jason

Where do you see the word "because" in my sentence? I said, "overrated, short". Is he short? Yes. Is he overrated? I believe so.

http://www.walterfootball.com/draft2012.php 1. Kendall Wright, WR 2. Jerel Worthy, DT 3. Cam Johnson, DE 4. Ladarius Green, TE 5. Shaun Prater, CB Wow. That would suck ass. A short, overrated WR when superior OL talent is there, an inconsistent and somewhat lazy DT, a slow DE with physical problems and possible disease, a TE who is actually a slot WR or H-Back who lacks true TE blocking skills (which is also ignoring the fact that Davis was resigned), and a 5th round CB who is actually pretty good for the round and for Lovie's system.

Exactly. And as long as he can send an edge rusher down Cutler's throat via the LT highway, I don't think he's that worried.

I agree with the approach (early drafted rookie over busted up pro), but I also think regardless of injury history, if dude can get on the field at all, he's better than Webb.

HAHAHAHAHA! There is no doubt he's better than Webb. Now, if you're saying, "Why take a medium step up when we should be taking a large step up for a serious upgrade," then I wholeheartedly agree with you. But there is no doubt he's better than Webb.

All players risk injury. Eschewing a position because your guy happened to get injured is a foolish way to plan for your team's draft.

Or hell, for that matter the Bears could go with Bush as their #1 and pick up LaMichael James as a change of pace back in the third/fourth. If the deal is sweet, I don't have a problem with the trade. 1st and a 3rd oughta do it. It's BEAR DOWN!, not Forte DOWN.

Agreed. It's not normal. But it's more likely someone with incredible medical help, some of the most advanced therapy in the world, and a slew of trainers/doctors/therapists/nutritionists, not to mention nearly unlimited financial support, should be able to accelerate a normal person's rehab schedule. And on top of that, he's an impeccably healthy pro athlete who has nothing to do other than all of the above. I'm still holding out hope it's PUP and not IR.

I honestly thought it was still possible. I came back fully healthy from a torn MCL/ACL in just 3 months. Some people heal quickly. I should know; I'm one of them. I also have experience with things like this because I broke my neck as a young kid and came back from it. And I didn't have the incredible resources a guy like Knox has in his corner.

But you didn't know that conclusively until the report. Which is why the WR in the first didn't make sense post-Marshall. Now it makes a little more sense, but it's still more prudent to get one of the four LTs if he drops to the Bears at 19, because after that it's very thin. Meanwhile, the WRs in the draft are very deep, and good talent can be found in rounds 2-4.

HELL NO. At 19, that would be an incredibly stupid pick.

1. Martin 2. Floyd 3. Coples I obviously choose OL. I believe the addition of Martin would provide a nearly elite OL of: Martin-Williams-Garza-Louis-Carimi But if they think that Williams is ready to move back over to LT, then I'd hope they'd make that move early and pick Floyd. Floyd would be a great addition, but the Bears already got a guy identical to him in the offseason. Coples would be a great addition to the D, but I don't think his impact on the DL would be as great as the impact on the OL. This is mostly due to coaching because I don't believe the way the Bears scheme plays Defense, and more specifically rushes the passer, is ideal for an elite pass rusher. They appear to limit the movement of the DE to make him less dynamic by having him rush upfield almost exclusively.

I'm ALL in favor of Chris Williams at LT. Hell, if they decide Carimi is the LT, I'm happy with Williams at RT. I want those two guys as the bookends they were drafted to be. I don't subscribe to the "this guy is a LT" and "that guy is a RT" talk. If a guy can play tackle, he can play tackle. Whatever the case is, I want Webb off the field.

I'm taking the middle ground here. Was it a slap in the face to Forte? Sure. Is Forte handling it incredibly badly? Absolutely. Would it have happened if Forte had signed the fair deal he was offered? Nope. Was it a wise business decision by the Bears? Maybe. Sure, they've hedged their bets on a Forte hold out, but now they've essentially said they're willing to go through the season with Bush as the #1 if Forte decides to hold out. But at the same time, they've told potential FAs that they play hardball with their own guys, and this could be something that dissuades other FAs from coming to the team.

Understood, but there are just as many 1st round WR busts as OL. Actually, I'd bet there are more. The fact that neither Williams nor Carimi were slotted ahead of Webb when the season began is an indictment of Tice as a talent evaluator more than anything. Once the injuries happened all bets were off. Tice has a history of categorizing his OLinemen based on unique characteristics, and I think it hinders his creativity at times. In other words, as soon as he says "Webb is a LT" or "Carimi is a RT," that's where he sees them, and only where he sees them. He'll move them around if injuries force his hand, but he'd rather put them where he sees them. As for the year-by-year breakdown, it's pretty hard to argue that those stats lie. Those are cumulative offensive stats for the entire year. And there is only one year the Bears aren't in the bottom half of the league: the year they had a stable OL with highly drafted talent.

