Chicago Bears Offseason 2012

[RynoRules]

Santonio Holmes has been a me-first prick since college. PASS

 

He's also been a good WR since then. Bears haven't had a good WR since......

 

Bernard Berrian? Turns out he wasn't that good. Marcus Robinson? He wasn't really that good either. (ironically both of their careers plummeted when they went to Minny; go figure).

 

Maybe Marty Booker? Two really good seasons and faded into mediocrity in Miami.

 

You could make the case that you have to go back to the Conway-Graham tandem of the early-mid 90's. Conway only had two really good years with us, and a third with San Diego when he was 30. Graham was very good the two years he was here, but for some reason we let him go at age 27. He was ordinary with the Jets fir a couple of years (likely due to how crappy they were at that time) but very productive with SD during the final three years of his career..

 

I think the more interesting question is when was the last time we had a good WR who was more than a two year flash in the pan? You might have to go back to "Wild" Willie Gault, who we also let walk at age 27, and who in reality was more of a track star than a WR...but at least he was a major freaking threat. He averaged 21.3 per catch in 85', and 19.9 per catch for his career. He was probably the fastest player in the game at the time, and the WR position was very different back then (Andre Johnson might have been playing TE).

 

(Honorable mention to Wendell Davis, who looked like he was coming on before he had both of knees ripped to pieces by the stiched turf at the Vet.)

 

This as much an indictment of our offensive philosophy and QB woes as it is of the WR talent.

 

marcus robinson had the greatest season of any bear receiver ever. robinson had a pretty bad back injury while he was with us and he never fully recovered.

 

he was big and fast and he made cade mcnown and jim miller look good.

 

Fair point about Marcus; forgot about the back injury. And your second point is certainly well taken, though Miller was a much better QB than McNown.

[Magnetic Curses]

Fair point about Marcus; forgot about the back injury. And your second point is certainly well taken, though Miller was a much better QB than McNown.

 

do you remember the bubble-screen game? it was when crowton was still the coordinator and iirc, he pretty much invented the bubble-screen on that day. i'd never seen it used before this game, but we had 3 long touchdowns between booker and robinson on those things. miller had like 460 yards passing or something dumb like that. i can't remember who we played that day, but i think we won.

 

EDIT: it was this game, and we lost. randy moss and cris carter destroyed us, and jeff george actually had a year in which he lived up to his potential.

 

http://www.pro-football-reference.com/boxscores/199911140chi.htm

[SpongeWorthy]

Fair point about Marcus; forgot about the back injury. And your second point is certainly well taken, though Miller was a much better QB than McNown.

 

do you remember the bubble-screen game? it was when crowton was still the coordinator and iirc, he pretty much invented the bubble-screen on that day. i'd never seen it used before this game, but we had 3 long touchdowns between booker and robinson on those things. miller had like 460 yards passing or something dumb like that. i can't remember who we played that day, but i think we won.

 

EDIT: it was this game, and we lost. randy moss and cris carter destroyed us, and jeff george actually had a year in which he lived up to his potential.

 

http://www.pro-football-reference.com/boxscores/199911140chi.htm

 

Boniol missed the game winner in OT that game.

[Magnetic Curses]

boniol was the blurst

[minnesotacubsfan]

Bonehead Boniol

[jersey cubs fan]

Ahhh, 1999, my first year with sunday ticket.

[RynoRules]

Fair point about Marcus; forgot about the back injury. And your second point is certainly well taken, though Miller was a much better QB than McNown.

 

do you remember the bubble-screen game? it was when crowton was still the coordinator and iirc, he pretty much invented the bubble-screen on that day. i'd never seen it used before this game, but we had 3 long touchdowns between booker and robinson on those things. miller had like 460 yards passing or something dumb like that. i can't remember who we played that day, but i think we won.

 

EDIT: it was this game, and we lost. randy moss and cris carter destroyed us, and jeff george actually had a year in which he lived up to his potential.

