jason

Not a terrible start, but I'm not a big fan of Dupree.

I say F Briggs. Trestman sure as hell got it all to work in Canada. What's the difference? Maybe he had leaders in Canada? Maybe he had team players in Canada? You're less likely to get a bunch of boat-rockers when the majority of the roster knows they're probably out of football for good if they blow their chance. Not so in the NFL. Losing Urlacher gutted this team. I said it would happen when he was let go. But I thought someone would step up a little. It's less likely that Trestman's system of dealing with a team is flawed, and more likely that the personnel is flawed. Based on how bad the team sucked, I'm even more convinced of it. Here's to hoping true new staff can find some leaders.

Hilarious. I was thinking of posting something very similar. Pretty much any feasible candidate is an upgrade over Tucker.

If they do that, I sure as hell hope the Bears can get something for him. 2nd rounder?

ha! What's funny is, I think the 2nd rounder is the most realistic pick out of the group.

Pretty much...but if those guys fit in the right spots, then I dont' have a problem with multiple OL picks. I just can't stand seeing Rodgers, Brady, Manning, Romo, etc., sitting in a pocket for days, surveying the field, and then throwing to someone wide open, while there are people simultaneously ripping Cutler for poor decisions when he's under duress every other throw. Just look at Romo this year as a great example. Their offensive line is crazy (3 first rounders, 1 fourth rounder, and 1 UDFA graded as a third rounder), and he had probably his best year. Career year in completion%, TD%, Y/A, QBR, and TD to INT margin. And let's not even get into Demarco Murray coming from nowhere to dominate. Fix the OL and people will fall in love with Cutler again.

Agreed with Jameis at 7. If he's there, you pull the trigger. Or try to rob someone in a trade. But that's not happening. No way in hell he drops to 7.

No matter who the Bears select in the draft, they will most likely have a bad defense next year. That is almost a lock. So, what if the team just said, "Screw it. Let's try to get the young guys more playing time, coach them up, let them develop, and see what we have? Pick up a few free agents to fill in holes. In the meantime, let's improve the best part of our team, the offense." RD1 - Andrus Peat, OT, Stanford - Starts day 1. Mills rides the pine. RD2 - Hroniss Grasu, C, Oregon - Starts at C, moves Garza over to G, or the bench. RD3 - Dorial Green-Beckham, WR, Oklahoma - If he drops (lots of speculation), this is a monster steal. Great addition. RD4 - Arie Kouandijo, OG, Alabama - Sits one year, starts the next. He's got the measurables. RD6 - , QB, Colorado St. - Gotta get a backup to compete. RD7 - Project TE, someone raw with a basketball background. It'll never happen, but it sure would be fun.

My signature line remains true, even now. The Bears will never move to a really good offense until the OL problems are shored up long-term. Cutler will always get fidgety, show poor mechanics, ignore his progressions, and throw off his back foot when he's worried about getting demolished. And without the QB, the rest doesn't work as well in the passing game. The long-developing routes don't even need to get called, because there isn't time. So you are stuck with dink-and-dunk, maybe some slants and quick-throw fades. The same OL issues affect the running game.

Trade down that far? No. Draft a RB? Hell no. There are four, maybe five, positions on this team where the Bears are presently good: RB, OG, WR, TE (maybe QB). All other positions need help in some way. No way we should be drafting one of those positions unless it's a once a lifetime kind of guy like Bo Jackson or Peyton Manning. This is not a particularly strong draft, and Jameis Winston isn't lasting until 7 - much less to the end of the first - so the Bears should look for value at positions of need...which are plentiful.

No way in hell Winston is there at 7.

Honestly? You lost me when you traded Brandon Marshall (WR) and picked up Brandon Marshall (LB). I dislike that move a lot. And if you plan on keeping/coddling Cutler, that's definitely not a good move.

