AZ54

Despite all the rumors this tells me that Peppers is our new RDE and the team felt that Brown wasn't going to make the transition and be effective at LDE. Izzy and Anderson have already lined up at LDE and been somewhat effective on pass rush, no worse that what Brown is likely to do as LDE. Add in that Anderson was the swing DE last year so he will likely be looked at for that role again with Izzy the starting LDE. We use a 3 man rotation so we'd be paying a backup player $5 mil to sit on the bench. I'm guessing the team feels Melton can sit on the bench as well as Brown except the dropoff is huge if Melton gets on the field. If I'm wrong and Peppers is our LDE then cutting Brown loose makes no sense to me at all. As far as the trade rumors I don't think it's such a big deal the word is out. Why would a team trade for him --- because they feel his current contract is cheaper and a better deal for them (no bonus) than what they'd have to pay up front in bonus/salary to get him. Plus if you make a trade you know you have him on your team. If you wait for FA then you can lose out even if you offer more money because he might not want to play for a team like Oakland if New England is offering him a job. Brown isn't worth much in the trade market and I doubt there'd be a lot of interest. I'd be happy if we got a 5th Rd pick for him but doubt we get a pick that high. Still that's a pick that might help our secondary. The 5th round is where we pick CBs right?

Sorry but if Tebow was serious about doing all this work to fix his throwing motion he'd have done it sooner in his college career. Throwing motion is not my major concern with him anyway, it's his ability to read a defense. I admit to not watching many of his game but what I did see of him it seemed he had one option read, maybe two. I don't see that translating well to the NFL. Plus he's far too slow to be effective as a wildcat QB.

I think the issue is more a lack of Lovie cultivating a true competition for starting spots. I stated last year (perhaps the last two) that Lovie was more open to playing rookies and/or younger player when he first arrived but seemed to get away from the competition aspect after the Superbowl. Yes some rookies got playing time but Beekman, McBride, and I believe Payne getting reps due to injury isn't what we're talking about. During this time is when Lovie demoted Alex Brown and promoted Mark Anderson in the offseason instead of opening up a competition in camp. We all know how well that worked.

Was there any more damning proof of Turner's incompetence than his unwillingness to go after a FB who could do something well. He stuck with McKie the jack-of-no-trades instead of finding a FB who was good at something like blocking, or receiving, or rushing.

Don't worry, if this doesn't have "Bears safety" written all over it I don't know what does: ******************************************************************************** *********** http://www.nfl.com/combine/profiles/morgan-burnett?id=496727 Burnett has been extremely productive for the Yellow Jackets over the past two seasons. He is very active in both run support as well as defending the pass but also misses too many opportunities due to lack of effort, angles and proper tackling techniques. Burnett has good size and athleticism for the safety position which makes him effective in combination man and zone coverage’s. He is an instinctive player but takes too many chances which make him vulnerable to big plays at times. Burnett can bend to shed and ward off blockers but again is inconsistent in this area. His ball skills are good and show the ability to make plays in traffic. Burnett is a solid safety prospect that has some inconsistencies in his play that may concern some clubs in this year’s draft. ******************************************************************************** ***********

If his performance against our Dline is the best thing on his resume then I'll pass.

No way are pro days more accurate, at least not in relative terms. College teams skew things to the benefit of their players. I want to compare apples to apples and at the combine it's all the same surface, same starter, and same timing system (electronic). Players may be working back from injury and may just run badly at the combine so it's worth it to get a second read in some cases. In end whatever you see at the combine or pro day has to match what you see on gameday film.

This was the game where Favre just kept throwing the same inside slants and we never adapted. Hot knife through Lovie's butter defense and no pass rush was going to get Favre down, he was throwing on time in 2 sec to the same spot over and over and over and over.

Does this "everyone" include all of T.O.'s former teammates, coaches, and management? How often do you see a team cut a good player not because they go after another player who they feel is better rather because they think the negatives that leave with the player will make the overall team better? How often is that team located in Dallas?

