AZ54

If the odds of a Rd5-7 pick making a team are less than 20% then it makes more sense to get as many of those guys as possible into training camp. That's purely a statistical viewpoint, of course you must consider the quality of the players is dropping the further back you drop in the draft. The point is if you have many prospects evaluated fairly evenly and the opportunity arrives to drop back a bit and pick up two of them (versus one) then you increase the likelihood of adding a good player to the roster.

I agree with the majority of the speculation about Davis/Lloyd/Hester. I want to add that keeping this under wraps is going to make it a bit more difficult for the Colts to prepare.

Let's compare him to the golden boy from last years draft: Player Att Comp Yds Comp % Yds/Att TD TD % INT INT % Long Sck Sack/Lost Rating Joe Flacco 67 35 284 52.2 4.2 1 1.5 0 0.0 30 6 25 68.3 WK OPP RESULT Passing Rushing Fumbles Comp Att Pct Yds Avg TD Int Sck SckY Rate Att Yds Avg TD FUM Lost 2 @ SEA 5 9 55.6 46 5.1 1 1 0 0 67.1 1 1 1.0 0 -- -- 3 SF 3 7 42.9 59 8.4 1 0 1 8 112.5 -- -- -- -- -- -- 4 @ CLE 12 17 70.6 115 6.8 0 1 0 0 64.6 1 15 15.0 0 -- --

Anyone figure out who our starting WR are? I haven't really seen this listed anywhere and the Bears website still shows 4 guys as co-starters.

Great our #2 QB wouldn't even know the offense. I didn't like Simms in college and I don't like him now.

If we pickup help for the Oline who do we cut?

There's no way you trade for a backup OT making $7mil/yr. He would be our backup. What I've seen Pitt this preseason they can't run the ball at all (no blocking) and pass protection isn't great. If Starks isn't standing out against this competition it makes me think he's not all that good. If we're interesting just wait until he's cut.

Glad to see this kid on the roster.

As opposed to Bears QBs who look like scrubs?

Don't let Hanie go. Guy has shown more promise in a short time than any other QB we've had in here. I know he's far from ready to start but I think he can at least be a good #2 QB for us, and possibly more. I am not convinced either Orton or Grossman will be the future starter for us. Clearly Grossman is already out of the equation. If Orton doesn't play that well this season he's out too. He might stick around next year to be our #2. Then in Hanie's 3rd year he takes over as #2 and we go with whoever we get in 2009 via draft/FA as the starter.

My daughter had heart surgery when she was just 2mo old so in some ways I know how he feels except his situation was much more serious. My heart goes out to him and his family and it's great to hear his daughter is finally coming home.

The Bazuin pick just totally upsets me because we wasted that when we could have had Oline help. Same goes for Okwo.

Wasn't it last year or two years ago we faced these guys with two rookie OG and we still couldn't get any pressure up the middle. I'm not going to be optimistic this time around. Part of that is the fact Manning is so good at reading pressure and getting rid of the ball very quickly.

No way I'd trade Ogun, we'd lose far too much from our D. I would entertain a trade of Bazuin. If we cut Bazuin then we're going Idonije as our #4 DE which is not something I'm thrilled about since I think he's been very good inside this preseason. But if the offer is right I'd take it. That would keep Toeaina on the roster. For all his positive press Toeania hasn't looked that great this offseason but as a backup he'd be ok.

Who is the odd man out? From what I've seen reviewing the first three games is that DManning hasn't been that bad in the nickel spot. Not nearly like he was as a FS. McGowan hasn't played well at all in coverage appearing totally lost at times. Payne has better speed than him and has played at least as well as him if not better. His arrow is pointing up so he gets the nod to start at SS. Nickel DB should go to Graham. He's done well all throughout the offseason and training camp. He filled in a lot for Tillman at CB and held up well. He deserves to be our Nickel DB. I view giving him more game experience will only make him better if he's called upon to replace Vasher or Tillman. McBride did well in coverage last year but was terrible in run support. He hasn't looked good so far this training camp but he gets a pass for showing up last year. He will not be the #4 CB, instead it's the bigger Bowman who gets the call. At the bottom of the roster the Bears could keep DManning as a backup S. He could also fill in as the nickel DB if needed letting the other guys stay outside and he can also be our #4 safety. It seems many don't want to hear that but I think it's a real possibility. The guy who can't master any position ends up being decent enough at several positions to stick around. That means the odd man out is Craig Steltz who the Bears try to place on the practice squad. In any action I've seen Steltz hasn't looked good at all. He's slow, late in pass coverage, and doesn't tackle downhill like you want from a safety. We can try to give him a year on the practice squad to see if he can bulk up and learn the system better. STARTERS: FS Mike Brown SS Kevin Payne backups Brandon McGowan DManning CB Tillman, Vasher NB Graham backups Bowman, McBride

He didn't even pick his top 5 WR. How chicken sh** is that. Saying Lloyd has disappeared in games in contrast to Booker makes me think he's just being nice to Booker out of respect. We all know what Lloyd did in that 2min drill with Orton. My top 5: Davis, Hester, Lloyd, Bennett, Bradley.

