JonJayCutler

On one hand there is really no excuse for such predictions. What is this even based off of? Saying a team will regress is one thing, but saying they will go from a Top 4 finish in the NFL right down to 32nd without losing any core players reaks of pure ignorance. How come every good the year the Bears have is due to "luck" or a "fluke"? Two NFC Championship game appearances in the last five years, when does it stop becoming a fluke? Maybe wishful thinking so people can say they were right about Cutler being a "loser"? It wouldn't surprise me. On the other hand, I'm very glad once again to see all the Bears hate. Locker room fodder seems to go along way for this team. The last two times before this year when they were predicted by some to be the worst team in the NFL (going into 2008 and 2010), they finished 9-7 and 11-5 respectively.

Still gotta do other extensions. Forte first. Garza is one that is gonna need to get done too. Plus it sets a precedent for future players that aren't happy in the middle of their contract. Fair enough about Forte and the precedent, but Garza seriously? He doesn't strike me as someone we must keep around.

On the other hand, why not just re-work his contract and make him happy? It's not like we can't afford it.

His timing with this BS is about as good as getting into a car accident on one's wedding day. No [expletive]. It's not the first time we've gone through this with him either. I'd say trade his ass if losing him wouldn't be so devastating to our D.

So with Conte and Steltz hurt last night we literally have zero depth at safety. Neither injury sounds serious, but I would have to think their status for Week 1 is in jeopardy.

My bold prediction for the season: Earl Bennett has a breakout year and leads the team in receiving yards. As for this game, I'm going to say Bears by a FG.

Why do people keep saying this? It's one thing to say they didn't improve the team, but that's not the same as taking a step back. Who exactly did they lose that would help support this statement? They have an aging defense and I highly doubt that they're going to be as healthy as they were last year. I think that's a fair statement. More like wishful thinking on your part. If we're going to do this, then the inexperienced O-Line and WRs having another year under their belt improves the team. Also Cutler being more familiar with the offense improves the team. See, it works both ways. This defense was old last year while playing at close to an elite level.

Why do people think Olsen is the Christ? I don't see how Martz being able to run the offense more like he wants should be considered taking a step back. Besides, the guy barely had 400 receiving yards last year, which should be obtainable with our current group of TEs. Manning was solid last year but is still replaceable. We upgraded at RB and WR (yes Barber and Williams are upgrades regardless of how much of an upgrade). Replacing Rashied Davis with Sam Hurd is also an upgrade. These are just as much upgrades as losing Olsen and Manning are downgrades, mostly because they aren't much of a downgrade at all. Tight end and safety aren't exactly the biggest impact positions on the football field either. Losing Kreutz, Harris, Tinoisamoa, and all the other players listed below them does not really hurt the team. In most cases, like you said, it makes them better.

Why do people keep saying this? It's one thing to say they didn't improve the team, but that's not the same as taking a step back. Who exactly did they lose that would help support this statement?

Yeah, just don't start 0-3 and we'll be okay. If we can somehow win at least two of those three we should be in great shape for another playoff run. To be honest the schedule is pretty soft after that for the most part with the exception of the game in Philly in November and GB on Christmas Day. The AFC West doesn't scare me at all.

We go through this every year with the preseason. People trying to make it hold water simply because it's there for us to analyze and we don't like analyzing things that mean nothing. We should all know by now the reasons why preseason has very little impact on what transpires during the regular season. Besides, the issue with Stafford has never really been his performance, but rather the fact that his shoulder is held together by Elmer's Glue.

Great news about cutting Taylor because that most likely means Barber's injury isn't serious. Let's also give Kahlil Bell some carries this year. I'm sure it's been discussed, but I'm pretty excited about getting Okoye into the mix at DT. I know most of his success in the preseason has been against backups, but he adds depth to what should be a pretty deep DT rotation. Melton, Adams, Toeaina, Okoye, Paea, Harrison. No studs, but it's still a solid group. But with Gholston cut, I have to wonder if Melton will start out at end again this year, especially with Wootton expected to miss a game or two. With him out, there is nobody to backup Peppers or Idonije. Probably best that we didn't swing a trade for Osi though, he just underwent knee surgery.

You listed him as a guy who didn't deserve to be booed. And I said most of their success was in spite of him. The defense carried his butt to the Super Bowl and there is absolutely no possibly way to pretend otherwise. He didn't deserve to be booed to the extreme that he was. Fans were on his ass immediately after that first bad game against Arizona and didn't let up for the rest of the year. I agree that the defense contributed much more to the Super Bowl run, but I interpreted your comments to mean that they could have made the Super Bowl with any QB that season, something I refuse to believe. People tend to forget how many clutch throws Grossman made throughout the season, a couple of them game-winners. My underlying point in all of this is that it's ridiculous most of the time when fans get in the mindset that they hate a player. Many times there's no going back and seemingly nothing that player can do to change opinions. It seems like it happens more in Chicago than other cities, but that's probably because I watch mostly Chicago sports.

