AZ54

I wonder if somewhere in Minn Bernard Berrian is sitting in a corner counting his money and wondering what if it would be worth it to count a couple million less while catching passes from Cutler in a Superbowl.

Plax only becomes a Bear after he serves his time, whatever that may be. Probably including the league deciding what suspension he'll get although I believe he'd have to be a on a roster for that decision to be made. Once he's served his time JA can get up on the podium and give us the speech about how repentent Burress is and he's learned his lesson blah blah blah. Point is quite simply Burress is exactly the type WR we need on our roster and we'd be one tough offense with him. I'm not even sure how a defense would go about stopping us. There are guys you gamble on and they are called difference makers and there are a lot of guys you don't. As much as I support getting good character guys on the roster Plax could easily put this team deep in the playoffs if not the Superbowl. That's with our defense being average like last year.

The point because it's talking about the current value of a player versus draft picks. If the 2006 draft was held all over again there's no way Vince Young, D'Brick, AJ Hawk, Vernon Davis, Michael Huff, Donte Whitner, Ernie Sims, and Matt Leinart get picked before him. We could argue about Mario Williams and Reggie Bush who went 1 - 2 but I think given what Cutler's done teams would have been willing to trade up to the either of those spots to keep the Titans from getting him. If we had played Rex last year and not Orton there's no way this deal is made because Rex is not the "distribution" type QB that McDaniels wants. Orton often hit 7 receivers in a game. Rex usually didn't know he had 7 receivers available to him.

Seems like the marijuana charge adds some clarity to why it took him "forever to get it". As an UFA he might be worth a look.

NFL Network put together a list of the top 10 QB trades. It seemed that half of those trades were of veterans at the end of the careers: Montana to KC for example. There were a few like Favre to GB, Young to San Fran that standout because the QB was still young however, they hadn't yet played at a high level and certainly didn't go to a Pro Bowl. IIRC there was Fran Tarkenton trade in the middle of his career that brought him back to the Vikings. Bottom line is that it is extremely rare for a QB with Cutler's talent to get traded. Here's your link: http://www.nfl.com/videos?videoId=09000d5d80f94c35

What happened to green with envy? I guess that just me showing my age.

You might be right but considering the need we have at this position I don't think we can take the risk of waiting that long. We're are right on the cusp of where you pick up developmental prospects. Right now we have Hester, Bennett, Davis as our WR, that's it. If we could get Holt that would help immensely but we don't appear to even be in the running for him. After him the FA dropoff is significant. If we're going to fill this position right JA will have to be bold again and move up to go get his player.

Another article same topic. http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/footb...,4477323.column "He knows how to get all of his guys up," said Bears offensive tackle Chris Williams, who played with Cutler at Vanderbilt. "He doesn't overreact. But if someone needs to be yelled at to get it going, that's what he will do." It creates a compelling dynamic on the Bears. For the first time in the 11 years Olin Kreutz has been in town, the player behind center is a bigger star than the center. Kreutz polices everything from locker-room code to sideline demeanor but never has had a quarterback with Cutler's combination of skill and swagger lead a huddle. And lead Cutler will. If an impressive first day at Halas Hall proved anything, it was how natural of a leader Cutler is and Bears players will have to adjust to him more than he will to them. This isn't an experiment, guys. This is a culture change.

Cutler isn't wasting any time taking the reins of our offense. I'm not used to hearing this type of stuff from any Bears QB. From all I've read in the last two days the offensive players are lining up behind him too. http://www.suntimes.com/sports/football/be...mully05.article Much has been made about the Bears' lack of weapons at wide receiver, and certainly the team needs improvement. The team still has a second-round pick, and it should be used on a wide receiver. But rookies can't be counted on for immediate impact. The Bears learned that last year when third-rounder Earl Bennett never saw the light of day. Bennett is a close friend of Cutler from their days at Vanderbilt. Cutler values the receiver so much, he went back to his old school for Bennett's pro day before the draft last year so the receiver had a chance to show off his stuff. ''I know what Earl is capable of doing, and I will be able to get it out of him,'' Cutler said. ''I am 100 percent sure of that. That is not going to be a problem. You are obviously going to see a different receiver this year because I think everyone is a little down on him right now.''

