. Which brings me to Peanut. Newsflash...our defense sucks, Tillman is a starter on most teams in the NFL that don't already have two studs, and we need him.

He did some good, though. He helped make sure those decrepit, whiney old-timers got a just barely enough of a settlement to make them go away. Seriously though, Virginia McCaskey probably made more for doing way less. That's life in the big city.

Keep in mind one of the things that stopped him from getting a better oline was what he gave up for Cutler. That doesn't make JA's decisions any better, it just means all his problems were inter-related. To come out saying this now, I think it may have been a little bit of sour grapes on JA's part because JA got fired, Lovie got fired, yet Cutler got his yearly contract more than doubled after he didn't really live up to his last one. No one said life was fair, Jerry. Nevertheless, as far as the whole "I guess the scary part about this if Angelo is correct." part...who cares what Angelo thinks at this point? Cutler isn't some Div II rookie with game footage rarely available. We've seen him on the field for the better part of a decade. We should have our own opinion based on what we've seen. I can't say I've seen that Cutler lacks poise or plays bad specifically because the game is on the line, and I've seen all the same games that JA has.

Maybe "as D-coordinator", which I'm not sure was ever a possibility.

Lovie always had a lot of emphasis on importance of turnovers...at least on D. I think it's possible those other teams would've been more competitive than Denver. But then, it's hard to say because if Denver played Seattle 10 times in a row, the worst performance by Denver would look about like the real SB did. Throw in Sherman pointing out that a lot of Denver's problems had to do with strategy, and it's hard to say what that SB says about each team's on-field talent.