Waiting for everyone to chime in about how much they despise this pick. After all, dude is only 5'10". I wouldn't like the pick because that would mean the Bears are taking the leftovers in RD1. If Wright is there that means an equally or higher rated LT or DE is there, and I'd much rather see one of those guys because LT and DE are much thinner than WR. Hell, the Bears could get a LT/DE in #1 and still get a very good guy at #2 (Randle, Jeffery, Sanu) and another good guy at #3 (Toon, McNutt, Criner, Jones).

I've said numerous times that Louis was the best of the worst. By that I mean, he was average at best, but looked good because he's been in a unit with E.Williams, Webb, Spencer, Omiyale the past two years. I think he's got decent push at times, bad feet, and let's defenders get too far into his body on a regular basis. Better at run blocking than pass blocking, IMO. What I do like about him alot, however, is his tenacity and his aggressive behavior. On screens he almost always follows-up even if he's not leading the play. On loose balls he always hustles. And we all saw him chase down Cameron Wimbley in the Oakland game last year. Louis > Omiyale at OT? Absolutely Lous good at OT? No Louis good at OG? No Louis average with upside at OG? Yes If the OL has Louis in is, I wouldn't be upset. But I would hope that means the Bears either drafted a first round LT, or moved Chris Williams to LT while drafting a first/second round OG or C (which would mean Garza moves back to OG).

That play Cutler got hurt on wasn't the fault of the OL, but there were certainly ample opportunities for him to get demolished behind the OL. Spencer, along with Louis, Edwin Williams, and Webb were somewhere between horrible and average. Louis is probably the only one of the group closer to average. The team was 7-3 in spite of the OL, not because of them. It's just like the years with Wanny and Jauron; when the Bears won, it was often not because of the coaching, but in spite of them. On another note, your logic can be used against you. The Bears were 7-3 before Cutler got injured, so they couldn't have been doing too bad on offense or defense. Right? Obviously it's too simplistic a statement to really apply towards the entire team or a unit. Record is just is not indicative of anything other than overall team success. I can't be expressed enough how bad the OL was. And because several have short memories, or get enamored with big name skill position players, or choose to misrepresent how bad the OL was because they know others won't fact check, the facts need to always be on the front burner: Rushing -Last in negative plays rushing right -10th worst in negative plays rushing left -Last in number of rushes stuffed behind or at the LOS Passing -5th worst in sacks allowed -5th worst in QB hits allowed -Last in adjusted sack rate (i.e. sacks divided by pass plays) In your humble opinion it's a waste to draft OL early, but in my humble opinion that philosophy has greatly contributed to the Bears having one of the worst offenses in the league for quite some time. 2011 - 24th (Webb, Williams, Garza, Spencer, Louis) 2010 - 30th (Omiyale, Williams, Kruetz, Garza, Webb) 2009 - 23rd (Pace, Omiyale, Kruetz, Garza, Williams) 2008 - 26th (St. Clair, Beekman, Kruetz, Garza, Tait) 2007 - 27th (Tait, Brown, Kruetz, Garza, Miller) 2006 - 15th (Tait, Brown, Kruetz, Garza, Miller) 2005 - 29th (Tait, Brown, Kruetz, Metcalf, Miller) 2004 - 32nd (Q.Mitchell, Brown, Kruetz, Edwards, Tait) 2003 - 28th (Gandy, Edwards, Kruetz, Villarrial, Gibson) 2002 - 29th (Gandy, Doggins, Kruetz, Villarrial, Williams) See a trend? The ONLY time in the past ten years the Bears had moderate offensive success was 2006. The year they went to the Super Bowl. The year they had 4 out of 5 guys at the same position from the year before. The year they replaced the one weak spot from the year before with a better player. The year they had a solid starter at every position. The year they had 2 first-rounders playing next to one another. The fact that they found Kruetz in the third is great. The fact that they signed Miller in the twilight of his career is more lightning in a bottle than anything. A 5th rounder can't be expected to produce as consistently as Miller did. And Garza has been a very nice surprise. I'm not saying early picks on OL is the only way to go, but given the past decade of Bears successes and failures, I'd say it gives you a definite offensive advantage.

Agreed. And I have had about enough of seeing Hester run an end around or a reverse. When he starts towards the middle, EVERYONE knows what the play is. I'd much rather see him start towards the middle and run a shallow crossing route where he tries to rub the defender off of a linebacker or an official.