I thought he ran a 4.7 at the oombine?

I still say Olsen works the H-back role and TE. As H-back we'll pass out of that formation more often than not when he's in. Of course with Martz all formations will be pass more often.

I prefer to put Harris on the other side opposite Peppers with Adams in between. It forces the line to choose which side they want to be strong on and it makes stunts from either Peppers or Harris a lot more difficult to handle. Put all your good players on one side and they'll just run away from you or load up on that side to contain you.

I don't recall which game but he totally missed on a tackle of a RB with a very poor angle and gave up a 20yd TD run. I recall it because after we gave up the TD I asked my son.. what happened to our safety? As I uttered the words the replay showed Bullocks running right past the RB about 5 yd off the LOS, he didn't even look his way. I think Bullocks tackled Hillenmeyer on that play.

No doubt, last year he wanted nothing to do with us. Rumor was his knees wouldn't handle the cold too well. Whatever. If he's so good why did he get cut after just one season? Move on.

Yes, great work on the stats Nfol. We should put some perspective on the effort a RB puts in. If a WR gets 100 rec/seas they've had a great year yet that's just 6.25 rec/game. Of course they take hits on balls thrown their way so I could assume that puts an average thrown-to number at roughly 10 thrown at/game. While these guys do take some bruising hits from DBs they don't often deal with the pile ups and violent collisions with the interior lineman and linebackers like a RB does. All of football is a demanding sport on the body but RBs are more often than not at the center of it.

Your are way too critical of McKie. He could be productive on a high school team.

Come on now we've been rotating all sorts of players through our D the last few years. RBs rotate freely through our Dline. WR and even the occasional TE rotate freely through our secondary.

That'd be cake with a little Pepper on it!

By the way....who thinks Olsen is an elite player? I've seen many who say he's a good player and they prefer to keep him but I can't recall any who said he's All Pro potential.

We did pursue Antrelle Rolle but his price was way too high. Even Cards fans are stunned he's now the highest paid FS in the league but they don't think they lost much, if anything, when they picked up Rhodes.

As near as I can tell teams wold only do this in two situations. One where you are willing to accept the risk of losing a player who you'd like to keep but don't view as necessary. Let the market set the contract and if it fits your budget match it. The other time you do it is when you flat out will match any offer sheet he signs. My guess is the teams around the league all know the Rams intend to match any contract.

Apparently you think the Bears can just print money like the government (or Dan Snyder).

Nobody will even know he's gone.

I didn't say the Bears have never been cheap so please don't change the point of the thread because we all know they have been cheap. I also said you can argue over how they spend their money or who they spend it on but they have spent money very comparable to the top teams in the league. That includes our coaching staff as Lovie was one of the highest paid coaches when he got his second contract and many on that Superbowl staff that stuck around got significant raises. I just don't see the data in the last several years showing where we've been cheap. We can go back to Urlacher's first contract extension which put him at or near the top paid in the league. Hester got a boat load of WR money for being the best KR/PR in the league. Tommie Harris picked up $10 mil/yr which got a lot of attention. Our 1st Rd picks in recent years have all had solid contract offers comparable to any other team and almost all have been in camp on time. We even pay our UDFA a little better than average to attract better quality. You can argue whether or not that worked but I think from an ownership standpoint since the new stadium deal they've ponied up the dough but they aren't spending like that fool Daniel Snyder. We now have the highest paid defensive player in the league. As far as keeping Lovie around this year (which I was against) I think this was a deliberate decision by the team to either spend money paying coaches who don't work for them plus the high cost of hiring the new staff (estimated at $15 mil swing) or take the money and use it on FA and go after the best player available in Peppers. I'll live with Smith another year in order to keep Peppers for 5.

Clark is getting old and it seems Davis is becoming the better combo TE (pass/block). If Clark is the odd man out then it seems we'll be bringing in another big body TE for depth in training camp which is why Fontel Mines was let go. Not that he was a contributor in anyway just saying he's not what Martz wants so you go get another fringe guy that fits Martz system.