AZ54

Wow, never expected this. After all the turmoil we've been through with the Oline now we have Sitton, Whitehair, Long as our interior. Yes, I'm kicking Larsen to the curb/bench whatever. I like Whitehair a lot better than Larsen. Despite any rookie learnings on assignments he's just flat out better as a blocker even at C. With guys like Sitton on his left and Long on his right he'll have enough help early on until he gets it down. One training camp comment that stood out the most about Whitehair was when Eddie Goldman said that he thinks Whitehair is stronger than he is. Let's get this bus running! ------------------- http://www.espn.com/nfl/team/_/name/chi/chicago-bears Matt Bowen ESPN Staff Writer Josh Sitton is an immediate upgrade for the Bears offensive line. That gives Chicago one of the top guard combos in the NFL with Kyle Long playing on the right side. Key for a team that wants to lead with the run game. Pound the ball. ----------------- FWIW I went to a few Packers message boards to see what their fans were saying (mainly because of my concern that he's not playing as well as in the past). Sitton has had some injury issues especially last year. Most worrisome is his back which has caused him to miss a lot of practice. It seems it also kept him on the bench for much of their preseason yet even last year he always played through the injuries. Sutton lost weight this offseason so it would be less of an issue. Nobody said a single word about him not looking good in training camp, or what limited action he saw in the preseason. In fact, most said he was still their best Olineman. The Packers have a bunch of players needing new contracts next year and obviously Sitton was not in their long term plans. Why cut him now? They had enough cap space unless there are a couple deals they want to get done now versus next offseason. Packers are supposedly looking for a backup OG now so it's not like they had two good backup OG when they made this decision. As long as it is Whitehair going to C and Larsen going to the bench then I'm happy.

I couldn't find that on his resume but if true putting him in between Whitehair and Long would give us a lot of strength up the middle. With Massie on the right side as well I could see the run game taking off in a big way. I'm not a Larsen fan after what I've seen this preseason.

My only disappointment is that we didn't have competition for him in camp. These are kickers and it is easy to scout them around the league during the preseason.

LeBlanc profiles: http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/draft/players...146;von-leblanc http://www.nfl.com/draft/2016/profiles/cre...lanc?id=2555305 http://www.csnne.com/new-england-patriots/...leased-patriots http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/patriot...eblanc_s_corner The Bears got a good look at him for 4 days so they know exactly what they have vs. Hurst who was cut. It's hard to see a 4.65 CB but maybe those timed runs weren't indicative of his play speed. He certainly seems like a tough competitive football player and I don't mind having that on defense.

Khari Lee was released to make room for Logan Paulsen. I think that's an upgrade and it is expected we'll put Lee on the practice squad so he'll still be around if needed, Braunecker too. http://chicago.suntimes.com/sports/bears-t...-logan-paulsen/

Love that deal. Less per year than I expected but a huge guarantee. He's one player you just don't worry about with the guaranteed money.

Which is exactly why this cut by the Packers makes little sense.

Kush is a center so might mean Edison gets cut and maybe heads to practice squad.

Major desperation move here. I'm glad the Vikings gave up the picks and I don't mind Bradford there at all. The timing of this does make it appear Bridgewater is looking at a more serious impact to his career than just this season. Yet even then they could have just traded up to draft a QB next year. With that, it appears they are going all-in on this season, perhaps because of AP's age and believing their defense is ready to fully carry the team. What a gamble. It's one I don't think will work.

I never understood this BS from Detroit players. Megatron was Stafford's bailout all the time. WE covered him with 2 or 3 players more often than not. Now he's gone and Stafford is suddenly going to spread the ball all over the place like Brady and won't miss Megatron? Tate, Jones, and Ebron are going to have more coverage than before and yet they'll be better players? Calvin Johnson can call up every team in the NFL and say he's ready to play and he'd have 32 job interviews. If he's in shape he'll have 32 job offers. I can't think of any team losing a Hall of Fame player that was better without the player when that guy was still performing at an elite level. This isn't Jerry Rice at age 37 when he was cut.

