BDWeav71

Yes, that pissed me off. And I agree with your strategy...and if you get a good OL in FA, you can avoid using the first rounder on OL and wait till round 2. I'd still get one in the 1st, but probably look to trade down. True. I'll just hope Clady falls to 14. It'd be like Tommie Harris falling to 14. :) You are reading my mind. Clady would be one of our best case scenarios.

IDK, for me, it would depend on what kind of contract they could get him for. Also what other type of OL help you can get in free agency (at a cheaper price, of course). I would put Max Starks, Scott from Indy, and Gross and Wharton ahead of (another aging) Faneca Gross is most likely going to sign a long-term contract with the Panthers. I would love to have him, but I don't see that being a possibility. Max Starks is my number 1 priority this offseason for the Bears. He's young, will be cheaper than Faneca ( I assume), and would play LT so we can move Tait to RT for next season. Starks would be a perfect fit for the Bears, hopefully Angelo goes after him.

Faneca just turned 31 in december. I have no problem with signing him at the right price, but his contract is going to rival those of Steinbech and Davis. Count me in as being on the Booker bandwagon actually. I have no problem bringing him back to do the job that Moose hasn't been able to do. He's 31 as well, and caught 50 passes last year on a team with worse QB problems than the Bears had.

As much as I love Mendenhall, the Bears have no business drafting a RB with their first round pick.

Hes gonna hit the open market, I assume. The way I look at it, the biggest needs for this team go as follow, IMO: OL, WR, RB, QB, FS/SS, DT. Granted, that is a lot of holes to fill in one offseason, but they are all positions that we need to address in some capacity. February 29th is the start of the FA period, I believe, so lets see who the Bears target. I'd love to be going after some of the solid OL Free agents available, but I don't see us getting in a bidding war for Faneca, Travelle Wharton and Max Starks are intriguing options. I definitely expect the Bears to use one of their first 3 picks in the draft at the offensive line position, and wouldn't at all be surprised to see us go after a player like Ryan Clady from Boise State with the 14th pick. As for WR, I am assuming Berrian is gone. He is going to get a lot of looks from other teams as the best receiver (not including Moss) available through FA this season. Some team is going to overpay for his services, and I don't expect the Bears to be that team. Moose is aging, Davis is bad, Bradley is injury prone and has underperformed during his career, and Hester does not belong at WR for any significant amount of plays next season. So what do they do? Hopefully go after Chad Johnson, although that is not a move any Bears team in the past has ever made. I hope they address this position at some point in the offseason either through FA, trade, or the draft. Another solid running back is a need for this team, even if A.P. ran well at the end of last season. Bringing some solid competition back to this position will only help motivate the seemingly unmotivatable (if thats a real word) Cedric Benson. Michael Turner is available, and is going to demand a pretty big contract. He would look real good in a Bears uniform, and with an improved OL, could put up some big numbers. The draft is always beaming with talent, hidden gems (Bradshaw round 7 last year), and players you can take risks on. I assume the Bears bypass FA when it comes to RB, and they draft a running back of their choosing in the middle to late rounds that they feel will compete with Benson, Peterson, and Wolfe for playing time. I'll leave QB alone for the most part. Lots of interesting options through the draft, and some through trade and FA. Mcnabb would be nice. Lots of rumors of the Bears cutting ties with Griese, not sure if there is any validity to this or not. I am going into this offseason assuming that the Bears are going to sign Grossman to a shorter term deal, and try and find a QB of their choosing through the draft to replace Griese as one of the backups. Safety is an interesting position. Mike Brown is probably going to be back again, and hopefully he can stay healthy for once in his life. Archuleta has to go, no question about it. Daniel Manning is ok, and Kenny Payne will hopefully remain healthy enough to provide another option out there when/if injuries happen. I assume at some point a mediocre FA signing of a Mike Doss or someone along those lines will happen to "fix" the Safety position. If Mike Brown is healthy, this almost becomes a position of strength, without him its a ticking time bomb that will inevitably lose us a game. When healthy, Tommie Harris is one of the best in the game. His health makes our defense better immediately. Darwin Walker is going to be cut. After that, the depth at this position is very thin. Dvorchek will get his downs in if he can stay healthy. Idonijie played well in the inside, although out of position. I assume we start next season with two additions through draft/FA/trade to help sure up some depth. I don't know enough about prospects in the later rounds through draft, but it wouldnt surprise me to see us use a 4/5th round pick to draft a DT. Thats just my opinion on the issues that need to be addressed this offseason, feel free to critique/rip apart my beliefs, im fine with that!

