adam

Not this year, we can't afford to give up the picks.

I am sure Emery gave his agent something, but just like Urlacher, Emery does not really tie loyalty to financials. So more than likely, the contract terms are going to be less than Tillman can get elsewhere (Tampa?).

https://twitter.com/mikecwright/status/436992648398647296 I would really like to see Ratliff back. He will only get better.

I don't mind the picks, but I doubt Ealy makes it to 19. Also, Miami has as many needs as us (maybe more due to Incognito/Martin), so I can't see them trading up.

Bennett's choices will probably come down to: 1. Stay in Seattle for the least amount of money but best chance at another SB 2. Come to the Bears and play with his brother for more money than Seattle, but less than other clubs 3. Go to another team with more cap space and get the largest contract possible So if playing with his brother is worth a $1 or $2 million a year, it is possible, but unlikely.

Yeah, that doesn't sound promising.

At least he admits his mistake, both Jones and Mercilus would've been better picks.

I am confused, you freed up $13.75 million with those players and we already had around $13.5 under the cap. So we are starting with over $27 million. Also, Emery has a bunch of those conversion contracts (Cutler, Gould, Jennings, Slauson) where he can convert current salary into a bonus. So he can take $14 million for Cutler this year and spread it over the life of the deal reducing this year's hit by $12 million. So we have as much room as we need.

So you are saying there's a chance!

I would just say any offensive player unless it was OL from the top 10, if Matthews or Lewan dropped (doubtful), it would be hard to pass that up unless there was a comparable defensive player that was more of a need. I would be happy with DL and DB in the first two picks (any order). We really need DT, DE, S, and CB in the first 4-5 rounds unless there is another player there that is too good to pass up.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/goodell-made-...44098--nfl.html I wonder what the salary cap is for the league office? How about you take $12 million and give each team an extra $1 million in free salary cap paid by the league. Only 8 CEO's made more in salary in 2012, and a bunch created the companies: http://www.forbes.com/lists/2012/12/ceo-co...on-12_rank.html I know the NFL makes a ton of money, but damn, $44 million for the commish?

True, but we do not know what style of defense we are going to run, and I can't see investing in another DE in the 1st only 2 years removed from taking SMC. I know that technically doesn't matter because you fill a need with BPA, but I still think someone like Dix would be the biggest upgrade at any one position on the team. So if Nix, Ealy, Jernigan, Dennard, and Dix are there at 14, you go with Ealy?

It almost seems like our first 4 rounds will come from those 2 groups with needs at Safety, DT, DE, and CB. It would be great to get all 4 players from the groups in bold. Safety seems to be the thinnest group, so Clinton-Dix in the first would seem to net the most value unless someone from the top 10 drops.

