AZ54

I'd sign Cutler to a new mid-level contract, one that is written so we can get out of it easily if need be. Of course that means we'll be paying more per season but so be it. There is no way I want to commit to a rookie running Trestman's complex offense. Then I'm drafting a QB in Rd 1-3 to groom as Jay's replacement. If Jay improves or stays on the path he's been on this first part of the season then no worries as he stays our starter and we've got a solid backup. In general I think we need to go Dline in Rd 1 but if there is a QB there that Trestman believes can be our long term starter then I'm fine if we go get him. If everything goes great and Cutler improves to play at an elite level then there is plenty of precedent for trading your backup QB for another early round draft pick if he has shown some ability.

Has anyone seen Julius Peppers? He was a little bit more active today than the last game but watching the Redskins show no fear in running right at him for the game winning TD, with no need to double team him, says it all IMO. We can criticize all the others but the fact is he's the only one on our Dline getting paid to handle double teams and when teams can block him with one guy then that frees up blockers to get on our LBs. Regardless of cap hit I can't see Emery beginning the overhaul on D (actually continuing the overhaul since he focused on LB this past draft) by keeping Peppers around for this much money. You can easily replace Pepper's contribution on the field for a smaller contract to a vet FA ($2-3mil) and have money left over to address other needs at DT.

For vet min I'd keep him plus I think we'd get a little discount on the salary cap by doing so. When you consider the salary cap discount it's not worth pushing a rookie out there to return kicks IMO. To save special teams $$ I think Weems has to go and I prefer to fill his spot via a rookie or vet FA WR, preferably one with speed to mix in with our giants on the outside but can backfill on special teams as well. It's not that hard to find those guys among FA WRs coming off their rookie contract. Keep Hester back there as primary KR/PR for another season. If Hester demands far more than vet min and can find another team to pay him that then goodbye and good luck to him.

Thayer has some good analysis on our fullback and how he impacted the game. There was some discussion after the Giants game about how ineffective we were on runs up the middle but it was hit and miss. I felt it was worth sharing as it explains why the Giants impacted that with their 8 man fronts even using the 46 Defense at times. http://www.chicagobears.com/multimedia/vid...2d-260208440f47

After watching them on Sunday night the Redskins didn't put up much of a fight on offense or defense. RG III continues to improve his ability to run but he's not reading the field very well right now and he's definitely not taking care of the ball in the pocket. We need to take advantage of that and blitz to make up for our lack of pass rush. I know we'll give up some plays like this but we should be able to get some big plays too. Our defense is not in position to sit back and hope something good happens, we'll have to force it. Our offense on the other hand should be able to find consistent opportunities against the Redskins defense.

The thing is Gould couldn't hit from 50 early in his career, nor could he do kickoffs deep enough to force a touchback. To his credit he worked on improving his leg strength over the years and he has maintained his accuracy. He will still be a Bear next year.

I agree. I think part of the problem is they are having to play too much of a role in run support and that is now their first read instead of the pass. Even so on 3rd and long downs they are often out of position.

