DABEARSDABOMB

The Arizona game is a MNF game because the Cards are going to be showcasing there brand new retractable dome (with a sliding grass field; the real grass stays outside and than is carted in on a tray on game-day; its a gigantic tray that electronically carts in so the stadium can be used as a convention center when there isn't football). But you'd think we'd have a home MNF game to go with that, especially when you think of the national draw of the Bears. Oh well, I got my bar on Sundays with NFL Ticket and I won't be missing a game (unless I'm dying or something). Come on...the Rams matter. Its funny how quickly they got good after they left Anaheim. You couldn't pay people to take Rams tickets during there last few years. What an awful franchise they were during the California days. They only did one thing right and that was Jim Everett...solely because he whooped Jim Rome's butt after Rome repeatedly called him Chris Everett.

Ya, I'm sure the rest of the division being down helps, but the Vikes arne't a bad team and they played much better down the stretch. They were by and large a brand new team at the start of the year and it took a while for there defense to gel but considering they lost Daunte (who they don't have anymore) they didn't do all that bad once Johnson came in (in fact he did a much better job than Daunte did). Lions made a boatload of changes and seem to be going in the right direction, but that many changes tends to mean it takes a while to gel and they are probably still a couple years off while the Pack still has a damn good QB (Favre is still pretty good, I don't care how old he is) but the defense is meh and they really had trouble protecting the football.

I tried for the World Series tickets and failed just like everyone else did. I was lucky enough to have season tix for the Angels so I was golden for the ALCS road games. I may end up getting to the Arizona Cardinal monday night game. Only problem is I start my career about a month sooner and I have 3 weeks of training so basically my first or second real week would involve me asking for time off and for some reason I don't think that would be the wisest thing to do. Anyone else planning on attending any games in person this year?

Here's the Bears NFL Network pre-season TV schedule. I have no idea if the Bears will be lucky enough to get a game televised live, but for those of us that live outside of the city of Chicago we always have the option to catch the delayed game via NFL network. Here are the times and dates that the Bears preseason games will be on NFL network. Tuesday August 15 Chicago at San Francisco 3 PM Saturday August 26 Arizona at Chicago 1 PM Saturday September 2 Chicago at Cleveland 10 AM Here's all the preseason games that will be played on NFL network. 52 games in 24 days. http://www.nfl.com/nflnetwork/story/9558446 Apparently our 5th pre-season game which is against the Chargers will be televised nationally on either Fox or CBS.

Don't know if anyone is planning on buying them, but if you are be prepared to get up early on Saturday and get the tickets. I think anyone thats every dealt with ticketbastard realizes that the experience will suck if they are going after tix. But hey, it'll be worth the wait knowing you go to see the 2006 Super Bowl Championship Bears in person

In case anyone is interested, they will be doing some sort of review on the 05 Bears on NFL network on July 20th.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dw...in.16e2f4b.html This is a pretty good article talking about the Bears off-season. We've made a few moves, but I really do think we've upgraded offensively with one move (Brian Griese). That move stabilizes the key offensive position (along with the oline) and should help give the Bears enough continuity to allow there Wr's to develop and the offense to put some points on the board. I'm real excited to see this team develop. The only real negative I have out of this whole off-season are Ricky Manning being an idiot after signing with us and the whole Briggs/Jones fiasco's (i hate when guys hold out). I do hope we can get Briggs locked up.

This is it for Rex, its time for him to show us whether the injuries were just total flukes or if he just has durability issues in the NFL. The nice thing is we now have a legit backup and really as good of a 3rd string QB as you can have (Orton). At WR I too am excited to see which is better between Berrian and Bradley. Berrian really impressed me down the stretch but he's had injury problems (kind of nagging type injuries) while Bradley has had two major ligament injuries. Both have the talent to emerge as good #2's or 3's this year, however, they could both get hurt and than the team would be hurting for depth.

I'm real curious. The guy was one of the best backs in the past few years in college football and his skills really are a great fit to the offense we run. Ie a ball control version of the west coast offense that likes to run the ball a lot. Benson has been a workhorse type of back his entire life and he usually gets stronger when the game goes on. He is a decent catcher out of the backfield and while he isn't explosive he is able to get the tough yards. At least he was able to do all these things at the collegiate level and he showed flashes of doing some of this in his brief experience at the pro level. He seems to be saying all the right things now that he's a year into the league and will hopefully get a full training camp and exhibition season under his belt so he'll actually be in shape and ready to play (both mentally and physically) at the start of the 06 season.

