rawaction

It was almost certainly going to be Philadelphia or Indianapolis (if they make it) hosting that game. They weren't going to give that slot to Kansas City or the St. Louis/Seattle winner. The other three slots are harder to predict. I imagine STL/SEA will be the early game Sunday since they are playing this week on NBC already and NBC has both Saturday games. The Chiefs will probably be the early game Saturday and the Colts will be the late game on Sunday. That makes sense. Figured the Colts and Eagles would get the 2nd games on both days.

Yeah I'm hoping they take a shot at him and give him a couple years behind Kreutz to learn. He's very solid. I hope they get rid of Kreutz and let Barnes compete right away with Eddie Williams and/or Garza who moves to C.

I think franchise QB implies "elite" or near elite status.

Speaking of Mizzou losing their C. I like Tim Barnes a lot. I think he's a guy the Bears could draft in the 3rd or 4th round and be an eventual starter for them.

It's going to happen this year. Someone is going to take Locker in the 1st. Maybe Seattle?

Gabbert has always given scouts woodies, but he has never had elite numbers. He was one of the top QB recruits coming out of HS and his HS numbers weren't anything special. I understand the talent is there, but I have yet to see him put it all together in a single season.

I thought I liked Chris Young until I realized he's going to be 32 early this coming season.

Wow. I can almost taste the Superbowl at this point. I know I am getting WAY ahead of myself, but I can't help it. This really was the best case scenario for the Bears. One thing I never thought of was the fact that there's a very strong chance that the NFC Championship game is played in Chicago. Atlanta is set up to get a home game vs. either NO (who just beat them in Atlanta) or Green Bay (who should have beaten them in Atlanta). Chicago either gets a Philly team that they already beat in Chicago, or a New Orleans team that is 2-6 in their last 8 games under 40 degrees (including one of those losses vs. the Bears in 08).

Per rotoworld, the Bears are also working on extensions for Danieal Manning and Anthony Adams. In addition to yesterday's signings of Toeina and Mannelly.

The realest thing ever written on this board.

You have In n Out...all over the place there. And you get excited about Steak n Shake?! +1

I just looked at the stats from the Buffalo game. For whatever reason, I was under the impression that the Bears had a better game than they did. I didn't think they won TOP. I also thought they had about 325 yards. Point taken. That wasn't a particularly strong showing either.

Eh, there's one team of the 6 that definetely "shouldn't" get one over them. But I don't have much sympathy for dome teams concerned about the ideal path to the Super Bowl, let alone teams that just freaking won the thing the year before. Plus, there's still an outside shot that they can host one. That and having the easiest first round matchup is a pretty nice consolation. I'd rather not have a 1st round game than have one, no matter who it is against. They still gotta win 3 likely road games to get to Dallas, while a team like the Bears or Eagles w/ the same record will only have to win 2, with 1 of them being at home. It's a huge discrepancy. That being said, I don't have a problem w/ the system as it is.

The Bears are Gould's missed FG Sunday and a late FG in Detroit (instead of running out the clock) away from being in the top 1/2 of the league in scoring. And that's with having 2 of the worst passing games in league history (Giants/Panthers). I think the offense is more consistent than it is inconsistent. Other than the 4 games where Cutler had or was shell-shocked from concussion, the Bears offense has averaged nearly 25 points per game. The Pats and Dolphins games are the only poor showings they had of the other 11.

Screwed is probably too strong of a word. But it would suck to go 12-4 and not get a home game.

NO is getting screwed. They could either be the 1 seed or the 5 seed. No in-between.

Short fields are wonderful in so many ways. You are either set up with 1 or 2 first downs for a shot at a FG. Or 1 or 2 first downs away from pinning the other team inside their 20, which helps the defense. Despite how exciting Hester is returing the ball, I love when teams don't kick to him. I'll take a 30 yard punt out of bounds most times over a chance to return a 45 yard punt. That being said, Hester has been good for a 15 yard return every time he gets a punt recently.

