AZ54

I saw him when the Rams played a couple weeks ago and tried to key on him since I was thinking the Bears might draft him. I didn't see him do much the entire game but he did draw quite a few double teams. For me it's the trade off of Fuller/Sutton (drafted to fit the pass rusher role) versus Donald and 3rd Rd CB. Sutton has done well for us, 13 tackles but I'd say Donald is clearly playing better although neither player is a starter. Need to see which 3rd RD CBs were available to match up the performance of two players since that is what the draft option might have been if . As noted above, Ferguson has 9 tackles and 2 sacks, and a few tipped passes, if you prefer to match up 1st/2nd Rd picks.

I'm not ready for Clausen. I don't think Clausen is ready for Clausen.

I like Cutler having the ability to change plays but if he's not doing this correctly take it away from him. Cutler has always had a tendency to think short term and not long term when it comes to game strategy. He's not likely to want to stick with running the ball early when it's only gaining 3yds per play. We do tend to run the same plays from the same formations but if you watch carefully we will often run a different variant later in the game looking to catch a big play off of it. I personally think the offensive game plan was horrible. Backing out of running plays didn't help it either IMO. We don't have a roster built with quick WR who can turn WR screens into big plays. Both of our WRs take a few steps to get up to speed. If I were a DB and I saw those plays I'd be ecstatic because I'd much rather try to tackle Jeffrey or Marshall behind the LOS while they're standing there versus defending routes downfield. If we'd established a deeper threat and the CBs we're playing way off the LOS then ok, but they weren't. So why did we keep calling those plays? We also call plays that are designed to flood a zone or area of the field and then in theory Cutler should read how the defense reacts and go to the open guy. So yes, he'll often be staring at one side of the field. What else is happening when they line up triple WR to one side in a bunch? The question, or problem, is if Cutler is taking the quick read as he should? It's always hard for me to sort that out in a TV broadcast. Against Miami we did much better with Forte when he came out of the backfield he continued on a route. This was far more successful than against Carolina where he often just stopped waiting for a check down pass and was easy pickings for the LB to tackle for little gain. I never understood why he wasn't running a route when he came out of the backfield against Carolina's LBs. I realize our Oline has suffered through a lot of injuries but what happened to all the running plays with pulling guards and tackles out on the edge? Maybe we're running them and I'm missing it. Those were very successful last year and I don't recall seeing much of them this season. I felt like those plays helped slow down the edge rushers a bit. Helpful for a guy like Mills who struggles with speed rushers. I was calling for it all offseason: We need a speed element to our offense. Marshall and Jeffrey are great and draw attention but we have nobody who can really take advantage of all that open space. Forte is not a quick twitch speed guy either. I have no idea what happened to Santonio Holmes but he's damn near invisible. I thought he'd do this for us but is Cutler ignoring him or doesn't he run the routes well enough? Or don't we have him running the right routes to take advantage of that? Bennett is great to have as a TE but he's not going to scare a defense either. Will Marquis Wilson finally open up that element in a couple weeks? Use Ka'Deem Carey more. He's done well enough to get some more run plays. Take some of the load off of Forte because he's been our best weapon and we need him long term yet he's already banged up enough to need days off.

Bostic is inactive today as well.

I have never liked the way Briggs acts every time he wants a new contract. I don't have anything against players asking or doing what they can to renegotiate a deal. I don't have anything against a team telling them no. It's business. Players like Briggs, and even Gould before his new deal, go after the organization in very negative ways. http://espn.go.com/chicago/nfl/story/_/id/...ys-lance-briggs Blame him for going to the media to demand a trade? Blaming Briggs is secondary. This is what he does. He complains when it comes to money. He did the same thing in 2007, even though he didn't ask for a trade the last time. Saying, at points during his unhappy stage, he would "never play another down for Chicago again," "I'm prepared to sit out the year if the Bears don't trade or release me," and that he'd "do everything in my power not to be with [the Bears] organization." Then there's just unprofessional behavior like showing up to training camp out of shape. Missing the first practice of the season to go open up a restaurant in California. For some reason he's not crying about his contract like he did in the past. The way the young guys played in Atlanta will help keep him that way.

I think DE is a need for us, at least a pass rushing DE, more than DT. That might change if one or two of these young and fast LBs can start to show something in a pass rush on blitzes. I'm happy with our top 3 DEs it's a good mix but not great. Far better than what we had last year but Allen is only getting slower and Houston, while good at run D, is below average as a pass rusher off the edge. I like Willie Young but adding a very good 4th player into the mix would be a huge boost and would make worries about our safeties less of an issue. We need a replacement for Allen down the road so we will be drafting a DE early in one of the next two drafts.

Equally as bad: Draft one had Angelo's scouting department. Draft 2 is where Emery had implemented his changes.

