YearofDaCubs

Ahh the good ol' days.

Great quote BBB!

Or at the very least, the LA Dodgers. By the way, I have confirmed (just yesterday in fact) that the Cubs had no interest in Giles, and hence, did not even try to talk to him or his agent. I'm not surprised. Most of us had a good idea Hendry had no intentions of even looking at Giles.

I'm starting to really question why I am a fan of this team...

With a little creativity Hendry probably could have gotten a better RFer for us. Look what we gave up for Pierre? I bet you a lot of teams would jump on those players and give us a RF. Bottom line Jacque Jones was NOT the best option for us in RF.

I don't know for certain if Prior was available or not but logically it would have made no sense for us to trade Prior.

Only if it's league minimum or around there. I seriously question Miller being able to come back pre-injury.

AP makes a good #2. He has done a very good job and is a pretyt good change of pace back for TJ. I don't think he can be a top RB in this league but AP so far has done an excellent job as our #2 RB.

Don't get me wrong, I really like what Jones has done. I thought it was a very shrewd move signing him for relatively cheap (for a starting RB). He's not going to be a salary cap killer. He's also not good enough to hold out for a better contract. He's been a good RB for the Bears. And hopefully as soon as he's done Benson will be there to pick up the slack. I would have preferred Angelo draft a WR in the first this year, somebody who could help immediately at a major need position, as opposed to RB, which wasn't a big need. But Benson is here now, and they have to plan on him being the guy within the next year or 2. It's almost a must to have 2 capable RBs in the NFL. There's no reason to get rid of Benson or Jones without an equally talented back in there. Peterson is a decent back, but I don't want him as a #2. Plus, isn't he a FA after this year? There's enough carries and injuries to go around, no need to get rid of RBs at this stage. I'm pretty sure we have AP for at least one more year. he signed an extension last year if I remember correctly.

Don't get me wrong, I really like what Jones has done. I thought it was a very shrewd move signing him for relatively cheap (for a starting RB). He's not going to be a salary cap killer. He's also not good enough to hold out for a better contract. He's been a good RB for the Bears. And hopefully as soon as he's done Benson will be there to pick up the slack. I would have preferred Angelo draft a WR in the first this year, somebody who could help immediately at a major need position, as opposed to RB, which wasn't a big need. But Benson is here now, and they have to plan on him being the guy within the next year or 2. Agreed. I just hope he becomes a top RB.

Just looking through a couple of mock drafts, it looks like Vernon and Lewis are the two names that have come up, but it seems like everyone's in agreement that TE is the way to go for the Bears in the first round. Most definitely.

Benson isn't going anywhere and trading him isn't an option. I will say this though Thomas Jones really didn't have a fair shake in Arizona where he first started out. He went to TB and when he started towards the end of the year was definitely their best RB. Since coming here he has been pretty good when healthy. He does have an injury history and that makes drafting Benson a good move by Angelo. I don't know if Benson will be as good as Cadillac but I'm sure he can play in this league.

I have to agree with everyone regarding the draft. TE in the first round please. We have a terrible corps of TEs right now and in the current NFL we need an impact TE. I think Angelo will also draft somebody for the OL. We really don't have that many holes on defense. Maybe another corner in the middle rounds to replace Azumah whom I don't think will be back. I'm not too high on Hillenmeyer although he has been playing better this year than last I think an upgrade there wouldn't hurt either. It will be interesting to see what Angelo does with the picks.

I have to agree with the C. He has wayyy too many dropped passes to be anything better than a C. Some of those dropped passes were for touchdowns and were passes he should have made. At the same time he does get open and does make good plays as well. C is very fair.

That's what it will be. Bank on it.

