Soul

The Bears gave up on Mark Bradley immediately once he got injured. Williams didn't make it to day 2 of practice. Football coaches routinely hold injuries against the player. It may be bizarre, and they may deny it, but it's true. They drafted Williams with the intention of starting him from day 1, but he got hurt in non-contact drills. The Bears struggled partly due to a weak line, Lovie was more or less forced to demote his best friend, his name went to the top of the chopping block. It would not surprise me in the least if Williams is no longer thought of the same way they thought of him on draft day. Unfortunately, the reality is that coaches and GMs are routinely held accountable for teams that perform badly, regardless of how many injuries there were. So I believe what you say is at least partially true.

The difference being that Estes wasn't very good, while Pace is. And Williams is still starting, unlike Cruz. I just don't really see how starting a player can constitute souring on him. I see it more as the Cubs calling up Vitters to play first instead of third. His true position is still third, but the need (in theory) is greater for him to play first. I wonder if the Bears are finding it necessary to promise Pace the LT job to entice him away from other teams, who might be offering contracts but telling him he would be @ RT. The plan might be to play Pace at LT for a year, develop Williams as he starts @ RT, then over time convince Pace that the time is right to move to RT. I don't know. I'm pretty surprised at the thought that Pace would be our LT rather than RT given his age, & wear and tear.

Hehe, you're great man. Did you not see where Carey Price slashed Kane and Fraser got a penalty? The refs were LOOKING for a retaliation against price for the take-out of Khabi... it never happened but they blew the whistle anyways. Markov, A. (PPG, 15:52 in 2nd) There's your result. Yeah, but they're playing so bad right now. There's bad ref calls all the time, the Hawks are losing because right now they suck. The refs may have made a bad call, but it didn't affect the Hawks winning/losing. They did that all by themselves.

Actually, if you want to talk about history, let's talk about the Bears' inability to draft and coach QBs. The Bears haven't been able to successfully identify and coach a QB from college in 20 years. And it can be argued that McMahon wasn't coached -- he just came in and did what he does. Think of it this way. The Bears can't draft a superstar QB. And they can't coach a superstar QB. This is an opportunity to bypass those two glaring deficiencies. Deficiencies that have meant the Bears are perpetually without superior QB play every single year. In short, this could be the Bears' only chance in decades to actually have a great QB. If we don't get Cutler, we could be sitting here in 2020 with our grey hair lamenting that we still haven't had a QB since Luckman. Because we aren't drafting one, and we aren't coaching one.

It's a rare situation. How many times in the past 10 years has a franchise-level QB, just entering his prime, come available like this? These types of QBs are almost always sewn up long term. It's too hard to find one. I agree you can't go by history. What history? This scenario hasn't presented itself to the Bears or really anyone else in recent memory. Unless I'm forgetting something.

Yeah. I was thinking that a more important consideration might be getting him out of the AFC. Denver fans won't take kindly to watching Cutler win anywhere, but it would be worse if he's in the AFC, and doubly worse if he beats them in the playoffs. Of course, I'm also biased because I want him in Chicago.

If I'm Denver, I don't want the #1, and I especially don't want the #1 and use it on Stafford. That guy is not worthy of #1 draft pick QB money. I'd much rather take multiple picks and a player or two than the #1 overall. Without a Peyton Manning available in the draft, the #1 overall pick just is not worth what it once was. It costs too much money and risks too much cap space on an unknown quantity. agreed. even if stafford becomes as good as cutler, essentially, they just gave up their draft pick for nothing. and detroit has few desireable players that they could throw in. Yeah, then count out Detroit. I was just trying to see a way they might be in the running. If they're just going to offer up the #20 + players, I wouldn't think the Bears would have much trouble beating that. I think Detroit can offer the 20, a 3rd rounder, and Ernie Sims. Lose a great LB, but a great QB is more of an asset. Plus, any 2010 picks from Detroit will likely be better than any other team's '10 picks as they should be picking in the top 10 for sure again. You also have to take into account that Denver may be willing to take less to get back at Cutler by trading him to a crappy team like the Lions. I think if Detroit wants him bad enough, Cutler will be wearing a Lions uniform. Haha, if they do that then they're really stupid. Surely they're fliriting with riots in the streets of Denver already.

Hehe, you're great man.

If I'm Denver, I don't want the #1, and I especially don't want the #1 and use it on Stafford. That guy is not worthy of #1 draft pick QB money. I'd much rather take multiple picks and a player or two than the #1 overall. Without a Peyton Manning available in the draft, the #1 overall pick just is not worth what it once was. It costs too much money and risks too much cap space on an unknown quantity. agreed. even if stafford becomes as good as cutler, essentially, they just gave up their draft pick for nothing. and detroit has few desireable players that they could throw in. Yeah, then count out Detroit. I was just trying to see a way they might be in the running. If they're just going to offer up the #20 + players, I wouldn't think the Bears would have much trouble beating that.