Have you watched the Football Life show about Brandon Marshall? If not, you should.

Horrible trade for the Seahawks. They were hailed as geniuses when they traded for him. Now they are hailed as wise business men cutting their losses early and taking a dead money cap hit of $7mil next year. I have no idea what the Jets are thinking trading for him. If he can't find his way in Seattle's offense after 18months he's not going to help Geno this season, and he's not going to help Rex keep his job either. Not to say Rex is definitely losing his job rather that, whatever will happen, Harvin won't influence it either way. The Jets got rid of a malcontent in Santonio Holmes so why would Rex want to pick up another one? Feels more like a GM getting desperate to me because taking on that contract is not good for the future although it seems they can cut their losses this offseason if they choose too. If that happens the GM looks bad for making the deal. So either Rex or the GM is positioning themselves to save their job with this trade. Whoever it is it won't work. Get ready for more fireworks in New York.

I agree. If I skip back and watch a play, or just isolate on these guys during a replay I'm usually thinking why don't you run? They make the tackle more often than not but it seems that instead of taking 3 or 4 steps to get into position they take 2 to 3 and then wait for the ball carrier. Your good players are making tackles while moving forward and it was a trademark of Urlacher and Briggs in their prime. It's often the other way around where the veterans appear to be faster because they make quicker reads and know where to go while the young guys arrive late and chase the play. This is actually a very good sign that we have good young talent on the roster. They still take mis-steps but that is happening less and less often. We tend to forget this is an all new scheme these guys are learning. Something good is happening because this does not happen by mistake: http://www.csnchicago.com/bears/bears-defe...hits-are-coming "The Bears, injury riddled and 32nd against the run last year, rank tenth in rushing yardage allowed – this after being shredded in game one by the Buffalo Bills (193 rushing yards)."

Hopefully we get to see more from Vereen. I assume we'll start SMC, D.J. Williams, and Bostic at WLB but I'm curious who will lineup with Bositc when we're in our nickel defense.

The news everyone has been waiting to hear. I may be alone in this but I'm glad to have him back on the field. I expect he'll be a bit rusty but he may also have had some time to sit back and learn the position better. I will summarize why I'm optimistic this way: Reggie Herring is being praised for his work with the backups this past week against Atlanta, and rightfully so. Reggie is the same guy who continues to praise SMC, his skill set and the improvement he showed before the injury. If Reggie is looking forward to having SMC back as a starter, and says he is close to showing us that he can be a playmaker, then I'm glad too.

This is a tough transition for him. The first thing he has to do is learn how to hold the ball correctly. I think he is right to start off as a kick returner, keeps him in open space where he's accustomed to running while he learns the game. Since he's played rugby he should know how to tackle too which works for special teams coverage. However, playing RB is a whole new ballgame and learning how to run between the tackles, well let's just say it took Reggie Bush 5-6 years in the NFL to learn how to do that. This guy is already 26, 27 by the time he'd be ready next season. Hayne can catch a rugby ball moving at 10mph but if he can catch a fast ball from Cutler I'd like to see him used more in the Percy Harvin type of role as a slot WR. He has elite quickness and with his size he'd be a very tough matchup, plus I'd think he could be an effective blocker too. That keeps him in the open field where he's comfortable and you don't have to teach him many routes to get him to be effective as he grows his skill set. What did Wes Welker run in New England? Go up 5 yds turn left. Go up 5 yds turn right.

Meet the man responsible for the LB performance: http://www.chicagobears.com/multimedia/vid...6a-9ca9880ab086

I agree on Fuller, maybe not a superstar yet, but he's going to be a very good player for a long time. When we played the Packers we had the CBs sit back in a soft zone and it killed us. Fast forward to Atlanta and we allow Jennings and Fuller to man up on the corners while bringing pressure up the middle. It worked because Fuller is capable of staying with the 2nd best WR in the game. I suspect he's capable of staying with Calvin Johnson too. This great result went quietly un-noticed by almost everyone in the media. It won't stay that way for long.

The more important question could be will those "starters" get their jobs back? If healthy next week I'd say of course but if their injury issues drag out for a few weeks I don't know. Bostic of course will get back on the field as he is the future and his back spasms should be healed after a weekend off. SMC should be back soon but will likely be out at least another week. I didn't get to see the game so I can't really say how well guys like Greene played but it seems clear what he did this game was better than anything he did last year.

Yes, I'm optimistic about the future of this team. We are finally seeing signs of real depth all over the roster from DL (Ratliff missed 3 games, Allen missed 1), LB (top 4 out today), Oline (Bushrod out today, Garza, Slausson earlier). Secondary with Fuller filling in for Tillman with no drop off. We still need to add depth at WR, S, and some more speed at DE.

