AZ54

He's now at a price where he can compete for his job and if he loses we can cut him. He keeps his $100k bonus but in the grand scheme that's a fair risk/loss/reward setup for both sides.

First, I said I prefer to draft him over Dix so it's not like as if I'm projecting this as a huge red flag. In watching highlights of Pryor he occasionally leads with his head on tackles. It's not hard to project the impact of that when player speed and weight goes up in the NFL as I'm sure Brandon Hardin can explain. Major Wright had similar issues when he was a rookie. Pryor is not that big at 5-11 207lbs and given his size and style of play I can see him having a career similar to Bob Sanders. OTOH at FS he should also have less plays inside the box reducing the risk. You only need to watch the first play on this link but there are others. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3y2XwXujkk

Maybe because speed is everywhere in the NFL and if you can't consistently threaten a defense beyond 20 yards with accurate passing and receiving life is very difficult. I think we've seen enough of that in Chicago to know it's true.

I prefer Pryor over Dix because I think he's the better closer on tackles and better run support in the box. Dix is better in coverage but I don't think there's a huge gap there. When the vast majority of plays are 20 yards or less which type of player should we take? Granted giving up a huge play can change the game but if you have a good pass rush that's less likely to occur. My main concerns with Pryor are 1) can he avoid penalties and 2) with that style of play can he stay healthy.

I've seen enough of the veteran QBs you listed and nobody interests me. If we went there the two I'd be ok with are Freeman and Grossman. Freeman is a two year rehab project if at all. Grabbing a rookie isn't always downside. Many teams have done so, used them as a backup and then traded them after 3 years for a very good draft pick. If he turns out to be the guy you keep him and move on from Cutler….who you could also trade away especially as his contract is written he will be very affordable in the 4th year of his contract.

Bandwagon forming?

It isn't hard to find highlights of DAT on Oregon plays where he ran up the middle. In general I don't even have an issue with running any type of play for any person but the guy calling the play needs a brain. There are times where that type of "misdirection" will catch a team off-guard. Other times, such as having Wolfe run 3x up the middle against the Vikings best-in-the-league interior Dline makes no sense.

NFL Network's Charles Davis says Pitt's Tom Savage would be a good fit for the Bears. http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap100000034...-groom-young-qb I don't know much about this guy except he couldn't handle the heat here in AZ. I watched the video clip about him and they mentioned him going in Rd 3. CBS draft board has him as a 5th Rd pick. I think we go QB in 4-5th Rd so Savage is a guy who should be on our radar.

I watched some highlights of this kid and really like how he plays the game, both in pass coverage and run support. He won't be an elite cover corner but he matches up well with the attributes of what Jennings and Tillman have. He can definitely play man coverage and would likely be outstanding in zone coverage as he seems to have great instincts and drives on the ball. He'll need a year or two to add strength (like most rookies). http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/footb...0,4658826.story

Watched a highlight video of him. He doesn't offer much athletically, at least nothing stood out to me. Most likely can compete for the last WR spot and can also contribute as a returner. I'd say he looks like a slightly faster version of Earl Bennett. I agree, this means Weems is one step closer to the end of his run as a Bear.

Talentwise I like him as an option. However, I'd let him fall a little further off his pedestal before we go after him. He was put in a bad situation in Minnesota but had he shown them any indications of the work needed to be successful they'd have at least hung onto him this offseason to see who things shake out among their QBs. The QBs in the draft don't wow anybody although a few should end up as decent starters it's hard to say which ones those will be. If Minn thought there was some potential they'd have hung onto him at least until they saw who they go in the draft. Given the Schiano situation…ok I get it. How did he burn the bridges in Minn so quickly they walked away from him immediately? I suspect the Bears visit was far more about getting chance to meet the player rather see how he can throw.

I agree we need RB help. The question is why is Javon Ringer available?

…and Ratliff, Paea, and Collins do?

I don't think DeLaPuente is the center of our future because I think we are over-rating his abilities. If the Bears felt that way they could have given him a longer contract with a bump in salary next year. The lack of interest he had in the FA market says a lot IMO. Most teams felt better seeing what they could get in the draft rather than sign him. Its likely after the draft was done some team that didn't draft a C would have offered something. He is a good 1yr option to backup Garza and rather than wait around he chose to come back to the coach who helped him become a starter in the league. Probably not a bad idea for him. For the Bears perspective I love the signing. 1) We know the team isn't that high on Boggs, confirming what most here thought anyway. 2) DeLaPuente should be sufficient enough as a backup OC that Garza can now be considered as part of our backup OG options. I think we have our top 8 for the final roster: Britton, Long, Slausson at OG Garza, DeLaPuente, at OC. Boggs on the roster to compete as well but likely a practice squad candidate. Bushrod, Mills, and Brown at OT. Joe Long on the roster as well to compete but likely a practice squad candidate. 3) We need one more body to compete at OG but this removes drafting OG/C as a need. We can still add one late in the draft if the right player is there, a UDFA, or find a vet min type to compete in camp. We have more flexibility to draft defense but really opens the door on drafting both a QB and RB in the mid-to-late rounds. I like that.

