AZ54

It will make no difference whatsoever to sports because nobody I know gives a d*** one way or the other. Back in the 1970's it was news for those of us old enough to remember. In 2014 it's a little late to the scene unless someone, or some people, just want attention for themselves. Just win football games, eh?

It seems a little high for a kicker, even one with Gould's talent who knows how to kick in Soldier Field. When you look at points/$ spent he has put up 78pts as compared to Brandon Marshall with 77pts for about 1/3 of the money. Granted Marshall does the grunt work getting the team in FG or TD range so he earns that extra cash over Gould. Compared to Peppers's $$$$/sacks he's a huge steal.

One thing in our favor for the defense: Everyone is down on the Bears right now after the showing at Philly. We've already played the Packers, and in fact we've played against this same offense for years. When you consider Briggs was in his first game back at Philly he was against an offense he had never seen before. Yes he was rusty but he was also among the lost out there. He has played Green Bay and knows exactly what they will do. I expect Briggs to have a much better game and also to have a much better impact on the rest of the defense in terms of alignment and assignment. The others, having been run over multiple times by Lacy should also be fully ready for what's coming. I'm not saying we'll shut them down. That's not possible with this group. I do think we'll be more competitive than everyone is expecting and this will give our offense a chance to win it for us but it will still take at least 30pts to do so. That's territory this offense is capable of.

The best near term scenario is keeping Cutler. He is not going to command a huge contract. For one thing he is still one of the most hated players around the league among fans. I still hear crap about him every day at work from Cardinals fans of all places. The translation here is that a new head coach and GM on the bottom 10 teams, among those needing a QB, is more likely to hitch his wagon to a young rookie QB and/or the mid-tier vet FA QB rather than go down the rabbit hole with Cutler. I don't think Cutler's value will be as high as some might be thinking among FAs. Now he's still starter material in the league and will attract some attention but it is more likely with the middle tier teams that can compete for the playoffs if they have a decent QB. Teams like Minnesota fit this scenario. Yet these teams, like the Bears are more likely to hedge their bets on the "iffy" vet QB (Cutler, Schaub) and won't offer a top tier contract. They are going to look for the same thing the Bears should want: ~3 years of production and time to find the next QB. If Cutler pans out you pay him early and keep him. Quality backup QBs are always a valuable trade commodity. Even if it were a bottom 10 team that went after him, like the Jaguars, I can't see them throwing $17+mil/yr for 5 years at Cutler thinking he'll fix all their problems when they know he might cause just as many as he fixes. That's where I see the market for Cutler. I also believe Cutler knows his best chance to have elite success in the near future is with the current system and players he has around him. I believe he wants his name "cleared" far more than people realize. They will get a deal done that works for both sides because it makes sense for both sides. If in 3 years it hasn't worked out Cutler will still be young enough to get another decent deal and opportunity elsewhere.

I agree but what worries me most is the lack of progress. Bostic, Greene, No-name DTs continue to make the same mistakes. Nobody expects things to be great with this roster but somewhere in some aspects we should be seeing some progress. I can't point to anything that has improved from 8 weeks ago when Briggs went out.

I agree on Bostic. He has not progressed at all in terms of his reads, and even if he does read the play correctly usually overruns the play allowing the cutback. Very disappointing season from him.

I agree with that. It's why I preferred we get Wootton out of the DT business as soon as possible. Better to have one or two weak spots up the middle on run downs than three across the entire front.

Well said. Not sure if it was Tucker, Trestman, or Emery who decided to continue with the Lovie 2 because of our veterans. Likely it was all 3 on board with the decision, and I did not disagree with it. We got burned by injuries and age and so the gamble failed. Tucker may have been technically able to coordinate that D but he was not a disciple of it and so can't be expected to teach the nuances as well as a coach with years of experience in it. We gambled on our defensive veterans and it didn't work out. As soon as our season is done Trestman needs to decide on what defense we're going to run. Tucker is not the right coordinator to run Lovie's D. Then what is Tucker's preferred defense? Don't know, but if he's not the right man for the D Trestman wants to run let's move on. I don't care if we go 4-3 or 3-4, one-gap or two-gap. Either can be successful just get the right talent and the right coordinator to run it. Some 3-4 defenses use cover 2, some use man on the corners. I don't so much care about the backend as I believe it all starts up front and there is where we are getting killed on D. Contracts forced Emery's hand on this because he couldn't commit to long term new deals, or at least he stayed away from it by avoiding restructuring aside from Peppers. Regardless, we are set up for a major transformation on D this offseason let's get after it.

Yes, just take care of business in Philly and then again next week.

Why not? Because I don't think we need to sell out the defense to improve our offense in the ways mentioned. As stated, with Garza at C we're the leagues 2nd best offense in pts/gm and 7th in yds/gm. Would I like to see an upgrade over Garza? Absolutely. Can Kromer find that guy late in the draft or in FA? I believe he can. Speed WR? I'm thinking like Jason here: Find another Johnny Knox in Rd 4/5. 2nd TE? Same thing, grab him in Rd 4 or 5. We don't need a stud here, not even a guy who is a good blocker but one who can go out and catch some passes and occasionally hold a block on the edge. The edge blocking in helped dramatically by guys like Marshall and Jeffrey so we have wiggle room here in terms of player capabilities we need. Again, of those 3 needs I believe at least one will be filled by a vet FA. Jacoby Ford will be a UFA. He's fast and he's also been a very poor performer as a WR. He's also been injured. I don't watch Raiders games so I won't say he's what we need but his 4.3 speed would look great in the open field underneath some deep routes run by Marshall/Jeffrey. He can replace Hester as a KR too. I'd say goodbye to Weems too. There will be options for us without a huge investment in either money or high draft pick and with this offense we now have a place for WRs to come to if they want to succeed in their career. That doesn't hurt the recruiting process. In doing this we keep the big money and high draft picks available to rebuild the D.

