AZ54

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.

Always gotta have a WTF moment when the Bears draft.

Most importantly he can always get some push up the middle and yes, I agree, Peppers should love this pick. Give Marinelli some time to work with him on his hands and how best to use that strength. Plus as mentioned he's a high character guy with non-stop motor. There is one thing he might be a huge plus for us is defending 3rd and short. We haven't had a DT that could really anchor in those situations now we do.

I agree because if he's there when the Bears pick he's ours.

Yep. He may not be an elite LT but he's better at that spot than anyone else we have on the roster. Plus moving him requires moving JWebb to LT and/or Williams back there again. I suppose in an ideal world Williams would finally have his act together and be ready to hold the LT spot and we could put Carimi at RT. Kick JWebb inside and have Omiyale as backup OT. Grab a OG to fill in the LG spot and voila we have a new Oline. If we had JWebb next to Carimi on the right side that would be some serious muscle on the right side of the line. Hard to have confidence that will work out.

The Jets have financial issues and they can't keep all their WRs. Holmes would be a good fit on our offense even if he drops some easy passes.

No because no deal was done. The Ravens still had their pick although they put it in late and the Bears still had to pick at 29. If the league opens the door on this one you will see all sorts of issues where one team says another was going to trade and didn't complete the paperwork correcctly, or in time, and now we want their draft pick. How do you stop it?