AZ54

Finally a little love for Graham. The best part of this article is: http://www.chicagobears.com/news/NewsStory.asp?story_id=5991 ******************************************************************************** ***** The 2007 fifth-round draft pick insists that he doesn’t have a preference in terms of a position. “To be honest, I want to play wherever I can get on the field,” Graham said. “If it’s nickel, safety … I’ll play defensive tackle if I can play in a game. I just want to go out there, do what they ask me to do and just continue to be a team player. You just want to play and get better.” ******************************************************************************** ***** That's exactly how he needs to approach all this shuffling around. Hopefully he continues to settle into the nickel role. If he can solidify that spot for us it would be huge in terms of our depth. It would keep DManning at FS full time which I think helps him out mentally (he needs that). On top of that we'd have Bowman as our backup CB behind Tillman and Vasher, so far that looks to be like pretty good depth. Then we'd have DJ Moore battling with McBride for the 5th spot. Woodny Turenne might be in that mix too. Over at safety Afalava is starting to show up and appears to be on the radar for a roster spot.

Good then you can update that photo of Cutler to one of him in his Bears uniform.

So was Cutler and the offense that good or is our D that bad? With Tillman and Bowman out I'm taking the latter with some "Cutler is that good" thrown in.

That's actually video from across the entire first week of practice. It is good to watch because they keyed on certain players in each segment. In other words you'll see about 5 or 6 plays in row of Earl Bennett, then 5 plays of Rideau, etc.

Definitely seems like Knox is facing a steep learning curve/adjustment. No suprise considering where he played but it's still very early in camp so I'm holding out hope for him to come along better after he has a couple preseason games behind him. If he doesn't get it I can see him on IR because I don't think we'd be able to keep him on our practice squad. The downside of course is that players on IR can't practice (unless they're on the Patriots) and that's not helpful. Lately there seems to be more positive vibes about Iglesias getting comfortable with the offense.

Today in the post practice interview Cutler again mentioned Aromashodu as a WR who was played well. Aside from Cutler I haven't heard many others mention him and now Cutler's done it twice this week and today specifically said he needs to get some time in with the 1's. For Cutler to come out and say he needs to get some time with the 1's is a pretty good sign of his progress. All the talk has been about Rideau stepping up this year and that's good. I'd like to hear any feedback on Aromashodu from those who've been to camp or attended today's practice at Soldier Field. Is this guy looking like someone who might make the final roster?

I think it means we keep throwing darts at developing players hoping one hits the bullseye. I don't see this guy as anything more than a potential practice squad player.

Not ahead of myself at all, that's why I said I want to catch the first preseason game to see for myself.

It's simple, you state that Brown's leadership and ability to get players in the right spot was why we needed him on the field. Yet he failed in that responsibility on that last play. Atlanta had two plays they could do ... 1) run or pass for a TD or .. 2) throw a 15-20 yard pass and go out of bounds leaving time to kick a FG. They had no timeouts. While he had to protect the middle first, Brown should have been cheating a couple more steps toward the sideline knowing he's too slow to get there from where he was. Being a couple more steps toward the sideline might have given up more yardage on an over the middle catch but so what, he had 35 more yards to give up and another safety back there to give chase. Give up another 10 or 15 yards wouldn't have mattered because with time running out they wouldn't have gotten the kick off in time. I see Brown failing at getting his fellow DBs aligned properly which was supposed to be his strength and main reason we had him on the field. I see Brown failing to get outside fast enough to breakup the pass. The coaches threw Hamilton under the bus but left Brown alone. Later they moved him back to SS. I do believe I am the only Bear fan blaming Brown for that play but watching highlights of it over the summer hasn't changed my mind. I also blame the DBs coach, Defensive Coordinator, and head coach for this failure. Who does a pooch kick to give a team good field position like that? Anyway, too many bad memories from last season but on a positive note it was for a worthy cause because it ended up in Jay Cutler wearing a Bears uniform. No pain no gain.

