balta1701-A

When you're starring in Super Bowl ads before you were drafted, for anti-abortion groups that even the people who agree with them would probably admit are "controversial"...then like it or not, you're definitely contributing to the sideshow. The sideshow has been the only reason he's gotten this far. It got him drafted in the first round, it got him a shot in Denver, it convinced anotehr team to try him out after Manning was signed.

How fast is he? The Bears actually could have need of a "Guy who does nothing but run fly routes deep down the field but who does so fast" in the late rounds.

Depending on which stat set you use, Rodgers was hit just about as much as the Bears QB's or more than the Bears QB's. They gave up more sacks, had more tackles for a loss, and had a weaker running game.

Actually, there's one tool Rodgers doesn't have. He has a terrible O-Line, and that's been the case almost every year of his career. He just deals with it and still finds a way to win despite it.

Correct. (And the QB Franchise tag last year was $16 million).

ESPN Blogger's "First Glance at Mel Tucker", worth sharing.

If the team wants a $9 million OT signing, it makes losing Melton a near certainty, IMO.

Worth noting in reply how the 2 better defenses were the teams that won.

What if the Bears lose Melton? I don't know how they'd have a choice.

I have no problem with them drafting a backup QB this year (They need a backup QB somewhere). But if he's getting playing time, it's because of a Cutlerconcussion. Trick plays just don't work when the defense knows its coming. That was a big part of the problem with the Mad Martz plays as well - when Cutler is lined up at WR, something's up! Panic!

I'll say it again...I really dislike the idea of swapping QB's mid-game or mid-drive. I don't think it works at all. You take your main QB out of rhythm, you put the backup QB in a position where he's coming in cold and out of the blue, your offense isn't used to him, and worst of all, the defense immediately knows that something is up, you wake up every defender and have them on their toes to figure out what the trick is. If you want a dual threat QB to be effective, you need to do what the 49ers did with Alex Smith: get rid of him and make the dual threat guy the #1 QB.

Since the main OL coach is also the OC, they'll need a 2nd person to handle the O-line players on the sidelines on gameday.

The only people who will pay Urlacher anything close to what he got last year is Comcast, and that's most likely based on him staying as the Bears starting MLB.

Didn't seem to make winning ensue in NY.

A general rule of thumb here that shouldn't be overlooked is that there are probably going to be ~$5 million in draft holds that just can't be spent.

If you listened to Emery's presser...he knows he needs improvement on the O-line, but he may not be willing to sacrifice the rest of the team to do it. He may well be willing to tolerate "Average" if that's what he thinks he can get.

I actually wouldn't mind him if he was coming in solely to play TE, but he's going to continue insisting that he's a QB, and teams are going to continue giving him chances to play QB because as long as they do that, they get an enormous amount of press coverage.

Just to be clear, not saying he'll get $10 million a year, but he'll get well over $5 million a year and a team could knock the Bears out if they front-load his deal in a way they can't compete with. So yeah, I'm going to keep pointing that out...that defensive front could get a lot weaker very quick come the end of February.

If the Bears get him extended before free agency starts I can believe that...but there are teams out there with >$40 million in space for this year again...they can hit him with $10 million+ in opening year cap space and challenge the Bears to put together a better offer.

If you cut those guys, you get up to close to $20 million, give or take. Then...$5 million or so in cap holds. If you want to spend $10 million on a tackle...I can't see any way of keeping Melton. I don't think he's a $10 million player (although some teams have some serious cap space to blow), but heis well over $5 million.

Worth continuing to note...Melton is a free agent and extending him will probably use up 1/3 of the Bears' cap space. It may well be impossible to both keep Melton and sign a top level OT.

After having seen it these last few years...I really dislike changing QB's mid drive. It disrupts everything. It alerts the defense that they should expect something odd. It takes the entire offense out of rhythm and requires them to have practiced an entirely different set of plays. Even, IMO, Kapernick wasn't all that effective...when he was just subbing in for Smith. When he'd come out, the defense would know "Something's up!". When he was taking over 100% of the time, that's when you have to fear both the pass and the run.

Bringing in Tim Tebow makes things a bigger circus than anything else Rex Ryan could do.

Again...this was exactly what was said about the Jets this year, and that was a debacle.

Having ESPN constantly asking Sanchez about when he was going to be benched for his backup QB did wonders for the confidence and performance of that Jets QB this year.