AZ54

Nice article and then he totally contradicts himself all in the last paragraph. How can they have too much power if that's what must be done to have a well-run organization? Brilliant.

This hype around practices in May is too funny. What do we normally have here....rookie minicamp. Then a few OTAs where the team basically works the rookies into the schemes and gets a view of their athleticism. No contact. Suddenly in May if you aren't out there tackling it's the end of the season for your team. In June I'd like to see Cutler out there with his WRs and to a lesser extent TEs working on their timing. They know the routes the plays, run them. It's silly to assume that if the Oline is standing in front of Cutler as he throws he'll somehow be getting better because it replicates what he'll see against GB. Drew Brees has had plenty of opportunities to pay for practices for his teammates in May over the years but never felt the need until now.

I agree with that. It might not be his ideal spot but he's better there than any of our other guys. However, I can see the logic where the club thinks he'll be rock solid at RT and can handle that spot with zero help. If that's true then you put JWebb, Williams, on the left side and tend to roll your help to the left side (i.e. TE lines up there more often than not). If you can set up the line so that you only have one weak spot (ok this doesn't resolve the OG issue) then it's easier as a team to mask that problem rather than trying to plug occasional leaks across the line.

Like him or not Cutler took his team to the NFC championship game without much of an Oline.

Yes, I'd take one of those guys over Hester but who are they on that list? To me Hester often does influence every down as a game changer because of what he can do with field position. He doesn't have to return many punts all the way just a couple for 20 yards in a game and you've changed field position enough to help both offense and defense. The two players on that list behind Hester who singlehandedly can do that IMO are Cutler and Brandon Marshall. Marshall has had more than his share of character problems but produces on the field. So grab a name off the list from that draft. Cutler, yes I'd take him before Hester. The DEs... Dumervil, he has his moments early in the season but fades quickly (Tommie Harris style). Tamba Hali? I'd still take Hester. Ray Edwards? Nope. The CBs... Jonathan Joseph, Cortland Finnegan. Good players but I don't think they influence every game the way Hester does with his returns, unless Finnegan punches someone.

I'm sure ESPN is still reporting how self-centered he is.. http://www.suntimes.com/sports/football/be...te-lockout.html In the morning, Cutler served as the grand marshal of the Holiday World Walk to Cure Diabetes. He signed every autograph request, including arms and shoes, and he posed for dozens of pictures with many of the 1,600-plus walkers. Then, he walked more than a mile through the park — mostly in pouring rain. ..........People had such a good time, the event ended about 90 minutes later than scheduled. And Cutler was among the last to leave. “I can’t remember the number of times people came up and said, ‘It was a great event. Hope you come back and do more of it,’ ” Cutler said. “It just reinforces to me how good these people are, and it makes me want to come back more and have some stuff here

One thing to add: If Hanie wants to workout so badly why isn't he making all the calls necessary to set this up? In fact he should be glad if Cutler isn't there with the WRs because he'd be getting more reps with them and shouldn't that help him secure the #2 spot? You would think some of the WR would have the same interest. Perhaps we are getting a bit of insight into why Martz wasn't too confident in Hanie last season?

I think the "manager" who wrote the article is a fool. He has clearly never built a team where you can give them the overall goals and allow them to assign the individual tasks needed to complete the job. They do exist in the real world and can be extremely successful. It's one reason our military is so successful in battle...we assign mission goals but allow more autonomy on the teams in the fight to make decisions needed to make the mission a success. In this case JA has done the same thing. Two people knew what task needed to get done but they didn't feel the need to communicate and confirm it was getting done. He is accountable for that mistake. In JAs defense somewhat is the fact that he has a lot of new faces in that draft room, many who probably have never worked together in this type of situation. Again, there he should have known to be more clear in who did what, or to at least ask for a confirmation message the phone call had been made. The guy getting a free pass on his bad management is Newsome. He had a deal with 3 min left and couldn't get it confirmed from the league. Was he really on the phone with the Bears at the two minute mark as suggested and still nobody on the Bears called the league? Sounds a bit fishy to me. IMO if he was managing his war room correctly when he got inside one minute, or inside 30 seconds he should have gone ahead and called the league stating if the deal hasn't been finalized then this is our pick. There are multiple phones in these war rooms too so at the same time he could have had the Bears on the line and told them they hadn't completed the deal and he going ahead with his original pick. End of discussion. JA deserves criticism for his staff bungling the communications but IMO Newsome was even worse in allowing his pick to slip away. I think if he didn't get his player his fans would be more focused on why he didn't react in those last 30 sec to just send in the pick. In reality they got their player and everyone focuses on why they can't get a free 4th rounder too. Fortunately we got our player too!

I don't think Cutler will do much more than setup some throwing sessions with the WRs. He said he'd do something if the lockout drags into May and I have reason to doubt that sometime in the near future we'll hear about him and the WRs getting together. I still think the whole team workout thing is overblown. There's a reason we have 18 coaches working for the Bears.