This pitching staff can be quite good with Zambrano and Prior at the top of their game, with or without Wood at his best. But take away Prior, and then Wood's status becomes an enormous obstacle. And if you throw in the fact that 2006 Greg Maddux has a chance to make Shawn Estes of 2003 look desirable going into 2006, and that's an even bigger obstacle. I have to agree. No doubt will our offense be very good with the addition of Tejada but man this trade just kills our rotation.

well, for one, the niners have thrown nearly 250 less times than the packers (7 TD, 20 INT, how's that for a ration? open mouth, insert foot). the texans have thrown roughly 200 less times than the packers. and the titans have an offense that's based on taking few risks, very TE friendly. Why don't you open your own mouth and insert foot. God forbid somebody has a different point of view than you right? Sully's MR FAVRE ALMIGHTY THE INVINCIBLE ONE!! I'll tell you where you and Favre can stick it. It's not my problem you are sore about this. God forbid Favre the almighty makes questionable decisions that costs his team. I have made my points.

I don't see how you can watch football games and not notice that Favre has declined. The guy has always taken risks, and as his body falls apart they are starting to haunt him. He was at his best in the mid to late 90's. He's not at his best anymore. It's completely asinine to look at GB's season and not put any blame on Favre and to look at his career and pretend he's the exact same player he used to be. how can you even judge him with the subtractions to the offense? before he lost 3 Rbs and his pro-bowl TE, he was at or above his career numbers in almost every category. that's even without his starting guards. i'd like to see what urlacher does without competent linemen in front of him. he'd probably have a bad season, like he did in 2003-04. but he must have been declining, too. It's very simple why we can judge him. His decision making. Other people that have less talent on their offense do not make the mistakes Favre does.

You can make an argument that there are worse teams in the NFL like the Texans, Titans, 49ers as well as others. They probably lack talent around them as well and I don't see their QBs throwing INTs at a record pace. Driver has had 3 1000 yard seasons in 4 years how is that serviceable? That sounds better than serviceable to me. Bottom line I do not see that Favre having the lack of talent as an excuse for his decision making and high INTs especially considering so many teams out there with less of a O line and less talent at WR and QB not making the same mental mistakes as Favre does.

yep, a joke with acareer record of 56-39 with no losing seasons before this season. jeez, i wish the bears could hire that kind of joke. one of your key freaking points was that their defense was good. why change horses in mid-stream? are you trying to make the point that the packers don't have a good team, now, so favre hasn't declined? either they have a good defense or they don't, don't change your mind to satisfy conflicting points. if i were you, i'd concentrate on one point at once. speaking as a guy who talks to actual packer players, i can assure you that the young players have a very hard time learning the playbook. one of their main criticisms of sherman's approach is that his system is so complicated. but don't take it from someone who knows anything. if you read the post in the first place, you would know that i wasn't dicounting what he did. just that he was a perfect fill-in for the job, he could run over defenders (i don't know, for the life of me, how saying that is "discounting what he did") if he missed the holes that he was supposed to hit. you can't expect gado to come in and hit every hole without knowing the playbook forward and backward. but who cares? i'm "dicounting" what he did. that's the JOKE. oh, okay. subtract his top receiver, top 3 RBs, 2 starting guards, and his pro-bowl TE and "numbers don't lie?" are you serious? It's not just Sherman the coach that makes him bad it's Sherman the coach and GM that has crippled the team. Their defense is ranked 8th overall. You said teams do not need to pass when their running defense was so bad and I'm proving the point that teams did throw against them as well. I did read the post in the first place and one of the points you were making was Favre wasn't as good because he didn't have a running game. You mentioned you talk to Packers players maybe that's why you are so sore about their season. You have friendships with players and maybe you feel you have the right to stick up for them. Or maybe because of the friendships you can't see the big picture and are completely discounting the INT/TD ratio Favre has and are using the lack of talent around him as an excuse. I don't care what players Favre has around him you are completely discounting his INT/TD ratios as well as his questionable decision making because he supposedly lacks talent around him. I think he has enough talent to make the throws necessary. Why not mention what I brought to your attention regarding the turnover ratio GB has? Clearly those numbers are affected by Favre.