Totally enjoyed listening to that last night. It was funny all the way through. Felt like drinking a beer with those guys by the time it was done. From a football perspective the one thing that caught my attention was the props they gave to Devon Aromashodu. Beyond Cutler and Olsen talking about him I haven't heard much else but it's interesting to note that with Rideau making waves in camp Davis is getting pressure on the depth chart. Rideau is not going to be our slot WR and that's where Davis is so these two are not necessarily in direct competition. We have Iglesias who is coming on lately and making some good plays. He has good quickness, could he play the slot? Knox also appears to be a slot WR type. Need some preseason games to be sure but it appears we've seen enough good things from Knox to think he'll make the final roster. At this point I doubt we'd be able to protect him on our practice squad. For the slot role we also have Hester. We already know that Olsen will be lining up wide in some formations with Hester moved to the slot. While the slot may not be Hester's primary role it seems clear he's going to take some reps there. I've felt we'll keep 6 WR due to the inexperience we have on the roster and that likely meant Davis was assured a spot. However, with Rideau and possibly now Aromashodu making some noise is a bubble forming underneath Rashied Davis? I'm no longer sure the slot role is enough to save his roster spot, so it may well come down to special teams contributions where he should have an advantage.

Orton is going to have it rough this year. Not only does he have to replace Cutler he also has to learn a totally new offense, as does the rest of the offense. We all know that takes time. For Bronco fans that won't matter though because all they'll see is less productivity from the QB and the offense and blame Orton. Until they go back and blame the head coach. That should happen after about midseason.

I spent some time searching for that article where Orton talked about how he hadn't handled his second season the way he should have. I did find this blog post that mentions it back in Aug 2007: http://www.dabearsblog.com/2007/08/remember_kyle_orton.php ******************************************************************************** John Mullin writes a terrific piece in today's Trib. Apparently, Orton has come to camp with a stronger arm and more intimidating physique. Ron Turner has called him lightyears better than he was as a ten-game winner (remember that?) two years ago. According to Mullin, there are two questions: Can Orton emerge from the preseason as the No. 2 quarterback ahead of Brian Griese? And in the event that Rex Grossman does not work out, can Orton possibly play his way into becoming the franchise quarterback of the Bears' future? The answer to both is ... yes. Not gonna lie...I'm interested. All of a sudden, the first preseason game looms not only as a showcase for the development of Rex Grossman but also for the re-invention of his fallen predecessor. Kyle Orton has the next month plus to establish himself as the the quarterback-in-the-wings and I'd be more than happy to see it happen. ******************************************************************************** *** I don't mean to imply he pouted publicly because he did handle things publicly in a professional manner. However, from his change in 2007 vs. 2006 it was clear he didn't work hard at competing for the second string job after Rex was declared the starter in the offseason and then Griese was brought in to be our #2. After leading us to multiple wins his rookie years the fans back then were expecting Orton to make a better showing than he did that year (2006), myself included. Graham's situation IMO appears similar from the outside. Of course, he has had to deal with some position changes and that alone will reduce performance but he's also not new to our system like the rookies. It's all anecdotal stuff, hypothetical, whatever, because all I have to go on is the fact he does not appear to be making a standout impression on anyone, neither media or coaches. If you feel that is because his coverage is so good nobody will throw the ball his way that's fine. I'll wait for a second source to confirm this before getting on that bandwagon.

DM was outstanding on KR. Hester is still PR which is better suited to his talents, not that he can't do both well. At any rate teams were just constantly kicking away from Hester so having him back there worked in the sense you might get 10 extra yards of field position on a kick going out of bounds but you weren't getting 6 pts. We had to find a way to get the ball in his hands. I wish the talk about him being our #1 WR would die down. I still want him effective as a PR and I prefer there be no push to get him a huge quantity of receptions. He's not the biggest WR and IMO over 80 rec with his PR duties will just wear him down and reduce his big play ability in both roles. I'd prefer to see him in more of a #2 role with less touches but more effective as a big play guy. In other words I'd much rather see Hester among league leaders in YPC and YAC versus # receptions. If that helps him get a couple PR for TDs then it's totally worth it. Those return TDs are demoralizing for the other team. Let's spread the ball around to Olsen, Bennett, Forte, Hester, and whoever our #3 WR is, among others and don't worry about making Hester "the #1 WR" .

I watched the weekly highlight film on the Bears website and I have to admit i was impressed with the way Rideau was coming off the line. It seems he finally has learned how to use his size advantage, or maybe he's finally added the strength to his frame. He's not real quick coming out of his cuts and doesn't appear fast but does appear to have sneaky speed that people underestimate. Looking forward to catching next weeks game on TV somewhere someway somehow.

This is kinda funny in a thread titled "Fight at Training Camp".

I still like Kreutz, and yes he's not the mobile blocker he used to be but he is a tireless worker and leader. Mike Brown I don't miss. He's just too slow and broken down to be dependable. His leadership abilities, as much as I admired them, aren't worth much when he's on the sidelines. I still say it was him who blew the last pass play against Atlanta. It was time to move on.