How many realize we have lost our top 5 DTs? Granted Paea should be back this next game. Otherwise we have lost: Melton, Collins, Turk McBride in camp, and Sedrick Ellis who quit at the beginning of camp. I keep seeing that Emery did nothing on the Dline this past offseason but he in fact did bring in some talent. None of it was great talent because there was no budget for it but he did what he could reasonably do given our cap space. I can't sit here and say what either Ellis or McBride would be doing on the field but I feel confident they'd be better than UDFA Minter from Montana State. I do like Minter and his potential for the future but right now that's all it is...potential. Emery offered Urlacher $2,000,000 more than any other team in the NFL and he didn't bite. End of story. I'm not sure how he'd improve a pass rush from the front four anyway and he was never that good at shedding blocks to make plays. Given the state of our DTs our MLB always has an OG in his face. We are going to be a bend but (hopefully) don't break too often D all year long. There is no other option and we will likely always see one player have a great game against us as Adam pointed out. We are at a point where we can try to take away something from the other team but our D won't stop everything. I agree that Tucker deserves some of the blame for the lack of discipline. Discipline, not regarding penalties but assignments and sound tackling, we need to see improvement there. I do expect we'll see improvement from players like Cohen and Minter as the season progresses. Not that they'll be great but they will get better at reads on runs and pass rush should improve a bit. Just get in the way a little bit more often would be helpful even if they can't make the tackle. I'm very excited to see Bostic on the field. He adds a lot of energy and his athleticism was immediately apparent. Much like how Long is becoming the energizer for the offense, we need an infusion of energy on D. I know Bostic will make mistakes but he is going to also make some big plays for us. I'm old enough to remember a young Urlacher getting his first few starts at MLB. He wasn't great but he made plays at times that made me say we got something here. My focus now on D is to watch some of these young guys that represent our future and how they improve the rest of the season. Frey Bostic Bass ...who has flashed a few times already Minter ...he's come pretty far as a small school UDFA just on raw talent, can he adjust to the speed of the game? Washington .... freak athleticism hasn't shown up on the field in pass rush. Can he earn some playing time? Speaking of Shea....I agree we should be using him as our wildcard. He can't be an every down DE but I've seen defenses use a guy with his talent to stand up and do a little bit of everything from rush to cover TEs, to drop into zones. Yeah they are called OLB in 3-4 defense but why not mix it in? Get Wootton back to the DE position where he impacted games for us. At this point it seems to me we are creating two or three holes on the dline by using him so often at DT. Shea can't handle that many reps. It is what it is...arguments for bust notwithstanding....just get Shea to spot (less reps) where he can make some plays during the game. He's shown he can do that. Plus Wootton will help on run D from DE far more than he is at DT. At the end of it we're 4-2 and I really didn't think we'd be there. We're still on track to match last year's 10 win season and that's not bad for overhauling the Oline and offense while we all hoped an aging D could hang on for one more year. The Giants arrived at the perfect time for us and we pulled off a win but let's be realistic, despite being 0-6 they are not nearly as bad as the Jaguars. In fact I wouldn't even put them in the bottom 5 teams in the league. Now we have one game in 25 days so we can work on sorting out some of these issues with the middle of our defense and our pass rush before we get back to a couple division games. Yeah, my kool-aid has a little kick to it... and now it's time to finish my beer and get some sleep.

Agreed, we are not going to stop runs up the middle with a 270lb DT (Wootton). It is only going to get worse with our starting LBs (Williams and Anderson both injured). Briggs was questionable for this game too. Fortunately we have 10 days to get healthier for the Redskins and then a very welcome bye week to continue getting healthier. I will say this, Bostic fills holes a lot better than DJ Williams, he just needs to learn which gap to get into but he'll be good long term. I do worry if we have to go with Greene over Anderson because we will suffer in pass coverage. This is going to be a bend but don't break D for the rest of the season and we will have to rely on turnovers from players like Briggs, Tillman, and Jennings. I've already made the mental adjustment by tipping the beer can more often when the D is on the field whereas in years past it was when the O was on the field.

Agree on the special teams. The big return we gave up Weems followed McMannis into the same gap. If Weems holds his lane there is no big return. I see him as cap space in January. Hester hasn't done anything much lately to make his cap space worth it either but teams still punt away from him. He killed one of his return opportunities by going offsides on an extra point.

Can you name our starting DTs? I don't know of any teams that can standup to losing their top 3 DTs and still be stout stopping the run up the middle, or rushing the passer. In fact if you go back to training camp we've lost our top 5 DTs counting Sedrick Ellis and Turk McBride. Paea will be back but we managed to win a game without him and Tillman. I'll take it. If you really want to criticize someone go after Julius Peppers. A few games back he played well but not great against the Steelers and I felt he would be back to his old game. In the last three games what has he done? I'd copy his stat line from the game but his name doesn't even appear in the box score because he did nothing. On at least a couple run plays he failed to contain the edge and pursue the runner as he ran off tackle. That's not typical of what we've seen from him in years past. Perhaps most telling is that we have put the smaller and weaker Cory Wootton inside and kept Peppers at end. Maybe Peppers spent some time inside but I didn't notice it. I don't know what is going on but Peppers is not playing like himself and he certainly is not playing like a guy deserving of anything close to $14 million/yr.