Totally disagree on Hester. He puts up points and changes field position. Via field position changes he also takes points off the board by helping keep the opponents outside of scoring range (at least FG). It takes 11 men on offense to move the ball and they often can't do half of what Hester does on one return.

Last year Cutler spent a lot of extra time working with the WRs on the new offense, leading those workouts. If you are expecting him to lead some Dline workouts you're right, he's not that guy. I don't really care about that either. At this time of year most players are all over the country working out where ever they choose. Two of the Ravens offensive leaders are right here in Mesa. McNabb is probably at his house in Chandler like he is most offseasons. Just because a players shows up at Peyton Manning's workout sessions doesn't mean he's working hard. Players are either professional in their approach or they're not. I saw nothing in Cutler's work habits and physical conditioning last year to indicate he's not professional in that aspect. Same for Urlacher, Briggs, and the vast majority of the team. It's the guys like Marcus Harrison that have problems and I just can't see any player changing the attitude of players of that type. If he won't respond to the guy who allocates playing time why would he respond to Jay Cutler? I do think as the offseason progresses and if the lockout continues you'll start seeing some effort from the players to get together for some workouts but at this point it's still early May. I still stand by my point that Manning and Brees forced the negotiations into the court house and thus the eventual 2 month delay it caused. They have more ownership of the current stalemate and the delay into early June. I know the union puts up a united front but the lower tier players, especially those who are or might be FA, have to be concerned that nobody is talking now and how that will impact their futures.

I not sure we need a #1 WR so much as we just need a bigger WR who can get off the line quickly to the same spot on a 3 step drop play after play and make the tough catches in traffic. Of the group we have Bennett is the best at this. Our smaller WRs (Hester, Knox, Davis) just can't do that consistently enough to make those plays work and their ability to get open downfield on 5 and 7 step drops is negated by the poor Oline play. I used to think Iglesias could be that guy for us but he just never got it going and I don't know why.

I"m not sure it means DManning is gone but it means we felt it necessary to at least prepare for that possibility.

Not to my knowledge but I don't really care too much. Drew Brees and Peyton are also responsible for cutting off negotiations and moving them into the court room where this process will sit until July. Maybe they feel guilty for that?

Yes, he said Enderle has the ability and was brought in to compete for the #2 spot. I have no problem with a coach telling the players they have to compete for a role. As a Bears fan it's just nice to see there is no argument over who will be the #1 QB.

It's one thing to be stupid or ignorant. It's another to prove it to the whole world.

Great points.

I think (hope) the Williams to Center talk was more smoke screen before the draft. If that's the real plan for a guy who has never played there before then we're in real trouble. We'd be far better off just saying he'll compete for a starting or backup role at OT. As a backup OT he'd be a bust as a former first round pick but I think our Oline would be better off than with him at center, or even backup center.

He seems to be exactly the type of tier 2 FA the Bears would target aggressively on day one of FA. I think it's clear we're not spending big $$ this offseason on one player. Expect the $$ to be spread around among several solid players to help fill positions of need.

We'll see how well Stafford throws from his hospital bed again this year.

We shouldn't expect that the players like Hanie will want to be out of their contracts when the new deal is set. For guys in his situation it's better to have a secure job for one more season than to be out there on the market with everyone else. Plus he's more likely to show his stuff in the preseason this year in an offense he knows and that will help him get the bigger deal he wants.

Lutui is not mean but he is a scrapper in the trenches. I'll do a little homework on what he's up to this offseason via some family connections. Last offseason in his little contract dispute he didn't work out very hard and showed up out of shape. If he's in shape he's a decent player but some of those other FA OGs are better at pass protection IMO and therefore are better fits for our offense.

This is Martz' pick. He went up to the school to watch this guy workout. He'll be sticking around.

Bowers is believed to need microfracture surgery. To my knowledge no pro athlete has ever returned to perform close to the same level after that surgery. If his knee is already that bad it's a huge risk. Even if he ends up not needing the microfracture surgery the fact remains he has a serious knee issue.

Yeah, not sure what folks expect out of 4/5/6 rd picks. If they contribute, and those guys did for some time, then you got something. Every now and then you hope to really hit on one of them but that doesn't happen often for teams. As for Conte, I never expected us to take a FS. It's very clear he's going to be our FS from Angelo's comments. I can't say a thing about Conte's ability because I haven't even watched so much as a highlight tape. If the Bears are right about his ability that is just what we need going against teams like the Packers so if the kid can play it's a very good pick. Additionally, this means Major Wright just became our SS, and I like him there. Chris Harris became backup extraordinaire (again assuming Conte can play) and that's pretty good depth and finally some pretty good athletes at the position. Even if it takes Conte a season to get the position down he's already better depth than we've had at FS since JA has been here...mostly because our FS depth has been horrible. Lot's of what-ifs but just like when we drafted Hester I'll wait and see what happens.