Just for fun I thought of it from TD's point of view (seriously, without jest): The Bears absolutely have to get rid of Cutler. Conservatively, I think the Bears can get a 4th for him. Maybe a 3rd. Let's say TN wants him. 1 - Shane Ray, DE, Missouri --or-- Randy Gregory, DE, Nebraska - Whoever they like best and fits the scheme to be run. 2 - Derron Smith, FS, Fresno St. - Best FS in the draft. Great instincts. Good angles. Awesome hands. Predicts passes and jumps routes. 3 - Bryce Petty, QB, Baylor - He's pretty much the antithesis of Cutler at QB. 4 - Deshazor Everett, CB, TX A&M - He already has a history of crushing Green Bay players. 4 - Jake Fisher, OT, Oregon - Seems like a good spot to get at least some help for whoever takes the beating at QB in 2015. 5 - Kwon Alexander, OLB, LSU - Young, athletic, a bit of an injury history, gets tackles in big games 6 - Trey Depriest, ILB, Alabama - Nothing incredible, just one of those guys who is always around the ball, getting the job done That's a defensive overhaul with tons of talent. And to be quite honest, I was thinking DE instead of Fisher in the 4th.

If Marrone is hired as GM, and Toub is hired as HC, who are the likely OC's and/or DC's?

So, subtract 3 or 4. I'm not ignoring the fumbles, just isolating the interceptions since that's where everyone critiques him. You already know I think it's more like 11 or 12 INTs, which would be even better, but 28 TDs and 14 INTs with about 4K yards, from a harsh critic like yourself, is something I think we'd all take.

And if you've looked at those videos honestly, yet still think the argument is a reach, then you're too far gone into the Cutler hatred to be reached. There is a compelling argument in each and every video link. Even if you disagree on one or two of those INTs, the rest remain iffy at best. He's not nearly as bad as people try to make him out to be. The Bears can, and should win with him, especially considering the contract. They need to draft better, fix the OL so he has time to throw, and fix the defense so the Bears can actually win time of possession or at least flip the field every once in a while.

I agree with the ideas of placing blame. But I'm not willing to place them on Jay. By all accounts he is very smart. But this year was the first year I can ever remember, for any pro team, where there were so many passes that went left where a receiver went right, or some variation like that. Problem is, nobody will throw the other under the bus, and we just don't know if the receiver ran the wrong way, or Jay threw the wrong way. But since Jay is under the pressure of 5 men the size of gorillas who are trying to kill him, and the receiver is trying to outmaneuver a 200lb DB who is barely allowed to touch him, I'm going to err on Jay's side of the equation. His decision should trump the receiver's decision on those 50/50 reads.

I completely agree with that sentiment. I didn't like his contract at all. Overpaid. However, he is far and away the best QB the Bears have had for quite some time. Maybe my lifetime.

How about instead you open your mind and actually look at what I posted? Or better yet, look at the plays in the links I provided. It's easy to forget through the course of the season how each INT happens. Of course it's revisionist history, but the fact remains that at least 5 of his INTs were garbage time, and he didn't have to throw them. And 5 others could be entirely the fault of the receiver on the play - not that we'd know because Jay won't sell them out. I am not excusing any of the other stuff you mentioned, but the stats, which are used primarily against Jay, could be a lot better through no real fault of his own. Cutler is not the main problem with the Bears. He is not Rodgers, Manning, or Brady, but he's in that next tier if the team around him doesn't suck.

