adam

Looks like we will be seeing a full dose of Cedric Benson this week.

Let him hold out. If the Bears are going to lose him either way, they might as well try to retain him for one more year. Otherwise, letting him walk after this year would be a double negative (Bears lose Briggs in 2007, and he is playing for someone else in 2007). If they Franchise him, he can hold out, but at least he doesn't play on another team. Now if the Bears Franchise him, and he holds out, can they trade him?

SI.com lists their potential Superbowl pairings: 1. New Orleans-San Diego 2. New England-Dallas 3. New Orleans-Indianapolis 4. Baltimore-Dallas 5. Indianapolis-Dallas 6. San Diego-Chicago -- Get ready for the irresistible force meets the immovable object angle. The league's top-scoring offense meets the league's stingiest defense. LT in the open field, putting his best move on Brian Urlacher could be fun. 7. Baltimore-Chicago -- Or maybe you'd prefer the NFL's best two defenses squaring off, in the first 13-10 Super Bowl in league history? Think of the linebackers who would be in this one: Urlacher, Ray Lewis, Lance Briggs, Bart Scott, Terrell Suggs and Adalius Thomas. 8. New England-New Orleans 9. San Diego-Dallas 10. Indianapolis-Chicago -- What a love-fest we'd be in store for. Make that Lovie-fest. With Tony Dungy and his former Bucs assistant coach Lovie Smith taking center stage, we'd have two of the best human beings in the NFL tossing bouquets to one another. We'd also have the first two black head coaches in Super Bowl history going face to face (Cincinnati-Chicago would hold the same distinction). 11. Chicago-New England -- It'd be Super Bowl XX, XXI years later. We'd get to re-live the Jim McMahon mooning of the helicopters, the Jim McMahon acupuncture treatments, the Jim McMahon "Rozelle'' headband, and so much more. William "The Refrigerator'' Perry could handle the pregame coin toss, and the sports world would be forced to remember that once upon a time Tony Eason was actually a Super Bowl quarterback. 12. New England-Seattle 13. Seattle-San Diego Also, on ESPN NFL Live, they went thru some Bears Superbowl opponents, and who they thought would win: vs Chargers (Allen and Salisbury both pick Chargers) vs Patriots (Allen picks the Bears, Salisbury picks the Pats) vs Colts (Allen picks the Bears, Salisbury picks the Colts) vs Jaguars (Allen picks the Bears, Salisbury picks the Jags) vs Bengals (Allen and Salisbury both pick Bengals) It is pretty funny how Salisbury picks the Bears to lose no matter who they play. Out of those teams, I actually think the Bengals would be the hardest matchup-wise for the Bears. The Chargers rely too heavily on LT, the Pats are not that good (even though they beat us), the Colts have a Div-IIA Defense, and the Jaguars are over-rated IMO. The best game of the year might be the NFC Championship game in Chicago vs New Orleans.

Rex played very solid after a shaky start, but he will need to continue to play well for the remainder of the year. I don't think they will take him out this late in the season, but if he struggles early in the playoffs, they will probably have a shorter leash.

Hester would also be an awesome decoy. The Defense would have to know where he is at, taking the pressure off the other receivers.

Rosenhaus and the Bears, Boras and the Sox. Man, our teams cannot win with these vampire agents. I feel that the Bears will franchise Briggs next year to get one extra year out of him before he gets a monster deal. That will also allow the Bears to draft or acquire a decent replacement.

I just refer to him as the "Magic Man". You could also call him the Designated Hitter or DH playing off his initials since he hits a HR every time he touches the ball........ Here are a few others: "PrimeTime2k" "Missile of the Midway" "Bo Jackson in Tecmo Bowl"

Here is a great example of that, Alex Brown, 2009 Salary - $670,000.

Just for fun, I researched each player's contract to see when they would become a Free Agent. Players in bold are either in their final year of their contract or have one more after this year. So after this year the Bears would lose Briggs, Brown, and Johnson as starters. After 2007 they would lose Grossman, Jones, Berrian, and Tillman. The Bears have been extending a ton of players for 4-6 years, so it will be interesting to see which of these players will get extensions within the next year. If the Bears can lock up Tillman and Briggs, the entire starting Defense would be signed thru at least 2008 (assuming Brown comes back healthy in 2007 as SS). Only two contract extensions to lock up your entire starting D for a couple more years is not bad at all. The Bears front office has done a great job.

