DABEARSDABOMB

Haha, you mentioning KO's rookie season reminded me of all the camera shots where you'd have Bears WR's (especially Moose) just wondering what the heck was going on (as pass after pass landed 5 yards short in the turf). Luckily Kyle has had time to actually develop now. I have to keep remindming myself that he was thrusted into an impossible situation his rookie year. No one expected him to be a starting QB on week 1 (thank you Hutchinson and the rest of the QB's on the squad), but he did better than the retread guys that had actually started football games. Kyle looked pretty good in the preseason and he definitely has the big frame/build you'd like to see out of a QB. I remember him having a strong arm in college that was relatively accurate. He also played very well out of the shotgun and will probably be the best QB we've had in the shotgun since the Bears reintroduced it this season (Grossman was horrible out of the shotgun and Griese wasn't much better). If Kyle can show improved decision making and confidence, there is no reason he doesn't have the tools to be a sucessful NFL QB (whether it is with Chicago next year or some other team if the Bears opt to deal with him). The big if to me is whether Kyle will be able to get rid of the ball in time (since I always remember him having a relatively slow release).

With Orton taking over at Quarterback it is obvious that the Bears (while not mathematically eliminated) are looking towards next season. The question is should the Bears start to take a similar route with the offensive line? Terrance Metcalf has shown that he clearly isn't capable of being a good offensive lineman. He is a valuable backup and I'd imagine based on his minimal cap figure we will see him back next year (in a backup role) but my question is should the Bears go out and give Beekman a chance (I think he was drafted out of ISU this past year). My immediate thought is yes, however, it should only be if he is ready because if Beekman is clearly worse than Metcalf you do run the risk of making a porous offensive line even worse which will actually hurt the evaluation of Kyle Orton (which has to be the most important position that the Bears are looking at for next year, at least on the offensive side of the ball). I think you can make a similar case when it comes to cutting down Moose's time. They obviously will not hamper with Berrian's playing time and Bernard is in a contract year and it would be a horrible decision to take away from his final season and would possibly be something that causes burned bridges and would eventually prevent the Bears from being able to resign Bernard (ie, him not playing would hurt his stats and lead him to getting a smaller contract on the FA market). The question is do you gain a lot more by playing someone like Hass (obviously Bradley should play more, because this is probably his last season with the Bears if he can't show some flashes these last couple games) or do you server Kyle better by keeping out the steady veteran presence (ie Mush). It will definitely be interesting to see how Lovie/Ron balances the offense (how much more do we see Wolfe) over the course of the next three games. I know I'm real excited to see what Kyle can do and to see if Wolfe/Hester can turn into some nice playmakers on offense (I've slammed Wolfe all season, but I must admit he looked shockingly solid last week).

I think the bigger question is whether the Bears believe they need to really upgrade the running back position or if they feel that upgrading the offensive line can do enough to at least make the running game serviceable (obviously if they have the ability to bring in a very good RB they will do it, but I think the offensive line has to take priority with either a RB/WR being taken in the 2nd round).

The question is do Jerry Angelo and company feel the same way? I know that I think by far and away the best option is for Orton to look good in his next couple of starts with the Bears signing Grossman to an incentive laden deal all while they draft a relatively raw QB. You let Kyle/Rex battle it out (I think Rex would win and he's perfectly capable of being a winning NFL QB) and this allows the club to spend its cap room on a FA lineman from the Steelers (big money) as well as allow the squad to draft a tackle in the first round (Offensive Tackle) which should at least give you two new starters on the line (I still think they should dump everyone but Kreutz/Tait). Than you go after a veteran safety and draft a safety somewhere in the first two days and hopefully have the money to resign Briggs (also hope that your dlineman get healthy). Move Alex Brown back to the starting role and let Anderson be the 3rd down specialist (something the team should have done long ago).

Bearstalk.com Members: I'm hoping all of you were able to hear about the move (either via the old Bearstalk.com forum or the mass email we are in the process of sending out to the members) from the sportsinfinity network to our very own independently operated site. The network had pulled the Bearstalk.com forums which had been in existence for 7+ years and merged it with some other random forums. As a result the admins all discussed various options and we decided to continue in the Bearstalk.com tradition but on our own (on our own server, with our own software, with us calling 100% of the shots). It is unfortunate that we lost all of the posts that were on the old forums as well as everyone's user names (which is why each member will have again to post on this forum). We recognize that the above makes such move a bit of a pain in the short-term, but we also believe that this move will allow us to ensure that we never have to undergo such a process again, thus enabling us to keep a great Bears community striving. We also believe that having our own server will allows us to provide the Bearstalk community with new features as the site continues to develop, grow and change in the future. We also realize that in the short-term the format will be a bit new to many of us, so if you run into any questions along the way, feel free to post any questions within this thread (or in the "How Does That Work" forum). On a going forward basis we will continue to work on creating a new front page (similar to what Bearstalk.com's front page was on the network) which will consist of Game Recaps and other information and next season we are hopeful that we will all once again be participating in Pixote's Various Pick-Em Challenges. Also, if you happen to know a member who somehow didn't get the message (whether we had the wrong email info or they weren't able to access the old forums) please pass them the new link (TalkBears.com). We are hopeful that in a short time we will be transferred the rights to the Bearstalk.com domain name (it is currently owned by the network that the site was previously hosted on) and than at that point Bearstalk.com will direct you to the new site. Now lets discuss some football

These are various wallpapers that people can use as desktop backgrounds if interested.

