AZ54

You completely lost me in that argument. At first you compare signing Roach who has several years of NFL film for teams to evaluate versus college players who have none? I see no correlation there and I believe the odds of Roach performing at a similar level to what he did in Chicago are much higher than 50/50. These are the same people who have film to watch on Urlacher, playing alongside Roach no less, yet don't call him because ....? Then you say "The NFL Owners have their hands firmly in a bucket of "what if," and a known quantity with some upside and years left in the league is about a sure a bet as they can expect to see." Is Roach or Urlacher the sure bet?

Maybe it confirms that teams ran at 225lb Geno Hayes and he wasn't good at stopping the run? Or Blake Costanzo, or the 6th guy off the bench?

Riddle me this: Why did Roach have multiple team visits right off the bat in FA and then sign for more than $3mil/yr when Urlacher can't find work?

Maybe Cutler is supposed to read Webb's block and then start running?

Take the $500k in savings and use it to help sign a FA LB.

Minter is to too slow, may end up just a two down LB. Jarvis Jones' might run just as slow but he has proven he can rush the passer very effectively. Better fit in a different scheme (i.e. 3-4)

Your argument is losing steam because anyone around the league is looking at... ... Julius Peppers earning his $13 million this year ... Charles Tillman is set to earn almost $8 million ... Lance Briggs will make $4.25 million ... Jay Cutler $10 million ....Brandon Marshall $9 million ....Tim Jennings $4.25 million Every guy on that list earned their money with an excellent season last year with the exception of Cutler who played average. This talk of how negatively the teammates feel toward the Bears organization would have us think they all lined up at the door to take a pay cut for their leader. That wasn't even the case with Lance Briggs who eagerly grabbed his extension just last year without the foresight to realize it might cause him to lose his teammate. I'm quite certain that the younger players on their first contract realize that Urlacher earned over $60,000,000 (with a couple of mid-contract increase no less) from the Bears during his tenure there and that is not "cheap". I'm 100% confident they'd love to have one of those cheap contracts and then be willing to be shown the door 8-10 years later.

Saw Urlacher play when I went to Chicago for the Seattle game. He is not nearly what he used to be. He was slow all over the field. In the end it was SMC playing the spying role on Russell Wilson...that didn't work well either. Urlacher is still good in a small area and can make some tackles but Roach had something like 14 tackles against the Cardinals while filling in for Urlacher. Did I want him back? Yes. Do I regret the team not overpaying to bring him back? No. I agree with their assessment that he's a 2-down LB these days. As far as those stating the Brian's teammates will miss him. Brian has yet to state which of those teammates he will cut to make room for his demands.

That was Lovie's #1 WR!

Agreed, this is bad for Izzy. Izzy has looked very slow in his last two seasons, a far cry from the athlete he used to be.

While I expected to have Urlacher back I also expected Emery to have Tillman and Jennings contract extensions done and that hasn't happened. OTOH I expected Urlacher to realize his value was far closer to $2-3mil than to $5mil. He is doing the same thing Kreutz did and we know how that worked out. When he hears crickets today he'll have time to contemplate his legacy. Clearly the new regime is headed in a different direction. They do not view this roster as capable of competing for the Superbowl this year, and thus not worthy of mortgaging the farm to make the effort. Trestman and his staff are getting something of a clean slate going forward to build their team. By holding firm (so far) on contract extensions this season I'm wondering what cap space we'd have for next season and what the plan might be. What other changes are in store for us?

Assuming this is about having a running QB then in no way do I see Cutler running this and in no way do I like it. Maybe with the bigger guys it can work ...for awhile but they are going to get hurt. The game is all about passing accuracy and you don't risk that. I'm with Mike Tomlin on this one...."it's just the latest fad, we'll see how much they like their QBs getting hit." If we're doing this at all I suspect we'll have more of a passing read option, not much different from a play action fake except the QB decides if he hands off or keeps the ball to pass instead of keeping it to run. In any case since nobody has a clue what our offense looks like he just told the first few teams on our schedule they have to plan for something that we might not run.

Lots of character concerns there. I can't see Emery going in that direction, and if they were to do so I'd rather just wait until he's released.

Payton was doing what you have to do, lean forward when taking contact in order to a) protect yourself from the contact and absorb the impact and try to keep your forward momentum. Doing what Payton did in this video is just natural instinct in terms of protecting your head and neck from injury. I feel exactly the same way in that defenders should be allowed to do the same. I only take issue with the guys leading with the crown of their helmet, not their forehead area, as that IMO is spearing. I wish the NFL would just put a line on the top side of the helmet and state if the contact is intentional and above that line it's illegal. As it is now anytime a player dips their forehead for an impact it's considered illegal and that's them protecting themselves and it's a stupid rule.

Emery says he sticks to his board and looks at value and that Jeffrey sitting there that deep into the 2nd Rd was too good to pass up and we did have a big need at WR. With Knox out I think it's fair to say Emery didn't overvalue Bennett. We still have needs in a lot of positions and both he and Trestman said they prefer to take best available so I won't be surprised to see another surprise this draft.

Risk vs. reward....the Dolphins wanted him back I thought at $8mil/yr. Regardless, given his former status as one of the elite LTs in the game he is not quite getting paid like one now and there wasn't all that much interest in him at that salary so clearly the injury concerns are real. http://www.spotrac.com/top-salaries/nfl/average/tackle/ Bushrod isn't even in the top 10, so he's really only paid as an average LT, which is by most accounts is what he is.

Not if it saves us $300-500k.

Don't see it. I do see him playing safety and covering TEs if he learns how to tackle and keep his head on straight.

Fluker in the 1st and Te'o in the 2nd would be fine by me. I can't see Te'o falling that far though, don't see him falling past Baltimore.

Hopefully what is next are some contract extensions for Tillman and Jennings that free up some cap space.

While we can't be in two places at once, I am pretty close to a split on him coming back cheap or he decides it's not worth playing for $2-3mil. I see the votes so far at 7-0 for him to return on the cheap and I wonder how many others feel he is just as close to retiring.

We would have had to beat that offer in order to get his services. However, Emery wasn't going to play the waiting game, he wanted a commitment early in the process so he could move on.

Not worried at all about Jennings in Minn. He's still a very good player but he no longer has one of the top 5 QBs throwing to him.

You can't compare teams that all have a legit starting QB in place with one that doesn't, although maybe they think they do. So yes, drafting is key especially when it comes to QB as that will define your next 5 years, or 10 years if successful. Teams without that critical (and expensive) QB piece tend to go spend money elsewhere to fill out their roster. Trestman wasn't joking when talking about the marriage between the QB and the head coach. You either win together or get fired together. Cutler could be just 12 months behind Lovie.

McCown works for me as the #2. He's cheap and plays as well (or poorly) as Campbell.