DABEARSDABOMB

Yeah, I've seen him over here. I think he has a few posts.

You really can't say many people would have said the things the Bears did were wrong. A year ago, hell at the beginning of the season, the Bears were still the talk of the NFC and for the most part were one of the most respected franchises in football. Things went south quickly and the Bears completely collapsed. Some due to injuries, some due to poor coaching, and a lot due to poor play.

I think if you have a hybrid like end it would be a very good thing to do on ocassions. It could create a nightmare for opposing offensive lines and QB's as they would have to worry a lot more about potential blitzes coming from other places with some of your hybrid guys sneaking back into coverage and vice versa. I do agree with you that as a whole the Bears have a whole lot of athletes I like on the line and it would be nice to utilize them more. However, if they use them right it should give them a solid burst all game long which would give the Bears a better pass rush (something that while statistically has been strong for the Bears, but for large spans of the game I feel the pass rush has been non-existent).

I don't think the Pats would be interested in such a move, nor do I think it is even possible for the Bears to make such a trade (given the fact that they can't put the franchise or transitional tag on Briggs) but had they been able to I would have gladly accepted such deal. I would have accepted the deal offered by the Redskins and been done with it. Also, given the quandary, I'd have taken McFadden and than an olineman. The one thing I don't like about a top 3 pick is that I think it is a cap nightmare if you end up missing on that pick. For that reason, along with the fact that I think teams picking that high are almost always better off getting a multidue of picks, I'd like to have the top pick so I could parlay it into multiple first day picks.

I think everyone on down would admit the move was a mistake. Harris was a stellar selection by Angelo. The guy was like a 6th round pick who ended up starting his rookie season and doing a pretty admirable job. He had a down season last year and a lot of people made him one of the scapegoats (forgetting how young he was) and he ended up going somewhere else and playing fantastically. Its too bad because right now I'd love to have one safety of Harris caliber in our secondary. Still, when the move was made you were talking about him being the 3rd or 4th best safety on the squad and the Bears figured they could get an extra pick (to recoup for the Walker move).

Their is absolutely no way that an offensive line coach could spin this season's performance by the line as anything but horrid. Between all of the missed blocks, the piss poor job blocking screens (that have cost the Bears some big plays) and the ridiculous amount of penalties the Bears truly have no excuse. The oline coach should be on the first plan out of Chicago, along with Ron Turner as soon as the season ends. In fact, the oline coach should definitely be long gone before Turner (although this may be overly harsh considering the prior couple years the oline had been quite productive).

I think the problem is with so many changes taking place on the line you take a major risk throwing a guy who really isn't familiar with any of these guys out on the field, especially when you are trying to evaluate the play of a young QB, Kyle Orton. Plus, Beekman is a 4th round pick and you don't necessarily a 4th round pick to be capable of starting during the first season. Personally speaking, I'd hope that the Bears have seen some growth out of him to the point that he can begin battling for a job or at least be a capable backup over an exteded period starting next season. If after next season the Bears still wouldn't be comfortable putting him out on the field, he should probably be released (and I could make a case that you could think that starting next season).

I got to admit, I'm surprisd that Urlacher or Ogunleye didn't make it. I'm also surprised Tommie made it out there. Maybe he is still playing pretty damn good (I figured on one leg, based on what I saw that he wasn't playing at a pro bowl level). Briggs had a good season and there is no arguing the Special Team selections.

I can't see anyway Walker would be worth that sort of cap hit cause there really isn't anything he can do the final two games to prove me he should be kept. I'd give a boatload of time to Kennedy/Toeaini (I really liked how Toe played).

Aside from the Garret Wolfe pick, there wasn't a pick I hated/disliked more than the Hester one. Hell, that alone shows just how much I know

Aside from his rookie season has he really been that much better than Benson? Williams is coming off a very severe injury (more so than Benson's) and was given a steady dose of carries from the get-go. I'm not necessarily makinga case that he is hands down better then Ced, but I think it is realistic at that this point in the career had Ced received a similar amount of carries that they would statistically have similar careers (but than again, I think Benson can be an above average back with a solid line and he showed to me this season that he can do good things when he gets some blocking; he just can't be effective when he has a horrid line, but most backs can't be).

Glad you made it over. It looks like you have your avy up, is there any other sort of pic you are looking to put up (I know all of the images that were on the old site, were deleted by the network). In the future we shouldn't have such issues (unless I personally f things up, which is always a possibility considering I'm a hack at this stuff, LOL) since we are on our own server.

I have a question for anyone that may know, how many times this season have the Bears ran the ball under 15 times (I have no idea if they ran it fewer than that tonight but it sure seemed like it and I know I've had that feeling a ton of times all season).