Shea's arms are too short to be an effective DE and while he's quick, he does not have the elite quickness he needs to overcome the tackles who consistently get into his body. Short arms keep him from getting off blocks to make tackles. Yes, I'd trade him for a good DT right now as that would get Wootton back at DE and I think Bass has shown enough to replace Shea.

(13:26) 22-M.Forte left guard to NYG 5 for 5 yards (26-A.Rolle). (12:43) 22-M.Forte right guard to NYG 4 for 1 yard (52-J.Beason). (:48) (Shotgun) 22-M.Forte right guard to NYG 12 for -1 yards (90-J.Pierre-Paul). 15:00) #62 E. Britton reports eligible. 22-M.Forte right guard to NYG 10 for 2 yards (21-R.Mundy). 10:31) 22-M.Forte right guard to CHI 27 for 7 yards (52-J.Beason). 6:06) 22-M.Forte right guard to NYG 3 for 2 yards (97-L.Joseph). end of half runs to get 1st down... 1:59) #62 E. Britton reports eligible. 22-M.Forte left guard to NYG 43 for no gain (91-J.Tuck). 3-1-NYG 43 3rd quarter... 14:11) 22-M.Forte right guard to CHI 42 for 1 yard (52-J.Beason). 7:35) 22-M.Forte left guard to CHI 44 for no gain (52-J.Beason). 14:06) 22-M.Forte left guard to CHI 38 for 5 yards (93-M.Patterson). 22yds on 10 inside runs. Not good at all but I don't think we can eliminate this from our playbook or we will have more issues running to the outside.

I have not forgotten the whooping the Giants put on us a couple years ago. I doubt Jay Cutler has forgotten either. Now is the prime time game to go out and get revenge. Hit these guys hard early and let them know it's going to be a long flight home and never let off the throttle. I like this from Kromer. We know he is a man of high expectations for execution of assignments. Our players come in to work the day after a big loss and get right back to work even giving themselves homework. We all know the offense has not put together a complete but from my vantage point I believe we have the talent and character in the locker room to reach that goal. http://www.chicagobears.com/news/article-1...fc-5148f06c51da ------------------------------------------------------------------------- "This team came in the day after the game and the entire offense was in lifting, working out together, watching the tape together, because it was a short week," Kromer said Wednesday as the Bears continued to prepare for Thursday night's game against the New York Giants. "We weren't able to show the entire tape like we normally do to them. They watched it all on their own, gave us the reports of this is what should have happened, this is what we should have done, we see this here, this is what we did well. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- BEAR DOWN!

Someone to play the NT position. I doubt he'll be active this game but if he can just stand there and hold his ground he'll be doing great IMO as that will allow other players to make the tackles. Anything else is icing on the cake.

Nice to see a GM chat with fans for an hour. I think he put to rest any further discussion of us transitioning to a 3-4 D, at least for the upcoming offseason. http://www.chicagobears.com/news/article-1...93-4aa1a6a8225d

We're going to see more of this and that's one reason why, just 5 games into a new regime, I like our coaches. We haven't yet put together a complete game but I see signs throughout the games we can adjust to what is happening and put players in a position to win the down. Here Tucker is changing up how we use Shea to take advantage of the skills he offers versus a typical DE. Although it's not in the video linked below, we don't have to go into a 3-4 D to utilitize some of the concepts that defense often employs such as zone blitzes. http://www.chicagobears.com/multimedia/vid...6f-f45efefa2a70

Peyton Manning and Tom Brady are running offenses that they have run for many many years. Jay Cutler and the rest of the Bears offense are running an offense they've run for 5 weeks. In time they will get there but 5 games in? Maybe I'm the only one who sees players asking where to line up when we go no huddle late in games.

