cubweiser03

Peter King on how the deal went down. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/peter_king/04/05/trade/index.html Orton was the key.

I was at a bar last night with friends to watch the bball games. I was wearing one of my Bears shirts and to no surprise discussion about Cutler came up. A prevailinig topic was 'he has no weapons'. People discount Hester too much and ignore the TE's but whatever. You know who never has had WR weapons or stud #1 except for 1.5 seasons....Donovan Mcnabb.

Bonus: 2009 fantasy football and a Bears qb is worth picking and having on my team for once.

The dude played a year with undiagnosed type 1 diabetes and lost like 30-35 pounds during that year. Maybe he felt hurt about not being wanted but the dude is tuff on field. Really ill go back to the Briggs situation, that seemed unrepairable as much as he griped. Cutler latest situation isnt anyway near what Briggs was doing, hell he was on ESPN all the time doing interviews and stuff about not wanting to play for the Bears etc. Now what...the dude is loved. Also one the thing scouts/people liked about Cutler coming out of college was he was on an ass offense competiting agains very good defenses in the SEC. Dew beat me to it i see I loooove Jay Cutlers game.

Cannonball!!! The Bears didnt just make a splash this offseason, they threw a 450 pound man in the water. Jay [expletive] Cutler. 25 year old Qbs just arent available like this. This was a no brainer to me, im not going to look back. 1st round picks arent slam dunks anyway. Jay Cutler is a SLAM DUNK talent. A bird in hand is better than 2 in the bush in my mind on this one, plus its the quarterback. The freaking most important position by far in the football. Cutler will be a FA at 28, players like him don't hit the open market, this is a 7-8 year player the Bears got. Devin Hester on the deep ball baby, connection city. I hear criticisms about the Bears offense and Jay Cutler doesnt have any weapons. Clark and Olsen are the best or one of the best TE tandems in the NFL. Plus hes got Matt Forte. Forte is a weapon. News conference tomorrow at 6.

The lions could offer #20 and their second rounder which is almost a first rounder. I also saw that Cutler said he doesnt want to be traded, he didnt think this would all go this far. But then ESPN ticker said his agent asked for a trade on March 16. Is Cutler in outerspace or something.

Briggs could definetly work on the inside of a 3-4. He's a 4-3 OLB but could fit very well on the inside of a 3-4, heck if it werent for Urlacher he'd be the MLB, plus Briggs was phenominal last year making his trade value very solid. Shawn Rogers is becoming the TO on the defense, he's a bad ass but Detroit soured on him for his attitude and now he is unhappy at Cleveland. Like Raw said, all Detroit has is Ernie Sims and he definelty isnt Briggs. Briggs has bitched for 2 years about his pay and AFTER he got paid he had by a far his best year, i liked seeing that personally from him(i still love that crashed car story). I agree Detroit's #1 cost too much money, its almost as if the #1 really isnt all that great when you count all the guaranteed money. What i think my be interesting is the if Matt Sanchez falls in the draft. The Jets draft #17, just one ahead of the Bears, that one simple slot could hurt if a pre draft trade is worked out where the Broncos pull the trigger if only Sanchez is available. This is pure draft case scenario on my part. Chris Williams. Now i havent seen him play an NFL snap but his scouting report says his weakness is run blocking and thats paramount for a RT. The guy is supposed to be a great player on the island of pass protection as a LT, moving him to RT is taking away his strengths. I dont particurilary like the idea of finesse LT moving to the RT. But if the Bears dont think he can quite handle the LT spot yet (which i dont think is good long term) then we are f'd and its probably even more to get Pace.

Beekman had a good first year last as G, hes not quite an unknown. Shaffer is a better run blocker than pass blocker but thats what you look for in RT. IF he could play guard and Pace would play RT that would be sweet. RG is even more about run blocking than RT. And Pace isnt just a HOF LT because he can pass block to the extraordinaire, the dude has it all. Im sure he would be a very good RT if not great. Jay Cutler. If Tommie didnt have the injury problems i think he would be a great chip, maybe he still is a good trade chip but it could be better. Briggs might work out as a good chip too, hed probably have to be the centerpiece.

Pace is probably the best LT i have ever seen. He was as can't miss as can't miss LT prospect coming out of college and he came out as jr. before that was in vogue. Maybe he's not 'Orlando Pace' good anymore but he is still very good. If the Bears sign him that sure makes the oline shuffle very interesting. I am all for this signing.

Here's Vaughn McClure's story that Seifert linked to. The Bears have really pigeon holed themselves in the draft. They don't have enough OL or WR to even field a complete team. If they don't sign a FA out of the blue, then they have to draft both positions pretty early. This is exactly how you end up reaching for players and screwing up a draft. That being said, I really like Britt. Rather him or Robiske or Nicks more than the more flashy guys like Maclin, DHB, or Harvin. I too wish the Bears did more this offseason, its effecting the draft. Its not too late though, some decent WR available. I like Nicks a lot but im not sure he will last til the 2nd round for the Bears. Jackson from LSU sounds like an Alex Brown type, solid but not spectacular. I like Maybin a lot but i dont know if he will be available at 18. Johnson sounds like the pass rusher the Bears would like to have.

tanaka and mahara are nasty. Good for Derosa

That pretty much describes them to a T. They're a very hot and cold team, imo. As long as Blake Griffin doesn't somehow get decapitated with piano wire, I think Oklahoma should handle them. Yeah, and I wouldnt be suprised if Griffin grabs like 25 boards. Michigan isnt a very good rebounding team underneath. Manny Harris and Sims both need to go off for UM to win this one.

