AZ54

Mays would be better at OLB than FS. He's a freak athlete but coverage is not his forte. With all that athleticism if he wasn't covering that well in college there is no reason to think he'll get better in the pro's. I'm sure some coach will think he can coach him up at FS.

Perhaps all that was said was "can I call you at midnight Friday?". 'Yes, you can".

If we trade Greg Olsen for Boldin it should be the end of JA and Lovie, and I'd pull that trigger now before the draft. Olsen for Brandom Marshall I can agree with but it'll take a lot more than Greg Olsen to pry Brandon Marshall out of Denver.

I'm very curious to know what Tice thinks of Omiyale. I know he said he liked him when he first came aboard but where does he think he belongs? We won't know that until after the draft or it would give away our intentions. After the initial press conferences it's clear the team has gone into lockdown in preparation for FA and the draft. Even the potential signing of Ruskell to run the personnel department is not getting much PR. Is there a job search to replace DePaul or not?

Peppers could easily be great for another 5 years IF he wanted too. I suspect he's just after his last big payday and then it's time to kick back and wait for retirement.

Just to clarify: Rolle as a FS is often late to the play, and as Bears fans we know what that's like. Most of his INTs are the result of tipped passes not from him reading a play and jumping a route. He's more consistent that DManning for sure but he's also not nearly as athletic so he can't run with the faster WR. Did I mention that he oftens completely misses on tackles? Would he be an upgrade for us seeing as we don't really have a FS right now? Yes, but only if it's for a reasonable salary for a mid-level player. He is not anywhere close to the long term option we'd all like to see at FS. I tend to think he's asking for way more money than I feel he's worth and that fact the Cards aren't even trying to negotiate with him seems to validate that. If he's hanging around weeks after FA begins then he'll come down to earth and might accept a more reasonable contract.

I understand that but it's part of my point. If he was that valuable to the Cards they'd be seeking to sign him to a longer term deal, if Rolle was asking for reasonable money. That's why I feel he's asking for the high end of salary and they'd rather not waste their time and take the ir $4mil cash and give it to someone else. To answer a question from defiantgiant: ex-Bear front office man Rod Graves is behind the Cardinal contracts. They don't always get hit with huge escalator clauses though. However, he got screwed when he put the huge escalator in Fitzgerald's contract for making 3 Pro Bowl's. How often does a WR make 3 Pro Bowls in his first 4 years? OTOH they have had more contract issues with guys they've been good too and re-did their contract after just two years. Anquan Boldin (twice) and Darnell Dockett (twice) and both of them do nothing but bit** about their contracts.

Please say it ain't so. Ok I have to admit Rolle is better than any FS we have on the roster (we don't have one) but after years watching him miss tackles (easy tackles and I'm talking about a complete whiff) I have absolutely no desire to see him in a Bears uniform. I know he's gotten some INTs over the years and that's because as someone stated above he's a gambler. You know what happens when those gambles don't pay off? Whisenhunt does. There's a reason Arizona has had to outscore opponents to win games even when they are putting up 30pts in a game and Antrell Rolle is part of that reason. If you want to know what it's like to watch Rolle play FS watch some highlight film of Danieal Manning except Rolle is much slower. I don't want to go too far because Rolle is better in coverage than Manning until his lack of speed let's WR blow by him. I just think he is far from deserving the apparent FS-saviour status awarded him here. The two players who make the Cardinals secondary go are Adrian Wilson and DRC. There is no coincidence that Rolle looked better as DRC got better and single covered the other teams best WR and left Rolle to shadow the other side of the field. We don't have that ability on the roster so Rolle will have to go back to playing centerfield and reading the play. He's slow to react there. To his credit, Rolle did mentor DRC on how to watch game film and learn tendencies so he has the professionalism I like in the locker room. I think Rolle would be a good stopgap option for us but that depends on the money he's asking for. It appears his desires are much higher than the Cards are willing to pay and that's a concern for me because they have other holes on D they need to fill...pass rusher, LB (replace Dansby) before dealing with FS and this just opens up another issue. I would think they'd re-sign Rolle if it could be done for a decent cap hit. I think keeping Rolle and trading Boldin makes more sense from the overall team benefit for the Cards even though Boldin is the better player. Cutting Rolle outright nets them nothing but cap space.