Definitely not Bartman's fault, but Alou was gonna catch that ball. :( Then A-gonz's error on a play he made with regularity all season, ugh that was painful to watch the last two minutes of that video.

At the rate he has started out his career at, Hanley Ramirez has to be mentioned as well.

Well Bane, obviously even the best teams have weaknesses. I think right now we've built ourselves a pretty solid ball club, but obviously if we find a part of our team that is under performing, we'll have an opportunity to jump in and improve the team at that point. But right now, I am pretty satisfied with the players that we have going into camp. It's pretty obvious we don't even need to tune in! Haha very nicely done UMFan, that is pretty par for the course for a JH answer. =D>

Maybe Mark Prior will start the game as part of his rehab assignment. Wouldnt that be something... Now that I'm thinking about it, I actually fully expect that to happen.

A better question is, how many members don't remember if they have or have not have posted in this thread. Or how many new members have been added SINCE this thread was started..haha.

If the cubs win in the next two years, i'll retire as well.

Buerhle could have gotten them 2-3 cornerstone prospects alone. that's insane. or you and i have different definitions of "cornerstone." May I suggest you look at some of the offers the Orioles are considering for Bedard and tell me the White Sox couldn't get the same offer (or better) for Buerhle. Buerhle was going to be a free agent, and was going to demand a lot of money to resign. Bedard is under control of the team who acquires him for several more years (until 2010, i believe). The Sox would not have gotten a better offer for Buehrle than the O's are going to get for Bedard IMO.

FWIW, Bruce Levine stated that he knows Stone declined a fulltime TV booth offer by the Sox that would have paid him $600,000 per season (I can't remember how long the proposal was for). Anyway, my guess is that Stone is holding out for the Cubs job (speculation is that new ownership may make changes in the booth OR Stone could be leaving himself available for the "consultant" position, that he's been lobbying for, within the new ownership group). just wondering... how much do people in the booth normally make? I thought i remembered BB initially signing a 3 year deal that paid him nearly 900,000/year..but i could easily be mistaken.

Gary Matthews Jr., the early years.

http://www.cnn.com/ You're welcome Damn you...I so clicked on that link without reading what the link actually was. Haha, well played sir.

I don't expect him to build a power here at Illinois. All i ever asked was for him to make us respectable again. Job well done, Zooker. If we can be a program like Wisconsin, then I am a happy camper.

Locksley is a very good offensive coordinator, but he's an even better recruiter. It is only a matter of time before he gets a head coaching job somewhere in division 1. Oh, and Meph, Illinois has 9 wins. Just throwing that out there because it gives us that chance we need to play in Pasadena! =D>

Why would Kelley take a step down and coach Michigan or Notre Dame? How has that Syracuse football team been lately Cuse? By the way, I'd be furious if Michigan hired Ferentz, but it really wouldn't surprise me one bit. Hopefully bad enough to get a coach that isn't overwhelmed and confused. I've heard rumblings that Cuse may be looking at Illinois O-coordinator Locksley for HC. Have you heard anything about that?

It isn't. The winner (Mizzou) is losing to OU. It's really just a game to decide who plays in the Holiday Bowl (we both know the Cotton bowl is taking Texas and OU is getting the only BCS berth if they beat a 1 loss Mizzou) How does the Big 12 not get a second BCS team? Do you really think bowls will pick 2 of 3 of: The ACC runnerup, Illinois, or Hawaii/Boise State over a 1 loss Kansas or a 2 loss Mizzou? That even assumes that Illinois and the ACC runnerup will be eligible, which is not even close to being assured yet. Its gonna get closer and closer with every week. With all of the combinations of teams losing, Illinois has a very decent shot of ending up in a BCS game. (Before anyone says anything about whether or not they are deserving, I don't care, I'm just saying they have a pretty good shot of sneeking into that last slot in the BCS.)

I'm getting really tired of the constant rumors of 2nd baseman. It's like Hendry isn't even looking at our frickin roster.

I would love to see Milton Bradley in our OF next year.

That trade, in no way, is a trade for the ages.

Umm, what about Jeff Blauser?! He absolutely destroyed the Cubs.

Exactly what I was thinking...damnit!

Wow that would be brutal.