 

http://www.pro-football-reference.com/boxscores/199911140chi.htm

 

Yes, I do recall that game. I especially rememeber the first game vs the Chiefs, where Curtis P. Enis caught a screen and did a somersault into the endzone. I thought that Crowton was onto something. Oh well.

 

And how did those Vikes teams not win at least one SB? Moss, Carter, Jake Reed, Cullpepper/Cunningham/George, Robert Smith, John Randle, etc.

[RynoRules]

Just for fun:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Chicago_Bears_first-round_draft_picks

 

Since Ditka left:

 

1993 Conway Wide Receiver Southern California

1994 11 Thierry Defensive end Alcorn State

1995 21 Salaam Half Back Colorado

1996 13 Walt Harris Defensive back Mississippi State

1997 — No Pick — — [t]

1998 5 Enis Half Back Penn State

1999 12 McNown Quarterback UCLA

2000 9 Urlacher Linebacker/Safety New Mexico

2001 8 Terrell Wide Receiver Michigan

2002 29 Colombo Offensive tackle Boston College

2003 14 Haynes Defensive end Penn State [v]

2003 22 Grossman Quarterback Florida [v]

2004 14 Tommie Harris Defensive tackle Oklahoma

2005 4 Benson Half Back Texas

2006 — No Pick — — [w]

2007 31 Olsen Tight End Miami

2008 14 Chris Williams Offensive tackle Vanderbilt

2009 — No Pick — — [x]

2010 — No Pick — — [x]

2011 29 Carimi Offensive tackle Wisconsin

 

 

If you believe as I do that 1st Rnd picks (particualrly when taken in the first half of the round) should be true impact players who are with your franchise for 7-10 years, then we have done a pretty piss poor job based on that list.

 

Of course two of those picks were turned into Jay Cutler, which is great....but the one in 1997 was turned into Rick Mirer....not so great.

 

There are a couple that qualify as the worst, IMO: Thierry (Hatley) and Haynes (Angelo).

 

Most disappointing to me would be Salaam (Hatley), Enis (Hatley) and Terrell (Angelo).

[rawaction]

Just for fun:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Chicago_Bears_first-round_draft_picks

 

Since Ditka left:

 

1993 Conway Wide Receiver Southern California

1994 11 Thierry Defensive end Alcorn State

1995 21 Salaam Half Back Colorado

1996 13 Walt Harris Defensive back Mississippi State

1997 — No Pick — — [t]

1998 5 Enis Half Back Penn State

1999 12 McNown Quarterback UCLA

2000 9 Urlacher Linebacker/Safety New Mexico

2001 8 Terrell Wide Receiver Michigan

2002 29 Colombo Offensive tackle Boston College

2003 14 Haynes Defensive end Penn State [v]

2003 22 Grossman Quarterback Florida [v]

2004 14 Tommie Harris Defensive tackle Oklahoma

2005 4 Benson Half Back Texas

2006 — No Pick — — [w]

2007 31 Olsen Tight End Miami

2008 14 Chris Williams Offensive tackle Vanderbilt

2009 — No Pick — — [x]

2010 — No Pick — — [x]

2011 29 Carimi Offensive tackle Wisconsin

 

 

If you believe as I do that 1st Rnd picks (particualrly when taken in the first half of the round) should be true impact players who are with your franchise for 7-10 years, then we have done a pretty piss poor job based on that list.

 

Of course two of those picks were turned into Jay Cutler, which is great....but the one in 1997 was turned into Rick Mirer....not so great.

 

There are a couple that qualify as the worst, IMO: Thierry (Hatley) and Haynes (Angelo).

 

Most disappointing to me would be Salaam (Hatley), Enis (Hatley) and Terrell (Angelo).

 

Really can't afford to miss that much in the 1st round. Urlacher and Harris are the only true "successes" of that group.

[SpongeWorthy]

Toasty Harris was decent

[minnesotacubsfan]

Some of those were ok picks, Williams, Conway, gross man for short periods of time. But yea,, the lack of long term stars is troubling

[Soul]

Toasty Harris was decent

 

Too long a learning curve, as I recall, but ended up decent.