Cutting both Braverman and Mariane likes means Thompson should be back soon for KR. PR I don't know. We might see Eddie Royal returning punts. At this point the team will likely feel they have Mariani on speed dial, or Braverman on practice squad if needed. Plus with Bellamy and Meredith looking decent they might not worry quite as much about reserving Royal for all the 3 WR sets. Thompson is also on the roster and can fill in as the slot WR too.

Heavy focus on extra DBs for obvious reasons. I too am surprised to see Fuller on the PUP although I think that is best for him to get fully healthy. We're still rebuilding so from a long term perspective it wasn't clear if Fuller was part of the future or not. Seeing some of these younger guys like Glenn get experience could pay off down the road. Callahan is the guy I really want back on the field. While Glenn really improved in the last couple preseason games Callahan can solidify things for us. Having one weak spot (i.e. Glenn) means we can rotate safeties that way. Having two weak spots not so easily done especially with Trevathan nursing a bad hamstring. I'm very excited to see this Dline come together over the course of this season. We know what Goldman can do, and IMO Hicks has already proven himself in our scheme. Unrein and Sutton are both reliable and that's a good thing. I said I really wanted to keep Washington around to allow him to build on his upside and I like the idea of him and Bullard in there on 3rd and long. That's a lot of quickness out of the DT position for Oline players to deal with. Toss in Floyd and Willie (who has been our best pass rusher this preseason) coming off the edges. As the season moves along I see either Bullard or Washington getting more early down snaps in place of Unrein. Congrats to Cornelius Edison for making the roster. He'll be around for several years IMO. Congrats also to Meredith. Impressive for a guy with so little experience at WR to improve that much in one year. I like his physical traits on the field more than what I've seen out of Wilson and if he continues to improve he'll take his place. Bellamy as well has improved over last season. I feel more comfortable with our WR depth than I've been in the last two seasons. I expect we'll find Braverman on our practice squad as I doubt teams saw enough from him in the preseason to put him on their roster if they need help at WR. They should be more likely to grab a vet who got cut. There's potential for Braverman to take over for Royal in the slot next year (or next injury) but he's got some learning to do. Braunecker on practice squad makes sense too. I too am surprised the team cut J. Rodgers but I'm not disappointed at all. This bodes well for our future with Howard. It's hard to assess but the backup Oline weren't that bad the last couple games. I never tracked Silatolu or Adams much but reportedly they were ok. Both guys are working back from injury and steadily improved as they got back up to game speed. It's hard to be confident here but OTOH I don't think it's the disaster we all thought it would be after the first preseason game. -------- Overall I think team speed has improved from last year. Will Sutton has gone from being our quickest Dline (at least we hoped for that) to perhaps 6th on the depth chart. -------- More changes will happen, especially among the DBs, as players return from injury. It all depends how the injuries go but I won't be surprised to see someone like Moeaki return midseason and have us carry 4 TEs.

I'm not sure why he'd want to be here. I assume he still wants a shot at being a starter and he won't beat out Long. Are we going to bench a promising rookie in Whitehair? If he's willing to come in as a backup OG and wait while he learns the offense? If so, then this would be a good deal. Part Protecting rodgers is paramount to the success of the Packers offense. Salary cap issues aren't a big deal right now IF he's still the player he was. Reportedly the Packers had around $10mil in cap space before the cut. This means he's not nearly as good as he used to be. Next year is not a concern here as he was a free agent after the season. They got nothing in return now, but they could have had at least had him as a good insurance policy at backup OG. For a team expecting to compete for the Superbowl that seems like something worth paying for. So again, he's not nearly as good as he used to be.

