defiantgiant

I was never really that impressed with St. Clair. Swapping him with Shaffer seems like kind of a wash to me. When it comes to run-blocking, the guy I wish we'd kept is Lousaka Polite. I have no idea how the staff thought he wasn't good enough to beat out Jason McKie, then he goes down to Miami and .

So this question's been raised in the sports media, and I thought it'd be interesting to hash it out here. Chris Williams is (hopefully) going to come back from his hamstring in the next week or two. He struggled a bit before his injury, but that's a pretty small sample size, and he was solid at LT last year. I have to assume that he'll get his job back on the left side once he's healthy. That raises the question, though - what do we do with Omiyale? Here are my thoughts. Big Frank hasn't played badly on the left side, but he certainly hasn't been outstanding. However, he really played pretty poorly on the right side before the switch. He wasn't great in pass protection and looked severely underpowered in the run game. Also, consider that when he was in Carolina, they clearly thought he could only play one position - when their right tackle got hurt in 2008, they moved Jordan Gross to the right side so that they could keep Omiyale on the left. That they'd move their best pass-protector away from the QB's blind side says a lot about their views on Omiyale as a right tackle. I'm not a talent evaluator, but to me, Edwin Williams and J'Marcus Webb looked like a decent run-blocking right side against Carolina. If it were up to me, I think I'd leave them in place, since they're both young with a little bit of potential. This upcoming stretch of games (especially against Seattle and Buffalo) could be a great time for them to solidify that right side and develop some chemistry. Omiyale certainly hasn't played well enough to make me think he should get the RT job handed back to him when his replacement is doing well. And really, how many teams can run the ball behind a 6'4" 315-pound right tackle? So where does that leave him? I think in my ideal world he'd be Williams' backup, then the Bears would admit their mistake (like they did with Chris Harris) and go re-sign Josh Beekman to play left guard. Beekman's nothing spectacular, but you almost never hear his name called for blowing a block or getting flagged for a stupid penalty. If the young guys on the right side could develop some, Williams-Beekman-Kreutz-Williams-Webb could be an OK group of blockers. Realistically, though, I think Omiyale might be ticketed for a return to left guard, with Garza headed to an interior-swingman role. His first stint at LG last year was a nightmare, but he actually looked OK once he took the job back toward the end of the season. And with the way Garza and Louis have played, Omiyale could actually be a minor upgrade if he can play like he did at the end of 2009. What do you guys think? Where's Omiyale go once Williams comes back?

Lloyd's big start to the season HAS to be an anomaly. I mean, the guy is talented, but he just can't catch routine passes. He had a (relatively) fast start in 2008 with Chicago, and then basically shut himself down. That said, it's clear that he's Orton's favorite target - that was true in 2008, too. So I'm sure he'll continue to benefit from that for as long as he feels like playing, but I'll be very surprised if he keeps it up for a whole season. As for Orton, I've always liked him, but he's a scheme-limited guy. Denver's put him in basically an ideal system, one that emphasizes his strengths (great ability to read a defense, quick decision-making, tremendous command of the playbook) and minimizes his major weakness (iffy accuracy, especially on deep throws) so I'm not surprised to see him putting up big numbers. But I still think trading him for Cutler was a good move. The Bears might be better right now if they'd hung onto Orton, installed a Patriots-style offense, and spent their picks wisely (especially since those two 1sts could have been Mike Oher and Dez Bryant, or Hakeem Nicks and Anthony Davis.) However, that's basically just saying that the team would be better off with a somewhat less talented QB, if they also had much better blockers and a go-to receiver. That's true of almost any team, and it doesn't really tell you much about who's better between Orton and Cutler. I think, in the long term, Chicago will be better off for having Cutler, once they get the scheme and supporting cast in place to make him look good.

Bad news about Wright, although kudos to Lovie and company for actually putting together some depth at safety. It would have been nice to have Wright-Harris as the starting two from the beginning, but if Manning keeps playing like he has been (read: still not great, but adequate) then I think the team can make it with Harris-Manning until Wright's healthy.