Heres the thing that everyone misses out on: Everyone Is Susceptible To The Short Passing Game. There isn't a team in the league that can stop a really well run west-coast style short passing game akin to what the Patriots and Packers run. The way the game has been legislated and the rules have been enforced, its basically unstoppable. They'll roll up yards and points on you. Its the way the NFL wants it to be. You just do what you can to hold teams to as few points as possible, and try to get your turnovers when you can. The days of a shutdown defense are gone. What are you even talking about? The Steelers have had a pretty damn good shutdown defense for several years. The Jets were a fantastic shutdown defense last year. Baltimore from time to time has been shutdown. You can't live on great defense for years and years of success. But shutdown defenses do exist in the NFL. There are 16 teams in the NFL that give up fewer passing yards per game than the Bears. That is bothersome to me, especially since their offense is not a consistent force. To be fair, the Bears offense has been much more consistent since the bye. Also, the Bears will be playing their 9th game this Sunday vs. a team in the top 12 in passing offense (4 against the bottom 12). So, they have played some very pass heavy teams. In comparison, the #1 pass defense of the Chargers have played 5 games vs. the top 12 and 8 vs. the bottom 12. That's not to say that I'm not concerned about the pass D. It's also not to say that this is anywhere near a shutdown defense.

Rivers is actually worse at handling the ball, at least he was last year. There's no reason for Jones to have the ball over Hulls though. Jones is averaging 4 turnovers per game this year. 3.4 assists. Rivers has been a totally different player this season so it isn't fair to throw around last season's stats. But he still has the same limitation of not being able to shoot a jumper so that still handicaps him. Been a different player because he isn't running the point though. And he isn't running the point, because he sucked at it.

I don't think they are that good of a measurement anymore. The problem is there isn't really a precedent for a recent #1 pick trade. The Eli/Rivers thing was 7 years ago now.

Rivers is actually worse at handling the ball, at least he was last year. There's no reason for Jones to have the ball over Hulls though. Jones is averaging 4 turnovers per game this year. 3.4 assists.

I think we all agree Luck will be the better QB. The question is how much better? Peyton Manning is significantly better than Jay Cutler, but Cutler is still a pretty good QB. If they think Clausen can still be pretty good, then it becomes a tough decision no matter what you think of Luck. Plus, you still have Mallett and Newton in the draft. Carolina could still draft Newton or Mallett and get a couple more picks on top of that. In the case of Newton, you could still keep Clausen around and get Newton ready for when the team is potentially good again if necessary.

Definitely. Harris will be out imo. I think within the first 3 picks, the Bears go defense with either a DT or a CB. I wouldn't be surprised if they went both in the first 3 picks, depending on what they do in free agency. However, if they don't go CB in the first or 2nd, I wouldn't bother picking one at all. The Bears have a ton of mid-round CBs on their roster. DB is the one area where they don't have elite talent on defense. A potential elite CB would do wonders for a good defense that still has room to be better. I'm intrigued with the possibilities of what they can do in the draft and free agency. With Peppers being such a prize FA, you have to wonder if ownership is going to buy into the free agent process 100%. Is it too early to create a Bears offseason thread? Yeah, fortunately it is too early! Doesn't mean I'm not working on my mock offseason moves.

I liked it better when Creek wasn't the worst player on the team.

I like this. Toe has been solid. Yeah. And depending on what happens with Tommie, this could be a nice deal for a D-line guy that could see significant playing time. Definitely. Harris will be out imo. I think within the first 3 picks, the Bears go defense with either a DT or a CB. I wouldn't be surprised if they went both in the first 3 picks, depending on what they do in free agency. However, if they don't go CB in the first or 2nd, I wouldn't bother picking one at all. The Bears have a ton of mid-round CBs on their roster. DB is the one area where they don't have elite talent on defense. A potential elite CB would do wonders for a good defense that still has room to be better.