I agree with your point except Jordan wasn't a point guard. If you have a good point guard you usually have a good team. If you have a good QB you usually have a good offense. Maybe not great but at least good. I'm surprised nobody is giving props to Urlacher for his comments in today's news where I felt he really came out in support of Cutler and Pace. In particular I like the statement that he has nothing to explain to his new teammates and that Urlacher likes him being a bit cocky. http://www.suntimes.com/sports/football/be...T-url04.article ''Making this deal, plus we got Orlando Pace, our offense is looking really good,'' Urlacher said Friday on WMVP-AM (1000). ''We have some big names on offense, which we haven't had since I've been here. We have a franchise quarterback, which we obviously haven't had. We're going in the right direction. ''He's still young [25]. I'm sure he has a lot to learn, but from what I've seen he has all the skills you want in a quarterback. He can throw the ball on the run, he can throw it from the pocket. He's got a cannon. And he can play well in cold weather, having played in Denver, so that will be important playing in Chicago.'' Urlacher said Cutler's attitude is not a concern despite the quarterback asking to be traded because of hurt feelings. ''He's got nothing to explain to me,'' Urlacher said. ''They tried to trade him, and he got a little peed off about it. ''As a player, if a team talks about trading you, you would be a little mad, and he got really mad. I don't blame him one bit. ... I'm on his side, and most of the time players are on each other's side when these matters go down. He's got nothing to explain to us.'' In fact, Urlacher likes Cutler's attitude. ''He'll do a great job,'' Urlacher said. ''He's got a swagger about him which, personally, I love a quarterback who has a swagger. He's cocky, but not too cocky. I like that. I think you have to have that as your quarterback, somebody who's confident and will get the job done.''

The Superbowl is a two-week event. Chicago won't be on the host city list very often simply because there aren't many outdoors things people can do. For starters I don't know what they'd do with the NFL Experience sideshow. I guess it could be moved indoors. Beyond that, when the Superbowl is here in AZ there are a lot of activities all around our state designed to entertain Superbowl guests. It's not just weather on game day they worry about it, it's the entire week leading up to the game.

I like your draft. The one problem we have is that our 3rd Rd pick is basically a pick at the beginning of the 4th Rd. I don't think Massaquoi will be there when we pick. I know we need a FS and can easily see Byrd being our pick in Rd 2 for that purpose. If JA is really intent on finding another WR for Cutler then he's going to have to make another trade to get back up to the first half of the third. I have no clue what he gives up to get there but I could see another player being traded. I'll throw out trading Kellen Davis and some combination of picks to get back into the first half of the third. He doesn't fit the blocking TE role we need so why not move him out while we still have Olsen and Clark playing well and then draft or sign a FA TE who is more of a blocking type. IIRC Davis had the talent to be a 2nd or 3rd Rd pick last year but concerns over his character and inconsistent performance put him in the 5th Rd. He got on the field a bit last year and someone might be willing to take on his potential.

We don't need another WR to drop passes. It wouldn't be long before we'd see "good Braylon bad Braylon" signs in the stadium.

If I'm not mistaken Cutler more or less stated the Denver didn't have much of a running game last year and it made him realize that you can't get it all done through the air. You know the quote that more or less stated it takes all aspects of the team to win games.

Forget about Boldin. By then he'll be too old to be much help. We need to learn how to draft a WR. There's a side benefit to having your QB finally in place: Our scouts and pro personnel will no longer have to spend time looking at QBs. They can now focus their efforts on other players and I'd like to that more time spent evaluating someone should improve the scouting ability. It's a small piece of the pie but nonetheless I have to believe we've spent a lot of effort evaluating QBs during Angelo's term.

I'd have no problem with Robiskie. We could use a solid steady WR like him. He has enough size and speed, he knows how to run routes well and he catches with his hands. That's the kind of consistency we could use and his background makes it more likely he'll be able to contribute sooner rather than later. Something we need.

That "talk" could very well be Seattle's attempt at getting those two first round picks. Consider their needs and QB is not at the top of the list. They could drop down and use those first rounders to grab their WR and OT.

They'll be in that mode all season long. The only way they'll recover quickly is to grab a guy like Sanchez in the draft and I think they'll trade up to do just that.

I can't say I knew Denver would like Orton so much but I did feel that whichever QB they liked would be the key to the deal. They need a stopgap QB while they develop their new QB. I also felt that Cutler might try to persuade things away from certain teams which may have been what happened to Cleveland. I really don't care about that because I felt there was perhaps a 5% chance we'd end up with Cutler.

