balta1701-A

God this team is so freaking loaded on paper it's scary. It really is sort of remarkable how badly this team has been hurt by injuries the last 3 seasons, while at the same time it's pretty scary how good they've been while losing Bradley, Brown, Grossman, Benson, and Harris all for major stretches. Most other teams wind up falling off badly if they lose a key player at those guy's level, the Bears keep losing key players and surviving as long as it isn't Urlacher.

If Olsen, Clark, and Grossman are as good this year as they can possibly be, then the Bears' TE's should move quite far up this list. The question of course is...will they all be as good as they can possibly be? Perhaps especially with Grossman. With NE, their QB is almost guaranteed to make their TE's look decent, and the Bears aren't at that stage...yet.

Do you think Brown would be as effective at FS as he is at SS? I figured he'd be at SS and Arch would get probably 1/3 of the playing time there to try to keep both of them healthy.

I think that might actually be a little high for the Bears right now, just because you never know what you're going to get out of a rook like Olsen until you actually see him on the field and give him a while. And on top of that, there have been quite a few other changes on the Bears offense that could affect the numbers and performance of the TE's that we can't evaluate yet: The loss of Jones might make the Bears need to hold a TE in more often to pass block instead of having them down the field and hurt their numbers, or the improvement of Grossman and the wide receivers could open up a lot more holes for the TE's. Until you see how the season plays out, I wouldn't pencil them in as dominant quite yet.

If he wasn't going to be playing here, then the Bears might as well get something for him and clear that little bit of room.

Yay! Thank you!

Who is option #3 if Griese is gone? I.e who backs up Orton if Rex gets hurt again? And I think there's probably some sort of cap reason for Brian to be moved on at some point, but still, if this is a super bowl team, I'm not going to hang it all on Rex's ability to stay healthy and Kyle Orton's ability to be a great backup.

I see why you might say that, but still, the thing you can't forget is Rex's injury history. He goes down again, and I for one just don't want to see Orton as the only option.

This John Clayton Piece was a very good read IMO.

Didn't the Bears spend a 3rd or 2nd rounder or something like that this year on an OLB?

It's been a few days, so I'll be the next one to ask. New Skin?

You think he'll actually show up for you guys?

And it also gives the Bears another draft to look for a replacement if it turns out that they don't have their guy yet. And it removes one of the 2 worries on that defense, thus cutting back the pressure on the revamped DT rotation and maybe giving Harris a chance to heal more if he doesn't come back and dominate from week one. And it gives Briggs yet another chance to give everyone a reason to want him next offseason. Still, it is a little bit disappointing that the Bears couldn't leverage him for something that could help them more long-term, i.e. a trade for another player or draft pick like they were talking a few months ago.

The NFLPA got Free Agency The NFL Owners got the creation of the franchise tag. I'm sure the owners would be happy to give up the franchise tag to get rid of free agency.

Is Berrian a FA after this season? Because it might not be a bad idea to try to lock him up now if he is, because I don't think the Bears really want to have multiple candidates for the franchise tag next offseason (and the prime one is Rex, if he has a good season to the point where you want to keep him long-term)

I'm not sure the exact details of the new CBA, but at least last year, Branch held out until early September before he was dealt to the Seahawks, and the Hawks were able to extend him after the deal.

Hopefully the Bears can trade him for something as useful as what NE traded Branch for during his holdout last year.

I think Benson will be an excellent back...IF he stays healthy. Benson looked, IMO, like a better runner than Jones in most games last season, but he's now had 2 seasons in a row where injuries have cropped up.

The whole question is in Rex's head right now. Rex has the talent in him and around him to have a great season. But 2 things have to happen. First, Rex has to stop being scared. The people who watch a lot more games than I do say that during the 2nd half last year, Rex really started playing not to lose rather than to win, after all those picks in the Miami game for example. Rex can not do that again. He will not win by being conservative for the entire game. Think about the Saints game; when Rex finally went up top, it opened up the whole game. Second, Rex needs to make better decisions. Simply cut down on the INT's. Being a gunslinger is fine, as long as you're not aiming at your own foot. Hopefully having a drop down option at TE really helps with this part this year, as shoudl another season with the same WR's and in the same system.

If the Bears want to keep him around (i.e. because he performs this year) I don't think they'll have much of a choice. You don't want to sign the guy yet because he could suck or get hurt this year, but if he shows significant enough improvement for the Bears to say "ok, he's our guy for the next few years", they can't let him hit the open market.

IMO, Rex is the prime candidate for the franchise tag next offseason. Unless we really want to piss off Briggs, that is.

Stolen from Maggsmaggs@ST: Link

Personally, I still think back to the Post Moss, Pre-injury culpepper of 05. He was simply terrible even before the injury, and he's 2 years older and 2 years into rehab since that point.

Yes, unlike PacMan, this is an achievable goal to get it reduced. I figured he'd get 8 straight up, so that's probably a positive.

Aside from Grossman, what other Key FA's do the Bears have at the end of the 07 season?