Let's hope this was the result of having an Oline coach who couldn't teach these guys how to block.

Not enough time to answer the questions posed in detail but I'll summarize it all by saying it's a matter of which way the arrows are pointing. WR: arrow up on Knox, Hester, Bennett, DA. arrow up but not confident: Iglesias arrow down and out: Davis DL: arrow up on Gilbert but didn't see enough to have confidence. arrow flat: Brown, Harrison, Adams arrow down: Harris (this is the one that hurts especially since that's where the money is) OL: arrow up on Williams, and to a lesser extent Beekman arrow flat: Omiyale (suspect should be back at OT), Shaffer, arrow down: Kreutz (hope he can return to form but got ???), Garza (hear good things about him but on gameday he never stands out one way or the other) FS: don't have one on the roster SS: arrow up Afalava, Steltz (but less athletic ability) arrow flat Payne

On Nance: short yardage move the pile - nope short yardage burst to the hole - nope short yardage speed to get to the corner - nope

Not sure at all on what coverage GB ran in that second game. I want to say Woodson was moved around and covered different WR, perhaps even Olsen.

You have something of a false premise (if i'm using that term correctly) in that you assume if we are pass heavy we will have more 3-and-outs. I've seen plenty of running teams call 2 running plays and then a 3rd down pass and still go 3-and-out. I think the Bears under Jauron proved that quite well. Again, to me it's not about how you get the first downs rather it's just about getting the first downs. I really don't care how you do it as long as you do it. You just have to be successful. I'm not necessarily defending Martz' system just that I think it's wrong to assume pass oriented offenses can't be very successful. I gave what I felt were two solid examples in New Orleans and Indy and you can even go back to teams like the 49ers with Montana. OTOH the Vikings put up lots of points with a run-first mentality this past season. While I disagree with the premise that too much passing means too many 3-and-outs I definitely agree with the questions about whether Martz knows the right time to run the ball. An offense doesn't have to be perfectly balanced to be effective, one side can be stronger than the other (pass vs. run) but you must be able to do both if they take away one aspect from you. No offense will be successful in the NFL if it's effective in just one-dimension. As far as our defense I don't feel it's designed to be a true bend-but-don't-break scheme because our players are too small for that. I think that was clear in Herm Edwards comments the other day when he said in Tampa they never wanted the D on the field for more than 800 plays in a season. That article stated that we've averaged over 1000 in each of the last 3 seasons. I think our D is much more predicated on generating turnovers and big plays for losses (i.e. sacks, TFL). Those plays give you enough breathing room so the "break" part of the D doesn't give up a first down. We're just not very good at all in sacks and TFL unless we overcommit players to it. Naturally that leaves too many openings in the "bend" part of the D. Without the TFL the soft nature of the D makes it too susceptible to 3rd and short. What's so bad for us is that we even gave up 3rd and 10-15 all year long.

I guess it depends on what you considered the question to be. For me with both of these guys it was simply did they even belong in the NFL and could they make plays. Both proved they belong and IMO have shown enough to be potential starters. If the question was are they legit starting WR then no they haven't proven that yet. I think they showed enough potential to deserve a legitimate opportunity to earn those roles. That means lots of practice reps with the first team. Lovie is simply too short-sighted to know what's best for his future. If Iglesias was showing up in practice he should have had playing time late in the year. If special teams was an issue for any of these guys (it was a legit concern) then how were they going to learn to cover kicks if you don't get them on the field to do it?

