AZ54

For all the breakdowns in drafting offensive skill players the biggest failure IMO is drafting Oline. Other teams can find good Oline players in later rounds of the draft and we can't find any, not even one. It would be nice to be able to put an average RB or two behind a good Oline and watch them rush for 1300 yards. Or see an average QB put up good numbers because he has time to throw. It's hard to find a top rate QB but with the exception of LT it shouldn't be that hard to put together a good Oline.

Interesting quote. This is nothing but a wild ass guess but I assume that's Yards Per Attempt on Point of Attack runs? If not ,what is that stat? Question #2 is where do you get your hands on that kind of info? Seems like one of those tasks a quality control coach gets stuck with.

I only saw Flacco play in one of the playoff games, against Delaware St. That's not exactly enough to represent his body of work but if nothing else I know he'll be good at executing the statue of liberty plays for Hester. Regardless, we need to draft a QB but I prefer a LT in Rd 1. Find a QB in Rd 2 or preferrably Rd 3. I only saw Woodsen in one game too and he didn't impress me that much. It was a national broadcast and KY was being talked about for the championship. Maybe the pressure got to him that game but then the next week he came back and lit it up. I saw Ryan of BC play a couple games and at times he looked good but other times he couldn't get anything going. The announcers said his WRs weren't very good and had trouble getting open. If that's true how do you evaluate him? He's not going to the Senior Bowl either. Brian Brohm I know nothing about. Brennan I watched in a couple games and he seemed ok but the question remains; is he a product of that system and the competition? Overall it seems like a tough year to evaluate QBs and where they should be drafted. I say we go with the Brady approach in a late round and take the guy who studies the most film and dates the prettiest women.

I'd take Haynesworth in a heartbeat. Rogers I'm unsure about, takes too many plays off. The talent is there but he'd have to come at a good price so we could cut him with minimal penalty.

If this guy winds up to throw the ball at Soldier Field in December his arm might freeze in place due to that outrageously long windup. I don't think you can change that and I know if I'm a DB once I see him start the windup I can get about 3 steps toward where he's gonna throw. Could he even get rid of the ball fast enough to throw a quick slant off a 3-step drop?

I have no love for the Giants and but I despise the arrogance of the Patriots fans. They all run around like their entire coaching staff and GM are geniuses for drafting Tom Brady in the 6th Rd. Not to take anything away from Brady but it's a simple fact that if you can an elite QB in any round of the draft is going to setup your team for a ton of success for the next 6-10 years. Right now they have the best team in football without a doubt. I'll be rooting for the underdog Giants because I love a good upset. Interesting how Brady comes down to earth with 3 INTs when he gets a lot of pressure on him. Just wanted to point out a very Rex-like stat.

I want to see Wolfe after a full offseason with Rusty. Berrian has changed his physique quite a bit in the last 2 years and if Wolfe can add similar muscle mass without losing too much quickness and speed I think he'll be fine. I like what he brings to the team in open space but he can't get tackled by a pinkie finger every time he goes up the middle.

It was a happy birthday indeed.

Problem is the matador gets one sword and just one shot to kill the bull. Our Oline would need a backup plan.

My wife is from Spain and having seen the real deal in bull fighting in Madrid, I can personally vouch that we already have adequate Matadors on our Oline. There's no need to go to Spain to recruit more.

Everybody forgets about Kevin Payne but this is the guy who, IMO, led us to trade away Chris Harris. I think he's going to get a shot at finding a starting role next year unless we draft a S in Rd 1. My guess is he ends up as our 3rd Safety but I'm not sure if he's going to find a home at FS or SS. McGowan ends up our #4 backing up SS; he's ok but he's just a backup IMO. DManning remains the starter at FS but he needs to know that the job isn't guaranteed.

I read this the other night, great story, thanks for posting it. My wife couldn't figure out why I was laughing so I tried to explain how a LT would carry a DE off the field and onto a bus. I'll be happy if we could just find a LT that can stay in front of a DE and run him over whenever asked to do so.

In FA you can find OG, C, and even some decent RT but you don't see elite LTs. If one is available to us in Rd 1 we need to take him.

I don't know why they put that in there. It seems like a made up stat just to have something to say. But some of the other stats were surprising to me, especially the 3 and outs by the D.