Most of our receivers have some pretty good hands, from the look of things in camp. Hester, especially, has been catching everything in sight this offseason. Chicago Breaking Sports tracked all the 7-on-7 and 11-on-11 drills in camp, and did a breakdown of targets/receptions for each receiver. I was curious, so I did their catch percentages, and they're all pretty good. Granted, they're probably a little inflated due to 7-on-7 work, but still, check it out: Name Catches-Targets (Percentage) Greg Olsen: 55-of-86 (63.95%) Devin Aromashodu: 51-of-77 (66.23%) Johnny Knox: 50-of-77 (64.93%) Devin Hester: 59-of-76 (77.63%) Rashied Davis: 20-of-39 (51.28%) Matt Forte: 27-of-38 (71.05%) Chester Taylor: 23-of-31 (74.19%) Desmond Clark: 16-of-23 (69.56%) My thoughts: Olsen's catch rate should really be a little higher if he's going to be an elite receiving TE, a la Dallas Clark or Antonio Gates, but it's not terrible by any means. You'd like your TE to be more of a reliable target, but if Olsen's going to be used on deep patterns like a wideout, maybe it's OK for him to have a more wideout-like catch rate. Rashied Davis apparently still has stone hands. Other than that, though, everybody looks great. Hester and the running backs are especially impressive.

Furthermore, I liked that Williams sounded like he was learning from the experience. He talked about how, one-on-one, Peppers can capitalize on any little mistake he makes...that makes me think he's recognizing those mistakes and learning from them. I think going against Pep in practice is going to make Williams a much better player this season.

If that's Kevin Seifert, he's a massive Vikings homer. The NFC North blog on ESPN is basically 70% Vikings, 30% split between the three other teams in the division.

Yeah, I was surprised to see that a team like the Jags or the Rams didn't take a look at him, at least as a nickel rusher. Both those teams need to get more pressure from their defensive lines, and Wale's still got a little gas left in the tank.

There were rumblings that he damaged a nerve in his shoulder last season, and consequently was having trouble wrapping up properly. Who knows if it's still bothering him. EDIT: Also, I read that while most of the reps at FS went to Steltz with Harris out, Wright was getting some of them too. Maybe there's a silver lining in this - as long as Harris comes back healthy, that is - in that Wright could clearly use more reps at FS if he's going to make a quick transition to the NFL.

I was already pumped to hear that Hester had been working out with Bruce, great to see that he'll be tutoring the rest of the WRs, too. I'm not expecting that any of them will be at his level or Torry Holt's, at least not right away, but if he can help them get a handle on the timing and route-running in Martz's offense, maybe we won't see as many miscommunications in the passing game as last year.

Yeah, I hear you - we'll see this season how much he really has left in the tank. That said, I'm a little less worried about Kreutz, just because center is one of the few positions where Jerry and Lovie actually drafted and groomed a guy to replace the incumbent. If Kreutz is done, I'm pretty confident that Beekman can step in.

It seems like this is the go-to story for the Chicago media when there's nothing to write about. It's always either "Lovie Smith is delusional/thinks team is awesome" or "Lovie Smith thinks we're idiots/is lying to us." My guess is that, like a lot of other coaches in the NFL, Lovie thinks that airing team business out in the media puts him at a competitive disadvantage. I understand it's got to be frustrating being a media member and having to interview a coach like that, but there are plenty of (successful) coaches in the NFL who only speak in generalities until after the game's over. That's why the term "coachspeak" was coined. To hear the Chicago media tell it, you'd think Lovie was the only one doing it.

