AZ54

We were trying to trade Earl Bennett but we can't cut him until he is fully healthy or we give him an injury settlement. The Bears clearly have young players they like and want to protect in Wilson and perhaps Washington. It's possible when Earl is healthy that we'll cut him and re-sign Jordan Palmer. I still lean toward the idea of us keeping just two QBs.

Impressed with this coaching staff. Not simply because they cut Webb but their decisiveness in rebuilding the entire Oline throughout camp and preseason. Of course the cap stone is cutting Webb first thing this morning. I'll say it and few will believe it but Webb will find work this year in the league. Somebody will need a backup swing OT and he's too intriguing with his athletic ability and coaches always think a fresh start in their system will help a player. Not totally surprised they cut Palmer as I said in another post...he's still available if we need him, or Edwards, and later in the year Blanchard will be too. If he's needed, the 3rd string QB is the end of your season so might as well keep a roster spot for a developmental player who has the ability to be a true starter in the league. If that isn't your 3rd QB might as well keep a player like DE Washington.

Could be worse...we could be relying on Vince Young as our #2 after just 3 weeks of practice.

A cheaper Earl would be nice. We overpaid for him years ago because we had no other options (bad planning and drafting by people who don't work here anymore). I like him and like having him on the roster when he's healthy but his health is always a big question mark. What is exciting in a read-between-the-lines way is that we feel Anderson and Wilson are ready to contribute. I say exciting because 1) we developed a UDFA talent relatively quickly in Anderson and 2) we actually drafted someone in the 7th round who looks like he belongs on the field when he plays with the first string. In 18 months, despite losing Johnny Knox to injury, Emery has rebuilt our WR corps to what appears to be a respectable level. Depth is unproven for sure but throughout this past offseason and through the preseason games addressing the WR position has not been a hot topic on this board.

No link just saw Adam Shefter report it on ESPN NFL Insiders. It's hard to know how aggressive they are with this or if they just did some shopping around to gauge interest.

Nothing like waiting for final roster cuts with a 4th pre season game coming up where no starters will play. So here are some random thoughts on the upcoming season: Eagles defense is bad. Chip Kelly offense not so thrilling to me. There has been a ton of hype but I've watched Oregon's offense for years and every time they played a team that matched up to their athletic ability they struggled. The NFL, save for a few teams, is fairly balanced in terms of athletic ability. Throw in some very quick 3-and-outs and the Eagles D will be gasping for air by the end of the 3rd quarter and they aren't good to begin with. Green Bay Packer fans are thrilled with Eddy Lacy. I see a player who is slow to hit the hole and one who does not have a lot of wiggle to him. The Packers spread offense and Aaron Rodgers will give him some room to run plus he brings power but I don't see someone to worry about here. Our Oline is actually good. Yes, I said that. Out of boredom I've watched a few preseason games around the league (what else can you watch at 2am?) and while I usually hate to make comparisons from them I will this time. I watched Cards vs. San Diego and we compared very favorably to the Cards Oline, a lot better actually. I know the Cards have issues on their line but so did we last year. I've watched a lot of both teams last year and one got much better on the Oline. Some of the plays against the Raiders we were like men against boys. We didn't win them all and mistakes were made at times. We're not consistently good but the arrow is pointing up here for the first time in years. AP better run for 2500 yds because Christian Ponder is still his QB. Devin Hester is back to his old ways and has looked great in preseason. I see his daring style has returned along with that very quick shiftiness he used to have. How long that will last over the course of the season we'll see but I'm optimistic this experiment will work out and I was not that way heading into camp. If Cornelius Washington can develop into the player his athletic ability suggests he can be, this could be one of our best draft classes ever. Long looks good, Bostic, Green (hasn't done much yet), Mills (completely surprised me how well he's played), Washington (needs a lot of development), and Wilson who looks poised to make the roster. I know it's way too early but I can't remember as many positive plays from so many rookies as I've seen this preseason. Time will tell but I like where we are at with the rookies now far more than I have at this point in previous seasons in a very long time.