I almost craped'em when wisky was 12. then minny got the 10 and i felt better, but at the same time i was on full defcon 3 to tear my walls down if Michigan didnt get in. this tourney is going to be up in the air. i think its going to an awesome one.

Carpenter was good contract, sorry they couldnt look into the future and see the catastprphic 2 year injury. Hell even with that its probably still good if he can get healthy. $12M for a Cy Young is pretty damn good. Z is like what $18? Hafner and Young were good contracts too. Its not like they didnt perform before (and its not like they still cant). Guys who didnt but were overpaid belong on this list.

Angelo said something to Omilaye that he is going to begin work at guard. Another article mentions LG. If he is LG they better move Beekman to RG and bench Garza.

Williams graded out really well as a LT because his pass blocking skills and footwork. A guy like Jake Long or Columbo who maybe didnt have the best footwork or limited because of their size, girth could at least move to the right because of their run blocking skills, does Williams have that versatility, he seems like a LT only by the reports ive read. If there is a guy in this draft who can play LT and RT id be all for moving THAT guy to RT, in this market RTs are getting paid a lot and at 18 its still good value playing the guy at RT. Seems like a lot of the reports written about the DE in this class are guys who translate better in the 3-4 defense. Stacy Andrews seems like an interesting target this offseason. He's young, good and the Bears have money to spend. Throw some money at him and see if it sticks.

Amare + Rose. Im all about that. What a great compliment to Rose. NBA really is about 3 players and it sounds like they can keep Deng. Unless you want to go the route of the championship Detroit Pistons (a true team of equal parts), which well does come around often, you get the impact player like Amare to compliment your other impact player, Rose, and go from there.

that's like the penn state classes recently. people kiss the asses of larry johnson sr., tom bradley and mike mcqueary for their recruiting efforts but you'd think that a program like penn state wouldn't be getting beaten in recruiting by ohio state and michigan year after year. Penn State recruits almost entirely out of PA, NJ and MD. It's nice to have a lock on those states, but you're not usually seeing a ton of 5-star recruits out of those areas. I'm hoping that whoever the next coach at PSU is breaks out of the antiquated "territorial" recruiting strategies and goes hard after a few guys from Florida or California But does it really matter for PSU, well especially for the D side of the ball. As long as they sprinkle the highly rated prospects they can could probably fill the rest with cardboard cutouts and still play great D. Look at their recruiting class and match that by the defensive rankings and they ALWAYS out perform. Go compare the OSU defensive recruits to PSU and the difference is huge, whats on the field is equal. The offense side of the ball probably needs better playmakers when it comes to recruiting. YTF Bradley isnt $2M+ a HC is beyond me. Not as 'newsworthy' is the class of Butch Jones' Central Michigan. They are all pumped up about it. Its a Mac school and they should be. Well these are 5 guys that id bet 5+ years ago arent D1 talent without a spread offense. Midget #1 5'7 147 (this dude is 3*) Midget #2 5'9 160 Midget #3 5'5 168 Midget #4 5'6 164 Midget #5 5'9 164

good to see UCLA taking recruits from USC. Looks to be a real solid 1st class for Neuhisel.

Yep. The only negative is the lack of DT in this and last years class. Losing those 2 DT's this year wasnt good. They've only recruited 1 DT last year and 1 this year.

If it wasnt for Tate Forcier then it would be funny. I havent seen a offense with 2 qb sets yet. It was a bigger pickup for PSU than a loss for UM because of the depth reason. Michigan has depth at QB? Forcier and a pile of crap doesn't really equate to depth imo. How many 4 star QB recruits in one class is necessary, thats what im saying. No they dont have depth outside of this class and Steven Threet. They could of used Newsome but it wasnt a big huge blow. From what i understand without Newsome PSU would be a really bad position worse than UM, maybe not Sheridan bad but bad. Necessary? Depends on the situation. But UM has 1 now, right? It's not like they had a stud QB (or even a couple really good QBs) on the roster and then had 3-4 commits. They have a 4-star signed today and a bunch of guys that didn't look so good last year. If I'm Michigan, I'd want as many quality QBs signed today as possible (which is likely going to be 2, at most). More is better, cant disagree with that. Yes they have 1 legit Qb and others arent even of the meh category. They did sign 4* ATH D. Robinson today who will get a chance to play qb so that is a form of depth in case of injury or Forcier is a bust.

If it wasnt for Tate Forcier then it would be funny. I havent seen a offense with 2 qb sets yet. It was a bigger pickup for PSU than a loss for UM because of the depth reason. Michigan has depth at QB? Forcier and a pile of crap doesn't really equate to depth imo. How many 4 star QB recruits in one class is necessary, thats what im saying. No they dont have depth outside of this class and Steven Threet. They could of used Newsome but it wasnt a big huge blow. From what i understand without Newsome PSU would be a really bad position worse than UM, maybe not Sheridan bad but bad.

The air wont help the line drives go over the wall but the amount of space should be good for his ave. and dbs.

If it wasnt for Tate Forcier then it would be funny. I havent seen a offense with 2 qb sets yet. It was a bigger pickup for PSU than a loss for UM because of the depth reason.

Guys at MgoBlog say NuKeese to Tennessee. They also said Stokes told Kiffin/RR his decision yesterday. They think he is UM bound. We shall see.