That's not a better comparison - Wolfe and Forte are entirely different running backs. Forte's an all-purpose workhorse back. I'm not saying he doesn't have to break a big run every now and again, but he can be successful just getting 4 or 5 yards at a time. Obviously, last season he couldn't even consistently do that, thanks to injuries and bad line play. But Wolfe's whole job is to break big runs. That's what he was drafted for, and that's what he's on the roster for. A bellcow runner like Forte is supposed to carry the ball 20 times a game, so it's OK if he can't rip off a big gain. Your scatback's supposed to get big chunks of yards, so it's OK if he can't carry it 20 times a game. Wolfe can't do either effectively, which is why he's been relegated to special teams. I agree with you that our line played poorly, certainly worse than the Jets or the Chargers. But I think that probably had a bigger impact on Forte's role than Wolfe's. This is oversimplifying things a great deal, but I tend to think about it this way: the o-line's mostly responsible for the difference between a 5 yard run and a 1 yard run, whereas the running back's mostly responsible for the difference between a 5 yard run and a 20 yard run. Look at it this way - with a steady diet of 3-to-5-yard runs, a blown block and a stop for a loss will tank Forte's average. A good scatback can get stopped for a loss a few times, because when the line does manage to spring him, he's supposed to go for 10 or 15. Wolfe usually doesn't do that even when he gets a block, though, which is the problem.

I got them from NFL.com. They're the same as the ones on the site you've linked do. He ran for 120 yards on 22 carries last season. 36 of those yards came on the gadget fake punt. So if you look at the remaining yards/carries (i.e. the plays where he took a handoff on offense,) it's 84 yards on 21 carries. The reason I discount the fake punt is that it's not a good indicator of how he's performed on the plays you're saying he should get more of. If you were saying he should get more special teams snaps, I'd be all for it. There are several, that's exactly the problem. There should be a lot more than "several," even on the limited touches he's had. On his 68 carries over three seasons, Wolfe has broken a run longer than 20 yards TWICE. He's only had SIX runs of 10 yards or more. Any fewer and you could literally count his big plays on one hand. I'll readily admit that Wolfe's had limited opportunities, but let's put him next to some actually productive scatbacks on about the same number of attempts: Garrett Wolfe (career) 68 carries, 274 yards (4.0 YPC), 1 TD Darren Sproles (2008) 61 carries, 330 yards (5.4 YPC), 1 TD Leon Washington (2007) 71 carries, 353 yards (5.0 YPC), 3 TD And those numbers are including the fake punt that inflated Wolfe's stats last season. If you take it out, he's at 3.5 YPC for his career. I'm sorry, but the guy just doesn't measure up. I mean, he got the most touches of his career as a rookie, and he didn't even get 3 yards a tote. That's not a guy who needs more carries, it's a guy who needs to play special teams.

Yeah, Hester looked seriously rocked up last season...maybe all the lifting made him less shifty and explosive. Also, I'm just excited that he's working with Isaac Bruce. I know it's probably too much to hope for, but look what happened to Sidney Rice after he spent an offseason working with Larry Fitzgerald. If Hester can take a REMOTELY comparable leap from working with Bruce, he could be a good starting receiver.

Yeah, definitely just for camp. I can't see the guy beating out LeFevour for the 3rd QB spot, based on draft status alone. Also, the Bears waived Vic Hall and some undrafted DL guy. I go to Virginia, so I was really excited when they got Hall, but I can see why they let him go. They're stacked with developmental WR prospects, and he's probably too small to play corner in the NFL. Still, it's a shame - he was awesome in college.