Thanks! I would hope so since I've felt OL was the #1 area of need for roughly 5 years running.

I wouldn't LOL just yet. Regardless of what "it" is, the dude has "it." I could see the packers using him in such a way that would cause the Bears defense fits. I hope they don't sign him.

That would be excellent. Not only would it put the Wisconsin connection on the field together, it would have the one added benefit of moving Garza back to his better position (OG) like you've stated, and would also have the extra benefit of benching Webb, Louis, and E.Williams. OL of the future is set, Cutler gets to relax behind a solid OL, and the F.O. only has to worry about depth at that point. Behind that OL, Cutler would turn Marshall, Hester, Bennett, and Knox into a deadly WR corp.

I don't like the draft for various reasons. RD 1: I don't think Floyd will be there, and I dislike the notion of picking someone because they had an outstanding combine that doesn't jibe precisely with his college production. We still don't know if he can get off the line or actually run polished routes (neither of which he was required to do at GT). He's boom or bust in my opinion. RD 2: Osemele, yes. Sanders, no. Again, dude fell asleep during a play in college. That reeks of a player without full focus on the game. I think he'll be a bust. On top of that, virtually every scouting report on him says he's physically weak and not ready to start. RD 3: I like Trumaine Johnson. He appears to lack great speed, but he's got good positioning, field awareness, route and defensive understanding, good hands, and he's physical. Definitely would fit in Lovie's D. RD 4: There is no way Bruce Irvin lasts until the fourth round. And if he did, does Lovie and the Bears' FO want to bring in an apparent trouble-maker? RD 5: ANOTHER OT coming out of college with serious injury concerns? No thanks. RD 6: Unless Lovie and crew see something I don't, Randall is not a fit for the Bears' defense. He is definitely too slow to be a 4-3 DE, so he'd obviously be drafted as a 4-3 DT for the Bears. The problem is that he doesn't possess the explosive first step, the inside rush, the gap-pressure that Lovie loves/needs from his DTs. RD 7: Seems like a decent pick for a 7th rounder.

Click the link I provided. It explicitly states he replaced Garza at LG. On top of that, Garza's Pro Football Reference page states his position in 2010 as LG/RG. You might also want to check out the camp report from Bourbonnais that year, where the switch from right side to left side is discussed. Here's an article that actually reports of playing time on the left. Yet another article showing the move. Homework done. Extra credit done. LT is more important, but when Garza went down Tice had Williams coming back, and he had to shuffle the deck to fit things as he thought they best fit. Was he wrong? Certainly he was wrong on Omiyale. Williams probably should have gone back to LT. It was Williams' versatility, or maybe Tice's low opinion of him, that caused the move inside.

You will see it when Legarratte Blunt rushes for a career high this year. I'm all for drafting Olinemen, but following up your first statement when Nicks' draft placement is disingenuous. Nicks was a 5th rounder, but that's not to say finding a stud OG in the 5th round is common or easy. He's the aberration. I would counter with this thought: What's cheaper? Is it cheaper to build a team with FA skill position players; or, is it cheaper to build a team with FA OLinemen? I'd say it's probably cheaper to go with the latter option. This kind of thinking goes back a long way. I can think of Alvin Harper right off the bat. David Boston. Javon Walker. All went from teams that had pretty secure QBs and OL to teams that had neither QB position security nor OL protection. Look what happened. Other FAs may buck this trend - I didn't dig hard - but it seems to me signing OL to protect the #1 investment is a much better way to build than going out and signing skill position players who usually get set up to fail based upon the Peter Principle (i.e. a #2 signed to be a #1) and are more likely to be tempermental. Give Jay Cutler an all-pro OL, and he'll elevate guys like Knox and Hester into what everyone is currently clamoring for. Thought of another way, since Manning is all-sports all-day, look at the collection of scrubs that have run through Indy, a place with a stable OL and incredibly stable QB, but have fallen off the map otherwise: Torrance Small - Career Year with Manning Terrance Wilkins - Dropped off the map without QB/OL Troy Walters - Out of football shortly after Indy Brandon Stokely - 1000yd season with Indy, not close after Anthony Gonzalez - Blew up first two years, got injured...we'll see how he does with N.E. Austin Collie - Blew up first two years, will probably never do as well Blair White - Blew up rookie year, nothing since To be fair, the one player who radically bucks the trend is Jerome Pathon. He went from Indy to New Orleans, a place with a steady QB (Aaron Brooks) and a decent OL. Signing a guy like Carl Nicks makes a lot of sense to me. It's just too bad the Bears are apparently happy with the collective of guys that other teams would throw away like trash.