The way the commentators were talking, it sounded like Briggs wants to hit free agency, and that is why he turned down the "large" contract earlier this year. Who knows, Briggs might want to get out of the shadow of Urlacher (or something to that effect), or he may want to get the most out of this contract which might make him out of reach for the Bears. I just hope the Bears can work something out with him before next season.

During MNF, the commentators mentioned Briggs and his contract. First they said that the Bears offered him a "large" contract which he turned down. They also said Urlacher has went to the team and said that he would restructure his contract to help the team re-sign Briggs. Then they concluded that more than likely the Bears will Franchise him for next season. What is everyone's feelings about Briggs?

freak YEAH!!!! Great game, demolishing the Rams at Soldier Field South.

I expect to see him in on offensive plays by the end of the year. He is too electric to keep off the field.

Let's just hope we get the QB situation straightened out tonight. Either Rex plays good and stays in as the starter, or he struggles and we get Griese the rest of the year. I would hate for this issue to drag on from week to week before the playoffs. Home-field advantage + another week to rest Tommie Harris.

Getting that first round bye and extra week off is now even more important. He would get at total of 6 weeks off until the Divisional playoffs. Hopefully that would be enough time to heal.

It looks like the Bears running defensive problems are associated more with scheme than any other factor. Harris will be a huge loss, and this week vs Jackson will be a good test.

Welcome aboard Bearcub! Yeah, I don't think anyone saw the Saints being in first place in their division ahead Carolina and Atlanta. However, I was surprised to see that they have not beat a team with a winning record.

I say give him the first half. If he looks the same as he has over the last few weeks bring in Griese in the second half. Also, I read this, which was pretty interesting: Based off that, it makes Rex's recent performance look even worse, because normally you can put some of the blame on the receivers.

As a fan, I want to see Rex succeed, but there has to be a point where they try something else. The only thing keeping him in there is that the Bears are winning, but in spite of him. If the Bears lose the Arizona game and any of the other games where Rex struggled (take your pick), the Bears would be 8-4 or maybe even 7-5. If that happened Griese would probably be the QB right now. That is why they brought him in? I am sure the Defense would appreciate even a few sustained drives to give them a little rest. The Defense was on the field for almost 40 minutes against the Vikings. If that continues, the injuries are going to pile up. I say give him the first half vs STL. If he manages the offense effectively, leave him in, but if he continues to struggle, bring Griese in for the 2nd half to see what he can do. How much longer are they going to use this excuse? I could see for the first 4-6 games, but not after 12 games this year plus a couple at the end of the season last year.

CBS Sportsline has a pretty good rating system for players that I check out periodically. For QBs, Grossman is the 3rd lowest rated QB (43rd overall) with over 100 yds passing per game. The only ones lower are Gradkowski and Walter. He has had 20 turnovers in the last 7 games. If he was on any other team, he would be on the bench. I have watched some of the games again, and it looks like Grossman is regressing with every game. At first it was him just throwing off his back foot, then it was him making bad throws with pressure up the middle, but now he is making bad decisions (throwing into double coverage, missing the open receivers, etc) with no pressure. Lovie is starting to sound more like Ozzie Guillen with his Starting pitchers (leaving them in too long and being stubborn). I understand you want to have confidence in your young QB, but Grossman has not shown anything since the NYG game, and that was a month ago. At this point, I would give Grossman the first half against STL. If he continues to have all his bad habits, then you start Griese in the 2nd half. Otherwise, the Bears will never know if Griese is a better solution, but it is hard to believe he can be much worse than Grossman has been over the last couple of games.

I was thinking the same thing when I saw the news. The Bears really can use some depth there with the Brown injury. It just looks like Parrish fell out of favor. It might have been the system. As long as it was not injury related, it would be worth a serious look.

All I have seen so far was this:

and Defense.

Great job to clinch the 2nd consecutive Division title, now we need HFA. Hopefully the Bears can wrap that up within the next few weeks and give some of the starters a rest (especially on D).

Bears draft a QB or maybe try to get someone like McNabb?