DABEARSDABOMB

Interesting to see we are going to have a new defensive line coach as well as a new assistant offensive line coach. As far as the dline I'm guessing someone in the Bears was not happy about the way the dline performed as a whole (lack of pass rush). That said someone deserves some credit for the development of Mark Anderson. I'll be interested to see who the squad hires to be its next defensive line coach. I'm not majorly concerned about losing the offensive quality coach and I'm glad to see he'll be an offensive coordinator at Central Michigan. I'm hoping those will be the only guys that leave the staff and that we'll add some quality guys to replace them as well as be able to get the Rons, Toub and everyone else's contracts taken care of (and Lovie's/Angelo's too).

I can't really comment on this as I really am not sure just how much of an effect the QB coach has on the QB. Wade Wilson seems like a good guy, but maybe there are better guys. I think the important part is that Wade/Rex have a good relationship. However, if there was one thing I'd be concerned with it would be the fact that Rex's footwork has not improved that much over the course of the season and that is the one area where I'd expect a good QB coach to help out with. Obviously Rex is probably a bit stubborn in that he's one of the few players in this league capable of making very good passes off his back foot (although when you do this you are also liable of underthrowing a ball or having a ball float on you leading to a turnover) but still I'd expect improvement in that area.

The Pats have given big money to guys though. I realize its not often there own guys but they did make big money signings to Colvin and they are now one of the apparent front runners to go after Briggs. I also think the Pats have paid a bit as of late for who they let go. With Branch they probably are in the Super Bowl as opposed to the Colts and would have had as good a shot of any at winning it all. Rosie Colvin yes, but Warrick Holdman while decent was never special and most Bears fans knew it. The problem was Angelo made a big mistake with the check box fiasco and we had to give Warrick more money than we wanted to which meant we wouldn't be able to give Colvin (a stud) the money he deserved. It turned out Rosie got hurt and missed a good chunk of time but he was an elite player. While Colvin was the better pass rusher, Briggs is an elite OLB in every sense of the word and in my opinion may just be the very best at the position (from an all around standpoint). The guy plays the run tremendous, does a nice job against the pass and finds himself in position to make plays time in time out. When we have big 3rd down stops you see Briggs in on the play just as often as you see Urlacher in on the play. Don't think for one second that Briggs isn't a special player, yes we have Urlacher and having the two of them makes the defense fun to watch but without Briggs this defense goes down a notch (unless of course we replace him with someone but I am not sure who we'd be able to pick up and if we replaced him with someone I'd like it to be a very fast athletic LB who would be an effective pass rusher). Rosie Colvin yes, but Warrick Holdman while decent was never special and most Bears fans knew it. The problem was Angelo made a big mistake with the check box fiasco and we had to give Warrick more money than we wanted to which meant we wouldn't be able to give Colvin (a stud) the money he deserved. It turned out Rosie got hurt and missed a good chunk of time but he was an elite player. While Colvin was the better pass rusher, Briggs is an elite OLB in every sense of the word and in my opinion may just be the very best at the position (from an all around standpoint). The guy plays the run tremendous, does a nice job against the pass and finds himself in position to make plays time in time out. When we have big 3rd down stops you see Briggs in on the play just as often as you see Urlacher in on the play. Don't think for one second that Briggs isn't a special player, yes we have Urlacher and having the two of them makes the defense fun to watch but without Briggs this defense goes down a notch (unless of course we replace him with someone but I am not sure who we'd be able to pick up and if we replaced him with someone I'd like it to be a very fast athletic LB who would be an effective pass rusher).

This would be a great situation for Jeff but I think this is more leverage. Barring us acquiring some front line QB, we are not going to be handing the job over to anyone with the potential exception of Grossman. If we did acquire someone, my guess is we'd make it a wide open competition with no one being guaranteed of the job. In Carr's case I see a guy that is young enough and talented enough to be a franchise QB, so that works. In Garcia's case I see a crafty veteran and while Garcia did a great job with Philly we have our own crafty veteran already on the roster who I personally believe is more suited to run our offense and he's also already familiar with the system and the players (Griese). If we pick up a new QB it should either be a star (don't ask me how we get one) a late round draft pick (personally I may not even do this because I'm happy with Orton as a 3rd stringer and think he has some potential), or a young guy that has been on a bad team but could use a second chance (Carr).

