AZ54

$!5 million for 2yrs that's awesome. Glad to see the Packers reward him for that key play in the Packers playoff win.

But but but Hester is a #1 WR. What a horrible assessment Lovie and the organization made with that assumption. I truly believe they felt they had the next Steve Smith and that kept us from investing what we should have at the WR position. Hester is Az Hakim (sp?) who was good at filling the big gaps between Tory Holt and Isaac Bruce's routes. Take away those outside WRs (which we never had) and he disappears when coverage tightens up. Add those outside WRs and I think we'll all be happier with Hester at WR.

Is he awful at evaluating WRs or is he awful at expressing himself on TV? I'm thinking he understands a few things about what it takes to play WR in the NFL and can see that on film. If he can't express his reasoning in a straightforward manner I'll just take the list. Again, he is not the only one I've heard critique Bowe. Let me be clear Bowe would instantly be the best WR on the Bears if we signed him and I'd be very happy with that.

I might be the only one on the forum who gets that joke.

I think Louis was ahead of Williams at times and behind him in others at least through the first 5 games. I wish he'd have had a full season at RG so we could better compare, or at least lasted longer before moving to RT but it is what it is. IIRC Louis had more pancake blocks early on but he also had more whiffs. It's still a bottom line business and if you needed the cap space to add a top FA WR plus a good second tier FA WR (or FA CB) would you take Louis over Williams? I don't think there is that big of a difference between the two OGs and we have to start looking at net gain for the team overall.

Biggs numbers include Omiyale at $2.8mil and Anthony Adams at $2.7mil. I cant' see Omiyale staying around at that salary (or any salary) and really don't see a reason to pay a backup like Adams that much either. Let's just stick to Oline budgeting. Omiyale $2.8 mil Chris Williams $2.5mil Chris Spencer $4.2mil Edwin Williams $700k Lance Louis $1.2mil Carl Nicks wants at least 7 years $60mil (or in his words a lot more than Jahri Evans got which was 7 yr $56mil) but figure a typical structured deal puts his cap hit this season around $7-8mil. Among Chris Williams, Chris Spencer, and Edwin Williams someone can go. Cut Spencer and with Omiyale gone we have opened up $7mil in cap space. That leaves us with a starting lineup of Webb, Nicks, Garza, Louis, Carimi Then what do we do with Chris Williams? Kick him back out to LT? I don't like the idea of Webb protecting Cutler's left side again, he just didn't progress the way you'd like to see during the season. We have to assume Tice is not going to put Chris Williams back at LT since he's the one who moved him inside. I figure he competes with Edwin Williams for a backup role which he should win but then we have no backup C on the roster and I can't see the Bears doing that. The other scenario is the Bears asking Chris Spencer to sign a longer term deal dropping his cap hit and then trading or cutting Chris Williams. Spencer might not want to go along with that if he wants to start again. Then you go after a LT in the draft and kick Webb to backup OT. Our starting lineup could be Mike Adams, Nicks, Garza, Louis, Carimi with only a few more million of a cap hit than we have today. This week we'll find out if Mike Adams has good enough feet to play the left side but reports coming out of the Senior Bowl were positive and he seemed to improve as the week went on. In mock drafts he is shooting up the boards and Kiper now has him as our first round pick. Pull this off and we'd have plenty of cap space to go after the FA WRs we want and CB.

Wallace is not worth the 1st Rd pick and the high contract. It was interesting to hear Jerry Rice rank the FA WRs: 1: Vincent Jackson 2: Desean Jackson 3: Wes Welker 4: Marques Colston 5: Dwayne Bowe I've heard other pundits say Bowe is a good WR but not someone you need to worry about when drawing up a game plan. It seems there might be more love for Bowe here on the board than there is around the league. The positive with this is that it might make it less likely for KC to use the franchise tag on him and if KC lets him hit FA then his price tag might not be as high as speculated.

I voted for Colston, not because he's my first choice but rather because I think he's the choice that makes the most sense in terms of 1) likely to be a FA 2) Salary. I think Bowe and VJack will command a higher salary by quite a bit and while I'd rather have either before Colston I don't think we lose a lot by going after Colston. He's a big target who has proven he can go up and get the ball in traffic, something we need. The more I look at it the talent at WR in the draft doesn't seem to drop off a lot going into the second round. Add in a good WR in either the first or second rd of the draft and a use the change leftover from Colston's lower contract to sign a second tier FA WR and we have a significant upgrade in the WR corps.

If he was cut by the Bucs this early in the process that tells you all you need to know. Haynesworth got his big payday from the Redskins and from that point on he has checked out.

In a copy cat league don't be surprised to see a team take him in Rd 2 thinking he can be a TE similar to what the Patriots have with Hernandez, or even Gronkowski.

No to Roy Williams. For all his experience he didn't add up to much more than what Sanzenbacher added to the team. In other words we can find his replacement with potential upside very late in the draft. Williams is all downside from here on out. We've got Earl and I like him a lot. He's not a #1 but he is the type of chain mover you must have on the roster. Hester is ok as a #3 or #4. We need to fill in the #1 WR role period.

I call it a guy doing his job and getting us some much needed Oline depth. Yes, we put Garza at C but it wasn't clear going into training camp how well he would handle that, nor was it clear how well Lance Louis would play. We needed another interior lineman and he went and got one. There were short deadlines and Kreutz knew that. He also had more than one hour, he had several days to make his decision. At the end, JA said look it's our final offer make a choice within the hour so we can move on. JA had to sign someone and the pickings were getting slim while we waited on Kreutz.