Umm...he got drafted. The Bears just took him in the supplemental draft. The supplemental draft is for guys who stay for their senior years but then get kicked out or lose their eligibility - it's not a second chance for guys who didn't get drafted the first time around. Unga got kicked out of BYU after he admitted to the administration that he had premarital sex with his fiancee (now wife.) He's basically the ideal supplemental draft guy - a lot of them are guys who got caught cheating or got arrested and kicked out. Also, I don't know if you should point to Wolfe's draft status as evidence of his skill set. Think about how many drafted (even highly-drafted) players each year turn out to absolutely suck. I've watched Wolfe play, and I don't see much in the way of a "unique" skill set: he doesn't have breakaway speed in the open field, he can't break tackles, and the juke move that worked so well in college hasn't been making anybody miss in the NFL. He catches the ball well out of the backfield, but so do Forte and Taylor. Look, last season was Wolfe's best year by far, and if you take away the one long gain on a gadget special teams play (where they direct-snapped it to him on a fake punt) and only look at the plays where he actually had to take a handoff, he rang up 84 yards on 21 carries. 4 yards a carry isn't a bad mark for a workhorse back who shoulders the load, but Wolfe is supposed to be playing the Leon Washington/Darren Sproles scatback role. You need a scatback to break long runs, not get marginally better yardage than your main back. Both Washington and Sproles are threats to take one to the house, that's what makes them effective. Wolfe might be small like those two, but he's score ONE touchdown in his NFL career. You keep saying that Wolfe needs to be used more, but looking at what he's done with the carries he's gotten, I just can't see how they could justify it. He's a one-dimensional player and he's not good enough at that one dimension to make it worthwhile to give him the ball. He's good on special teams, and I'm fine with him playing there, but I don't want him taking snaps away from other backs on offense.

I like the pick. Worst-case scenario, he goes to the practice squad and we see if we have anything. Best-case scenario, I think he can be sort of a poor man's TJ Duckett and make the roster as a goal-line and short-yardage back. That hinges, of course, on whether he can play special teams. As much as I think Garrett Wolfe will never be a successful NFL running back, he is a very good special teams player, and Unga's going to have to prove that he's at least as valuable there. If he can play the Duckett role and do it effectively, it could really make a big difference for the Bears' offense, especially Cutler. I think a big part of the reason that Cutler had so many red-zone picks last season (apart from the decision-making factor, which is on him) was that defenses knew we couldn't punch it in on the ground. So Cutler would drive down to the 10 or the 5, and then he'd be dealing with a short field and a defense that knew the pass was coming. With (hopefully) better blocking from the o-line under Tice and a potential short-yardage back in Unga, the Bears might be able to trade some of those red-zone turnovers for touchdowns.

Umm, why would the game film from the last 4 games make me think Aromashodu was consistent? In those four games, he had a solid outing against Green Bay, absolutely torched an injured Antoine Winfield in the Minnesota game, and got shut down by two very poor secondaries in Baltimore and Detroit. More than half his yards came in the Minnesota game - in the other three, he ranged between decent and a total nonfactor. What part of that says "consistent"? Also, if you think he's got better hands than Hester or Bennett, their catch percentages beg to differ. I agree with you about Knox, though - I'm worried that he's going to get jammed a lot this season, now that teams know what he can do in the open field and how bad he can burn DBs when they play off-coverage. He'd better learn how to beat a jam in a hurry. If he does, though, I think he's got a shot to outproduce all the other WRs.

Nfo, I agree that Hester's got some more improving to do, definitely. And Knox is definitely at least as good a downfield/perimeter threat as Hester - Aromashodu could be too, if he can play more consistently than he did at the end of last season. But one of the reasons I think Hester needs to start on the outside (until one of those two outplays him) is this: your #1 guy can't be Bernard Berrian. By that, I mean that you can't have a #1 receiver who only knows how to run those outside-the-hashes routes. When we had Berrian-Muhammad as our WRs, I'd argue that Moose was the better go-to guy, if only because he was less one-dimensional. The same thing goes for Hester versus Knox/DA, at least at this point in their development. As much as Hester needs to clean up his route-running over the middle, I hardly ever saw Knox or DA running drags, crosses, anything. They were both pretty much pure downfield guys last season, with Hester and Bennett picking up all the other work. Until one of them starts looking like a complete receiver, I'd rather start Hester on the outside. When we go three-wide, that's another story. I'd love to see Hester start at flanker in 2WR sets, then move into the slot for 3- and 4-receiver sets.

