adam

I don't think BM or Alshon can get any higher in fantasy because they will take away from each other's value a little bit, and add Forte and Bennett into that equation like Crackerdog said.

The initial Yahoo Fantasy Rankings is out. Here is how our favorite team fared: QB - Cutler - 14th RB - Forte - 6th WR - Marshall - 5th, Jeffery - 7th, Wilson - 86th TE - Bennett - 12th K - Gould - 11th DEF - CHI - 13th http://sports.yahoo.com/news/2014-fantasy-...-204748821.html To me, Cutler is a little low, I feel he should be from 8-12, Gould is low with this offense, easily top 10, and defense is probably a little high based on last year. Overall though, if they end up with these number, we have a really solid team.

and now a 2nd season in the system with essentially the same offensive players. Zero excuses this year.

You have to trust Trestman: http://www.talkbears.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=10108

Urlacher coming out of retirement to play for Dallas with Lee injured.

Wow, I knew he made bad decisions, I just didn't know he was that bad.

http://espn.go.com/blog/chicago/bears/

Mundy looking good (#sighofrelief):

Here are some interesting nuggets out of today's note: Jennings going to Nickel on passing downs: Williams looking good: Can our receiving corps get any better: SMC: Bostic: All that time on South Beach is paying off: http://espn.go.com/blog/chicago/bears/post...from-bears-otas http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2014/05/27/hog...-as-nickelback/

So how about, we should've kept McCown and traded Cutler?

I can see BM still playing at an elite level for 3-4 more years, especially in this offense. The emergence of Alshon will actually help Brandon's longevity.

Thanks guys, 21 yrs and counting for me. Just visited my Dad at Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery in Elwood this morning. bowling, your friend must go there, because the place was immaculate.

I know a lot of what-ifs, but if Urlacher plays and keeps the defense respectable, who knows what we do this off season. We would've potentially made the playoffs, got worse draft picks, and possibly an even tougher schedule. His early departure coupled with the defensive fallout might actually turn this thing around sooner than originally planned.

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap200000035...-nfl-offseasons Bucs #1, Bears #2, Broncos #3, Jags #4, Cardinals #5 Seems reasonably. Hard to see us not improving from last year, so that over on 8 wins looks like a really good bet.

It is better to let go a year early than a year late, but at least Urlacher can say he was not part of that train wreck of a defense last year.

Urlacher was let go a year too early, I can't believe this is already the 2nd season post-Urlacher. He was worth more than they were willing to pay him and the transition from post-Lovie would've been smoother with him in the middle.

He does remind me of Hester with his initial step/juke on returns.

The subtle roster turnover has been extraordinary. Not only are we cheaper, we are considerably younger. We also have no ridiculous contracts that end up being cap killers. I have the feeling that this is the first year of a long run of success for this team.

The rest of the 53 man roster? Even at league minimums, that adds up. We will more than likely re-sign a few others to extensions and then look to bring in 1-2 new FA's.

Sweet, glad to have him locked in now with salaries skyrocketing and the cap increasing.

I expect him to kick much better than Podlesh/Maynard so he wouldn't be a surprise to me.

Vereen or Fuller

Here he is with some practice punts:

of the 15 Punters in the last 2 years to average over 47 per punt, only 3 were undrafted. So drafting a punter late makes a lot of sense. Also, Punting may have been our biggest weakness over the past decade, but because of Gould and Hester on ST, it was overlooked. Going back to 2007 we have never been better than 22nd in punting, finished dead last twice, and 30th or worse 4 times. Our highest punt average was 43.9 (Podlesh 2011). Otherwise, we have been pretty bad: 41.8, 41.2, 41.4, 40.1, 43.9, 42.0, and 40.6. Those numbers were consistently 7-10 yards worse than the best punter in the league. I thought it may have been due to the number of kicks inside 20, but we rarely hit the top 10 in that category and there were always punters with better averages and more kicks inside 20 every year. This pick may have more impact than we think if he can average 46-47 per kick and give us 5 extra yards every possession.

I'm kinda ripped....