Had Brady been wearing #6 and a Bears uniform the media would be blasting him for his critical mistakes in the game that cost his team the victory. That was against a Giants team that couldn't get any consistent pass rush. Brady often had 4-5 seconds to throw. That included his first play when he intentionallly grounded the ball when he could have just escaped the pocket and threw it out of bounds. His INT was way underthrown and gave the Giants some momentum back. His pass to a wide open Welker late in the game was horribly behind and above him, nothing at all like what you'd expect from the so-called greatest QB ever. Eli on the other hand threw many passes into such tight windows I was amazed throughout the game, including the late pass to Manningham. To be fair late in the game Eli had several short passes the fell 5 yards in front of his WRs. It's all good, Tom's wife came to his defense and blamed the WRs who had 4 drops. Cutler had to smile when he heard that one and was likely thinking "and only 4 drops".

I am still ok with Hester as one of our WRs, just prefer to use him where we can take advantage of his YAC potential instead of how Martz and "he's my #1 WR" Lovie used him.

Vengeance? We needed some depth on the Oline and Kreutz refused $4mil. The he went off and quit in the middle of the season on the Saints. If that was a vengeance signing I only wish JA had wanted more vengeance.

Ocho cinco is horrible, we don't need that.

I didn't say Adams isn't a better talent than Webb. The first round pick is about getting a future Pro Bowl player, ideally at a position of need, and as it appears right now Floyd has a much better chance of doing that than Adams, especially when considering our need is at LT not RT. Some paraphrased comments I've seen from our new GM: It's a big mans game. Wants playmakers, guys who dominate their opponent. Focus on football smarts not just smart players. I don't see him using the old floor vs. ceiling analogy JA followed. JA seemed to be more concerned with the floor than the ceiling anyway, or at least he was better at finding the floor players. Emery has stated playmakers multiple times in several interviews and players who can dominate their opponent. It's too early to tell but it sounds like we're headed into more of a smash mouth style team.

No big hits in terms of Pro Bowl players but he did demontrate the ability to find solid players in the later rounds of the draft.

And your data to prove your position? From what I've read on this guy, one sample below, where do you see dominate LT? http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/draft/players/1620008 Pass blocking: Tall, long, athletic pass protector. Generally gets out of three-point stance with good knee bend and a wide base. Improving his ability to use his hands to redirect rushers and late blitzers away from the pocket. Power rushers lose most battles, good anchor in close quarters, will reset hands and move feet to sustain. Stops his feet after initial contact at times, relying on length but allowing defender to get the corner or spin inside. Run blocking: Solid positional run blocker who flashes some nastiness. Attacks his man when necessary, though he won't consistently dominate him and will lose his balance by overextending. Quick feet, can get inside of tackle to wall off inside and reach linebackers at the second level adeptly. Nice punch which he uses to knock down smaller defenders with one extension. Height a detriment in short-yardage plays, defender can get under his pads to hold the line. Flashes the ability to move his man with his hands, but is not yet consistent in this area.

Adams isn't that great of a talent and is more projected as a RT so with the team as it is right now I'm taking Floyd. Having him on the roster finally adds a consistent 3-step drop threat to the team and that alone negates a fair amount of pass rush. He also give Jay a guy he can throw open. Add in his help as a red zone target and I think the impact is greater. Now if one of the top 3 OT prospects are on the board then I'm taking one of them over Floyd.

You wouldn't want to trade for a guy who actively recruits players that could make his team better? Marshall is under contract, is he supposed to throw another fit and demand a trade? If he did how would that make him a better player and teammate for the Bears?

It seems there are a few others besides me who felt he played well. Admittedly there wasn't a lot of competition coming out of last years draft but nonetheless there were far lower expectations of Conte in just his second year at FS and first year in the NFL. http://www.chicagobears.com/news/NewsStory.asp?story_id=8589

I never felt Tice was interested in the Oakland job. Both he and the Bears were very low key after it was announced he was on their list of candidates. I also felt the process of sorting through 10 candidates is too time consuming and doesn't bode well for any involved. The Raiders went after McKenzie pretty aggresively you would think he'd have had a good idea who he wanted to be his head coach. Anyway, it's best for us and now we can move forward and fill our openings.

I've been watching Burfict since he started as a true freshman. He was a very physically player and I thought he'd really improve over the next couple years. He knows how to hit but he is not a very instinctive player. He has good speed but I don't think he has the kind of speed Lovie wants, and needs, in his D. I could be wrong so I'm very curious to see what his combine numbers are. I have doubts about his pass coverage skills too. The biggest risk with him though is his lack of discipline. He gets a lot of penalties and often hurts his team by keeping opponent's drive's alive. He'd make our LB corps better but I don't want him with our first pick. If he's there in Rd 2 then maybe depending on how he performs at the combine. In general I see him as more of an ILB on a 3-4 defense.

I'm good with Floyd at #19 but if he's gone, and the top 3 OTs are gone, and DeCastro is there I think we have to take him. From everything I've read and heard about him it seems like he'll end up a perennial Pro Bowl player. When you have a chance to get a guy like that on your roster, even if it's not your top need, I think you have to do it. With him at LG we'd be strong on the Oline from LG to RT. (Yes, I like Lance Louis at RG) With one weakness (LT) it's easy to scheme and help that side out from either RB or TE. Plus Cutler is pretty good rolling out to his right side. In terms of the running game I think we'd be hard to stop and that also helps out the pass blocking.