I will reserve judgment until I see game 4 and I don't expect to see anything good from either of the two. I won't be surprised at all if we only keep 2 QBs. If something happens we'll likely be able to bring in at least one of the three and may have our choice of which one we want: Blanchard, Palmer, or Edwards. Blanchard hasn't show that much IMO although Trestman had some nice words to say about him.

No clue

Agreed, great find. What is most interesting to me is how many blocks we're seeing that are truly moving the LOS. I see Long, Mills, and others make some mistakes occasionally on assignments but this line is different from the last few years in that when they get it right it's very right. In other words there were quite a few (++) blocks. Mills has surprised me with how strong he is, Long we kind of heard about his strength. When these guys both get it right they are pretty good in the running game. I believe the mental errors will drop quickly for both Long and Mills.

I think I prefer the slow but steady Kyle Adams. He won't get as far but he'll arrive with the football in his possession.

If he can't catch teams are not going to worry about him. I wouldn't. I'd be thinking if they go his way and he catches the ball we'll rally to it and tackle him. Maybe we give up 1 big play but the upside is to double team a guy like Marshall and keep him from having multiple big plays.

I suspect Bushrod was part of an offense that ran a lot more plays than any of 3-and-out offenses the Bears have run the last few seasons.

I was just kidding around...you can't tell me you don't see the annual media love fest with the Cowboys and Jerry Jones.

There are numerous crown of the helmet impacts from defensive players during games. It is the nature of the sport because the athletes are so quick you can't always anticipate exactly where the offensive player is going to be, or what his posture will be when you hit him. Bostic clearly intended to hit with his shoulder and the helmet to helmet impact was offset or glancing and largely due the the WR's body buckling under the stress of the hit. Alshon Jeffrey got hit by a DB's crown of the helmet last night but in his case the DB lost the battle and bounced off him and he ran for another 5-10yds. Fine coming for that hit? Goodell has it so that the only hits that get fined are the ones that hurt offensive players. I don't advocate for the James Harrison head hunting style of play but when a player is clearly not trying to head hunt why fine him? Last night I saw two guys hit each other square on the crown of their helmets. Both bounced off each other, the DB looked a bit dazed as he got up. I don't recall if it was the Bears game or a highlight of another game, but is Goodell going to fine both the RB and DB as per the rules? Or neither because both quickly got up and walked away? I bet neither gets a fine.

Are you crazy? Cowboys fan's know EVERYTHING!!!! Everyone knows Dallas has the best team in the NFL because every year the pundits pick them to win the Superbowl. Plus each year almost every player on their roster is picked for the Pro Bowl during preseason. I'm pretty sure Felix Jones was selected for the Pro Bowl just weeks after the Cowboys drafted him. The two best sounds when watching the Bears game in my favorite sports bar: 1) Bears TD 2) Romo throwing an INT and Cowboy's fans

I think you are reading way too much into one sentence I wrote: "Bennett is not sitting behind Jason Witten and there is no other decent TE on our roster so he is going to be part of every game plan." I'm not putting Bennett in the Pro Bowl just saying he'll have a role in the vast majority of our game plans. I'm a little lost on your 200yd benchmark critique of Bennett as stats showed that has been the limit for your proposed TE Pope. I personally don't think 250yds receiving in a season should be called a benchmark. Which is why I don't think Pope is going to do much for us in the passing game even if he were to end up as our starter. I stated as much in another thread and I am clearly in the minority on that opinion. I'll add one more to your equation because Matt Forte also is ahead of Bennett on the game plan. One more comment: Never ever ever do I want Jay Cutler to be like Tony Romo. Tony provides me much joy each season among my friends who are Cowboys fans.

You could make that argument but you'd have less data to back it up: 2012 Bennett, MartellusACTREC 55YDS 626AVG 11.4TDS 5CHI Pope's best season was 2011 with the Chiefs where he caught 24 passes for 247 yds. He has never had more than 250 yds receiving in a single season, and 5 of his 7 seasons he has failed to even break 200 yds receiving. Bennett has only done it for one season but the fact is he's done what Pope has never done.