Has anyone seen a single word about Miller working out? Is this guy in any kind of shape to play football? Last I heard he was playing softball.

Actually DM had a couple good plays but you are right, Hunter was on the field much more as the 49ers stayed in a 2 TE set often. My point wasn't so much that DManning played well but rather that nobody has been complaining about him, not nearly as much as other players. You, as lead DManning/JA/Ron Turner/Babich/Lovie/(insert name here) basher, should recognized this void. Tillman wasn't all bad. Yes he had a couple penalties and flopped on the ground while chasing JT but he made a some good plays as well. He had a key tackle for a loss on one of the goal line stands. Had great coverage on another corner route in the end zone. He ran all the way across the field to tackle Gore who would have gone another 20-30 yards without that effort. (Mike Brown was running away from the play...explain that). He had several other good plays as well. I think he'll be alright by the time the season starts.

I wouldn't yet say Leinart is a bust but he's clearly not the same player he was last year. He's far more hesitant than I've ever seen and tries to place the ball instead of just throwing it. It seems the QB competition got to him, which doesn't bode well for how he handles pressure. Warner will falter this year either through fumbles or INTs under pressure but most likely he'll get hurt. At that point Leinart can come in and we'll see what he's got. He's got to get into the film room a lot more because he has not been known for studying. He does throw one hell of a party.

Watch the game again, Tommie Harris was not double teamed all night. He had some doubles but just as often was one on one.

I'll tack on a few thoughts after reviewing the first half. It took a few days to have the strength to do this and I went through things pretty quickly but it was enough to change my impression of the D for the better. The bad: Our D had too many mental errors causing penalties in the first half. I think we had 3 offsides and thus gave the 49ers some easier to achieve first downs. Tackling was poor on a few plays in particular early in the game but that improved as the game went on. Still not where I'd want it to be but there was marked improvement. Mike Brown was running away from Gore on his long cutback run. With no blocker in front of him I have no idea why. Not what I want to see from our safety. Some blown deep coverages. Again the safeties get lost on a few plays, or is it just McGowan? We went up against a Mike Martz offense and I don't think we were prepared in anyway for them to open up in a 2 TE set with all the OG/OT pulling that they did. They used that a lot including the play where JT threw a pass over Hillenmeyer for a big gain to Davis. I could be wrong but this isn't the offense I remember Martz running in StL or Detroit. You can look at this as bad or good but I'd say once we get some film on this we can handle it better. The Good We had quite a few negative plays on the 49ers. At times they couldn't run the ball. The D got tough inside the 20 and had a good goal line stand. At this point we were winning 10-6. Pass rush...if Alex Brown isn't tackled on one play I don't think they get a first down. We blitzed a CB off the corner...so Peanut underestimated JT's speed and ended up flopping on the ground the fact is this blitz worked and it's one of the things I've been asking for Babich to do. I'm not sure it was Mike Brown who blew the coverage deep, I think it was McGowan. McGowan has been around long enough to know his assignments and I'm wondering if he's going to remain the starter. I think I saw a stunt. (gotta walk before you run) Wolfe gave the 49ers a short field at a time when the D needed a break. We almost held them there until Bruce tried to come back through Tillman. Tillman has to turn his head and he knows that but he was right there in coverage. The pass by JT was terribly short. These guys were stung badly by the points the 49ers put up. While I too was extremely disappointed in the result at least it showed to me there is some sense of pride and heart. That should bode well for working to improve. Overall it was still a bad effort but there were quite a few positive plays the D made.

I didn't watch the 49er game entirely via DVR but I did watch the first quarter. On Gore's long run where he cut back all the way across the field you will see a few things. First, Tillman gets out of position and/or gets blocked as Gore comes around the DE. This allows Gore the room to move upfield. Second, Gore cuts back across the field as our LBs fall to the ground grasping air. Running across the field behind the LB is #33 chasing Gore. Third, as Gore comes back past the center of the field you see Mike Brown about 5 yards deeper than him and he starts to run downfield away from Gore, taking a very shallow angle toward the sideline. There was nobody in front of Brown blocking his path toward Gore. It looks as if Brown is heading upfield to cover a WR on a passing route as he followed a couple 49ers. I have no idea where he was going nor why he didn't try to get wider on the field to cutoff Gore. At this time Tillman comes clear across the field and tackles Gore, Brown is still running upfield toward the endzone. If that was any other safety we'd be talking about cutting him.

If Tebow is the best OG on the board then I'm fine with the pick.

Tillman had many mistakes against the 49ers. Perhaps the one guy who was playing well was DManning since nobody is even talking about him. He either disappeared or he quietly did his job as it should be done.

Bad teams want to win games to build momentum and optimism while good teams just want to stay healthy. I don't care about wins or losses in preseason but blatant missed plays (i.e. easy tackles, dropped passes) bothers me a lot.