What did REx do and how serious do people think Olsen's injury is (or is it too soon to tell?).

This guy sounds good. I think Tank was more explosive when on, but Walker is just a more consistent player and seems to be just an awesome guy off the field.

I just hope Ced stays healthy. The guy takes a bit of a beating when he plays but so did Jerome Bettis and hell Larry Johnson does too (not saying Ced is gonna be LJ but he has the tools to be a pretty special back). I just know when he's healthy he runs strong, looks like he's really gotten comfortable (his vision finding the holes was great in his few carries of that pre-season game) and good lord can he bust tackles and get yards after contact. But I will still call him Sir Ceddy

ITs crazy...we gave up one late round pick to get our new DT Walker...but have collected two late round picks moving Wesley and Chris Harris. Hell, essentially we traded Chris Harris for a guy thats a damn good defensive tackle. Gotta love Jerry.

Awesome, sounds like some of the young defensive players looked real good (Dusty, Jamar Williams, Anderson) and I read that Grossman looked real sharp (as did Mark Bradley). I can't wait till I get to watch the game late tonight when I get back from the bars (got it dvr'd as it is being replayed on NFL Network for us out of towners tonight).

I don't see what the Saints did to get magically better than the Bears and I don't know what the Bears did to get a lot worse. I think a lot of people are writing off the Bears because they somehow think Grossman sucks (and he doesn't) and they are really thinking less of the team based on the negative press surrounding Briggs (which really has been non-existent for a while and the Bears have made the right decision). Of course I have absolutely no problem being under the radar (the Colts somehow went under the radar last season and won a Super Bowl and that is after a couple year run where they were one of the so called "dominant" teams in the league).

I tend to agree with you, but I wouldn't be shocked if the Harris talks don't start getting super serious till right around training camp, when the Bears can see that physically he's back in shape. Albeit we won't know if he's in Pro Bowl DT shape until the start of the season, but we can only hope as he's such a key part to this defense.

This is looking really sick so far Alex.

Ya, there are some weird bugs in the html (with pictures not showing up) and that is because we are using an old skin. Alex is gonna work on upgrading that sort of stuff and than we'll have a couple settings to update but overall once thats done we should be driving the cadillac of message boards.

Any weird looks will be straightened out by tomorrow evening. I don't even know all the new features yet but this thing is supposed to be much better than the predecessor.

We have upgraded the site to a newer version of the board and with that you may notice some small bugs but we will be working with them.

Well I would think the Bears would want to finish things with Harris before going to Briggs, you have to factor in the July 16th deadline (next Monday) for working out an extension with Briggs (at which point Briggs would have to accept the one year deal or I guess he could not accept it but that would be dumb).

He did a good job over seas but I think the Bears are very happy with the 3 Qb's they have on the roster (Grossman, Griese, Orton) and the 4th spot in training camp is apparently going to go to Chris Leak. I think O'Sullivan is a better player than Leak but Leak is a pretty good athlete so maybe the Bears figure they'll at least see what he can do in training camp and try to hold onto him on the practice squad.

Get ready to frame it cause he's going to win a couple super bowls with the Bears

Apparently the Chicago Bears and Lance Briggs/Drew Rosenhaus have begun working on a long term extension. Some people have apparently indicated a deal could be done soon. This would represent a major change from both camps as Briggs has consistently said he will never play another down for the Bears and the Bears have consistently said they will not offer Briggs a long term deal. My guess is the Bears have offered Briggs a similar deal to what he turned down a year ago (but changed something just so Briggs can say its a bit better) and something will happen.

Bears Sign Olsen Geeze, talk about getting things done. Now we just have our second rounder to go. Looks like this will be yet another year where the Bears are done before some teams/orgs even start. The addition of Olsen should not only bolster the offense, but it should provide more confidence and a nice safety outlet for Grossman (which should in turn help Grossman turn into a more effecient and productive QB).

He dug his own grave. Dissapointing because I thought he was a decent guy that made some huge mistakes, but either way when you get into this much trouble it is no longer a one or two time thing it is a serious trend.

Apparently the deal is worth 5 years 28 million. Adam Scheffer is reporting that Vasher will get a 14 million dollar signing bonus. He's getting paid well, but when healthy he's one of the better cover corners in the league (and a pretty darn good playmaker). PFT is also reporting that the Bears are in talks about inking Tillman to an extension (this would be fantastic because this duo is definitely one of the better duo's in the NFL...obviously not as good as the Bronco's duo, but good none the less).

Bears Sign Vasher This is a good move. I haven't seen the dollar figures yet, but Vasher is a darn good corner and I was glad to see the tidbit from the article saying that this signing will not prevent the Bears from signing up the rest of the core.