AZ54

Cutler appears to be in much better shape than he was last year. It's not quite as relevant to the QB position as others but it does indicate a commitment on his part to have a better season. Kreutz missed almost all of the practices but OTAs aren't exactly something a 13 yr vet needs. He was doing full workouts most of the summer and he's always been a workout warrior so I expect he's in good shape. He is a concern but far from the biggest issue we have on the Oline.

I see your point on Gilbert but the fact expectations have fallen so far so fast on a 3rd Rd pick pretty much tell the story. I really hope you are wrong about Chris Harris but if he remains at FS that may prove to be true. I still have trouble seeing DManning as our starting SS because he doesn't hit well. Again, this is Lovie insisting on putting two square pegs on the field instead of letting Harris be the right fit at SS and then doing the best we can at FS. I'd rather have one hole you know about than creating two problems. In either situation if your hope is that Major Wright gets it together and can play at least by midseason wouldn't you still be better off letting Harris practice at SS all through camp and the first half of the season? If this crap about how our safety positions are the same then why is it that the FS has to make the play calls?

Just one more day of waiting until we start getting feedback on this years team looks. Who will be this years "surprise" and who will take the disappointment trophy away from Marcus Harrison (if anyone)? Surprise: I'm stuck choosing between the two Corey's (Wooten and Graham) but I'm going to go with Corey Graham. By all accounts he's had an excellent offseason and the speed work he did is paying off on the field. After being cast aside last year he returns this year as a viable CB option for us and gives us some desperately needed depth at this position. Disappointment: Jarron Gilbert. A 3rd Rd pick just a year ago he wasn't ready to see the field. After a pretty nondescript offseason I think he ends up as one of those tweeners who never really settled into a position (DE or DT). I don't expect much more from him this year.

In the last couple seasons Hester has focused on weight lifting to get stronger, and IMO it showed on the field as he lost some of his quickness and burst. This offseason he's changing things up a bit and I hope we see that lightning burst that made him so dangerous. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://blogs.suntimes.com/bears/2010/07/he..._ex-rams_g.html "The thing I really did this summer is I cut back on weight training and focused more on conditioning to really get myself an overtime workout," Hester said. "I've got to be able to play six quarters a game. I want to be able to go the whole game without being fatigued. "I felt that I need to put extra time into conditioning because not only am I a receiver but I'm a returner and I have to be in better shape than the normal guy." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Maybe that was Bruce's advice: Don't try to be the big WR, just be the quick little guy and when it's time to get hit, go down early. I'm laughing as I type because that was always the one trait I hated with the Rams WRs under Martz. They burn you for 15 yards and you don't even get a chance to hit them because they always went down early.

I see a bit more top end speed than a 4.65 forty would indicate. He has good vision and good balance, enough to make one cut and go. I could see him as a RB for us but IMO he's more of a FB. In the FB role I really like him, as long as he can hit people. I think grabbing him with a 7th RD pick was a good move but his presence puts pressure not only on Wolfe and Bell but also on the TEs and FBs. I say TEs because awhile back there was a lot of talk about keeping 4 TEs with no FB and Manu filling in as our HB/FB. If Unga fills the FB role then it could mean we lose Dez Clark or Davis. Overall it's good we have added a player who is unique on the roster in his size/ability and our coaches have a lot of ways to get the best players on the roster and on the field. I tend to think Wolfe has an advantage on the competition because of his special teams play but that all has to play out too. Other guys like Josh Moore, Iglesias, etc. fighting for playing time he might end up expendable there too. Do we keep Unga as RB or FB? Or practice squad? Let the competition begin!

Correction: With boneheaded mistakes like that you WILL be working for ESPN, and thus lose all credibility.

Switch LG and RG analysis... Remember RG stands for Roberto Garza.

I like Knox and feel he's a big component of our WR corps for the future he does have a few things to work on. Most notably IMO is getting off the line against press coverage and into the assigned route. I don't think we'll even know if he's learned that this offseason until the real games begin. We don't practice a lot of press coverage and even if we do it's not our forte. We'll see some press coverage in preseason games but again just how intense will it be?

