2009 Chicago Bears offseason

[cubweiser03]

I'm not saying it was a bad hire, or his fault, its just a huge black eye whether or not he is our head coach.

This is true, IMO only something to consider if he was the DC, which before HC he never was a DC. As a line coach he wont get the attention/distraction. Look at Morninwheg, dude was a laughing stock HC and Philly took him as OC and he is doing very well at what he is good at. I remember the Bears needing an OC at that time and there were rumors of MW as OC at that time, i was ok with it because thats what he is good at. Marinara was 0-16 but still well respected as a dline coach, so i dont see a huge blackeye/distraction. Yes...Marinara for fun. Some of you Chicago guys remember Kevin Matthews right? This is what 'Jim Shorts' called him on our local radio here in GR MI.

[Soul]

http://blogs.nypost.com/sports/backpage/archives/2009/05/the_latest_on_f.html

 

ESPN's Jeremy Schaap is reporting that X-rays of Brett Favre's right shoulder have been sent to the Minnesota Vikings for evaluation, and if it is determined Favre does not need major surgery he will come out of retirement to play.

 

Schaap added that if Favre is healthy and can not reach a deal with the Vikings, he will explore joining another team.

If Favre already has X-Rays of the shoulder then why not just share what his own doctor has already diagnosed? Surely the Vikings aren't the first people to be seeing these. Doesn't make much sense to me...

[hawkeyecub]

http://blogs.nypost.com/sports/backpage/archives/2009/05/the_latest_on_f.html

 

ESPN's Jeremy Schaap is reporting that X-rays of Brett Favre's right shoulder have been sent to the Minnesota Vikings for evaluation, and if it is determined Favre does not need major surgery he will come out of retirement to play.

 

Schaap added that if Favre is healthy and can not reach a deal with the Vikings, he will explore joining another team.

If Favre already has X-Rays of the shoulder then why not just share what his own doctor has already diagnosed? Surely the Vikings aren't the first people to be seeing these. Doesn't make much sense to me...

 

Because an issue like that isn't black and white. It seems they all feel he may need at least some kind of procedure. Team doctors need to see the actual x-rays/MRI's like they're treating a current player. It's very possible that either the Vikings doctors or his doctor would recommend a major surgery in order to play while the other wouldn't.

 

It's really no different than the Cubs signing Milton Bradley and wanting to put him through a physical with their own doctors rather than taking his own doctor's word for it.

[David]

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/peter_king/05/10/may11/index.html

 

4. Chicago

I may not like how Jay Cutler babied his way out of Denver, but by Labor Day, the football world will have forgotten, and by Thanksgiving, the most popular baby name in Chicagoland will be Jay. (Unless it's Jerry, as in Angelo, the man who stuck his neck out and made this deal.) Cutler's a big-time player, and I suspect we'll find out over the next few years if he has nerves of steel and can win the big game.

Now, there's two things we don't know about Cutler and this offense. There's not a great receiver in the house and no promise of one on the way (Angelo should have guaranteed Torry Holt more money to get him to come to the Windy City). So Cutler's going to have to make do with the Devin Hesters and Rashied Davises, apparently. (Not that there's anything wrong with Hester. But he should be a third receiver, using his speed to game-break.)

Two: How good of a leader can Cutler be, coming in with the knock that he chafes on some teammates. It'll be interesting to see if he meshes well with Brian Urlacher; I don't take for granted that he will. Because of the Cutler factor and because I don't love the defense the way I did two or three years ago, I didn't want to leap the Bears over so many other teams. But then I went back and looked at their 2008 numbers. The bedrock stats for a good defense, I've always thought, are opponents yards per rush, turnovers forced and opponents' yards per pass. The yards per rush, 3.4, was excellent, third-best in the league. Turnovers forced, 32, was very good, second in the league. And yards per pass play by foes, 6.20, was eighth in the league. All good. If Cutler can lead an offense that puts up 400 points, only a point and a fraction more than a year ago, the Bears should win 12.

[Soul]

You know, this is what guys like King always say. Then someone on the team steps up and becomes a solid WR.

 

Face it, none of these guys are identifying who will become a solid receiver before it happens. How does anyone know if none of our draft picks will come through? How does he know that Bennett will automatically be a bust?

 

Nobody was out there saying Berrian would be good, or Eddie Royal, or even Anquan Boldin before it happened. All these targets were a surprise to people out on a national level.

 

They don't know what the hell is going on.

[David]

I'm of the opinion that outside of the truly elite receivers, like a Randy Moss or a TO (in his prime), and a few pretty good ones just a cut below, they're all pretty much the same. Most of them are mediocre and are as good as their QB's make them. That's not to say that some aren't better than others, but I just feel that the QB is the much bigger part of the equation.