I'd imagine there is almost a zero chance Wade Phillips is going to hire him to a run a 3-4. If he wants out it is so he can run his own system and he won't be able to do that in Dallas. My guess is he sticks around and the Bears will give him an extension and maybe let him add a couple new wrinkles to the defense (obviously we stay cover 2, but have a few more blitz packages and more importantly those blitz packages need to be effective (because I think we are a very innefficient team whose blitzes rarely seem to work).

I think so, this place was going crazy on draft day.

What a dumby. This guy did get his 5 minutes of fame though since he's in a ton of newspapers and was on Cold Pizza. My guess is the judge will not allow him to change his name.

If all it took was a second day pick I would be all over this deal. However, you do have one dillema in that you'd have to deal with a very unhappy Brian Griese. I'd have absolutely no problem bringing in Carr and letting him battle it out with Rex Grossman. Carr has had a few seasons under his belt, has proven he can stay healthy, and is coming off what was his best season while dealing with a team with a very ineffective running game, one receiving weapon, and a putrid offensive line. I think he would be interested in coming to Chicago as long as he was told he'd have a chance to compete. He'd know he'd be in a great position to win and if he did earn the job he knows he has a good oline, good running game, some solid Wr's and a great defense behind him. Plsu he knows that in Chicago, while it can be tough when you lose or struggle (and you will be under a magnifying glass) when you win it all you are king and whether Rex is at the helm or Carr, if the defense is healthy we should be a contender.

I agree that we should invest our money in those guys, however, if JA signs Briggs than I think he's signing him knowing that he will/should also be able to get those other guys signed. We are in a great position, cap wise, and Jerry does a good job consistently bringing in new talent. You also have to remember that Anderson will eventually replace a higher paid guy like Ogunleye or Brown. In fact I think Ogunleye may become the situational pass rusher as soon as next year and eventually be on his way out with Anderson/Brown being a duo. But that is still down the road and having three ends as good as they are is a great situation to be in (albeit Brown/Ogunleye will have to step up next season).

I fear we may have already lost him. It would be really rough to lose Toub. The guy is the stud of special teams coaches.

Nope, I've never quit on any site that I've started. This was the first Bear site and Soxtalk was the first Sox site (albeit it was originally named SoxNet). I'm amazed at how this place has grown and it is definitely starting to get its own culture and it will continue to grow and I look forward to seeing that growth. I'll say this, this place has grown far faster than Soxtalk/SoxNet did.

That was just me speculating.

In that case, lets throw out some names. Who is on your guys radar for people you think could come in and make a real good DC? Obviously Mike Singletary will be on the list due to his history with the Bears and he's now actually gained some experience with San Francisco. Would he be interested in coming back to Chicago. Samuri was as smart as it got on the field and I could definately see him doing a good job, but would he make the lateral move to Chicago and would the Niners let him come? I got to think a bit to come up with some other names since Babich seems like a logical choice if Lovie wants to go with someone comfortable with the Cover 2.

Personally speaking, I'd like to have Rivera back, but given the choice I think it is more important that we don't lose Ron Turner. While I have my gripes about Turner, he's still the best OC we've had since he left and he does do a lot of good things and I think the bad things he has a tendency to do are correctable and I'm guessing he'll study his play calling over the off-season and make some adjustments. Rivera on the other hand, while he's good, is probably a bit hampered by being in Smith's system. I'd like to see what Ron can do on his own, but I'm not about to go away from the Cover 2 system and Lovie is better than Ron with it and I'm pretty sure Babich will do a great job with the system (and even if he doesn't, you still have Lovie capable of watching over it). I also wonder how the defense would look different with Babich as opposed to Rivera. Would we blitz even less, since Rivera previously had worked or been associated with defenses that blitzed a lot (46 D & Jim Johnson's D in Philly).

Lance Briggs has pulled himself out of the probowl and he will be replaced by Bucs LBer Derek Brooks. I'd imagine Briggs is pulling out because he's tired from a long season as well as the fact that he wants to take no chance on getting hurt before he makes his big pay day. Personally I think this is a wise decision. Yes, Briggs has been sucessful but so far he hasn't made enough money to relax the rest of his life or be able to live a nice life if his career ended due to an injury over the off-season. However, after this off-season (assuming he signs a multi year deal as opposed to the 1 year franchise tag deal) he will know whatever happens he shouldn't have to ever work another day in his life (as long as he isn't stupid with his money). By the way, Briggs will resign with the Bears.

Lamont Jordan blew this past year. Dominic Davis missed most of last year (IIRC), if not all of last year, so I find it hard pressed that the Texans wouldn't start a guy like Jones if they had him.