Thayer is pretty high on Williams too: http://www.chicagobears.com/news/NewsStory.asp?story_id=6852 "LM: Speaking of the offensive line, what are your expectations for that unit? TT: I think Chris Williams has a chance to be the best left tackle in the division, which is really important whenever you’re trying to put together an offense that needs protection." but he also adds this as helping us out (again an indictment on Turner): LM: How confident are you that the offensive line will perform better than it did last season? TT: I have a lot of faith that they’re going to be a good offensive line. I think they’re going to be much less predictable in what they’re going to come out and do offensively.

I am actually surprised at the number of former Martz players who have come forward to offer praise and support for his system. Much of that has been in private conversations with our Bears players from Hester, Olsen, Forte, to Cutler. It is giving me more hope that we will be effective in this scheme.

http://www.chicagobreakingsports.com/2010/...ne-options.html Tice doesn't want to leave the impression that the only competition will be at left guard. He knows where Kreutz and left tackle Chris Williams will be. The rest is to be determined. He likes Garza at right guard and he likes Frank Omiyale at right tackle. That doesn't mean a starting lineup is 80 percent set. "Not to give up too much information, I see Beekman and Johan battling and I also see other battles going," Tice said. "You can read between the lines. You never know, some other guys could move. I'm willing to have the best five guys on the field, I don't care what their names are. I am not partial to anyone except Olin or Chris. I think those two guys are elite." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- When was the last time anyone used the word elite when talking about any of our offensive linemen? I found that statement very surprising, also considering that he hasn't even seen Kreutz practice. Perhaps more noteworthy is that the other 3 positions are officially open to competition. It looks like Garza and Omiyale are not locks and have to earn their starting jobs. Omiyale isn't a huge surprise there but Garza?

Our best hope for the entire secondary lies with the Dline. This issue has been talked about all offseason but it isn't going away. If the Dline plays like last year our secondary is average at best no matter who they put where. However, help may be on the way! I'm starting to see tidbits about Wooten looking like he belongs on the field, I think someone even mentioned him being a steal in the draft. It's way too early to get that hyped up since they haven't even put pads on but it's a good sign we might finally be able to bring more pressure off the edge this year from our 3-man DE rotation. Peppers is an obvious upgrade here but we must have Anderson and Wooten/Idonije be productive. I know what Izzy can do and I love his work ethic but he is what he is. At DT Harris is reportedly working out all offseason and it appears he's moving better. The downside is that we have no clue if anyone can line up next to Harris and do anything productive. I assume Adams will make his usual occasional hustle play but that's far different from feeling you can count on consistent pressure on every down. Melton? Gilbert?

Nfol laid out the DB setup the way I'd like to see it with DM as our NB. As far as what we will see from Lovie I think it might end up being anyone but DManning at NB. Do they like Jennings? Maybe, I don't think there is much there. I do expect us to cut DJ Moore and end up keeping Woodny Turrene. I rank em: Bowman, Tillman, Graham, Joshua Moore, Jennings, Turrene, DJ Moore with the last two getting cut and Turrene hitting the practice squad again barring injury. Why we are messing with Danieal Manning again this offseason I have no idea. Had we not picked up any new safeties perhaps it makes sense but given that we have Harris back in the fold along with Major Wright plus Steltz reportedly is playing well (but limited in speed as always) it seems like a waste of practice time. All I can think of is they want Manning as part of the depth chart at SS but that is far from his strength. Is Afalava doing that poorly after getting so much playing time last year? Bullocks, we know he can't tackle. Is this just a depth move so Manning gets early reps in the offseason and then slots back to NB for camp? Or do we like Graham and/or Jennings as our NB this year and just expect Manning to be KR/backup SS? Yes, I'm not listing DM as our starting SS because that can't possibly be the plan.

I hope Martz's offense is far less predictable than Turner's because I think that alone was a big part of that problem. Not to mention there were no other WRs who concerned a defense so Hester always had the focus of the D. When you think about it we rarely seemed to catch a defense with a play call they weren't ready for. We've already heard many players state they can run multiple plays from the same formation and the fact they speak up about that indicates it wasn't so much that way last year.

I would like to see DA/Knox outside with Hester in the slot. I think that fits everyone's skill set the best. However, what's really nice is that it appears we are finally getting some real competition among the WRs. Even if it's Hester and Knox outside whoever we have in the 3rd and 4th spot should be capable WRs. There shouldn't be much dropoff from 3 to 5 on our roster. Word is that Davis is performing well but he's always been a better practice player and fades when there is contact in the games. He may end up on the roster but I hope he's not a routine active player for us.

