DABEARSDABOMB

Welcome aboard. Did you get your screenname changed the way you like it on all the sites? If not let me know and I'll take care of that

Apparently Rogers has struggled with some knee problems for part of training camp? I thought thats what I read somewhere when they were talking about some of the reasons he was cut. I know the coaching staff wasn't overly impressed but I think he was cut because financially they'd actually save some money while the coaching staff would also send a message to Mike Williams and the rest of the team that they don't care who you are, if you don't work hard, no matter how talented you are you'll be gone. Rogers was in a really poor situation (everyone in Detroit the past few years was) and I think coming to a place where he could come in and adjust without ridiculous expectations and be surrounded by guys that have an upbeat attitude (and right now the Bears have that) and a lot of confidence about the upcoming season could really be a nice thing to help Rogers show everyone why he was the 2nd overall selection.

The Vikings are apparently thinking about signing him.

Ya Clark is a very good run blocker and he isn't bad as a receiver, but he did have a real shoddy preseason and I'd admit he drops more balls than you'd like. At least he had a TD grab and another nice grab in the preseason finale.

What makes things better is that its on a team that has a defense thats capable of putting a team in the super bowl so he's in a position where if he becomes the starting QB he's on a pretty good team to boot.

Its quite evident that the Pats never really wanted to move him. All of this was just to put pressure on Branch to take the offer they have on the table. The Pats are unlikely to give in and the question is how badly does Branch want to play football.

The interesting part is whether we carry 5 or 6 WR's and who knows, maybe Charles Rogers becomes one of those guys. The Trib seems to think we will keep both Gage and Currie on early on. The next question is guys like Anderson (our 5th round pick) and obviously Michael Haynes. We should see the final cuts anytime now cause we need to get down to 53 today. Bynum is apparently a favorite to make the practice squad. The Bears seem to think he's a pretty good athlete, but he's still a little raw.

Rex would have been even better if it weren't for a few drops. He got better each and every preseason game and is our starter. I have full faith in Rex and I got faith in our Bears. Although I'll be much happier when our run blocking improves, than again, it was quite obvious we put very little focus on the running game during the preseason.

The one thing is those collar bone injuries are more random injuries as opposed to him being injury prone. He's made some mistakes but this guy was the 2nd overall pick and compared to Randy Moss at one point for a reason. He has loads of talent but with the Lions already having a lot of money comitted to there receiving core it seems like Charles Rogers was the odd man out. I'd have no problem taking a chance on Rogers cause I think he has more ability than at least a few of our guys.

Very interesting, Brown seems very confident he'll be back. Obviously doctors may have another story though, unless of course we go by Dr. Brown as Lovie calls him, lol. This is still good news though because Brown is already out of the sling and seems to be healing quickly thus far. We could really use him against the Packers, however, if there is any doubt I would have no problem sitting him an extra week if it meant preventing some sort of continuous nagging injury.

Too bad we missed out on Dante Stallworth because he just went to the Eagles who, like the Bears, needed some help at WR.

With him on IR, that means he's done for the season correct? The PUP list is where we would have placed him if we were going to use his services at some point this season, correct? I wonder why we did this so quickly, I didn't think his injury was that bad unless he reinjured it in the game against the Cardinals. Neverind, the link you posted was more detailed than the one on the Trib's site. I didn't realize Dusty was going to have to undergo surgery.

Ya, thats the early indications of the injury. When I heard seperated shoulder I feared it could be a long term injury. Plus I think until you are back at 100% you have a decent shot at reinjuring it with contact. Than again I'm not a doctor. It definately looked like he was in pain/pissed about the whole thing. The good news is if his recovery goes smoothly we shouldn't miss him for an extended period of time this season. Of course it could always linger and lead to him coming and getting hurt and having a constant battle of keeping him on the field. Brown is a very good all around end so it would be a huge loss not to have him for any extended portion of the season.

After 3 preseason games I think a position battle I've yet to hear talked about deserves some banter. Desmond Clark entered yet another season as the projected starter of the Bears. I know many Bear fans don't like Clark but his numbers aren't near as bad as fans would think he is. However, there is no doubting that Clark has had trouble catching the ball this preseason and he's also struggled to get open and create some space, especially in the red zone. He is well respected for his blocking and thats one of the big reasons I think Turner likes him. However, Reid has looked very good as our TE. He's found a way to get open and he's shown very good hands. Last night he made a nice catch right as he was getting drilled and it wasn't the first time he's made a nice catch while getting hit (this is what I deem a tough grab). His blocking could obviously improve but he doesn't appear to be anything horrible as a blocker (albeit I need to watch more of yesterday's game and watch that). Plus it is really hard to judge the blocking considering we have yet to open up any sort of running lanes. Still, does anyone else think that Reid could very well be the starter on opening day? Or could the Bears start rotating and giving Reid a lot more playing time with Clark getting a lot less (almost like a platoon type situation; although I must admit, I haven't heard much about a platoon in the NFL).