Well maybe Rex won't make it back. I happen to think he'll have a super bowl ring at some point in his career and I am very confident the Chicago Bears will make it back. We became a more battle tested team and I think the quad learned a lot from there near Super Bowl championship and they'll find a way to get back. We also have a ridiculous tough schedule coming up so the team is going to be far more battle tested in the regular season and I think it will have a lot more experience playing in close games which will help Rex mature as a QB or fail as a QB (either way he needs to start dealing with close games and having to make the key plays or fail with the Bears opting for Griese, Orton or someone not on the roster).

It seems like the interest is mutual. On one hand Steinbach is younger than Ruben Brown, can play both guard and tackle, and should be a good long term solution but on the other hand Metcalf is a more than capable replacement at the guard position and I really think the Bears should be looking harder to find a tackle to replace Miller (who is our worse olineman). That said Ruben is our oldest and he doesn't have many more good years left so Steinbach would be probably a lateral move this year but over the long term it puts the oline in a better position to stay good. Plus if we make that move, draft a tackle early on (and let him develop a year) we would be able to give the line some good continuity (replacing one guy this year...Steinbach replaces Brown) and than hopefully a year from now giving our 1st round draft pick (a tackle) the job over Fred Miller (with Miller potentially shifting to the backup roll).

I got to be honest, seems like the right thing to do to send them to 3rd world countries. Still, couldn't you imagine 10 years from now seeing someone wearing a Bears Super Bowl Champion shirt and thinking to yourself that doesn't look right. I'm glad they don't just trash the shirts though.

Interesting. I want the Bears to retain him but if we did lose him I think Lovie would promote Babich and the defense wouldn't really skip a beat. I also think it would be interesting to see Rivera on his own creating his own style of defense (that I'm sure would be a bit more reliant on the blitz).

I think the perfect thing about Arch is that if you pick him up he not only provides insurance for Brown (who can play both FS or SS) but also a bit of insurance for Harris & Manning. He's also a veteran that really knows the defense and is still young enough and a good enough athlete. He plays the run very well yet he's not near as horrid on passing downs as Harris and he'd be a good leader out there for Manning if Brown is hurt. And if Brown is healthy Arch would still get playing time because I'd imagine the Bears would want to spell Brown throughout the season.

Plus I'd hate to see AP in the game considering he probably got little to no carries in practice for the Super Bowl. Sadly Jones didn't get worked near enough to be tired so he had plenty of energy. Interesting. It looked to me like Rex was hoping Moose would come back on the ball but the corner ended up playing short and being in a better position and with that it made it an ill advised pass. That said if Moose and Rex were on a different wave length for the play it would make the throw a little less awful. I also completely agree with you about our WR's not helping out when it came to defending the pics but I will admit they improved greatly in that area the past few weeks. At the same time as the season went on (sans the Packer game) I saw Rex making a lot less throws that could have or should have been picked so I really don't get why people are saying he didn't make progress with his reads. And I don't care if you are Peyton Manning or Rex Grossman ocassionally even when you make the right read you will make a bad throw and get picked (see Bernard Berrian) and in this case Rex definitely has the weather as an excuse. I think there are two major things he needs to improve: - Pocket Awareness (reading the blitzes, knowing when to step up or roll out) - Protecting the Football (and I'm talking about fumbling because he has had a major problem with fumbles both on the snaps and when he gets hit and he needs to really work on putting an end to those, especially the ones on snaps). - A third area would be for him to make even quicker reads (this will help him on 3rd downs when the defense is blitzing and you have to react quickly).