We need both another WR option as a TE and a speedy WR for the slot. One or both should be something we can address in FA for a reasonable cost. I should say we need to fill a couple needs via FA, it could be either the above or DL, CB, S. Phil has to figure out the best balance of FA talent versus draft talent.

That would be a bend but don't break defense combined with an offense that struggles in all aspects.

Bostic played better when Briggs was next to him. More than anything else I think this is where we see the biggest difference in our D.

If his agent brings those stats to the table all he is doing is clearly showing Cutler doesn't belong, unless you consider him to be worth what Eli is being paid. Eli is having a bad year (again) but he has two Superbowl rings. Right after that is discussed Emery is going to slide McCown's salary and stats across the table and say here is what I can get for a #2 QB salary. It appears both sides want a deal done I have no idea what value but I believe Cutler will accept some significant incentives in the deal.

Doesn't look all that favorable to Cutler IMO. I'd say that data likely puts him back near the top 10 as in 10th. Could be lower depending on which stat you look at such as redone INTs. Could be higher They made their comparison based on salaries but we have to compare to all QBs and include guys like Russell Wilson, Kap, and even Carson Palmer. It's going to be interesting to see where we end up on this one.

The market backed up your sentiments of Urlacher's ability (one I agreed with) when he was offered no contracts besides the Bears. I also think Tillman has another season or two left in him and the market would prove that by him getting offers from other teams. I just don't think he'll command a lot of money and hopefully he's a Bear next year.

I too was LMAO at the Defense comments. The read between the lines translation is "we're so bad at D we can't afford any risk on offense". In reality any INTs do not matter as our D was giving up a scoring drive no matter where the opponents started. I hope this changes with Briggs back on the field this week and Ratliff is playing well. He's already the best player on our Dline.

Right now the rankings show McCown ranked #1 in total QBR. Cutler is ranked #7 and ahead of Tom Brady who is #11. Like any "stat" in the NFL context is important because I have no about which QB among those 3 anyone in the league would take first. Yet the point is valid about Cutler being ranked top 10 this year. http://espn.go.com/nfl/qbr/_/type/player-week

We need pass rush help either at DE or DT.

Is there a QB controversy in Green Bay now?

For a decade or more we have sat and watched bad offensive play on this team even as the NFL rules allowed for improved offense. In one season we hire a new HC who turns what has been crap into #7 in yds/gm and #2 in pts/gm. If the guy who did that says Cutler is our best QB I don't see a reason not to trust him. Reading a headline in one of the Chicago papers about how Trestman was sticking his neck out by putting Cutler back in as our starter made me laugh. I understand all the points about McCown and I"m glad he's gotten us 3 wins and I also remember his 2 losses. I won't belabor those points anymore. I lean toward Cutler being the better player...not perfect but better. I like the points in this article linked by BT and agree that our best move going forward is to keep both and build the D. That's the future. Right now, I trust the guy who built this offense to tell me who the best QB is.

Found this highlight clip someone put together on the top DTs for the draft. So as we head to bowl season here's some names to watch for. This was put together before the college season started but still worthwhile. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ymLcqEQKYI

I only watched him play one game against Auburn and my issue with Franklin is that he's just a one-read and run QB. These guys usually flame out in the NFL. The last big name player like this was Cam Newton and although he had a good rookie campaign he is still learning the game. I do like Franklin's physical tools though and if Trestman feels he can learn the offense then he'd be a good 7th Rd pick.

In the midst of all this "Josh is great" discussion we need to keep in mind just how awful the Cowboy's defense is. Everyone has lit them up just like everyone runs all over our defense and has a career day. I'm sure all those RBs would love to sign their next contract the day after they played the Bears. It's great we rolled over the Cowboys 32nd ranked defense but we also couldn't move the ball well against Minnesota's 31st ranked defense. The Rams 19th ranked defense looked pretty good against us too and I watched what the Cardinals mediocre offense just did to them. I think the last game was McCown's best since he's been our starter. It was good to finally see less of the WR screens and us throwing more downfield. It worked well but there were several throws that should have, or would have, been INTs (even leaving out the Def Holding against Marshall) if Dallas' DBs could catch. The Cowboys also made Michael Bush look like a good backup RB and we know he's not. That's not to put McCown in the same category of Bush's play, he's not there by any means. No different than the Rams weren't putting Zach Stacy in the elite category of RBs after his game against us.

Slap the tag on Cutler, we have tons of cap room. Yes, we have tons of positions that need to be filled out but we shouldn't let Cutler go with no compensation even if it ends up being a simple 3rd or 4th Rd pick I'll take it. To make all this work we need to get him back on the field as our starter, if we go with McCown the rest of the season then it's clear to all we won't re-sign Cutler. Despite looking good against the league's worst defense I'm still not that enamored with McCown as our long term starter but I love him as our backup.