Game ball to Reggie Herring. I had to look up who Sharpton was and so Reggie's got his bottom 3 LBs out there the entire game and they give up 13pts. After week 1 there was a lot of people on this board who wanted to bring in Ray Lewis to coach or motivate our LBs. I see no reason to think Reggie needs any help. Mel Tucker deserves credit too. Six games into the season he has his defense ranked 17th in yards given up per game, not so good on pts/game @ 24th. Yet it's a total rebuilding effort and he's relying on rookies and 2nd year players at DT, LB, CB, and now FS and there is some progress each week, usually in different areas. This appears to be the most complete game they've played as a defense this season. Free safety continues to be the achilles heel. I noticed Vereen was out there today and hopefully he played well enough to stay on the field next week. We need some continuity there.

Naturally I missed the game. Looks like our young LBs played well, as did the Dline. Jay throwing for 381yds didn't hurt either.

I like Jones so far but he's only reacting to the plays and is nowhere close to understanding how to read things. His athleticism stands out anytime he's on the field. He's part of the future…Bostic, Shea, and Jones and if they put it together these three could be really good. I am willing to take the growing pains with Briggs not on the field (he's not playing that well anyway) because I'd rather see these young guys develop as quickly as possible.

…and which LB is right behind Houston and Young? Briggs. That's why this is his last season with the Bears.

McCray is horrible in coverage and while I don't think Vereen is going to be any better to start with, I'd rather live with the rookie mistakes and see if he can learn. Fixing the safety position is going to be a big part of our offseason and I think we should give Vereen enough game experience to know where he fits in those plans. I don't see McCray being in our plans for next season.

I noticed Christian Jones playing in the 2nd half but never saw any report on Bostic. I see now he injured his back. Hopefully this isn't a long term issue because he was starting to play well. http://voices.suntimes.com/sports/bears-li...ss-to-panthers/

Wow, 21 games into the Trestman era and we're ready to dump the entire offensive scheme because we only put up 24pts (with a missed chip shot FG from our Pro Bowl kicker). All that done with a backup rookie playing LT for the first time, and our backup C. That backup LT forced Martellus Bennett to stay in and block much of the game. After 1.25 seasons, if this is the bottom of the barrel performance for Trestman and Cutler it's far better than anything we had the decade prior, especially with two backups on the Oline. It's not that I'm happy with the 2nd half performance of the offense but it is worth noting how rapidly expectations have skyrocketed. The second INT was a clear pass interference on the LB who shoved Holmes off his route well beyond 5 yards downfield. At a minimum it's illegal contact and an automatic 1st down. Take that contact away and the ball hits Holmes on target. The first INT also had a LB (same one?) shoving Marshall backward before the ball arrived but I still don't think Cutler should have made that throw. Compare either to the PI call against Fuller and both involved far more contact. None of that excuses the poor run blocking in the 2nd half, among other poor play. Holmes, for all his speed, cannot get open. I don't know if it's because he's still learning the offense thus cannot make route adjustments that Marshall, Bennett, or Jeffrey might make. Or will he stay jammed at the LOS the rest of the year? 21 games into the Trestman/Emery era and I've seen one of the leagues worst offenses (ranked 28th in total yards in 2012) turned around to a top 10 caliber offense. Injuries and some poor play have affected things early this season but I'm not going to walk away from that improvement after suffering through John Shoop, Ron Turner, Mike Martz, and Mike Tice. After fielding the leagues worst defense, or second worst (must give Dallas their credit), Emery, Trestman, and Tucker have improved it to one that sits around 21st-22nd depending on what stat we're looking at. I see no reason to think the young players that are making significant contributions (Bostic, Fuller, SMC, Ego, Sutton) won't continue to improve. OTOH I see no reason to think that older players like Briggs will ever play like he used and expect he'll continue to miss tackles like he did today. I still think we'll end up ranked around 20th on defense this year, that's with the same Tillman injury that happened last year. This year if we lose Briggs to injury the D might actually get better. I never thought we'd go from worst to a top 5, or even top 10, defense in one offseason. So far they are doing enough to keep us in most games (Packers being the exception). Seattle built their Superbowl winning team over 4 seasons. I'm likely alone in this but I feel what we've done the last two off seasons to rebuild both sides of the ball has put us on the right path and I think jumping off the ship at this point in the journey is the wrong move.

I think the two key players needed are a true fast pass rush DE and a Safety. Bostic improves each week, still some ups and downs, and I see no reason that won't continue. SMC was doing alright before the injury and he'll be back and should continue to improve as well. I like Christian Jones in there with them for the future and Greene has done some good things as well. For now I think we need to be patient and allow the young players to learn and evaluate where we are at the end of the season. At DE Allen is clearly slowing down but will be effective for us this year and next but we need someone to groom into that role.