I must have been at the bar picking up another beer because I can't recall this many good things. The Bears offense ranking 3rd in big plays during the last 13 games? The Bears D leading the league in 3 and outs? One of the best 3rd down defenses? I definitely remember Green Bay going down twice! http://www.chicagobears.com/news/NewsStory.asp?story_id=4288 LAKE FOREST, Ill. – While the Bears stumbled into last place in the NFC North with a disappointing 7-9 record in 2007, the season was not devoid of highlights. The Bears swept the season series from long-time rival Green Bay. The first victory was a 27-20 comeback win Oct. 7 at Lambeau Field. The win was the first of three straight road victories in which the Bears rallied after trailing in the final quarter, a franchise first. The Bears offense was led by a passing attack that finished with 3,362 net yards, the third highest total in team history. Quarterbacks Brian Griese, Rex Grossman and Kyle Orton helped six different players reach the 200-yard receiving plateau (Bernard Berrian, Muhsin Muhammad, Desmond Clark, Adrian Peterson, Greg Olsen and Devin Hester). In the last 13 games of the season, the Bears passing offense generated 25 plays of at least 25 yards, tied for third most in the NFL during that span. Griese, Grossman and Orton each had scoring strikes of at least 55 yards this season as well. The Bears finished eighth in the NFL with 33 takeaways, including 20 in the last eight games, tied for third most during that span. Chicago’s defense forced an NFL-best 65 three-and-out drives on 214 opponent possessions, a 30.4 percent rate that was also tops in the league. The Bears also ranked second in third-down defense, allowing opponents to convert just 32.7 percent of their opportunities. The Bears excelled on special teams throughout the season. Devin Hester broke his own NFL record with six kick return touchdowns (four on punts and two on kickoffs). Robbie Gould became the first kicker in Bears history with at least 30 field goals in multiple seasons after finishing tied for second in the NFL with 31 field goals (on 36 attempts). Chicago’s kickoff (19.3 yards per return) and punt (5.9 ypr) coverage units finished first and third in the NFL, respectively. The Bears also blocked a league-high eight kicks during the season (three punts, four field goals and one extra point). The Bears closed the regular season with back-to-back wins for just the third time in the last 21 years.

I agree we're not going to draft a first round prospect nor spend big bucks in FA so this means our new RB isn't perfect, but he's good enough to provide competition. While I'd like to see the home run speed long runs are really as much about speed as they are about scheme and the ability to make a guy or two miss. What I think we'll see is a guy who has more quickness than elite speed. He'll still be fast enough to break a long run but not that guy who pulls away from guys. He'll still be big enough to run plays up the middle but probably won't have the power to take a LB backwards. He needs to be stout enough to carry the load fulltime if need be because that will never be something Wolfe can provide. Simply put, I want a RB who is good at stretch plays and screens. Add some shake to the bake. I view Ced and AP as being similar. Ced having more ability and AP having more desire. They can battle for the inside running job since neither of them shine working outside the tackles or on screen routes. I don't think we'd have to alter our offense because we have those plays in the playbook they just aren't too effective with Ced or AP. Which style RB starts doesn't matter a great deal IMO since the alternate coming in for 10-12 plays has a different style. The most productive guy starts.

Anderson gets about 2.5mil with the high tender offer. That gives Cleveland the right to match any offer he gets but that would force a team to give up a 1st and 3rd Rd pick. As stated nobody is going to give up the picks for Anderson so he won't get an offer. They have $30mil in cap space. The money given to Quinn is already gone so that's not a factor and it also makes Quinn untradeable due to cap hit. With this team, coaches, GM, etc. fighting for their jobs so they'll keep both QBs which is a very affordable option for them. If Anderson lights it up next year they'll offer him a new contract midseason and then hang onto Quinn as the backup for perhaps one more year and then look to move Quinn. Unless someone comes along with a good offer for Quinn after next year but I'm not sure what cap hit they'd take to trade Quinn after two seasons. I'm not against the idea of inquiring into Anderson but I just don't see why Cleveland would let him go.

I'm not sure we'll Franchise tag Berrian but a Transition tag is likely. At least that gives us the option to match the offer he signs and if it were me I'd want that ability. We won't get any draft picks if we lose him but a side effect could be the fact it might force his new team to front load a lot of the contract. That might force some teams out of the mix and if signs with an NFC rival maybe it squeezes their cap space a bit more than they wanted keeping another FA off their roster. We can only use one tag or the other and I don't think there's anyone else we'd consider for either tag.