I finally got to watch the game via Gamepass. That's a nice summary you put together. Here's my additions: I agree about Fales but will say that Fales and Hoyer are the reason Jacquizz Rodgers will make the roster. Pass protection of Cutler is paramount to other deficiencies in his game and that is where he trumps all others. I'm a fan of what I've seen from Jordan Howard, even before this breakout game against the Browns. He is quicker and more balanced with his feet than I expected from a power RB. Yet he's still finding his way through the playbook. I like his future. Consider that it took Langford about half a season to somewhat sort things out and I can see these two as our tandem after the bye. For now, I don't think I'd trust Cutler's livelihood to Howard in pass protection. Either of Carey or Rodgers could be the third RB depending on what the coaches value most, but I won't be surprised if we keep all 4 for now. I think you are right about Braunecker. Nobody drafted him, and nobody has seen him since the draft. If you need help on your roster at the 3rd TE position you aren't likely to sign a guy you've never seen play against NFL competition. If we keep Scruggs and Housler then Khari Lee available and there is plenty of film on him. Or if we cut Housler... Meredith is everything I thought Marquise Wilson was going to be. That reliable 4th receiver good enough to consistently win against a dime CB. At this point Meredith still has plenty of upside too as compared to Wilson so I say we keep him on the 53. If he's getting it done in the first half of the season then park Wilson on IR. I think we're in good spot here to hedge our bet on the 4/5th WR spot. Braverman is a tough one to predict. I think what has happened in practice will have the bigger influence over what has happened in the preseason games and that's stuff we just don't know. If coaches feel his upside is there they will protect him. Bellamy has looked good all preseason so I think he sticks, same with Mariani. ....Jeffrey, White, Bellamy, and Mariani. If we keep 6 then it's between Royal, Braverman, and Meredith. $4.5mil ride on this decision. Logic say keep Royal because you are going to pay him anyway but those guys he competes against represent the future. I doubt Royal is on this team in 2017, especially if we re-sign Alshon to a big deal. The fact we have any debate over who should be the 5th and 6th WR is a good thing to see. I really don't care which way they go as any combo has it's upside either near term or long term. Most likely we'll try to get one of Meredith or Braverman onto the practice squad. Sutton and Ferguson both showed up against Cleveland. Ego has played a lot of NT prior to this but being back at DE he excelled. I like Washington a lot and I see more upside there than what Ferguson or Sutton has. We won't see anything else out of Ego/Sutton than what we've already seen but Washington is a different story and his floor is comparable to either Sutton/Ferguson. Both of Washington's injuries are the result of players hitting him low so it's not like it's his fault he's injured. We're rebuilding, take the gamble on the big upside! Impossible to know what happened to the CBs but these backups were in tight coverage all game long and looked much better than a week ago. I'm more comfortable with Glenn as a backup now. Maybe Tracy Porter was right, we don't need anyone else, we just need these young guys to play with confidence. Edison still looked good although i think we stick with Larsen's experience early this season at C. I'm not a big Larsen fan as I think his limited athleticism hinders him. If he struggles don't be surprised to see Edison in the near future. Kevin White showed why we drafted him. He simply stood out even against the 1st team of Cleveland. He'll be fine this year.

You should look at our starting Center and then work your way toward our starting CBs all of which are injured. Then there is our best OLB Pernell McPhee who is likely starting this season on the PUP list. We're not immune to injuries and while Bridgewater himself may get sympathy from me, his team does not. Nor do I feel we have been particularly lucky at this point. Bear Down!

I still don't fully understand the cause of the issues between him and the Browns front office. You would think if he's that talented a dispute over when to get surgery (or not) would eventually be forgotten once he got back on the field. It seems there is more to this story than what we know from the reports. However, we know Fox and Pace won't put up with BS from players regarding taking care of themselves. Finding another good DB for the slot would be a huge boost for our defense. It seems none of the young players fit well in that spot leaving just Callahan to fill the role. The fact they gave Callahan a shot outside in a preseason game means they think he can provide more versatility as the first backup to Fuller/Porter. You can't do that unless you have someone to fill his shoes inside. K'Waun Williams has just one week to make a good impression and what happens among all the DBs in final cuts will be interesting. Just keep this in mind: http://www.espn.com/blog/afcnorth/post/_/i...and-paul-kruger "K'Waun was one of my really good friends on the team," Joe Haden said of Williams on Aug. 21. "Just a tough situation. Some people, you gotta really love this to be here. It's a lot of hours, a lot of things you have to put into it, and if your'e not all-in to it then it's no one's place to tell you what you want to do. "I'm here for K'Waun whatever he wants to do, but we've got to just keep moving on with who we've got here."

Dislocated knee. Very tough break for the Vikings and Bridgewater. This is a tough injury to come back from as well and I hope he doesn't have nerve damage like Jaylon Smith did.

