AZ54

Goodell stood his ground and refused to name his sources for the evidence. Without putting forth his witnesses, and subjecting them to cross-examination, he didn't have enough evidence of the players involvement. I believe that will be a different story if the coaches try the same path. For one he has a video of Williams exhorting his players to injure other players. This wasn't a criminal case so I assume it's not the same burden of proof requiremen but Goodell has to have some evidence to support his case. Can the league find a way to use their evidence against the players without revealing their sources? I tend to doubt it. While there are plenty of whistleblower protections that would prevent an employer from taking actions against them, releasing their names to the league in a sport where violence is "contained" could put those players at risk for severe injury. Especially when you consider we already had most of the Saints defenders wanting to injure players. If Goodell has to let these players back on the field to protect the whistleblowers then I'd accept that. At least has the ring leaders out of the league for now.

Not totally surprised. I think best case for Price is that he gets a one year deal with some team. More likely is that Price sits on the sidelines this season and rehabs. The Bears could, and should, revisit signing him the next offseason. For all the happy talk about re-signing Okoye he only has a 1 year deal with the Bears. It's clear there will be at least one roster spot open for competition among our DTs next season, likely two unless Toeaina suddenly finds an addiction to sacks and TFLs.

Last report had Podlesh getting better ahead of schedule and possibly ready to go week 1. I think the Bears used the opportunity with Collins suspension to keep the extra punter for a week and let Podlesh get ready for the Packers. If he's not ready I guess we'll be releasing one of the LBs, I don't know where else they'd go to make room.

Yes, Quigley gets another week to audition for a job somewhere else and our roster is set for the season.

If you want a TE who can catch downfield passes but can't block you have two of them in Adams and Rodriguez. Both of them are capable of practicing with the team each week. Both had better receiving numbers in the preseason than Winslow.

Price is out of shape but he has occasionally had plays where he just dominated at the LOS getting into the backfield quickly. Then he just disappears for a few plays. One thing though is I don't recall him getting pushed back 5 yards on run plays even when he took plays off. I see the potential but he is so badly out of shape I was half-expecting the team to cut him. I was surprised we kept 7 LB so perhaps you are right, one gets cut to make room for Amobi. Does the fact we kept 5 DEs mean we are going to use Izzy and Peppers inside on some 3rd and long situations with Wootton/Cheta/ or SMC on the outside? Haven't we normally kept 4 DEs and 5 DTs?

He was stupid and blew out his knee in a really bad way on a motorcycle in the teams parking lot. He has never recovered fully but had enough athletic ability to still play in the league. Now after a few more years of wear and tear that is fading too. I don't think his attitude ever showed much improvement either. http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/8327050/...w?asid=01584ea2 "Winslow didn't have much impact during preseason games, finishing with just three catches for 34 yards and a touchdown. His practice time was also closely monitored as Seattle tried to get Winslow to the regular season without putting additional stress on his knee."

McCown should still be available in FA if needed midseason. He worked with the team all summer and through camp so he knows the system. From here on out he wasn't going to get practice reps so it seems like a reasonable gamble. Some of this was forced by the need to keep two punters, at least for a couple weeks and the decision to keep Price around and give him some time to get in shape.

I agree losing Clutts will hurt our running game. The question is if our passing game will improve enough with Adams and Rodriguez to offset that. We will find out soon enough if teams can continue to stack the box against the run like they did all last season. I don't think they can get away with it this year with our improved WR corps and if that's correct that's a man out of the box that Clutts is not needed to block. I see the real problem being on 3rd and short near the goal line, 4th and 1 type plays where the box is stacked regardless and now we don't have the blocker needed to create an opening. On a more personal note I'm glad Clutts got the opportunity to play in the league, and for a quality team. Nice to see an underdog work his way into the league when nobody gave him a chance. Also nice to see our GM make a deal instead of just letting him go. It seems as if we just replaced Corey Graham with McManis. I hope with his experience he'll be better in coverage if needed than Frey was. Of course we were able to keep Frey on the practice squad so it seems like a very good deal overall.

I actually like having Price on the roster for his long term potential but he's a project this year as he rehabs and gets in shape. Okoye coming back is ok but he got pushed around a lot last year on run downs and his pass pressure disappeared a lot. Bringing him back feels like more of an insurance policy for the few part of the season until Paea gets well and Price gets in shape although that makes no sense considering Okoye is fighting through a knee injury himself. I wouldn't be surprised to see Price take Okoye's place in the rotation by the second half of the season, in fact I expect it. Perhaps this is the end of Collins' stint with the Bears?

if he was worth anything he'd have been picked up by teams like AZ when they lost their starting LT.

Sanzenbacher did ok on specials teams this past week and it looks like that was the final nail in the coffin. Now about that other WR competing for the last roster spot....Joe Anderson I think he ends up on our practice squad.

I agree, we're better off keeping him but if they are thinking of cutting him then pursue the trade route, they will find something in exchange.

