AZ54

http://www.chicagobears.com/news/article-1...92-b8a903aa7c4a http://www.chicagobears.com/multimedia/vid...41-1e1c2de08499 I like the guy, seems like a class act and I like his approach to his opportunity to be a starter. We'll see what he does on the field. ...and goodbye Major Wright as Mundy wears #21.

Hard to get excited about a guy who had 55 yards receiving last year. OTOH I like the fact the team is kicking the tires on some bottom roster players. We need more than we were getting out of a guy like Weems. I can't say Hixon represents that upgrade, I honestly have no idea what he brings to the table at this point in his 9yr career.

I think Allen is actually hurting his value by stating he'll sign for what he wants or he retires. If I'm the GM the fact he's thinking about retiring at all makes me stop and think twice before committing big money to him. That may be a ploy to get more money or it might be real. The last thing we need is Sedrick Ellis version 2.0.

Add in a guy named Julius Peppers.

Revis is just 28, he is not over the hill. I'd pay him as I agree, having him take out a #1 WR makes the rest of the D better including our safety position which would be relied on much less to help out one side of the field.

Bushrod's contract appears to be what the average good LT are signing for this offseason in Veldeer and Saffold. Although Saffold might be getting that bucket of cash to play OG. We may have been a year early but Bushrod is making market value.

Comparing a team with $28mil or thereabouts in cap space and few needs against us with $10mil in cap space and a ton of defensive needs should not yield any expectation of similar results. Denver is in an enviable position. We got the biggest need covered for a reasonable cap hit this year and that leaves us some flexibility to fill several other positions on D once the initial wave of big money is off the table.

Isn't Biggs the guy who said Bennett was on his way to Chicago? FA is a very fluid time and teams go fishing in several directions at once not knowing which line will make the catch. Then you have to adjust your budget and hope you can bring in the next target. Meanwhile the teams that didn't get the early bite now have more cash than you. I don't think we were in the market for Allen early on, or really all weekend but that doesn't mean it didn't change. Does Denver wish to have Ware over Allen? Also, we had the #2 scoring offense last year. I believe we are a Superbowl contending team if we fix our defense to just average. Not much different than Seattle taking an average offense to the Superbowl on the back of a great defense. Certainly comparable to Denver making it to the Superbowl. If we end up with Houston and Allen I'd be very happy with our DE situation.

It's time to draft a good young RB to backup Forte. I don't see Ford as being that guy. We need both youth and low cap hit on a player that can contribute 10-15 plays as well as fill in for a few games as the starter.

I watched a few games in slo-mo last season and it was painful seeing Peppers get pushed around by a single blocker all season. He was so easy to run at, and really had never seen that before from him. I can understand losing some burst and not getting to the QB as fast as years past but he looked like he was either hurt or didn't care last season. I haven't seen much of Houston play but based on what I've read of his run defense and seen of him in highlights the answer is yes, he's an upgrade over the Peppers we had last season.

I agree, he's worth looking at but have to wait and see what Baltimore does with him. From a talent standpoint he's outstanding on the field.

Michael Bennett reportedly signed for less than what we offered. Before he signed, and after Griffen signed, there was talk of us needing to pay Bennett $10mil/yr. I didn't want to go there. He ended up around $7mil/yr which I'd have agreed to. We were reportedly offering closer to $8.5mil/yr which is getting to high for me. Allen said to be heading off to Denver but we'll see. I"m not that interested in him because I know he wants to be full-time starter and at this point I think he might be best as part time pass rusher. If he signs early in FA he is likely signing for more money than I'd want to pay for his services. More to my point is that there are several ways we can improve our Dline, largely because it was so bad, and I'd rather not be forced into an expensive box to fix one position (Dline) so early when we have so many needs on defense. I realize Bennett is the better pass rusher between him and Houston but either will help. If signing Houston means we end up with a significantly better FA CB (even Tillman) then it's a plus IMO.

Last rumor I saw had him interested in going to Denver.

Rather than overpay for 7-9 sacks per yr for the next 4-5 years (Bennett), I'll take the excellent run defense of a guy like Houston who can also contribute 6 sacks. He is big enough he can slide inside on some 3rd downs too giving Tucker the flexibility he wants this season. If we ended up with Houston, Jared Allen, and Wotton as 3rd man in the rotation we'd have a much better 3-man DE rotation than we had at any time last season. We'll have SMC coming off the edge at times too and I think he'll be better in that standup role. Hopefully a guy like Washington steps up and can contribute. It appears we are about to cut Peppers. While I've bashed him a lot based on last year's performance, if he ends back with the Bears at a fraction of his salary (in place of Allen above) we'd be ok on run D but short on edge speed for pass rushes. Although to be fair Peppers got pushed around by OTs a lot last year.

That'll make the fans in Tampa happy with Lovie.

He said he clearly wants to be a starter and take the majority of the reps. I'd prefer him to be the 3rd guy in a balanced rotation (equal reps) with a focus on 3rd downs.

You didn't like Bennett or you didn't like what we were about to pay him? I like the guy but not for $8.5mil/yr.

I'd take him and while I hated his attitude playing against him we need someone like that on our defense. He should be cheaper than Bennett. In fact we might be able to afford him and a guy like Johnson to bookend the Dline.

If we sign Bennett I expect he'll get a very big bonus in yr 2 of the contract, maybe another one guaranteed in yr 3. If we sign him for $80 million I'll be throwing a fit…which usually means drinking another beer.

Jordan Palmer is not unexpected at all given the waning interest in McCown. We've hedged our bets at the QB position and now we see who else falls to us either in FA or the draft. Very happy to have Nate Collins back. He worked hard and played well for us. Should provide good depth at this position. Now we have Ratliff, Paea, and Collins. Need to add at least one more FA DT and one via the draft. Toss in some more competition for the backup roles at the tail end of FA and we should be ready to go. And now back to the DE position...

I've been saying I don't want to break the bank on Bennett and that's where the market appears to be headed. At this point it seems like keeping Peppers is a better deal and focus spending our money on the DTs. Build a strong interior of the line and we'll go after DEs in the draft. See if a guy like Jared Allen is looking for reasonable money to be a 3rd down specialist.

…and I keep asking myself who is Griffen? I'm thinking a guy worth $42mil is someone I've seen plenty of highlights on ESPN or NFL Network. Maybe even someone the Vikings fans talk about as one highlight in an otherwise bad season. Maybe the networks just didn't have enough time to sort through all of those 18 tackles and 5.5 sacks. Had we known they were willing to pay $466,000 for each tackle we should have traded Julius Peppers $14mil to them. Pepper's 31 tackles and 7 sacks fit right into that model. No, I don't want to pay $84mil to Michael Bennett.

A bad Dline didn't help but taking bad angles and over-running plays has a lot to do with Bostic himself. He could have done a lot better to get in the right position to stop plays. The most troubling aspect is that he didn't seem to have a learning curve as the season went along. Of course his position coach was fired so we'll get to find out how much that played into it. This is football, he's played enough years that he should have some of these basics down.

…. and Matt Forte.

I think any team with a QB crisis, and therefore no big cap hit on the QB position, will, after last year's performance, look at McCown as a potential stopgap QB while their rookie learns the ropes. Add to that all the good stuff about McCown pulling rookies into meetings during minicamps and other times to learn the offense and you have exactly what a team will want from their veteran stopgap QB. No QB very quickly equates to no job for GMs and others in the front office. There is no other position as important to stabilize as that one. I don't think guys like McKenzie in Oakland with a ton of cap space will think twice about spending $5mil/yr for a 2yr deal on a guy like McCown.