 

Going into 06, people were clamoring for the Bears to get Ashley Lelie or Joey Porter. Then Rex Grossman made Bernard Berrian a name and figured out that Des Clark could still run somewhere and catch the ball. I just don't think it matters all that much. They're in the NFL for a reason.

[David]

And where does King even say that someone is going to step up and become a solid WR? He pretty much just points out that the Bears and Cutler will have to get by with what he deems an inferior corps of receivers.

[Soul]

Right. He even goes so far as to claim that not only are the Bears weak at receiver, but they have no chance of getting better.

 

I mean come on, that's horsecrap.

[David]

Right. I sort of misinterpreted what you were saying, but yea. I am sort of of the feeling that whoever gets thrown to a lot is the guy who steps up.

 

We shall see... It'll be interesting to see what happens with Cutler going to what is viewed as a crappy corps of receivers and Orton going over to what is seen as a solid, if not great, group of playmakers this year. I tend to think the QB makes all the difference and it'll be interesting to see if that holds true in this particular case.

 

All that said, I find it hard to feel slighted by a guy who puts the Bears 4th in the NFL at this point. :)

[Soul]

I didn't know he had us 4th :)

 

I'm with you. Some players who wind up getting taken out of the league could have been good players in a different situation. There have been plenty of cases of a guy sitting at the bottom of a roster who comes through elsewhere.

 

And the opposite is true too. Eddie Royal? He could very well be still sitting on someone's depth chart. What about a guy like Welker? If not for being sent to NE, he could be beginning his post-NFL life right now. He sat around on depth charts for 3 years. Nobody had a clue about him.

[David]

Right. It's no mystery when surprise WRs like an Eddie Royal or Marques Colston have Jay Cutler and Drew Brees throwing to them.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Didn't he have the Bears 32nd in the Super Bowl year?

[David]

Didn't he have the Bears 32nd in the Super Bowl year?

 

 

I can't imagine that anybody had them 32nd following the 05 season, but I suppose anything is possible.

[Soul]

Didn't he have the Bears 32nd in the Super Bowl year?

 

 

I can't imagine that anybody had them 32nd following the 05 season, but I suppose anything is possible.

 

Wojciechowski had a us tanking all season long, even through the playoffs. He even wrote a semi-apology article when it turned out we weren't going to be summarily dismissed in the playoffs.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Didn't he have the Bears 32nd in the Super Bowl year?

 

 

I can't imagine that anybody had them 32nd following the 05 season, but I suppose anything is possible.

 

Maybe it was before 05. He definitely had them No. 32 preseason one year where they were good.

[jersey cubs fan]

Dr. Z had the Bears picked for last that year. King's feeling on the Bears fluctuate greatly. He's really loved them at times and really hated them at other times.

 

 

 

Speaking of Dr. Z, does anybody else have a weird reaction toward the fundraiser King and others have organized to get Z his post stroke rehab? Z is a bitter old man who has been in the football writing business for decades. By all acounts he should be financially well off. The stars of the business, at SI and other major publications, were pulling down 7 figure salaries at the peak. Z had to be well into the 6 figure range. Anyway, they are trying to get fans to pay thousands upon thousands of dollars for some fairly mundane auctions items, like tickets to trainings camps and lunch with management types + King. There's a super bowl trip in there and tickets to a Cowboys game and some other stuff like signed books and junk. But again, we're talking about what should be a financially fit old man who has to be insured with some pretty decent coverage. And King wants people to pay tens or hundreds of thousands to get him even better treatment. It seems to be a poor use of charity, to try and raise all that money to get top of the line treatment for a ~75 year old man who has already lived a very nice life. I understand the motivation to try and help your friends, but pushing all the peole you are paid to critique to donate items and then trying to take advantage of your customers' passion for the sport you write about seems odd to me.

[David]

Didn't he have the Bears 32nd in the Super Bowl year?

 

 

I can't imagine that anybody had them 32nd following the 05 season, but I suppose anything is possible.

 

Maybe it was before 05. He definitely had them No. 32 preseason one year where they were good.

 

 

I would've picked them pretty low, too. Maybe not 32nd with that defense, but the team was terrible in 04, so there wasn't much to go on there. And they were going into the season with a rookie Kyle Orton having beaten out Chad Hutchinson for the starting QB job.

[Soul]

Dr. Z had the Bears picked for last that year. King's feeling on the Bears fluctuate greatly. He's really loved them at times and really hated them at other times.