Excellent points! Now maybe some will realize some of my hesitation to give up a first round pick for Boldin. In AZ Warner threw to three WRs for over 1000 yards. Of the three Fitzgerald is the true stud. Boldin is a very good WR and Steve Breaston might have had 600 yards in our offense. The fact Breaston matched Boldin's performance when Boldin went out with injury tells a lot.

Clearly Burress is stupid carrying a gun like he was. They do make holsters for a reason, even those that fit a concealed weapon inside a boot. What worries just as much is the selfish behavior he was exhibiting prior to shooting himself. He missed a couple practices just because he felt like it. One of his "excuses" was that he needed to take his son to school. This from a guy who just signed a $35million contract. Call a limo. Then when he was suspended he said he didn't mind the time off at all. Prior to the Superbowl (and contract extension) he was a good teammate. From a talent standpoint he's exactly what we need. From a locker room standpoint he's not what we need unless we can get good Plax. Recall Cutler calling out Marshall for his poor behavior a year ago (when he cut his arm). That caused a bit of acrimony on the team because some players felt Cutler was being too harsh and didn't need to say that publicly. This offseason Cutler again made it clear he's not afraid to speak his mind. If Plax gets his legal issues resolved and JA/Lovie are interested in bringing him in the first thing they need to do is sit down with Cutler and get his opinion.

I base it on the fact Cutler has the arm strength to make every throw on the field and he's accurate. Naturally you need someone on the other end to catch the ball and we're not swimming in that talent yet. Still, Cutler extends plays and with his arm strength DBs will have a tougher time choosing between coming up to tackle or staying with the guy going deep. I don't think they had that tough of a decision when it was Orton, he can only throw about 50yds (60yds with a tailwind). Cutler will throw 70yds. Bottom line: Devin Hester out ran Orton's arm all the time, he won't out run Cutler's. Cutler's arm strength and accuracy will also allow us to run more deep out routes, say 15-20yds downfield; passes Orton struggled with because the time it took for the ball to get there meant he had to throw it into a tighter window closer to the sideline. Stats don't always tell the whole story, especially on deep passes. How many of those passes were hail-mary throws at the end of a half or end of the game? On the other hand how many were Cutler trying to force something deep? I don't know either way. Despite all that I'm staying realistic knowing we didn't sign Peyton Manning. Cutler is still young, still forces throws at times and he doesn't know our offense nor his teammates. Getting him to dump off the ball to Forte might be the biggest challenge. I view this as a long term solution to a long term problem. We'll see some great things from Cutler this year but we'll see some INTs too. Things should get better as the season moves along.

For the first time in a long time defenses must respect the entire field. Rex could throw the deep ball but not the dumpoff, nor could he move around. Cutler can make every throw, has a quick release, and can buy time and throw on the run. We'll have to be patient because he has to learn a new offense but he has a couple friends in Williams and Bennett (he went back to Vandy to throw to Bennett on his pro day) to help him out. What we are going to see for the first time is a QB scramble out of the pocket and hit a WR deep down the field. This is a league where the games are often won by 3 pts and that one play in a game gets a TD, a FG, or changes field position. The threat of that one play keeps safeties a bit deeper at the snap and opens up the running lanes for another yard or two. IMO Cutler has a better Oline right now than Orton had last year. At least one that's better in pass protection. Add Holt and our WR are better than last year. Get a decent FS in the draft and our D will be at least equal to last year if not better. No reason we can't win now.

In Rd 2 we have to see what falls to us of course but I'm thinking FS is at the top of the needs list now, followed by WR, OG. It's pretty clear there's two top FS coming out this year and both are slated to go in Rd 2. It's a big dropoff after that. Now if JA likes some of the other guys (i.e. Butler) and if the better Rd 2 WR are gone (i.e. Robiskie) then I can see us trading down in Rd 2 to grab another pick in Rd 4 or 5 (then package those three picks to move back up into the 3rd or as early in Rd 4 as possible. With three picks late Rd 2 - Rd 3 we grab WR, FS, OG in whatever order the board has them rated.

Not reading too much into any of it. I don't expect any of Orton's former teammates to throw him under the bus and like the fact that so many, including Urlacher, made it clear they liked him and he was a good QB. That will help Orton in the locker room in Denver. Now Hester's YEAH YEAH when talking with Deion Sanders (not on air) is probably a better indication of what the WRs think. Now Hester knows he can go deep and not have to stop to catch the ball.