I blame Cutler a little. He has gone overboard with the whining. But if that's what it takes to get traded, so be it. McDaniels really screwed up here. He had a franchise QB but tried to upgrade that with "his guy" when "his guy" had very little track record of success. He should have immediately praised Cutler for being the franchise QB, instead of hedging like he did at the beginning by saying things like everybody is tradable. See, that's what is doubly bad. Not only did McDaniels make the mistake of pissing off his star QB. He also tried to replace him with an obviously worse QB, all because he would be "more comfortable" with him. At least, I can't see any other reason, because there's no doubt that Cassel's just not as good as Cutler.

Cleveland: could offer up Quinn or Anderson as a replacement for Cutler, which would probably be enticing. Detroit: could offer the #1 overall + players, which would allow Denver to pick Stafford. If they aren't willing to offer the #1 overall I think it hurts their chances considerably.

I may have forgotten to mention that we should...........GET CUTLER.

Get Cutler Get Cutler Get Cutler Get Cutler Get Cutler Get Cutler Get Cutler Get Cutler Get Cutler Get Cutler Get Cutler Get Cutler GET CUTLER!

They are nice backups or fine plugging in with 2 or 3 other solid lineman. But they aren't core lineman. Well, that's where Williams, Beekman and hopefully one of the top 5 OGs (in a good guard draft) come in. Beekman is an unknown, and quite frankly, so is Williams at this point. Williams has core potential. Anyone we brought in would be of the potential variety. Nobody's going to give us their proven pro bowl LT. I really think Omiyale can be a core guard. He's good enough to compete for tackle. He's young. He should be very solid @ OG, more than just a stopgap.

Word has it Pace was already offered a contract by the Ravens, so we wouldn't be alone in our pursuit. I'm not so sure I want to get into any kind of a bidding war for Pace, but I'm pretty confident Jerry won't do that.

I would describe it more as addressing it halfheartedly (which is still better than completely ignoring it). The Bears preach building from the draft, yet the one spot they have most ignored via the draft, and have routinely brought in outside help, is the offensive line. Signing these stopgaps isn't really addressing the longterm question on the line. It's the same thing they did in 2004/05, when they acquired a couple guys who helped for a couple years. Kreutz isn't going to be around forever, and none of the people acquired this offseason are likely to be longterm stable solutions at right tackle. If I remember correctly, Angelo's Tampa teams routinely struggled with finding the right fit on the offensive line. Maybe he just don't know how to draft/develop them, and can only sign others' castoffs. Well......but they did make a big draft pick last year on OL, for the most important OL position. I don't consider Omiyale a stopgap if he's moved to OG. Shaffer is less of a stopgap if viewed as a OG. That's yet to be determined. What I really meant was that OL is obviously now taking up much of Jerry's brainspace, unlike the past several years. He's thinking about it, taking action. We'll see where it leads, but I like the effort.

Shaffer just isn't that good, and he isn't young either. He's a placeholder who probably works best as a backup. Omiyale is a backup and is probably slated for guard duty. And remember, we still don't know much of anything about Williams. Pace would give the Bears 3 tackles, protection in case Williams falters, and time to deal with replenishing the rest of the line. The Bears don't have an exceptionally high paid player on offense, which means they can afford to pay a little more for role players. This would do very little to affect the longterm viability of the line, they'd still have to draft guys this year and/or next. But it would be a solid short-term solution to what has been a huge problem the last couple years. shaffer is a very good run blocker but bad in pass blocking, whom i think would work better at guard. lt- williams lg- omiyale c- kreutz rg -shaffer rt - pace we also have beekman and beunning and then whoever we draft to fill in if injury or poor play happen. this would make our line impervious, which i really like. I'm just really liking the fact that OL is being addressed, and being addressed wholeheartedly. If we did bring in Pace, we could do so many things with guys like Omiyale & Shaffer that would play more to their strengths. Also, we could begin in earnest the process of getting junk like Garza off the roster.

Lucas' best years appear to have been in '02, '04, and '05. However, I'm really souring on Vasher. I wonder if the Bears are, too. It wouldn't surprise me. Every time Vash goes down with another injury it's a depth guy who has to fill in. That hurts.

I'll say this for Jerry: He ignored OL for years, but he's certainly not ignoring it any longer.

With 4 picks in the first 3 rounds, the Bears could be poised to really improve the team. Provided Jerry plays his cards right, of course. I'll be happy provided we get good value with our picks, and address a few needs along the way.

Len is great, Bob, not so much. Len is fine although I liked Chip more. Bob I have never liked although he is much better than his first season. IMO it's not nearly to the point where I would want them gone. Consider some of the alternative broadcast teams around the league. The Cubs could be doing a hell of a lot worse.

I don't understand why this is such a bad decision. Why is it bad to keep your shutdown guy in the same role where he has been so successful? As for Carlos' feelings, nobody promised anyone they would get everything they want, at the exact time they want it. Certainly not Lou.

Fewer HD channels than DirecTV, no MLB Extra Innings, no NFL Sunday Ticket. Three strikes; they're out. Wow, no NFLST or even MLBEI? cya.

Great brawl. Really sucks how they played yesterday though.

Where's loukycub been? Went to the same dark corner that all the other "Big 10 sucks" people went to.