 

 

 

Speaking of Dr. Z, does anybody else have a weird reaction toward the fundraiser King and others have organized to get Z his post stroke rehab? Z is a bitter old man who has been in the football writing business for decades. By all acounts he should be financially well off. The stars of the business, at SI and other major publications, were pulling down 7 figure salaries at the peak. Z had to be well into the 6 figure range. Anyway, they are trying to get fans to pay thousands upon thousands of dollars for some fairly mundane auctions items, like tickets to trainings camps and lunch with management types + King. There's a super bowl trip in there and tickets to a Cowboys game and some other stuff like signed books and junk. But again, we're talking about what should be a financially fit old man who has to be insured with some pretty decent coverage. And King wants people to pay tens or hundreds of thousands to get him even better treatment. It seems to be a poor use of charity, to try and raise all that money to get top of the line treatment for a ~75 year old man who has already lived a very nice life. I understand the motivation to try and help your friends, but pushing all the peole you are paid to critique to donate items and then trying to take advantage of your customers' passion for the sport you write about seems odd to me.

 

I'm not sure of Z's situation so I don't really know. I won't be handing any money to him, though certainly I don't want anyone to suffer a stroke.

[UMFan83]

Didn't he have the Bears 32nd in the Super Bowl year?

 

 

I can't imagine that anybody had them 32nd following the 05 season, but I suppose anything is possible.

 

Maybe it was before 05. He definitely had them No. 32 preseason one year where they were good.

 

 

I would've picked them pretty low, too. Maybe not 32nd with that defense, but the team was terrible in 04, so there wasn't much to go on there. And they were going into the season with a rookie Kyle Orton having beaten out Chad Hutchinson for the starting QB job.

 

The 04 team was ravished with injuries especially defensively and it was the first year of implementing Lovie's cover 2 system. I expected the 05 team to he much improved with grossman healthy (at least we thought at the time) and an outside shot at competing for a wild card spot in a weaker NFC.

[Soul]

Didn't he have the Bears 32nd in the Super Bowl year?

 

 

I can't imagine that anybody had them 32nd following the 05 season, but I suppose anything is possible.

 

Maybe it was before 05. He definitely had them No. 32 preseason one year where they were good.

 

 

I would've picked them pretty low, too. Maybe not 32nd with that defense, but the team was terrible in 04, so there wasn't much to go on there. And they were going into the season with a rookie Kyle Orton having beaten out Chad Hutchinson for the starting QB job.

 

The 04 team was ravished with injuries especially defensively and it was the first year of implementing Lovie's cover 2 system. I expected the 05 team to he much improved with grossman healthy (at least we thought at the time) and an outside shot at competing for a wild card spot in a weaker NFC.

 

If it was in '05, then I would be interested to know if it was before or after the Grossman injury in preseason. Because there were many of us who figured the season was done after that moment. Maybe it was unjustified, but at the time Grossman was thought to have much potential, and it was completely wiped away in that moment. It turned out the defense was good enough to lift us to the playoffs, but I don't think it was completely out of hand to have the Bears picked low after we knew Grossman wouldn't be there. That's a projected franchise QB wiped off the map in one blow.

[David]

Didn't he have the Bears 32nd in the Super Bowl year?

 

 

I can't imagine that anybody had them 32nd following the 05 season, but I suppose anything is possible.

 

Maybe it was before 05. He definitely had them No. 32 preseason one year where they were good.

 

 

I would've picked them pretty low, too. Maybe not 32nd with that defense, but the team was terrible in 04, so there wasn't much to go on there. And they were going into the season with a rookie Kyle Orton having beaten out Chad Hutchinson for the starting QB job.

 

The 04 team was ravished with injuries especially defensively and it was the first year of implementing Lovie's cover 2 system. I expected the 05 team to he much improved with grossman healthy (at least we thought at the time) and an outside shot at competing for a wild card spot in a weaker NFC.

 

 

It really depends on how early these rankings were. Grossman got hurt in the preseason and we, again, went into the regular season with Kyle Orton as the starting QB. The defense still hadn't hit the stride it hit in 05, and we really had no idea what to expect from them and if Lovie's defense would amount to anything.

[Soul]

Of course, the Rams & Pats are good examples of a starting QB going down, and still having a good season.

 

But in general it doesn't surprise me when a team's power ranking drops through the floor after their top QB is put out for the year.

[jersey cubs fan]

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/nfl/specials/preview/2005/scout.report/

 

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/nfl/specials/preview/2005/scout.report/bears.html

 

It was after Grossman went down. But it was still a questionable prediction, at the extreme low of forecasts that I remember.

[Soul]

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/nfl/specials/preview/2005/scout.report/

 

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/nfl/specials/preview/2005/scout.report/bears.html

 

It was after Grossman went down. But it was still a questionable prediction, at the extreme low of forecasts that I remember.

 

I still don't think it's worth nearly the scorn that Wojciechowski's hounding of the Bears all season in '06 deserves.

[RedFlash]

http://www.chicagobears.com/news/NewsStory.asp?story_id=5817

 

Bears just signed Michael Gaines.