Here is an interesting article talking about Turner's tendencies: http://www.superbowl.com/news/story/9978303 (Feb. 6, 2007) -- Television, radio and the print media might have talked about all the events, rumors and conjecture leading up to the Super Bowl to the point that there was nothing left to talk about. But the coaches and scouts watched the game tapes -- especially of the previous playoff games -- and built a game plan around the facts that were on the screen. Let's take a look at how the game plans held up, especially for the world champion Colts. 1. THE BEARS OFFENSE ON FIRST DOWNS. Throughout the playoffs, the Bears had demonstrated success throwing the ball on first downs, and the Colts knew it. Everywhere you turned, you heard someone saying the Bears need to take some shots down the field on early downs because Bob Sanders will be up in the run-support box. The Colts' computer breakdown told them Rex Grossman had thrown 20 times on first down in the two playoff games and completed 11. What the film study showed them was that Bernard Berrian caught six of those first-down passes at 27 yards per catch and two touchdowns (and a setup of a third score). The Colts were not going to abandon their run-defense calls with Sanders up in the box -- especially early in the game -- but they were also not going to surrender 27 yards per catch to Berrian. The Bears went to Bernard four times on first downs, but for an 8-yard completion average. The Colts defensive backs gave him all the short passes he wanted, but no shots down the field. And when Grossman tried, it was picked off. Grossman stuck with the plan to throw on first down throughout the game, and delivered 10 completions in 14 attempts for a modest 83 yards. Both of his interceptions came in the fourth quarter on deep passes on first-and-10. The second time, Sanders just happened to be deep and picked off the pass. 2. WHAT THE BEARS DID AFTER A FIRST-DOWN INCOMPLETION. Coaches always look at the play-calling style in many situations. During the playoffs, Grossman had a strong run tendency after a first-down incompletion. The Bears had six runs against two passes when it was second-and-10 after an errant throw. The Colts didn't get many chances to use this scouting-report tendency, because they surrendered the first-down short-passing attack and Grossman did not find himself in too many second-and-10 calls. The two times it did occur, the Bears ran the ball with Thomas Jones and threw a very short pass to Jones, which a run-defense call can handle. In both cases, the Bears gained only 2 yards, which set up third-and-long. The scouting report held up again. 3. WHAT THE BEARS DID WHEN FIRST-DOWN RUNS GOT 3 YARDS OR FEWER. In its first two playoff games, Chicago had 13 first-down run plays that generated 3 yards or less. In fact, the 13 first-down runs that were in this scouting-report segment generated only 13 yards. The question was what Ron Turner would do next if the first-down run call was stuffed. The report came back with this answer: Throw the ball. In those 13 situations, the Bears passed 11 times. Before the Super Bowl got out of hand, Chicago did not have an occurence where a run created a second-and-7 or longer, so there were no second-down situations in the game when the Colts could use the report about the pass tendency. For all the people who questioned the Colts defense as too small to stop the Bears running game, the only question is why the Bears didn't run the ball more on first down, especially after Jones gained 52 yards on a first-and-10 early in the game. Cedric Benson's knee injury might have spooked the Bears, or maybe they felt pressure when they fell behind, or maybe they just got away from what they do best. 4. WIN THE TURNOVER BATTLE. By game's end, the Colts had won the turnover battle 5-3, and now the winner of the turnover battle is 30-3 in Super Bowls. The Bears led the NFL this season with 44 turnovers created and added five more in the NFC playoffs for 49 in 18 games heading into the Super Bowl. In fact, they scored 156 points off turnovers this season, but in the big game, they lost the battle that was so good to them all year. Forced fumbles is an effort play, but interceptions like the two the Colts had were excellent defensive calls; what made them special was the interception returns. Go back and look at the tapes to see the game plan the Colts had on the 94 yards of interception returns. There was a wall return on both picks; it looked more like a punt return than an interception. Every single Colt got a block on someone. The Colts were more prepared to return the ball than the Bears were to stop them. The Colts played the whole game looking for interceptions and were also trained to score when they got the ball.

So far it is hard for me to say. I'm intrigued with the idea of Zach Miller late in the first round, TE, ASU. The guy is very talented and would be able to come in and help Rex a lot and basically give us two different TE's. Clark is still a starter and he's a solid pass catching TE and a top notch blocking TE but he is getting older and it would be nice to get a TE in there that we can develop (maybe the 1st round is too early to take a development TE though). Oline (a tackle in the 1st round is solid), SS in the 1st round (to replace Mike Brown if we can't do that via FA), OLB (if Briggs leaves). The goal should be to get some guys we can prepare to join into the oline in a year or two (this would be a bit less of a priority if we add Steinbach), potentially find a OLB to replace Briggs, get help for the secondary (safety), a TE, and I'd imagine we may think about a tackle later on in the draft (DT). However, if Sydney Rice somehow falls to the Bears I think you take him in Rd1. His stock seems to have slipped a lot but he's the type of WR I'd love the Bears to have to team up with Berrian/Bradley (after Moose retires in a couple years).

I think you'll see Benson start to get more carries, but Jones will still get more snaps and the overall load will be very close to 50/50. I really like it, the question is whether we can get the RB's to like into it and not be sour pusses about it. In reality it could really extend there careers and they could both make names for themselves in one of the greatest football cities. Jets, Raiders, Texans...just to throw out a few more and thats just off the very top of my head without thinking.