Having blasted Babich for much of the year he was able to pull the D back into respectability in the last few games. They played well even in meaningless games. Because of that and the injuries I think he deserves another shot at it next year.

His 13yd average per catch is pretty good, his 2.7ypc is pretty bad and he sucks at runs up the middle when there's no hole. Looks like he got hit by a fly swatter everytime a DT reaches out and touches him. Yet I think we can do better in how we utilize his strengths. He competes with the other RBs in camp for a job but I still think he'll stick around. I don't think he'll necessarily become our fulltime 3rd down back, that job will depend on who we pick up this offseason and who sticks around after training camp. But I can see him being in for 5-7 plays a game. I love AP and he's a good back to have on a roster but we load up on special teams players every year . While he's good at special teams, this being a focal point for keeping him around doesn't have as much value for us as it did a few years ago. He's just average as a runner and really not that great as a blocker as he often just does cut blocks. Are his cut blocks are better than Wolfe's we'll see in preseason next year. There will be 4 RBs in camp and I don't think any are guaranteed a job depending on when/how we pick up the 4th RB. All 4 will be competing for a job or at a minimum the 3 current RBs will compete. It's gonna be fun to watch and anyone getting injured, even a minor one, might be SOL.

I think it's AP who is going to depart. He offers nothing great in the running game and he's a good special teams player, of which we have many. Resign Ayanbendejo and draft a RB to compete with Ced and AP and the top 2 stay. Little Wolfie showed enough on 3rd and long to warrant sticking around IMO. He'd be even more dangerous if we actually had a passing game that forced DBs and LBs to backup. If Ced doesn't show up after this injury then he'll go and it'll be AP, new guy, and Wolfie.

Coaching is one thing but accountability is another. If guys like Berrian kept dropping passes and never got benched then there was no accountability. Guys like Miller kept getting false starts and whiffing on pass rushers yet again no accountability. Nobody on this team got demoted when we were playing poorly, or at least get sent off for a few plays here and there to make a point, except Rex and probably too often Ced who was often pulled in the middle of games after 12-15 carries. Now I realize you can't swap Olineman from play to play but still overall the coaches. We swap out Rex thinking he's the issue and no change. We swap out Ced for AP's (at the time) 3.8ypc and watch AP get 3.1 ypc the rest of the season. We keep using Hester on static routes like WR screens for most of the season for no gain until the end when we finally just send him on a fly pattern and he gets a TD. Ruben Brown plays with one arm for 8 weeks and what do you know he is still better than Metcalf but the coaches put Metcalf in his place anyway, then move to St Clair after Metcalf fails. On D we get the Mark Anderson experiment and when he's not performing we keep him as a starter over Alex Brown. On the other hand when Vasher goes down we move our starting FS to CB and he fails there then we move him back and insert McBride, who the coaches had said good things about in camp. We all have opinions here on the board but the coaches get to watch these guy every day in practice and on film. It seems clear that they can't accurately decide who their best players are nor can they decide how best to use our players to play to their strengths. Injuries definitely played a part in our struggles this year but so did our coaches decisions.

Faneca kicked butt in the second half, moved his man all over the field and I don't recall him giving up any ground on any pass rush. Part of his issue in the first half was trying to help their LT but he didn't do that in the second half.

I'm watching the Steelers game against Jacksonville and so far in the first half Faneca's pass protection is not impressing me. I've been on board with the idea of picking him up in FA but his performance right now isn't giving me confidence in signing him. At least twice I've seen him spun around backwards while pass protecting and a few times he's come off his man and to assist the LT and then his man ran in and hurried or sacked Rothleisberger. Of course 30 min is too little time to make a judgment on a player and he was selected to the Pro Bowl.

I think Hass gets his shot next year. I'd like to see him and Moose line up for a 40yd sprint and see who wins because Moose can't separate from anybody. Hass is quicker in his cuts than Moose too. Anyway, what I'd like to see next year is: resign Berrian if reasonable or pickup Bryant Johnson. Either will be a starter on the outside. The starter on the other side will be a split between Hester and Mark Bradley. We still have Olsen and Clark that get downfield. Stop putting little Rashied Davis in the slot and give me Mike Hass who is 4" taller than Davis and having a bigger target behind big DTs helps. I agree with the Bobby Engram comparison. We rarely work the middle of the field and Hass is a guy who will fight for a ball in traffic, he'll hang on to anything near him.