Bennett is not sitting behind Jason Witten and there is no other decent TE on our roster so he is going to be part of every game plan.

It's nice to find an NFL player (or any pro athlete) with a sense of humor in front of the media. I get tired of all the standard cliche answers to every question. http://espn.go.com/blog/chicago/bears/ The Bears' first-team offense has run approximately 30 plays in the preseason, hardly a large enough sample size to panic over Bennett not getting the football thrown his way. But when the regular season rolls around, Bennett promises that quarterback Jay Cutler will know when he's open down the field. "He sees me; I'm 6-foot-7, a big black guy running down the middle of the field. He sees me," Bennett said. "I wear white gloves so he can see the white gloves when I wave them like Mickey Mouse. I clap when I'm open. So I do enough to let him know that I'm open when I have to tell him. "Even when I'm not open I tell him I was open."

Who's on the bubble? Who is in? Who is out? Who needs to earn a job in the next 10 days? Training camp is over and there's just a little over a week left before the roster gets cut down so let's start the debate. Among the DBS my biggest question mark is on Brandon Hardin....I haven't seen or heard anything of him so far. Right now I'm thinking he does not make our final roster. He has two games to turn that around and really needs to show up. If he doesn't will Emery cut one of his first draft picks after just one season? There are others at the bottom of the DB depth chart can't say I"ve paid enough attention to see who is worth keeping. WR...I think we keep 6 with Marquess Wilson and Weems at the bottom of the roster. Oline....We know we will have Bushrod, Slauson, Garza, Long, Mills Behind them it's very cloudy but Brown looks to be our backup OG. With his pay cut I now think Webb can stick as a backup OT mainly because I don't think Jonathan Scott will return in time to earn a job and in his career he's been injury prone. Britton looked far too slow to backup LT, we'll see how he does with a solid week at RT but I'm not optimistic for his prospects. That's 7 who is #8?

I like the move and I like the fact Trestman is embracing the history of the franchise and encouraging the players to do the same. A lot of that gets lost on the players in the modern free agency era.

Summed it up nicely right there. The world is full of people who don't make the most of their talent and we see 1st Rd busts all the time so there is no surprise when a 7th Rd pick doesn't "get it". The 49ers and Chiefs just swapped failed 1st Rd picks. Regarding what options Lovie had: He stuck with Webb right to the end gambling that he'd get it and focusing on his defense in his last draft. Most importantly, throughout his tenure Lovie failed to create options for himself. He and Angelo couldn't identify and draft talent for the Oline and Lovie could never put together an offensive coaching staff that could develop it.

I understood your joke there and it would be nice if others could for once laugh a bit even as you were willing to mock yourself.

The coaches are making decisions based on the preseason and training camp. I don't see people on the board putting us in the Superbowl. I just see us talking about who is performing well in preseason games as well as discussing differences we see in the new coaches and scheme. Vanilla schemes allow coaches and fans to evaluate individual performances. While we all know it's early, we can compare what we have seen so far from this rookie class to what we've seen from past rookie classes in training camp and the first two preseason games. That's valid and many of these rookies are playing well enough to show they belong on the field. We haven't seen a lot of that in recent rookie groups in their first couple preseason games, certainly not from this many draft picks. It is also fair to evaluate the decisiveness of the new GM and coaches. Emery, Trestman, and Kromer were not hesitant to trade Carimi despite knowing the need to overhaul the oline. They weren't hanging onto Webb as our starter for too long either without trying another player. I think it's fair to say they weren't sure how Mills would play against a first string defense but one game later after they watched the film they've forced Webb to take a huge pay cut. Change is in the air and it is largely centered around what has been our achilles heel for the last few seasons. I see it happening as a result of positive results so it's not just change for the sake of changing. Long outperformed Brown at RG in game 1 and certainly in game 2. Mills outperformed Webb at RT. It's relevant because all were preseason comparisons. It's a good start and I'm ready to see more.

Without stating it publicly there isn't a much clearer way to state that Mills is our starting RT.