Now you have: http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/blog/shutdown_...?urn=nfl,135311 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Not content to just have a screaming match with the offensive coordinator on the sidelines (which landed him on our list of five least valuable people of Championship Sunday), Anquan Boldin carried his hissy-fit to the Arizona Cardinals postgame celebration, too. While most of the other Cardinals were still on the field being showered in confetti and picking up their NFC Championship trophy, Boldin had already bolted out of the locker room. The behavior prompted CBS's Mike Freeman to call him a naughty word. He tried to ruin the Super Bowl celebration with his childishness. In the game, Boldin got into a heated argument with offensive coordinator Todd Haley. After the game, instead of celebrating with his team, Boldin abruptly left the field, then abruptly left the locker room. It was awful behavior. [...] I have to say in nearly 20 years of doing this, I've never seen a player more concerned about his arguing with a coach over making a Super Bowl. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7 seasons....3 Pro Bowls which by the way is pretty damn good but it doesn't change my opinion of the fact that he's slowing down and isn't the same WR he was a few years ago. I'd be more than happy to have you show up out here and visit with some of my friends and coworkers who are die-hard Cardinal fans so you can hear it from them too but that's not practical. The Cardinals still have 3 (if not 4) quality WR or next year including Boldin but out here with Warner gone everyone seems to be saying they'll be a run first team next year because Leinart is a lot closer to Orton than Warner in what he can do on the field. Boldin's trade value will not be nearly as high next year as it is right now. Did Boldin put up good numbers last year? Yes, but so did the other WRs in the Cards offense. Boldin had more yards than Breaston but Breaston, Boldin, and Doucet all averaged over 12yd/catch. (Boldin 12.2, Breaston 12.9, and Doucet 12.6). Boldin is a very good WR and yes he'd make our WR corps better but not nearly enough to offset the cost of his contract and the loss of a 3rd or even 4th Rd draft pick. I still think the Cards would like to keep Boldin around if they could get him at the right price (perhaps $7mil/yr?) but I don't see them breaking the bank for him. Boldin is no dummy, he knows his numbers are likely to go down next year with Leinart so he will push his leverage this year as far as he can. Yet if the situation starts to stagnate you will hear him open his mouth and start demanding more money. Before you criticize the Cards for being cheap with him keep in mind they have twice torn up his contract and given him more money (after 2 yr on his rookie deal, and again just two years later in 2006). That's very generous for any organization yet still Boldin has continued to whine about his money.

Last I checked neither of those guys were demanding $9mil/yr, even after earning $5mil/yr. We haven't made the playoffs but none of the three you mention pissed off their teammates by being a locker room cancer during the playoffs. Again, I'll state my position that I like Boldin, he's a good NFL WR, but our 3rd Rd pick and an extra $9mil in FA directed somewhere besides WR will make our team better overall. Last year I'd have been willing to give up a 3rd Rd pick for him but after watching him this last year and seeing our WR I don't see him helping us that much.

I'll take that challenge. First let me start by asking why would a team get rid of a player of the caliber you believe him to be for just a 3rd Rd pick? Why would they do it for just a 2nd Rd pick? Last year the Cardinals wanted a 1st Rd pick for Boldin but in large part that was because they weren't confident in Early Doucet. This past season when Boldin was hurt (again I might add because he's only had 1 full season in his career) Doucet stepped up in a big way in the playoffs and he was pretty good. That's two years in a row he couldn't play in the playoffs. If we trade for Boldin you will get a player who plays the game the right way but also one whose body is feeling the effects of that. He is nowhere near as fast as any of our current WR and he has trouble getting separation from DBs. He could still catch passes from Kurt Warner because they are so accurate but I also watched him drop quite a few. I like the guy but he's only going to add an underneath WR to the roster and we don't need that. Breaston and Fitz typically ran the deeper routes for the Cards. I see no reason to trade for Boldin at all when Greg Olsen can do most of what he does on the field and we've already got him for a lot cheaper. Did I mention Boldin wants $9,000,000/yr? I'll keep the combination of Greg Olsen, 3rd Rd pick, plus $9 mil in FA and come out way ahead of any trade for Boldin.

You may be beating the drum daily but I too like Iglesias and was happy when he fell to us. I would have been happy if we'd taken him in Rd 2. He played against first rate competition and was consistently productive in college. While his physical traits don't jump out at you (more quick than fast) he is very efficient on the field. I think he'll end up the same type WR for us. I was asking for DA to get on the field late in the year but I'd have liked to have seen Iglesias out there in the last two games too even if it meant Knox was inactive. We figured it would have been Knox we'd be wondering about this offseason but overall I'm glad the way things have worked out because the biggest question marks in our WR corps were answered last year (DA, Knox).