No we're just not interested in him or we'd have at least entertained some conversations with him over the last two FA periods.

I'm with you there, I though Browner was at least good enough to make it through to the final cuts. That leads me to believe there's some off the field stuff we don't know about. Not going towards the bad stuff rather how he handles himself in the meeting rooms, weight room, knowing his assignments, etc.

We lack depth. A year ago we lacked starters. Now if we have our starters out there we're competitive. If we don't, we're not. I'm not going to worry a lot about Jacoby Glenn playing such soft coverage against the Chiefs because I hope to never see him on the field again this year. Replay this game with Fuller and Callahan out there and it's not quite so easy for the Chiefs offense. Throw McPhee and Floyd into the mix especially Floyd who can run with Smith. OTOH I have to worry about Ted Larsen who got blown up everywhere he went on the field. If Kyle Long is starting, then hopefully Edison did well enough to put Larsen on the bench. Larsen is all he's going to be, and I've seen enough of him here in AZ to know he won't get better. He's ok as a reserve for a few games just because of his experience. There isn't much behind Larsen yet. I have to watch the game again to see how the backup Oline players performed.

Congrats to this young man for earning a starting opportunity in Week 3 of the preseason. I've been complimentary of him the last couple weeks and it seems he done as well or better in practice this week with the 1st team. If you like watching Olinemen run LBs out of the play watch a couple of his highlight clips at the link. http://bearswire.usatoday.com/2016/08/25/c...n-performances/

Cornelius Edison is the wild card here. He's getting some snaps with the 1st team this week and we may very well see him take some snaps with them against KC, maybe in the 2nd quarter. He's pretty athletic and moves around well which is what they said they wanted when they drafted Grasu. And so far against 2nd and 3rd team DTs he's anchored pretty well, even against Terrance Knighton. Not that Knighton is that mobile anymore. I don't know much about Stork and what he brings to the table other than the fights he had against the Bears defense. I'm not sure if he can play OG. He was only due to make $600k and the Bears refused to trade for him. So he wasn't worth giving up a pick, and I'm glad we didn't do that. Signing him would kick Larsen back to where he belongs, on the bench behind Long/Whitehair. Then we're carrying two dedicated OC on the 53man roster and that doesn't seem likely.

If you want to see how fast Bullard is off the snap... http://247sports.com/Bolt/LOOK-Bears-rooki...167605366595213

After watching the 2nd half against the Patriots some of the depth at CB played better than I expected. I haven't had a chance to see Bausby or Glenn much. Even Porter came out and said we're good with the players we have. Maybe we let the youth learn.

Upon further review (as in 2nd half) Greg Scruggs is a very good inline blocker. I haven't seen much of what he can do catching the ball but Cutler says he can be effective there. We have two more games to evaluate but he should not be written off from the TE competition. Bullard so quick he is usually 2yds upfield ahead of every other Dline, including Floyd. As he learns the NFL and where plays are headed, he's going to make some big plays for us. Competition is not over but based on what I saw against NE, if we keep 6 OLB, I'll take Robertson-Harris to win a roster spot instead of Christian Jones. Jones disappears on run downs getting moved around by TEs, OTs. In pass rush Jones sometimes gets there. On the other hand, RRH held up well against the run and flashed equally well as Jones in the pass rush. Consider the time he missed in camp he's got a lot of catching up to do but if he can contribute as well as Jones on special teams (not a high bar there) I think RRH's upside wins the day. Dline competition. I still see Ferguson on the outside looking in. The more I watched the less he did. As the 3rd/4th quarter wore on Browner still looked like the more consistent player over Sutton/Ferguson. This is only if we keep a 6th DT. Cornelius Edison continues to show that he can play in the NFL. Not sure if he'll make the final cut and that may depend on if we pickup someone else with experience. If not I think he's headed to the practice squad. He's got good feet and carries blocks at the 2nd level well. Fox also mentioned that he played well so that can't hurt. Braverman ran better routes and was open quite a few times but Hoyer refused to look his way. Hoyer was too locked in on the first read almost every play. Hoyer should have a lot more practice reps with both Bellamy, and even Thompson who were ahead of Braverman early in camp. If Braverman practiced well this past week you can bet the Patriots took notice.