My two cents: the stuff Russell got caught with is dangerous, and while I'm not at all pro-War-on-Drugs, this isn't one of those drugs people should be allowed to do recreationally. Lean is codeine-promethazine cough syrup (not sure if there's dextromethorphan in there too,) and to get high on it, you're basically overdosing on promethazine, which can cause difficulty breathing, seizures, and heart failure. Two of the biggest lean proponents in the hip-hop community, DJ Screw and Pimp C, both died of cardiac arrest from drinking the stuff. I'm pro-decriminalization generally, but there's a good reason why you can't have this stuff without a prescription.

True, but hasn't Martz specifically said that he's planning to move Hester all over? With his love of shifts, motion, and multiple formations, I'd expect to see Hester line up all over the place, wherever Martz thinks he can get the best matchup on that particular play. Also, what's with all this talk about Hester not making guys miss after the catch? I think somebody was asking for a specific example? Here you go: 2009: Week 8 against the Browns Week 6 against the Falcons Week 3 against the Seahawks 2008: Week 13 against the Vikings Week 5 against the Lions Separate from his YAC, I think something that's been overlooked (and something that serves him very well as a perimeter receiver, rather than in the slot) is his ability to make DBs hesitate before the catch. Watch this highlight against the Rams. Hester breaks out that stop-and-go move about three times during his route, without ever losing speed. He gets Ron Bartell (St. Louis' #1 corner, and a pretty underrated cover guy) to bite on the stop-and-go, putting Bartell like three steps behind him and out of position to break up the pass, leaving Hester one-on-one with the safety Butler, who's not up to covering him. I can't find the highlight right now, but I remember seeing Hester put a fake on Asante Samuel mid-route that made Samuel spin around 360 degrees. Also, nfo, why do you think Hester can't track or adjust to the ball? He flashed the ability to track the ball as early as the end of 2007, and he's started doing it consistently since then, especially last season. In 2008, he did it against the Texans and Jags, adjusting nicely on some really underthrown passes from Orton. Last season, he did it in Week 1 against the Packers, and again against the Cards. On that last one, he tracked a deep ball down the sideline beautifully and hauled it in, despite having Dominique Rogers-Cromartie (who's one of the few guys in the NFL significantly faster than Hester) in his face the whole time. Don't get me wrong, I think Hester's still got some areas to improve, but making guys miss and tracking the ball aren't among them.

I'd pass...Springs is 35, and word is that he failed his physical because of his knees and might have to retire. The Patriots weren't exactly set at the cornerback position across from Bodden, and Springs couldn't secure that job despite having every opportunity. He was a serious player earlier in his career, but it seems like he's pretty much done.

Yeah, and Martz uses far more deep timing throws than most offenses do. In most other offenses, like the Patriots' and Broncos', the timing throws tend to be shorter routes, which makes sense, as your quarterback is basically handing the DBs a chance to make a play on the ball, then relying on his receiver to beat them to the spot. This is even more true if you're throwing the ball to a spot that's 15 yards or more downfield, like Martz does: that gives the secondary more time to break on the ball and makes it more likely to be a pick rather than an incompletion if the receiver can't get to the spot first. It's an inherently risky throw, and it requires really precise execution to work. Martz's offense's success is pretty much predicated on those throws working, since they're very hard to defend and can really gash a defense if executed right (which is a big if.) A lot of throws in a Martz offense look like they're going directly to a corner or safety until the receiver swoops in at the last second. I'm a little worried about those timing throws being workable on Soldier Field's turf, now that the management has opted against an artificial surface (again.) Hopefully Martz can cook up something a little more conservative than the Greatest Show on Turf, because he's not always going to be able to rely on precision timing when the receivers are running their routes in a mud pit and slipping out of their breaks all the time.

Yeah, it's not something unique to Martz's offense, it's just an issue of degree. All offenses use some timing throws (Ron Turner's offense actually used more than a lot of WCOs, from what I've read) but Martz's offense relies almost entirely on timing throws, and (again, from what I've read) they're more demanding timing throws than a lot of offenses ask a QB to make regularly. That's why he's got a reputation for being such a stickler: he needs his receivers to run their routes at the exact right depth and arrive at the spot right on time, he needs the QB to be very precise in his drop and get the ball out exactly on time, etc.