It's just one little piece of the puzzle to playing Dline and I don't think it's anything magical. Certainly not something others aren't teaching.

I remember those years but can't remember them making the type of highlight plays we we're treated to last year by Marshall, and moreso Jeffrey. Wilson appears to have gained a significant amount of muscle based on the videos on the team's website. I'm looking forward to seeing how he does in training camp.

We'd have one heck of a Dline and with Pryor patrolling the box running against us would be hard to do. Passing for that matter with our DEs and both of those Dlinemen can get after the QB too. Adding Hyde in the 3rd (doubt he'll be there) would be awesome. Quick feet, power, and can catch too. Should be able to pass protect with his size. Would give Trestman two guys he could rely on for 40 carries in a game if he ever wanted to, and most importantly a solid backup RB. That combo along with our big WRs blocking on the edge would wear down DBs late in the game.

Very true.

Donald, Gilbert, then probably Dennard. I'm not that sold on Dix. Pryor reminds me of Bob Sanders, maybe a little bigger physique, and seeing how he hits he'll probably have a similar career: Many violent highlights that shorten his career. Not that I'm against safeties that play that way but he leads with his head a lot and that won't fly in this league. Getting one CB who can handle one side of the field is a huge plus. I think either of those CBs can develop into that player for us.

http://walterfootball.com/nflrumors.php There would be "panic" in the Bears' warm room if Aaron Donald is off the board, according to Todd McShay. ------------------------------- If this were Jerry Angelo's war room I'd expect a panic move if his targeted player were off the board. We're led by Phil Emery now and Phil plans for all situations. Besides that, we have so many needs there will be several options. If one of the top 3 LTs fell to us and we took him I'd live with that and move Bushrod to RT (likely next year). At #19 you are hoping your guy falls to you. At #14, in this draft, you will have a significant talent on the board when you pick. The other thing is that there are always 2 or 3 WTF moments in the top 13 picks.

This Lovie apple certainly doesn't appear to be falling far from the tree. http://walterfootball.com/nflrumors.php NFL Rumors - April 4: Comment on these NFL Free Agent Rumors here. "Major Wright's deal is not finalized but it's likely he will be a Buccaneer." - Rick Stroud, Tampa Bay Times

http://www.chicagobears.com/news/article-1...42-13b5cb17a9e8 In an "Around the League" feature posted this week, NFL.com analyst Chris Wesseling selects the Bears' Brandon Marshall and Alshon Jeffery as the best wide receiver tandem in the NFL. "A prototypical go-to target on third downs in the red zone, Marshall is among the NFL's top handful of receivers from the past decade," Wesseling writes. "He was outplayed at times last season by Jeffery, who was a big-play machine en route to finishing second among NFL receivers with 1,521 yards from scrimmage." -------------------------------------------------- The place where receivers go to die has turned around in just 1 season. And to think, it wasn't too long ago when I'd have been happy to have just 1 Pro Bowl WR on our roster. I'm glad we re-signed Cutler. Certainly the money was more than I expected, or though we'd get to but on the other hand, I've never seen a Bears offense do what we did last year, even with a backup QB for that many games. We deserved a chance to see what can happen with the key Pro Bowl caliber players all coming back for a second year in the same offense. We've seen that continuity on defense throughout Lovie's tenure (minus the Babich experiment) but never on offense. In fact we signed a Pro Bowl DE and he can't stop talking about how hard it was to stop our offense.

Danieal Manning is now a Bengal… http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/footb...0,6085479.story I'm curious what kind of a contract he got on that one year deal. Surely at 31 years old he'd have preferred something with more years even if it meant being a backup. Either that or he had no other phone calls in 3 days and got nervous. I'll put my money on the latter.

http://espn.go.com/blog/chicago/bears/post...draft-questions http://www.chicagobears.com/team/roster.html It's the offseason so it's hard to decipher what coaches are doing with players. Britton re-signed and now he is listed as an OG. Meanwhile James Brown who was kicked inside from T to G is now back listed as a OT. From an athletic standpoint Britton looked a bit slow on the edge so perhaps he's a better fit inside. We'll see how it plays out but it appears there has been a slight shuffling of the line this offseason. For sure we're going to add at least one more guy to the mix, if not two.

I think Britton has realized that working with Kromer is going to be good for his career long term. According to his (Britton's) words last year, in terms of technique he was not very good when he was with the Jaguars. He looked slow and unsure of what to do at times last year. Maybe a year later he'll be a step better.