WK1 vs Buffalo: 1 of 2 mixup as Cutler throws short and Bennett goes long WK4 vs Packers: 1 of 2 mixup as Marshall runs the stop and go, while Cutler throws the comeback. WK6 vs Dolphins: 1 of 1 (starts at 0:22) as the WR runs deep and Cutler throws the comeback. WK7 vs Patriots: 1 of 1, as it was a nonsense, end of half hail mary. WK10 vs Packers: 1 of 2, a completely ridiculously unfortunate situation where the ball hits Long in the helmet, bounces right over Forte's hands, and to a streaking defender. WK11 vs Vikings: 2 of 2. Cutler threw a stop or curl route to Bennett, and Bennett, who didn't read the blitz, continued on the post. And the other INT was with time dwindling in the first half, where, realistically, the next pass would have had to be a Hail Mary anyway. WK13 vs Lions: 1 of 2, as the last one was a meaningless INT in the back of the endzone on the final play of the game. WK14 vs Cowboys: 1 of 1, what do you know, another end of game INT. Granted, this one would have kept hope of a dying man alive, but I guess it was possible to get the onside kick afterwards (even though the Cowboys would have been expecting it since it would have been the third of the game), and then drive the field for another TD with about a minute left. WK15 vs Saints: 2 of 3, as one INT hits Bennett right in the hands and gets tipped, and another is, big shocker, a late half heave, where there is also miscommunication So that's 4 on pure miscommunication, 4 on late half/game heaves, 2 tipped passes (only one of which could really be put on Jay), and 1 that is both miscommunication and late heave. If the receivers and Jay were on the same sheet of music, let's say half of those miscommunications are not INTs. And let's say Jay plays it safe and decides not to risk stats at the end of the half/game. That's 6 or 7 less INTs. I'm guessing 28TDs and 11INTs would be acceptable to most. Jay Cutler is not the problem, he is only a drop in a bucket of problems. He's just not good enough to overcome all the problems. Who is? Maybe 3 or 4 guys in the NFL? Again, Jay Cutler is not the problem.

Are you sure that Jay Cutler is the person who has proven not to be the answer? I'm certainly not convinced. He was tenth in TDs this year, and would have had more if he weren't benched for a game - during his best year for the Bears, BTW - and essentially shut down the final game of the year. Essentially he played 14 games this year, and was 10th in TDs. 28 TDs, which is nearly 2 per game no matter how you slice it, and then add a few for the last two games (you decide how many). That would have put him at 6th or 7th in the league. And this is all while: 1) The OL sucked at blocking, for the 5th time in his 6 years with the Bears. 2) An OL that had more false starts than I care to remember. 3) A historically bad defense and special teams causes the offense to press, and requires a score every time (something the opponents know). Jay can win with a decent defense. 4) The offensive system had issues with communication, where a WR would turn left and Jay would throw right.

Absolutely not. Unless he's there in the 4th, I don't want the Bears even thinking about it.

I was thinking nearly the exact same thing. If we ran the 3-4 the draft falls into place quite well. As is, however, I don't like the value of the defensive players at our pick. The only one I thought fit was Landon Collins, and he was quite unimpressive in the bowl game, and showed questionable character in my mind. I'd love a draft that started: 1. Vic Beasley 2. Derron Smith 3. Hroniss Grasu The only possibility left is maaaaaybe Randy Gregory if we're still in a 4-3? But a DE in the first is a bad move in my opinion.

I wish I had thought of this in my first reply, but Art Briles is essentially a bizarro world Lovie Smith. They are the polar opposite in so many ways, but mostly their aversion to one side of the ball. Lovie completely ignores offense, and Briles completely ignores defense. Chicago would be sick to their stomach watching an Art Briles led Bears team giving up 35 points a game just because they have the potential to score 40 every game.

More than the lack of plays, something else bugged me. Biggest time of the year, crunch time in the semi-final game, and he makes a hard hit. Does he stay in the game and shake it off? No. He goes down hurt. He's not injured...just hurt. After the trainers come out, suddenly he's up and bouncing off the field. Next play? OSU puts the nail in the coffin with that long TD run. I still think the Bears desperately need help at both S positions. At least at LB there is raw talent. Between Bostic, Greene, SMC, and Jones, they should be able to step up and improve over last year. There is almost no chance the guys at either S position, other than Vereen, improve. And at that, Vereen is a low-ceiling kind of guy, more of a nickel-back than anything else. It's kind of weird to say, but I don't really like the first round talent this year. No shocker. The Bears finally get a high pick, and it's a down year where I don't like several players.