What I love is that the players took the Stanley Cup around town and each will get to take it home for at least one day. IMO that makes it the best trophy in all of pro sports. I said best trophy, not championship...that is reserved for the Superbowl.

Seeing as it happened at this early stage I tend to agree with Nfol, this is a good sign. In fact I think it's a very good sign. They didn't have to come out this early and make a statement that Shaffer was out of the OG competition so why do that? Doesn't it make more sense for the team to leave him in the mix at least until training camp starts? You have one of two scenarios: Shaffer is absolutely horrible at OG. IMO they couldn't really make that determination seeing as there is no contact yet. The only other reason that makes sense is that Tice has confidence in both of the young guys being better options than Shaffer in any case. This being the Bears I'm remain totally unconvinced that we have a good solution at LG but I think this is a step in the right direction toward finding that guy. Just a step.

If I did this right my new avatar should make you smile. That folks is the smartest person in Wisconsin!

Let's say this about Russ Grimm, he got far more out of Mike Gandy at LT than we did. While I kept thinking every season they'd dump Gandy he stuck around and actually played "good" (I know it's bad english). He's not what anyone wants at LT but he was servicable under Grimm's tutelage. Consider that he was blocking for Warner who often took deep drops or held onto the ball longer than the original drop called for, plus Warner wasn't fleet of foot.

I understand that point but we have one of the best contract negotiators and salary cap managers in the league with Cliff Stein. It is time to get creative and package in some bonus this year but overpay with guaranteed roster bonus next year, or even roster bonuses for both 2nd and 3rd year. At this time of year how much cash do teams around the league have anyway? Nobody else has signed all their draft picks and you know those huge bonuses for first round picks require lots of upfront cash. Until their rookie contracts are signed can teams afford to throw a lot of money at Otogwe? He's not going to find the money he'd have found back in the beginning of FA.

You might want to have a chat with Kurt Warner about that. After his 4th or 5th game as a starter he went to Whisenhunt and pushed to open up the offense with more passing. Whisenhunt agreed and the Cards went to the Superbowl. After that miracle they weren't going to change strategy last year. This year is a totally different story because their QBs aren't very good and everyone agrees the Cards are going to focus on the run game behind Beanie Wells and Tim Hightower. You'll get your chance to see how well they block when everyone knows they are going to run.

I say we go get him. Wright is not going to be the FS we need this season. He might be better than what we've had but consider that we have the potential for a solid defense and putting Otogwe back there with Harris gives us a solid starting tandem with good depth right behind them. Cornerback depth is still a concern so solidifying the safety spots helps minimize that risk. I have to add it was good to see some good words said about Graham on the Bears website today. I'm curious what he did this offseason to get a step faster, which of course opens up the question of why didn't he do it sooner. Keep in mind the division we play in. Green Bay and Minn have two of the better passing games in the league. Detroit has one of the top young QBs/WR combinations. We need excellent pass coverage. Close the deal with Otogwe and safety becomes a strength of this team. When was the last time we said that? If we sign Otogwe....then look ahead to next offseason....what positions do we need to focus on in the draft? Oline, CB, then what? It gives us nice options to go best player available at LB, RB, grab another Oline, CB whatever ranks highest. We can skip the expensive FAs to save cash and just use the draft. Make it happen.

I am in agreement too! Last season it was said to be one of the biggest problems Omiyale had; he struggled adjusting to making a drop step before moving forward. It's an assumption on my part but if that was true because he had never done that before then he should be getting back to what he used to do and hopefully he'll be a better run blocker using Tice's technique.

How refreshing to hear an Oline coach NOT SAY all his players are doing well and that the fans don't know what they are talking about. I am really glad to see both Tice and Martz focus in on the details of execution. Not just from a "we gotta run this play right" approach but rather the details of how receivers make their cuts, QB throwing fundamentals, blocking fundamentals, etc. I think these aspects have been lacking in the past and this will pay off for us as the season progresses. Fundamentals don't guarantee success but you don't have success without fundamentals.

I don't think Graham did that well as a CB. He was ok but was not much of a pass defender, rather he just seemed to always be shadowing the receiver and made the tackle after the completion. Rather than blame Hoke for his demotion we should keep in mind he had the lead over Bowman in the competition (far more experience too) and it was Bowman who stood out in the minicamps and OTAs last year and he stayed that way throughout training camp thus earning the starting job...as it should be IMO.