It was interesting, but I do feel that Clark is a very capable TE. The Bears passing up on all the tight ends in the draft shows us one of a few things (could be all of these following things or just one). 1. That the Bears have a lot of confidence in our guy 2. That they didn't think that highly of the TE's left on the board (at least not compared to other players that were also on the board) 3. That our offense may not really plan on using the TE position all that much. I know Turner has often stated during the off-season that he wants more production at that position, but he also stated numerous times about wanting to do that without losing anything in terms of run blocking. Clark is a pretty darn good blocking TE.

Hopping on right now. All smilies should be back on Smilie table fixed.

Now time for me to fix the graphic.

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He's the type of WR that would make our WR corps much better, allowing us to eventually have 4 very strong WR's (in terms of Mush, Lelie, Bradley and Berrian). I'd definately be a fan of the move.

Easy schedule is hard to look at in the NFL since teams really change so much on a year to year basis (especially as of late).

If our line can block and our backs stay healthy the rushing attack should be above average. Mix that in with some talented (albeit inexperienced) WR's and two solid QBs and the makings of a decent offense are there but a lot of things will have to go right as well. I am glad Benson has done all the right things after his holdout and he is 100% and really starting to understand things. Hopefully he'll be able to make adjustments and improve his blocking cause we don't want Rex or anyone else taking unneeded hits. In terms of Jones it was comforting to see that he was able to come into ATA's and not miss a beat. We will need him to play this year as he is our #1 back, even though Benson could be better, having the vet there makes things a lot nicer.

Briggsy made the team. I'm really hoping we can get him inked long term because he's a big time piece to our defense.

I can't make any predictions yet, but I do think Mushin is going to have 1100 yards with Berrian and Bradley both having pretty good seasons if they stay healthy. I think in general we will be a much better passing offense and hopefully our line can block and the team can stay healthy. This should all help the rushing attack as well.

Just want to say welcome aboard. Its going to be really interesting to see what happens. If a legit 2nd and 3rd can really step up, things can get a lot easier for Mushin and in general our passing offense could drastically improve. I'm excited to see Berrian and Bradley get the 2nd and 3rd spots and I assume they will do exactly that barring injury but Davies is a really intriguing name. Davies is explosive and while he isn't the biggest guy in the world you can see Drake has been really impressed with the quick conversion he's made and he could be the type of guy we get the ball to on a short slant or a crossing pattern just to see him take the ball and turn it up field and make something happen. Our WR core is inexperienced, but the talent is there and we have a vet whose been there and done that leading the way. Best of all, these guys now have a year under Turner's system and we have more depth at QB.

This was his response (IN PFT) which was in response to an earlier PFT article. Pretty good article in general getting some info on both sides.

Seriously, really nice job by Angelo to get this guys signed and in camp in time. We are the first time to finish up having signed every draft pick and doing so well in advance. I guess this is one of the pluses to moving out of the 1st round, lol.

This is some good stuff. I've long felt that Grossman has the attitude and ability to become a complete gunslinger type QB. The question is whether he can put all those injuries behind him and start to stay on the field and play consistently for this entire year and obviously the upcoming years as well. One really interesting part of this article was the mention of Davies. I didn't realize we moved him to WR and Rex really said some nice things about him. Of course Rex isn't going to say anything bad about anyone in this, but he didn't have to completely rave like he did here. I'm now going to be watching Davies in the preseason games. I know he has some skills and was a hell of a playmaker in the CFL.

Miller did a nice job with the Bears and hopefully he's a solid announcer.

Nope, they are in negotiations with him though. Like I said, no pick higher than Hester (not named Mario Williams) has signed a contract yet. Only 21 draft picks have signed thus far.

This is from sports illustrated and its a writer or something along those lines whose making this comment but I think it shows the type of potential Bradley possesses. Hopefully he stays healthy and is just as fast/quick as he was before being hurt. That and he can continue to make progress with his hands and route-running.