[Guest]

3 first round picks in 6 years. I wonder how many teams have given up that many first round picks? Aside from the Raiders, that is.

[Banedon]

What happened to the 2006 pick? Trade down?

[jersey cubs fan]

What happened to the 2006 pick? Trade down?

 

They traded out of the bottom of the 1st and ended up taking Manning and Hester in the 2nd. I don't remember them getting much for the trade either.

 

They traded their 1st (25th overall I believe) to Buffalo for their 2nd and 3rd, and took Manning and Dusty with those two picks. They didn't make another 3rd round pick so that must have been used in another trade.

[Banedon]

What happened to the 2006 pick? Trade down?

 

They traded out of the bottom of the 1st and ended up taking Manning and Hester in the 2nd. I don't remember them getting much for the trade either.

 

They traded their 1st (25th overall I believe) to Buffalo for their 2nd and 3rd, and took Manning and Dusty with those two picks. They didn't make another 3rd round pick so that must have been used in another trade.

 

Yeah, just looked that up. Manning ended up being good, but obviously Dusty was a bust. Nothing "first round quality" that came from that.

[Butterscup1679666578]

Two league sources tell the Chicago Sun Times that Chiefs college scouting director Phil Emery is in the "driver's seat" to replace Jerry Angelo as the Bears' next general manager.

Emery worked in the Falcons' front office when Atlanta drafted Michael Vick, and has been with Scott Pioli in Kansas City for the last three seasons. A 31-year football veteran, Emery's background is strictly in college scouting.

[Theo]

Thats terrible news.

He was the Bears southern scout in 03 and gave the 1st round recommendation on Grossman, so that should tell you about his football accuman.

Edited January 20, 2012 by Theo

[minnesotacubsfan]

Oh god

[rawaction]

Two league sources tell the Chicago Sun Times that Chiefs college scouting director Phil Emery is in the "driver's seat" to replace Jerry Angelo as the Bears' next general manager.

Emery worked in the Falcons' front office when Atlanta drafted Michael Vick, and has been with Scott Pioli in Kansas City for the last three seasons. A 31-year football veteran, Emery's background is strictly in college scouting.

 

Yeah, I'm not digging this news. But to make lemonade....

 

Some Matt Trowbridge guy wrote this today.

 

"At the time, I thought of Emery as maybe the fourth most-likely to get hired, ahead only of in-house candidate Tim Ruskell. I was surprised today to hear Jeff Dickerson of AM-1000 -- whom I think is the best of the radio reporters on the Bears beat -- announce Emery as his top candidate, too. Dickerson's preference, in order, was: 1. Phil Emery of the Chiefs; 2. Marc Ross of the Giants; 3. Jason Licht of the Patriots; 4. Jimmy Raye of the Chargers and 5. Tim Ruskell."

 

Also of note, Emery is currently the Chiefs college scouting director, and he served in the same capacity under Tim Ruskell in Atlanta.

[Guest]

I heard Dickerson's list earlier today, and it was a weird segment. He seemed to be going back and forth between "how good a candidate this guy is" and "how likely the Bears are to hire this candidate" depending on which guy he brought up.

[cubbyvirus00]

Maybe Emery learned a few things from Pioli? Anybody but Ruskell tbh

[RynoRules]

F this. Such a typical Bears hire. Let's not get the younger, dynamic guy from an org that clearly knows how to draft impact players. Let's get a guy who will make the "safe" and "traditional" picks.

[UMFan83]

F this. Such a typical Bears hire. Let's not get the younger, dynamic guy from an org that clearly knows how to draft impact players. Let's get a guy who will make the "safe" and "traditional" picks.

 

What makes you come to this conclusion?

 

I will say that based on the teams he's been involved with its rather underwhelming but we don't know enough about him to assume what kind of draft picks he makes. The Chiefs have actually made quite a few good picks the last couple of seasons.

[UMFan83]

Thats terrible news.

He was the Bears southern scout in 03 and gave the 1st round recommendation on Grossman, so that should tell you about his football accuman.

 

Yes let's base his entire career on one recommendation he made a decade ago.