I felt Detroit was the trap game. I doubted we were capable of matching up with the Saints but had hopes that disappeared quickly with Forte's fumble on the first snap. We are still a team capable of making the playoffs, we are at home on a short week against a winless team. To consider the Giants happy about flying out here after we've lost two in row, I think they'd say they expect to run into a team ready to put up a big fight to get back on track winning. They just lost their best RB and will rely on a mid-season signing Brandon Jacobs to handle the run game. Just execute the little things correctly and we win.

I prefer to just draft a speed WR this offseason. Before we make that decision I also want to see how the WR corps is with Wilson on the field. He is quicker and faster than Earl Bennett and that might be enough to fill the gap we need (a WR who can get deep faster).

I'm not happy we lost, never am. I know everyone on this board takes losses hard too, that's why we're here. However I'm not as down as others are after this game. On D we do not have the pass rush we need but we also don't have our starting DTs out there either. Huge drop off and then we lost Collins so we had guys out there that were sitting on their sofa watching games in week 1. Yet the D still improved as the game went on...learning curve? We just won't be a shutdown D anymore and will have to rely on turnovers and the bend but don't break mentality. Again, we had one forced fumble but the ball went their way. Once we settled into the game Tucker had the D setup to force the Saints into longer drives (with the exception of one drive) keeping Brees into shorter check downs which gives our turnover machine more opportunities to force an error. I think with our talent that was good coaching. On offense we started horribly and their D had some great schemes our new line was not ready for and it was stuff they have not shown yet in this season. Once we had seen it a few times we adjusted, shut it down and then they went away from it. Cutler still has his issues with ball protection when he runs but in terms of passing he protected the ball much better and even threw away the ball several times when plays weren't there. Martellus will get healthy and be a bigger part of our offense. Earl Bennett catches a game changing TD one week and drops a game changing 3rd and 2 pass another week. At some point we need more speed on the field at WR I think we need to get Wilson more involved and we'll be adding some speed at WR this offseason. Can't take away a record day from Jeffrey who played great. Team will now have to consider if they let him beat them or Marshall. It's the fact in the last two games we have had bad starts and yet in both games I see coaching adjustments and/or improved play. Players still have to execute so Briggs giving up a first down on a stupid encroachment penalty is inexcusable and he knows it. Yet that is why I'm optimistic long term. Our offense will become more consistent as they learn it and IMO Trestman has shown he can figure out what a defense is doing and adapt. I feel Tucker has shown the same characteristic. Coming into this season I never had expectations we'd be a contender to go deep in the playoffs but felt we might make it into the playoffs. We haven't done anything to make me change that prediction yet. Right now with all the changes in Oline, rookies starting there, new offense, new coaching on D too that we are where I hoped we'd be at 3-2. I'll admit the 3-0 start got my hopes up a bit. Now let's just settle down and focus on execution this Thursday night and we will come out of that game 4-2.

We have played against some good to very good defenses IMO. I include the winless Steelers in that assessment. Offense OTOH have been good (Bengals), bad (vikings), bad (Steelers), good (Lions). Considering that I think the Oline has done very well especially considering we have 4 new starters and two are rookies. The Dline is an issue for and even more so now that we lost Melton. Yet Peppers has recovered and now looks like the player we all love to watch. This will help a lot moving forward. Wotton has been solid. I think Paea and Collins can be solid but we need to see it. The problem is there is nobody behind the DT starters and really SMC hasn't done much either to backup the DE's. If this continues we'll struggle all season long. LBs have also had issues with DJ Williams returning from missing almost all of preseason. He's looked better lately but has plenty of room to improve.

I tend to believe this a lot more: http://www.suntimes.com/sports/football/be...ed-players.html Consider the comment in there that the Dline believes they may have been tipping off the stunts by their alignment or where they were looking before the snap. Something changed in the second half because they played much better and Izzy was still "reading" their signals.

Yes, miss Toub. We were better disciplined in staying in our lanes under Toub than we have been so far this season.

I think Wooten is doing fine as a DE. Trying to play him at DT for a lot of reps won't work but for a few 3rd and long situations during a game I think it's a good idea. Again, I don't see Emery making this trade or even contemplating it as we need all the depth we can get on our Dline right now.