like who? john elway, who after the age of 35 won 2 super bowls, threw for 3600 yards and 27 Tds and 2800 yards and 22 TDs? or warren moon who threw for over 4000 yards 4 times after reaching 34? or dan marino, who threw for 3500 yards and 23 Tds at the age of 37? or steve young, who threw for 4200 yards and 36 TD's at the age of 37? or rich gannon, who threw for 4600 yards and 26 Tds at the age of 37? or steve deberg, who threw for 3400 yards 23 TDs vs. only 4 INTs at the age of 36? i know you have this bias against old players, no matter what the sport--but in some sports it simply does not apply. favre could play for 3 more years at the same level he's been at, and be very valuable to the pack. Let's hope for GBs sake that the 3 years of same level you are talking about doesn't include the high amount of INTs he has thrown this year. I could care less what other QBs have done at what age. Everybody ages differently. How do you know what you will get in Favre 3 years from now? Like i said this year could be an anamoly or it could be a start of diminished skills. You don't know that.

And to add more proof to what I was saying.. GB's turnover margin is -23 which is dead last in the NFL. 42 total 29 from INTs which by the way also leads the league.

can't blame anything on sherman either. the players might hate him, but players hate most coaches. you can read my arguments for favre in the above post, i don't think i need to say much more about him. the pass defense for green bay has been successful because no one passes on them, why should they when they can run all over the field? generally, teams gain less yards on the ground than in the air, but the yards are more important because of the ball possession game that the teams in the NFC north and NFC south employ. there really should be a separate statistic for rushing yards in conjuntion with total offense. if a team can't stop the run, they may give up less total yards, but their offense is, in turn, more effected--so the greater effect is more devastating. let's also not forget that the green bay offense is VERY complicated--difficult to learn for new players thrown into the fray, gado has excelled because he's a bruising back that often misses holes but can simply run over smaller players. receivers cannot easily step in and expect to get 100 yards per game. this offense is geared for a veteran receiving corps that run great routes and can turn the intermediate pass plays into big gainers. driver and walker are the perfect tandem, but when walker went down, DBs can simply sit on the Driver's routes and bait Favre's throws. Back to business then: Sherman is a joke. He is the type of coach that lays blame on others before he looks at himself as the possible cause. How many D coordinators has he fired during his tenure? Why doesn't he bring up his questionable draft picks as well as what he did to the salary cap for GB? The reason why GB lost their starting guards is because of GB's dire salary cap situation. Looking back at the stats on GBs games I can tell you with confidence that indeed teams did throw passes against GB. QBs had a good amount of TDs as well as a decent yardage against them so I think blaming it all on the running defense is nonsense. How does GB expect to win the turnover ratio when their starting QB has thrown for more INTs than TDs? 19tds to 28 ints is VERY HIGH. And of those interceptions I wonder how many of those counted for points for the other team. I believe the number is high. I can understand if both Walker and Driver were both out but Driver has had more experience with the offense as well as Ferguson. If they really needed "veterans" to run the playbook then they should have done a better job of acquiring more of them during the offseason. I don't believe the offensive playbook is so complicated that the rookies don't get it. This is not a KC or Rams playbook we are talking about. How can you discount what Gado did? Your reasoning was he was good because he would run over defenders? That just proves my point he was their best RB. I don't doubt Favre still has most of his arm strength but I do doubt his decisions. It's not like some of these throws were tipped off the receivers hands and intercepted. He takes unnecessary risks that cause the defense to be on the field longer as well. His INTs are probably the cause of a good amount of points off turnovers. Maybe it's just a bad year for Favre but it's not always the lack of talent that is hurting him it's his decision making. The numbers don't lie.

i don't know where you got the idea that i'm a green bay fan. i know a lot about the team because i chat with corey williams and nick collins every monday or tuesday night. i'm also forced listen to packer radio and watch every packer game. most of my friends are packer fans, as well as most of the people that i have interactions with. but i'm about the biggest bear fan on the planet. I figured you were a Packers fan sorry.

We agree to disagree then because I see it totally different from you which is fine.