If anything trade him. The Cardinals have a desperate situation at LT and they'd bite on a trade, probably for more than you might think. The concern I have here is that neither Brown nor Brandon has stood out during preseason. We will find out in the next game if either can be our backup swing tackle and that might decide Chris Williams fate.

Haven't had a chance to watch the game in slo-mo but intial impression is that Webb was better than Williams. That first impression also included the fact we'll be drafting LT early next year.

I've had it too but just mildly, enough to notice it in the morning where I can't walk without pain for a few minutes and occasionally at work. Once I got some (expensive) walking shoes that limited flexing of the arch area it disappeared in a just a few days... and I work 14hr shifts. That won't work for playing football.

Keep tackling with your head down and you will always get injured. If this is how he had been tackling since high school that right there might be the single biggest reason Hardin has his injury history. Put your head down and you can't make last second adjustments while tackling, not to mention the risk of sticking your neck out there. I wonder if years from now we will look back on the players decision to limit tackling in practices as something that led to even more injuries. Tackling technique, like everything else, needs to be coached.

What is bold used for? At first I thought it was rookies then I saw McCown bolded. There is no way they cut him to keep Blanchard. Blanchard will never be ready to play with no reps as the 3rd string QB.

Nobody had a problem when SMC used spin moves to get several QB pressures this preseason. At least I didn't see the threads on this board talking about how he just barely missed a sack. Watching plays in slo-mo t is obvious SMC has had many spin moves that almost immediately got him in front of the QB but the move hasn't always worked as he seems to commit to it early (i.e before the snap) and/or doesn't always set it up well. As the preseason has worn on he has had more time with the 1's and he is facing better competition and thus the bad setups are even less effective. He has also had some good moves where he went upfield initially and then came back inside to get early pressure. It hasn't been all good with him but neither has it been all bad. I'm willing to be a bit patient with SMC as he has a quickness and suddenness to his movements that no other Dline has on our roster and I think the improvement since day one of training camp has been pretty good. He does need more strength but there is no getting around the fact it will take a year or two to get him where he needs to be in that department.

Lol, not at you but at the implication that we have any depth whatsoever on this Oline. We don't have a problem with cap space and whether it is cap friendly or not we need to keep the best players to protect Cutler. That might be tough to swallow with the weak performances we've seen this preseason but nonetheless protecting Cutler is job 1.

Don't know what they offered him but I'm thinking he should have accepted and stayed. The only film other teams have of him is when he fumbles so he won't be a hot commodity as a FA. On top of that, what does he think his market value is to another team at this point of the season? Is it really more than what the Bears were offering?

FWIW...The Giants game you are referring to was in the 2010 season.

If the best 5 lineup is: Webb, Williams, Garza, Louis, Carimi then we need to do that. Steady play at LT won't matter if there's a turn-style named Spencer right in front of Cutler. There is no reason Williams would not remain our backup OT. For those of you who watched and focused on the line play did you notice anything worthy of a roster spot from any of our backup OTs? I haven't seen anything really positive from either Brown or Brandon.

Finally got to sit down with the DVR for a bit and watch the game. I was surprised at how often Washington brought pressure. The Oline held up ok on most blitzes but there were some miscommunications. We didn't get great support from our RB and TE blockers. Overall a step forward this week versus week 1. Nothing I saw gives me confidence Cutler will ever have more than 3 seconds to throw the ball but in those 3 seconds our WRs can now get open. Run blocking...there were some holes this week too. Effective running down in the redzone was nice to see. Cutler looked confident running the offense even if it wasn't a perfect day for him. WR...Brandon Marshall and Alshon Jeffrey both look good. We will be tough to defend. I don't see Jeffrey ready to start yet but he could have that role by midseason. At a minimum this year we have the best depth we've had at WR in a very long time. Even Weems seems like he'll be able to contribute as a WR and he's a better athlete than Rashied Davis. TE...didn't notice them much for their blocking or pass receiving other than Rodriguez standing out late in the game. Rodriguez struggles against blizting players but out in the open field he's a good receiver and more agile in the open field than Greg Olsen was. If he is effective on special teams I expect he'll have a role this season on game days. RBs...Bush is more nimble than I thought in both running and pass catching. DLine...pressure coming from all directions was nice to see. It wasn't always consistent from the same source but on each play it seemed someone broke through to force RGIII to move out of the pocket. SMC didn't show up as much as he did against Denver but he did some good things. The Bears have no hesitation about dropping him into zone coverage. LBs...I didn't focus much on their play and nothing really stood out but Costanzo made a couple nice plays. The coaches put him in at MLB early pushing Roach back to SLB. This might be the starting combination we see next game against the Giants. Secondary....these guys clearly have had little practice tackling. Not the best angles and not the best technique and the injuries show that. A lot of teams are going through the same issues. A good pass rush made coverage issues less important. Can we keep that going?

I'll check out the game on NFL Network tomorrow but I'm surprised nobody has any comments yet. From the highlights I've seen it appears our Oline played well, not dominant but good enough to allow the playmakers time to do their thing. The Cutler to Marshall connection is definitely alive and well.