I never called Grossman a great Bears QB and I also made a point to recognize how horrible his bad games were. I was responding to the notion that Rex deserves no credit for the success the Bears had while he was QB. That is simply untrue.

That's a really odd list of guys you are trying to claim have received unwarranted boos. I defended Grossman to the end, but the guy crapped the bed repeatedly. He stunk and almost all of the success they had was in spite of him. Bradley was horrible and an [expletive]. Soriano was just the wrong acquisition. He's done about as well as could be reasonably expected, it's just easier to boo the player than the idiot GM. And Cutler has carried this team of late. Since you mentioned "success" in regard to the Bears and Grossman I assume you're talking about 2006. I don't really understand when people make him out to be this worthless QB we had on a good team that year. Statistically he put up the best season by a Bears QB in over a decade. He turned in 7 games with a QB rating over 100 (more than Cutler last year) and did enough in the playoffs to get to the Super Bowl, which we lost because of defense, not QB play. The problem is when he was bad he was the worst QB to ever play the game, but that doesn't mean he didn't help win a lot of games that year. Bradley was doomed from the start. He was coming off a 1.000 OPS season in Texas while going to a team full of bitter fans who had just watched their 97-win team get destroyed in the NLDS. The pressure was on Bradley to put this team over the top, which we all know didn't happen. Soriano has seemingly been booed for almost every mistake despite being a class act on and off the field, but I'll agree that most of that frustration is directed at Hendry for giving him such an absurd contract. You made my point with the Cutler comment. Yet somehow he is more hated than Michael Vick. A lot of these haters, sadly, are Bears fans. Many will claim that the hate is justified because of the whole knee thing in the NFC title game, but that's a different discussion for a different day.

Ah okay. I thought you meant Roy's expectations to come here to revive his career were unrealistic. Fans expectations are indeed unrealistic a majority of the time.

Why is the bolded a reason to boo someone? Unrealistic expectations. I don't see how it's unrealistic for him to get back to his 04-07 numbers while playing in the same system he played in for those years. He has yet to see his 30th birthday and his ceiling has always been higher than his production. I agree that there will be booing though. Chicago fans have a horrible history of singling out certain players to hate and most of the time that hate is unwarranted (Grossman, Bradley, Soriano, Cutler, etc.). Unfortunately I think Roy Williams is the next guy to add to this list for several reasons, most of which have already been discussed here. The only way he'll avoid it is by having a Pro Bowl season, which is unlikely. By the way, I hope Grossman gets that starting job in Washington and lights it up.

Why is the bolded a reason to boo someone?

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While there were definitely varying degrees of availability for the free agent receivers this year, I will say your list isn't nearly complete....... Sidney Rice, Santonio Holmes, Braylon Edwards, Ochocinco, Terrell Owens, Malcom Floyd, Steve Smith, Santana Moss, Randy Moss, Plaxico Burress, Steve Breaston, James Jones, Sims-Walker and others. That reads more like a Pro Bowl roster than a typical free agent list. While some weren't realistic at all, I'm pretty disappointed with the Bears haul at that position this offseason. Help for Cutler needed to be the #1 priority this offseason and instead of making it the #1 priority, it was almost like it wasn't treated like a priority at any level at all. I'll give you Holmes and maybe Floyd but that's it. Everyone else on that list is either done, overrated, or a question mark for some other reason (Burress, Rice). Holmes was probably the least realistic to sign as well. I too would have signed Floyd over Roy Williams, but we're not talking a night and day difference here. The Bears have cited more than once that a large reason for the Williams signing is the luxury of not having to teach someone a new offense. I'd say that qualifies as a legit reason with having so little time before the start of the season.

I wish people would stop pretending like Edwards, Sims-Walker, and Floyd are these amazing receivers that the Bears missed out on.

No reason not to play hard ball with him. Big money secondary contracts to RB routinely end up biting the team in the butt eventually. He's not a free agent, and he's not elite, so he shouldn't expect elite RB money. Not for his running ability alone, but his receiving ability makes him pretty damn close to elite. Most people lately have been ranking him among the Top 5 current backs in the NFL. Yeah a lot of the "advanced" FO stats had Forte on par with Adrian Peterson last year. Then again the year before he sucked. So we'll see what this year brings. Well apparently he was running on one leg in 2009 and although very few running backs are ever 100%, it's hard to ignore the fact that his YPC increased by a full yard last year running behind one of the worst offensive lines we've ever seen. Regardless of how the Bears do this year, I'm expecting a huge year out of Forte. Maybe by showing up to camp in amazing shape he'll actually be able to break tackles now.

No reason not to play hard ball with him. Big money secondary contracts to RB routinely end up biting the team in the butt eventually. He's not a free agent, and he's not elite, so he shouldn't expect elite RB money. Not for his running ability alone, but his receiving ability makes him pretty damn close to elite. Most people lately have been ranking him among the Top 5 current backs in the NFL.

Castro was on the 2006 Cubs? He homered last night which means all is well in Cubs-land right now.

Awesome, let's single out a 2nd-year tackle who really isn't as bad as people think he is. 15th is too low but that's the way the Bears (and myself) like it.