Interesting how Olsen improve later in the season as our WR improved. In the first game the Packers often lined up Charles Woodson over Olsen and he eventually went on to win Defensive Player of the Year. In their mind he was our most dangerous WR at that time. I think in the second game late in the year they played us differently. Olsen didn't live up to our hype last year but there were a lot of obstacles thrown in the way too from Forte's injury, poor Oline blocking especially early in the year, rookie WR having to play early (Knox).

What is most bothersome about our blitzes is that we don't attempt to exploit the opponent's weakness. We do the same stuff week and week. It's easy to game plan for and as stated above, we often tip our hand early before the snap. I think our best blitzes are the nickel blitz where he (usually DManning) lines up over the receiver and then just blitzes from the edge. Even if we don't get to the QB we often force him to move around the pocket enough to upset the play. I'm not buying this whole TOP issue. In my mind the offensive goal is to score points. The defenses goal is to not give them up. IMO the problem arises when your D can't get off the field on 3rd down and that's their responsibility. If they don't do that they can't turn around and complain about the offense going 3 and out. Certainly the offense can't go multiple 3 and out but if you are scoring in 2 or 3 min drives that's fine by me. Consider Indy. Most teams dread giving Manning another possession after a 3 and out because they know he can score on them so quickly. In fact, when you play Indy there's a feeling that you better score a lot of points if you want a shot at winning the game. It doesn't always play out that way for them as in the Superbowl but what caused Indy's short TOP in the second quarter? It was New Orleans defense forcing them to a 3 and out. New Orleans wasn't countering that by running the ball, they kept throwing and by doing that they ended up forcing Indy to play catch-up, something Manning didn't do very well.

I actually feel totally different with Martz on board. You know in the past few years I've felt the same way about Lovie giving veterans far too much respect and playing time when it wasn't earned. Heck, I wanted to cut Booker before that season started. Martz is a bit different though because I think he realizes he has little time to get this right and he needs to invest that in the players that will provide the best performance in the second half of the season. I certainly can see him thinking he'd have more success early with Holt but that will only be very limited because he just doesn't have the speed Martz covets. I think Martz knows he has to find the best athletes and the best roles for each one and get them in that role NOW and study up. This is why we are seeing him be so public so quickly about role changes for Hester, Olsen, Knox and even creating higher expectations for the Oline. With Cutler it's a bit different in that he has talked him up but has yet to create expectations other than saying he likely won't be as good as Warner. I see that as a challenge to Cutler.

I suppose all those things are possible but it would still be nice to hear something from Marinelli about what we need to change to get better. I know all he'll say is we just need to get to work because that's his style. Look at all the hype Martz generated in one day.

Riddle me this: If this is such a great hire as DC why is everyone so quiet about it? On the Bears website they have lots of video showing Martz talking about being the new OC, Smith on Martz, JA on Martz. yet there's just one article going over the Marinelli promotion and that article has just a single quote (it's not even an interview) from Marinelli: http://www.chicagobears.com/news/NewsStory.asp?story_id=6534 “I’m very excited,” Marinelli said. “The defensive staff has all worked together, so it’s just a chance to keep going and build on the subtleties of our system. We’ve all been in it together and I think the familiarity will help.” Why isn't there more info on this promotion? I know Marinelli not the type to seek publicity but you'd think the Bears would be doing more to hype this change. So far we have very little outside of Lovie saying this is the guy he wanted as DC in the first place. I haven't even heard of player coming forward saying they were glad to see Rod get promoted. I know it's the offseason and yada yada but don't you think some reporters ran into our players down at the Superbowl last week? This wasn't what I was looking for as our new DC but it would be nice to see something positive about this somewhere.

I watched Dmitri Nance all season long and I saw nothing to make me feel we need him. He has no burst or quickness to speak of and won't be very effective in the NFL. For his size he doesn't run with a lot of power but is capable of moving defenders backwards at times. In his defense ASU had zero passing game so he faced a lot of defenders on every running play but even when he had some space to run he can't get past a defender. We have Bell on the roster and I see no need to waste even a late round pick on Nance, perhaps as UDFA just to see what he's got.

You may be the only NIU football player with fans in Arizona. Best of luck but I have a feeling with your work ethic you won't need luck. Keep us updated.