AZ54

http://www.suntimes.com/sports/jensen/2575...-sean08.article Again, we "didn't practice" this and surprisingly we weren't very good at getting off the line under press coverage. Darryl Drake is coaching it this year, so why now? Just more evidence of Lovie's and Turner's incompetence. If you see players struggling with something consistently at some point you should realize you need to spend some time on it. On the plus side, knowing now that we almost never did any work on it but we are now there should be a significant improvement in this area. Not saying our WR will be great getting off press coverage but putting some time into it has to take you from zero to at least middle ground. This is one place where Bruce's experience can really come into play since he wasn't the biggest WR he had to rely on technique to get off the LOS quickly.

A couple interesting things from last nights practice. 1) Lance Louis got the start at RT. While Tice said he just "wanted to give him some more work" this is a a pretty good sign he's standing out in practice and the coaches wanted to see how he'd handle a little more pressure (Soldier Field, night lights, 26k fans). 2) Garza started at LG for us. 3) Olsen continues making plays downfield in this offense. 4) Peppers is just dominating our OTs. By all accounts he's working hard and I'm beginning to think we're going to see a really strong season from him. 5) Tommie Harris practiced and it didn't make the news. Very nice (in the sense that the last two camps it was news when he practiced). 6) Bowman with 3 pass deflections. Seems he's continuing with strong play all through camp.

Good stuff, thx.

The highlight video of training camp on the Bears website showed Olsen lining up next to the LT and then slipping outside the pass protection into a screen pass. I can't say I've seen that play in Martz' offense in the past, maybe others have seen it? If not, it's some evidence that Martz is tweaking his playbook to take advantage of our TEs strengths.

They drafted the kid out of Stanford, Gerhart. I loved the guy in college and I think he'll be a good pro but he's just a bruiser change of pace RB plus he runs a little too upright. He is not going to give them any breakaway runs like AP can but he's more capable or wearing down a defense than a guy like Taylor. Nonetheless that's a change in style from the quick strike Vikings of last year, especially if they don't have the quick strike QB.

Just jumping in a bit on the safety debacle....Steltz was drafted as a FS. He was first put at that spot but didn't fare well. Likely that was because he was lost, as many rookies are and when he made a misstep he didn't have the recovery speed needed. Then we decide because of his lack of athleticism we'll put him in the competition at SS (interchangeable as it is). He didn't fare well there either. Now at the start of his third season we have him back to FS and it appears with his knowing the scheme better he's making solid reads and playing well in his more natural position. Had Lovie left him at FS fulltime perhaps he'd.....nah forget it.

Word out of camp so far is that Forte has his quickness and burst back. Even our defensive players commented on it when the OTAs wrapped up. http://www.chicagobreakingsports.com/2010/...nox-clicks.html "*** On a shuffle pass inside by Cutler, running back Matt Forte looked faster and more explosive than last season."

Things I like so far: Bowman...continues grabbing INTs. Major Wright...too early to know if he'll contribute at all this year but his athleticism and instincts at times already make him standout among our safeties. Marcus Harrison is ....in shape? When was the last time the numbers on his jersey were hanging straight? http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/footb...0,3160490.story Mark Anderson looks like he's put in another solid offseason working out. He appears bigger and stronger, early reports indicate it might be paying off on the field. Still early and he's going against our Oline. Tommie Harris doing a solid interview and sounding like a reasonable person? http://www.chicagobears.com/index.html (check videos) Julius Peppers is destroying our OTs. It's either good news or bad news depending on your point of view. Cutler seems to be getting the timing of hte offense down quicker than I anticipated. Anxious for first preseason game. DA is stepping up! Will he and Knox be starters on the outside with Hester in the slot? JA indicated today that might be a possibility. Tice reaffirms the competition for 3 Oline spots...often.

I think this is great news. Really should help our WRs learn the nuances of the offense.

Granted there was no contact but for our new offense to complete that many passes is still a good thing IMO. I was expecting all sorts of wrong routes and missed timing on the throws but it seems the QBs and WRs got in sync pretty quickly.

Dez Bryant sprained ankle, out 4-6 weeks for Cowboys.

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.