DABEARSDABOMB

Absolutely fascinating, imo. http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/footb...ory.html#page=3

The sad thing to me is that Shea looked like he had better LB instincts then Bostic, who has played there his whole career. It would be great if at least one of our young LB's pans out as that at least means we aren't looking for 3 next year, since Briggs is getting close to the end.

Yeah...I have that scary feeling too. The only saving grace I keep going back to is we should be able to generate a pass rush...if we can do that...it has to make our defense better then a year ago. I also am excited about Fuller and what he brings, but as a whole, we have a very slow defensive unit, imo. It may not even be combine slow, at some points, its also age slow and football instincts slow (see most of our LB corps...neither Bostic or Shea have the instincts yet and DJ Williams is mediocre at best). All this said, I think our dline has a chance to be one of the better units in the league and that is the best concealer a defense can have and can really mask some of our other issues. I do think Fuller will make some strides and give us a young player to be excited for. I actually like Shea the most out of our young linebackers, which says enough in and of itself, haha. We all know I think Bostic, while athletic, has zero football ability, but hopefully with new coaches we can see something. I actually don't mind Conte, just needs to stay healthy. I think with the right coaching, this could be an average d, however, I don't know if we have the right coaching or not. TBD.

It seems to me that they are more hedging their bets in case Conte isn't in game shape. It clearly sounds as if Conte is the starter, just a matter of him getting enough reps to be in good enough game shape, given he had an abbreviated training camp and preseason.

He was a leader on the practice field. While out injured he was coaching up and spending significant time with our guys instead of taking a back seat. I could care less whether he talks to the media. A good leader doesn't have to talk to the media. As much as I couldn't stand him, Urlacher was a good leader and he too was rarely talkative with the media and usually when he did he put his foot in the mouth. Doesn't take away from the fact that he was a heck of a leader (that I won't discredit Urlacher for).

Right now my optimism is pretty low. I really don't know if Trestman is the right personality as a HC and I certainly think Emery has a lot of open questionmarks. His first draft was a bad one (although we did hit Jeffrey's but that still doesn't make up for how many guys we missed on). We could easily be saying the same thing about a year ago's draft with Long as the one hit (we'll see what happens with Mills) but I have little faith in Bostic doing anything worth a darn.

Dude has always brought it when the season started. I have no concerns with this and think it is a lot to do about nothing. I think if Briggs isn't very good, it will be because of his age. Once the regular season starts, he's also been the consummate pro. Just look at how he handled himself last year when he was injured. He really established himself as a leader and role model.

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/11431868...cinnati-bengals Tough runner who might be a good fit given our overall lack of depth behind Forte. Karey came on strong and is looking good but I would think BJG would be an upgrade over everyone else and in reality a pretty nice compliment when compared to the backs we have on our roster. He has roughly 1700 rushing yards the past 2 years.

Plus we have a very difficult schedule (and a brutal start to the schedule). I think we have a very very tough path to the postseason, however, do believe we have the talent. That is presuming health and well that the ST unit isn't a sieve for negative plays and our defense can generate a pass rush and stop the run (which I think will happen). That said, as I've said all off-season, our lb core has a chance to be scary bad.

Stafford has played outstanding though. Detroit has to be a more disciplined team now with a new coach as well. I think the North is as tough of a division in football with Chicago, Detroit, and Green Bay. Vikings are probably one of the better projected to finish last place teams in the league.

QB's don't have the ability to succeed on special teams. Given the number of slow fat man and QB's on a roster, you pretty much have to have a few starters on ST's and usually you'll have back-up wideouts who are athletes and solid gunners and of course members of your defense, since they are usually good tacklers. It is just the way it is. This is the case across the entire NFL league. ST's is also a pretty big area where games can be lost so if you want to not play some of your better tacklers / special teams players, you are risking some potential very negative plays that can cost you ball games. It is why I have been so adamant in how big of a disaster Joey D is.

Give me a break. This is just complaining to complain. Look around the league, most defensive players that are early picks are on ST unit and a lot of starters end up on ST units as well. And for those saying, just don't do it in the preseason game, well...what happens then..just let the mistakes happen during a regular season game? You have to get some practice. The whole 4 preseason games is insane anyway, should just be 2 in which the starters play more, but that is beside the point.

Has anything came out yet? Was away all weekend?

Congrats!!!

Like the move but we have to see if he has any burst to create space and get open. Hopefully playing with two of the games best wide-outs in a good offense will help motivate him cause we could really use a 3rd wideout until Wilson comes back.

Agreed. Hard working guy just couldn't do enough to get open. I really hope Wilson isn't out for an extended period of time cause I have very little faith for our back-up wideouts.

Ditto. Health health and more health!

He is absolutely awful. I could understand why Tucker wasn't (injuries were really bad and that was an awful dline), however, Joey D had zero excuses and is terrible. Special teams may not win you a lot of games (unless you were the Bears under Lovie) but it can cost you a lot (see Chargers a few years ago) and I just have very bad feelings about our unit. And it isn't because of the personnel.

Starting dline was one of the most impressive things I saw during the game. They were forcing penalties and in the backfield consistently. Led to turnovers and a near turnover that Briggs almost had. Agree with the other comments.

I know some will look at this as a bad thing but I look at this as a good thing. He's got a lot of physical talent, played well in his 2nd year, first full year as a starter, and then fell apart in a year where our other safety was also terrible and our entire defensive front was brutal (and worst in the league against the run). He had no chance to play well a year ago and I hope he can prove that he's learned something from last year.

The other huge thing is no serious injuries, which is always the biggest thing coming out of a preseason game. Starting Dline had a big push. Oline looked pretty poor by all accounts.

IIRC, he was pretty talented dude who has had a lot of injury problems and seems to finally be healthy and have had a full off-season of health. Could be a very nice pickup and it would be nice to have a quality back-up TE.

Cutler and the 1st team offensive weapons would be sitting. Might go a little bit with the defensive guys since they are new and new scheme, etc. I would pretty much sit Forte the whole preseason.

Not expected to sign him, at least not yet. Expected to wait on making a move on wideouts until after the first preseason game on Friday. If Holmes was healthy, I would be on board with the move.

Weren't the Giants in a tough spot from a cap perspective? I know in Dallas he didn't necessarily fit in but he also was behind Witten, one of the best TE's of all time, and didn't get much of an opportunity until he left the org and made it to the Giants where he shined.