Dusty came in and played. I haven't watched all the game yet, so I still got some catching up to do to see how he played but I haven't seen anywhere about him standing out. Still its good to just have him back on the field. Especially since Indonejie and Boone and obviously Brown were all banged up.

Thus far this preseason the team has been relatively lucky. While we've had some nagging injuries for the most part the team has been able to stay away from the serious ones. Brown's, while not incredibly serious is the first injury that I know of that will prevent one of our players from playing in the opening day game. Considering the way Brown not only rushes the passer but plays the run he will be sorely missed. Apparently Idonejie will replace Brown as the starter and we obviously have some depth on our line but this will be a big loss, especially since no matter how bad some think the Packers are, with Favre they always have a chance at beating us. Hopefully we can make it through the final game unscaved and than get Mike Brown back. The good news is that if Harris can improve his tackling I won't be as unconfident as I was in our defense last year when Brown was out. Of course there is no guarantee Harris decides to stop tackling the upper body.

Best of all, getting a guy like Branch means we slide everyone down a spot on the depth chart (not named Moose). That means Berrian becomes one of the better 3's in the league and Bradley would obviously be one of the most talented 4's in the league while Davis is the 5 and if we carry a 6th we have Gage who can come in and while he's not explosive he has good hands, good size and is a very good blocking receiver.

The 3rd preseason game convinced me yet again that we could really help out our young QB by surrounding him with a 2nd quality receiver. We really aren't doing Rex a favor by putting him around so many raw receivers. I always think nothing helps a young QB more than some offensive weapons and right now our WR core greatly lacks in that area.

I completely agree with that. But right now its all a moot point. We have no control of the situation considering Benson is hurt and if he's healthy he will be rewarded with playing time. Injuries happen in this league and even though Jones will be the starter (if he's healthy) Benson will get 5-10 carries a game off the bench and if anything happens to Jones he'll step in and do more. I think in the Bears plans they want to get him a lot of reps this year as a backup as they groom him for the full time position starting next year.

Brian seems to be saying similar comments ever week since everyone is really gushing over him. I'll admit I got full confidence in him if Rex doesn't deliver, but I think everyone that sees Griese throw the ball very sucessfully against 2nd string units needs to think back to last preseason where Orton was doing the same thing and than came in and struggled in the pro's (I'm not comparing Griese and Orton just saying that its a different game when you are going up against vanilla defenses that aren't scheming).

I think our WR's look better when Brian is out there because we have some good athletes on our 2nd unit that are going up against far more raw 2nd string defensive players. Right now I know one thing, Rex looked a lot better than some people are crediting them for. I'm really glad I read the posts on this board because I see that while we may still be a young site that isn't as active as other boards (not yet at least, but give it time) but we have posters that aren't super reactionary and I've seen the best discussion on Grossman happen right here. The guy had a very strong game yesterday. He didn't have one of his usual slow starts and he came out of the gate ready to play. Our offensive line once again did a horrible job opening up holes and to magnify things we also had numerous penalties. Despite that Rex was converting first downs, spreading the ball to multiple receivers and if it weren't for a few drops he pretty much had a perfect first half (aside from the TD's, but its hard to recover from that many penalties).

That would be all for not than. I think the point of getting a guy like Branch is to team him with Moose to give us a legit WR core. If we move Moose to get Branch we still are really thin at the WR spot so basically we are just swapping #1's while we run out unproven injury prone guys at the 2 spot (Berrian/Bradley). Albeit I should say I really like Berrian but I have no problem giving him a year as our 3 and than at the end of the season we could move Moose to a 3 spot (if he was willing) or ship him out, move Branch to the #1 and than hopefully Berrian is than ready and proven to take over as our #2, Bradley can than (with another year under his belt) slide up into 3 and we'd be in real good shape. To me its a no brainer, but than again so was the idea of getting Lelie. This team desperately needs a WR.

That would be my guess. I honestly don't know since I am not that lucky.

Apparently the Patriots have told him he can seek a trade to another team so he can get the contract extension he wants. I don't know about you, but this guy is 27 years old and is the #1 on a perennial super bowl contender. I'd be all over making a push at Branch because he could come in and be the missing piece to the puzzle on the offense and with Mush here we'd essentially have two #1 WR's. While neither would be the explosive or upper echelon #1 WR, they are both very quality WR's that have good hands, can run good routes, and would make our offense that much better. I would give up a 2nd round pick for him assuming we signed him to an extension.

I kind of think of a dink and dunk QB as the perfect guy for Martz system. Neither Bulger or Warner had strong arms, they had very accurate arms and quick releases and that worked very well. They should be able to throw a deep ball, but it seems as if Martz offense more so utilizes multiple WR's and has guys crossing amongst each other which turns 10 yard passes into 20 or 30 yard passes.