Graham is clearly in the doghouse, how he got there I don't know. Perhaps it was some bitchin' and moanin' over the FS move. Now he's back at CB but let's be clear, if he's as good as many on this board have been touting him to be we'd be hearing more about him. There was talk about him being a potential starter for us and taking a step up this year. Well then a guy with that kind of talent who is going against second string players on our offense (Caleb Hanie QB and a slew of no-names no-experience at WR) and he still isn't making INT's is just not playing well. Years ago another player got a lot of starts in his rookie year and did "ok" filling in for an injured player. He then got put back on third string before camp started and subsequently spent the whole year pouting. He didn't standout in training camp that year, basically looked like a 3rd string QB. That guy was Kyle Orton. I'm not comparing a QB to a CB just saying that history shows some players don't always handle position switches and/or demotions well and that's what I think is going on here. Lovie for his part is making it clear that a job won't be handed to someone, which is good IMO.

Dominique Raiola is Kreutz's best friend and they always workout together in the offseason. I'm sure Raiola's younger brother Donovan has been working out with these two. I'm not expecting much from this kid but it's likely he's a hard worker and could turn into something down the road. Worth a shot to see what he's got and if he's worth putting on the practice squad.

Found this at the end of an article on Rideau and thought I'd post it to give some props to Kreutz. Aside from his play this is why he's one of the team leaders: Center Olin Kreutz, a six-time Pro Bowler, remained on the field after practice to work one-on-one with guard Johan Asiata, an undrafted rookie free agent from UNLV. I've never heard of Asiata and yet here's our Pro Bowl center out there after practice helping him out.

I can't tell you how good it was to hear Chris Williams got a pancake on Adams. I know it's just Adams and it's just one practice play but IMO this is a good sign that his strength and his back are definitely up to the task, and this is 5 days into camp when guys are getting tired and relaxing a bit.

It's muscle fatigue. These guys have been working hard for several days in a row, hitting and sprinting. It was obvious to me yesterday when I watched video of the Dline drills. Everyone was running the drill slower and stiffer than on the first couple days and so I was expecting to start hearing about some soft tissue injuries and sure enough we have one. Hopefully he's just strained it and can get back for at least the last couple preseason games.

Yes, I haven't heard of Ravi signing yet and that can't hurt us at all, especially since conditioning was never considered one of his traits. As far as our speed being on the inside, of course they'd be lined up that way but there's nothing stopping them from running a quick out pattern while the TE is running upfield to clear out the DB, S, LB (whoever is out there). Greg Olsen has pretty good speed too, not elite but enough to get upfield. I'm looking forward to seeing how we match up with them from a formation point of view. I know their CBs are tough at the LOS but I think our TEs and RBs will give us an advantage.

The Packers are switching over to the 3-4 defense and after watching ESPNs update on Packer's camp and listening to their chat about how the DEs and LBs have to change roles somewhat I got to thinking how our offense will fare against them. I view the 3-4 as more of a stout run defense that gets it's pass rush in part because of the opportunities to bring a 4th or 5th pass rusher from multiple locations. Pass coverage with 4 LB has some limitations so the pass rush is key. They've got personnel issues with guys like Kampman, the Packer's best pass rusher, who now lines up as a LB. Which means he'll have to cover someone from time to time. On our side we're going to use Olsen in a lot of different positions (TE, WR, H-back) meaning they won't be able to know pass/run as well depending on personnel. If we go to the recently reported double-split-wide TE formation with WR in the slot positions how will they handle that? You can't really go to a nickel D because we could line up two TEs on the outside of the OTs and run. Are they going to leave their LBs to cover Hester and Bennett? I just see some nice advantages we have with spreading out the offense. On top of that Forte is a pretty good WR making him a threat out of the backfield. If this is effective we're going to find out quickly and in a big way because after Green Bay we play Pittsburgh.

LOL on the stats showing our Oline couldn't block well last year. No shock Forte did better when we ran a spread offense but I'll add one more thing, those were also more likely to be 3rd and long downs so the D was likely a backed off the LOS a bit.

I think you are right. We've been terrible in bump and run and if there's one thing our CBs need to work that is it. I don't mind at all the early emphasis on getting this technique down. Certainly if our pass rush isn't what we think it can be this will put our DBs in a tougher spot so I'd expect we'd back off a bit. However, if our Dline is doing their job and passes are coming out quicker then we need to be in tight coverage.