rawaction

Bodies are fine but the Bears have 3 TEs on the roster, and 3 more on futures contracts. They have the same 4 safeties they had last year but Hardin also coming back off of injury. After Williams they had 7 LBs. You're talking a 3rd or 4th S, LB, TE over a starting LG for similar money. It didn't kill the Bears last year to have worse backups than Zbikowski or a mediocre blocking 3rd TE. Their guard play did kill them and again they don't seem to care enough to do anything about it.

Well, one is a much better team than the other....so you should probably root for the lesser team.

If Miami wins tonight, it will be 1-2-3-4 seeds in the East. The West (the easiest bracket according to most) will have 2-6-9 and either 12 or 13.

CBS should issue an apology for playing ESPN. It was a borderline bad call that happens 5 times a game and refs get right about half the time. The CBS crew giving it more than a mention was the problem. It literally changed the outcome of the game.

Solid depth. Excellent 4th LB, decent enough to start, if we need him to. Gives us that much more flexibility for the draft. Williams AND Anderson for same cost as Urlacher? I'll take that all day long. Damn good bargain shopping. I'm not a big fan of this move. Anderson is an OK pass defender, but a liability vs. the run. If he's the 4th LB, that's fine and dandy, but JT Thomas is again the 5th/6th LB (with Costanzo) and that'll make him another wasted draft pick in the last 3 years, without us ever seeing if he can actually play football. If Anderson's a starter, that means the Bears failed to get younger at LB, and will go into the 2013 offseason with 6 defensive starters as FAs (Anderson, Williams, Melton, Tillman, Jennings, Wright) and Peppers a possible cut due to his cap number. LB is an easy position to draft a guy at and get production. Only RB is easier for a college player to adapt to at the NFL level. And at some point, you're getting into a question of resources, and if they are being allocated as well as possible. You still don't have a good OL, and while Anderson, Williams, Maneri, and Zbikowski don't make much money....that's about 3.5Mil for 2 stop gap LBs, a 3rd/4th S, and a blocking TE (when you have a good blocking TE that played 91% of offensive snaps last year). That 3.5Mil could buy a pretty decent OG (probably enough for a Brandon Moore or Kevin Boothe at least for their 2013 salary). I think I'd take a solid starting LG, rookie MLB, JT Thomas at SLB, and Steltz/Walters as the 3rd S over signing Anderson, Williams, and Zbikowski. Draft flexibility be damned. Who cares if everyone knows what position you need to fill?

Wow! That was rough. For me game ball goes to Remy Abell. He had to play some big minutes and I thought he really frustrated Wyatt late in the 2nd half and early in the 1st. He started to force some things, though did get a lot of them to fall. Also, Hulls +/- had to be huge.

Not very comfortable right now. Zeller will make a difference in the second half but no threat of Hulls would hurt. And at some point other players will step up for Temple. Oladipo scored 6 of the first 8 and then disappeared. Gotta move the ball better and rebound better. Its going to come down to who can knock down shots.

Cody with the dropsies early.

Not a huge fan of Jones. Even with his versatility shown in college, I think he's only a LG or C in the NFL. Ind I'm not sure he'll be much more than a slightly better than serviceable one. There are a lot of interior OL I like more than him. Cooper and Warmack are obvious. But I also like Warford from UK. Kyle Long from Oregon. Frederick from Wisconsin. And I think that Fluker and Justin Pugh would be better to convert to OG (with the ability to play OT better than Jones) than Jones at OG. Again not that Jones is bad, but the injury issue combined with the limited upside takes him down on my list. I won't complain about any OL the bears bring in early though. They need the help and a slightly better than average one is more than the Bears have right now.

Yeah, there's definitely legitimate hope for a change. Bushrod has been good before (2011). Of course, he's been bad a lot but he's young enough to get back to that level. Webb has gotten better every year, and the hope is that him seeing lesser pass rushers as a RT will get him from slightly below league average to above average. Carimi was actually pretty solid at RG last year (according to PFF), and he was playing the position in a pinch. With an entire offseason devoted to the position, he could be an asset there. Any LG they get should be able to be an improvement over the Spencer and Rachal disaster. Garza is probably around to play out his contract this year, but C is the least important position on the OL, IMO. If he's the worst of the group, then overall they will be solid and good enough to win a ton of games and not get Cutler killed.

I got Creighton beating Duke. But either way I think Michigan St can beat Duke. Like u said good matchups for MSU all around.

The big boys coming to play today. Mid majors were the talk of the 2nd round and the majors were on alert today. All blowouts by BCS schools today.

There are 9.8Mil reasons why not to. The Bears can't fit him into the cap. Even if they could re-sign him to a long term deal cutting his cap number this year, they've already signed Bushrod (like it or not) and would be paying a lot of money for a RT or LG. While that's not that big of a deal to me (and where resources should have been going for GOOD players for a while), they could potentially get a good LG in the 2nd round and could get a legit stud in the first (Cooper, Warmack) or at RT (Fluker). If the Bears didn't already pay Bushrod, it would be worth thinking about. At this point I'd wait out the season, hope the OL solidifies itself some this year with Carimi finding a home at RG, Webb improving on the right side, Bushrod getting back to 2011 levels, and an early pick settling in at LG...and then look at signing Albert in next offseason.

I agree with their assessment. Good, cheap, low risk moves. I don't like Bushrod that much but their assessment of him was too over the top. Yeah, Zbikowksi isn't a guy that's going to kill you if he has to start. He started several games for the Colts this year and some for some pretty good Baltimore teams. He's a stronger special teamer and safety than Steltz. Good #3 safety. Williams, if he stays on the field, still can play. Good fit for the defense. Much better than the similar Geno Hayes signing last offseason.

FWIW, Walter Football has really liked the Bears last 2 moves.

Done deal per this website. 1 year/$715K http://www.spotrac.com/nfl/chicago-bears/tom-zbikowski/

May mean cutting Steltz and saving a few hundred thousand dollars.

First game is the best matchup of the tourney so far. The last game is the whitest.

I wis they'd give JT Thomas a shot. He's looked good when on the field late in games and in the preseason.

That Nation guy for James Madison is going to be an NBA player. Nice game and only a freshman.

I picked New Mexico to the final 4.

My mock draft on my blog. http://www.mr-irrelevantpgh-chi.blogspot.com/

Has Michigan worn white uniforms all year? Seem to only remember seeing yellow and blue.

I had Gonzaga losing in that.