Those are pretty ridiculous comments. I'd like to point out that Lovie apparently told the ESPN reporters at halftime that they were quite pleased with Orton and expected him to do bigger/better things in the 2nd half. That obviously didn't happen but I'd be highly dissapointed if they didn't stick with Orton (the only possible reason I could see for going with Griese is if the Bears feel that playing Griese is more valuable in the sense that it helps them evaluate the young WR's more than having KO out there).

Completely agree. The only way I would even think about taking a DT is if Glenn Dorsey was on the board. I must admit it would be hard to pass up a total stud like him. He has similar attributes that a guy like Harris has and I have to admit it would be ridiculous watching the two of them in the inside (good lord). In all reality though, aside from LB (if Briggs goes), safety is the only spot I'd mess with on the defense (although I have no problem using later picks on the dline). I'd probably think/consider moving Manning to CB full time and release Manning Jr (Manning/McBride would be backup CB's with the 3rd being the other rookie corner, forget his name). Have Mike Brown/FA/Draft pick/McGowan at safety (quality FA) knowing if you must you can go with Manning (but try to just let Manning play one position and I think he has the athletic ability to be a solid CB in this league if you give him time to practice/play there for a camp/preseason and regular season).

Haynes/Columbo are the only two that were Angelo picks. Haynes/Grossman were picked in a trade down where the Bears passed on Dwayne Robertson (and to this day I think it was a good decision to trade down and Haynes development was stunted by the Bears switching coaches a year into his career, IIRC, and his style suited Blache/Jauron's style but not Lovies style (lovie prefers the speed approach).

I got to be honest. This was probably one of his better calls. Remember when Griese hit Clark on the playaction in GB (I think that was 4th down) and the Bears won the game. This was a similar call and Orton made the safe read to McKie (Clark was also open down the seam and probably had a TD) and failed to deliver the pass (McKie was open). Heck, given the Vikings absolute strength in the inside this was a pretty good playcall, imo (and it pains me to say that, LOL).

I want to point out that Urlacher/Mike Brown were drafted by the late Mark Hatley.

I don't know if I could call the Dusty pick bad. If you aren't calling the Colombo pick bad (since his failure was not because he didn't have the talent, rather cause he couldn't stay healthy) there is no way you can't call the Dusty pick bad. In his one game out there Dusty looked like a maniac (awesome push, played run/pass well) and I was super excited (unfortunately he went down in week 1). You also can't call it a major negative that he didn't play his rookie year given the Bears depth at DT at the time (you could say the timing of the pick was bad, in that they could have went for another position given the depth at DT). I also can't really comment on Bazuin till he gets on the field. Plus had the Bears not taken Benson they would have taken Mike Williams and that would have been twice the disaster.

I'm glad to see I wasn't the only one who thought that was a BS penalty. I was livid.

I think he was implying that with your early 2nd round pick there are very good odds that a quality Offensive tackle will still be there (ie, his opinion is that aside from Long the rest of the Tackles all grade out similarly so if you stick around you may be able to grab the same type of guy in rd 2 that you could have taken atop the board). My thought on this is that if this is the case, I can only hope someone some other team is drooling over is there and than the Bears can slide down the first round and pick up an extra 2nd round pick (give them a first where they still grab a tackle, a 2nd for a QB and a safety/RB/WR, than in the 3rd RD you take a guard you like and the other position you didn't take). In FA you sign one of the stud guards and than resign Brown who will groom the 3rd round guard we drafted (along with Beekman). Keep Garza/St.Clair (or Metcalf over Garza depending on cap space) as backups. You should also have money to give Briggs & Berrian money as well and maybe even give some money to a safety.

Someone have some info on Phillips. I haven't looked much into the draft aside from McFadden, the oline guys, Dorsey, and the QB's. I couldn't even tell you who this Phillips guy is (safety??).

Hell, at the end of the first half (after the TD) I was super excited and got these delusions of playoffs in my eyes (I was thinking based on the way the D was playing and the nice Orton pass to Moose to set up the McKie TD that hell, maybe they win out and get a little luck). Than the field goal and those delusions quickly dissapeared.

I agree with you on seeing more of Bradley on the field. He has potential and he has been absolutely terribly used. He gets open when he's out there and immediately comes off. I just don't understand it. I have no problem teaching Hester in game now that the season is done but it shouldn't prevent the Bears from getting a high-upside guy like Bradley a chance (afterall the Bears really need to know what they have in him since they are going to have Berrian out there in FA and Moose as a potential cap casualty). Welcome to the board Jason.

Part of why I don't mind keeping Orton is because of that neckbeard. It makes it look like we got a lumberjack at QB and to me that just promotes toughness