Defensive backs Mo Alexander (SS), Utah State Ricardo Allen (CB), Purdue Dion Bailey (SS), USC Deion Belue (CB), Alabama Bene Benwikere (CB), San Jose State Nat Berhe (SS), San Diego State Tre Boston (SS), North Carolina Bashaud Breeland (CB), Clemson 6-0, 185 Terrence Brooks (FS), Florida State 5-11, 197 Deone Bucannon (SS), Washington State 6-1, 216 Travis Carrie (CB), Ohio Ha Ha Clinton-Dix (FS), Alabama 6-1, 208 Ross Cockrell (CB), Duke Aaron Colvin (CB), Oklahoma Chris Davis (CB), Auburn Darqueze Dennard (CB), Michigan State 5-11, 197 Pierre Desir (CB), Lindenwood 6-1, 195 Ahmad Dixon (SS), Baylor Brandon Dixon (CB), Northwest Missouri State Jonathan Dowling (SS), Western Kentucky Antone Exum (CB), Virginia Tech Kyle Fuller (CB), Virginia Tech 6-0, 194 E.J. Gaines (CB), Missouri 5-10, 195 Phillip Gaines (CB), Rice Justin Gilbert (CB), Oklahoma State 6-0, 200 Demetri Goodson (CB), Baylor Dre Hal (CB), Vanderbilt Victor Hampton (CB), South Carolina 5-10, 202 Marqueston Huff (FS), Wyoming Bennett Jackson (CB), Notre Dame Kendall James (CB), Maine Stanley Jean-Baptiste (CB), Nebraska 6-3, 215 Dontae Johnson (CB), North Carolina State LaMarcus Joyner (CB), Florida State 5-8, 190 Kenny Ladler (FS), Vanderbilt Nevin Lawson (CB), Utah State Isaiah Lewis (SS), Michigan State Craig Loston (SS), LSU 6-1, 214 Dexter McDougle (CB), Maryland Keith McGill (CB), Utah 6-3, 214 Terrance Mitchell (CB), Oregon 6-0, 190 Jabari Price (CB), North Carolina Calvin Pryor (FS), Louisville 6-2, 208 Loucheiz Purifoy (CB), Florida 6-0, 190 Keith Reaser (CB), Florida Atlantic Ed Reynolds (FS), Stanford 6-2, 206 Rashaad Reynolds (CB), Oregon State Marcus Roberson (CB), Florida 6-0, 195 Bradley Roby (CB), Ohio State 5-11, 192 Daniel Sorensen (FS), BYU Dez Southward (FS), Wisconsin Vinnie Sunseri (SS), Alabama Jemea Thomas (CB), Georgia Tech Brock Vereen (FS), Minnesota Jason Verrett (CB), TCU 5-10, 176 Jimmie Ward (SS), Northern Illinois 5-11, 191 Todd Washington (CB), Southeastern Louisiana Jaylen Watkins (CB), Florida 6-0, 194 Lavelle Westbrooks (CB), Georgia Southern * Players in bold projected in first half of draft (w/ Ht and Wt)

Defensive linemen Jay Bromley (DT), Syracuse Ryan Carrethers (DT), Arkansas State Will Clarke (DE), West Virginia Jadeveon Clowney (DE), South Carolina DeAndre Coleman (DT), California Scott Crichton (DE), Oregon State Aaron Donald (DT), Pittsburgh Kony Ealy (DE), Missouri Dominique Easley (DT), Florida Kasim Edebali (DE), Boston College Justin Ellis (DT), Louisiana Tech IK Enemkpali (DE), Louisiana Tech Ego Ferguson (DT), LSU Dee Ford (DE), Auburn James Gayle (DE), Virginia Tech Ra'Shede Hageman (DT), Minnesota Taylor Hart (DE), Oregon Kerry Hyder (DT), Texas Tech Jackson Jeffcoat (DE), Texas Timmy Jernigan (DT), Florida State Anthony Johnson (DT), LSU DaQuan Jones (DT), Penn State Howard Jones (DE), Shephard Zach Kerr (DT), Delaware Demarcus Lawrence (DE), Boise State Aaron Lynch (DE), South Florida Eathyn Manumaleuna (DE), BYU Cassius Marsh (DE), UCLA Kareem Martin (DE), North Carolina Josh Mauro (DE), Stanford Daniel McCullers (DT), Tennessee Tevin Mims (DE), South Florida Zach Moore (DE), Concordia (Minn.) Jonathan Newsome (DE), Ball State Louis Nix III (DT), Notre Dame Jeoffrey Pagan (DE), Alabama Tenny Palepoi (DT), Utah Mike Pennel (DT), Colorado State-Pueblo Kelcy Quarles (DT), South Carolina Kaleb Ramsey (DE), Boston College Caraun Reid (DT), Princeton Michael Sam (DE), Missouri Chris Smith (DE), Arkansas Marcus Smith (DE), Louisville Shamar Stephen (DT), Connecticut Ed Stinson (DE), Alabama Will Sutton (DT), Arizona State Robert Thomas (DT), Arkansas Khyri Thornton (DT), Southern Mississippi Stephon Tuitt (DE), Notre Dame George Uko (DE), USC Brent Urban (DT), Virginia Larry Webster (DE), Bloomsburg Ethan Westbrooks (DE), West Texas A&M Chris Whaley (DT), Texas Kerry Wynn (DT), Richmond * Players in bold projected in first half of draft

Combine workout schedule: » Saturday, Feb. 22: Tight ends, offensive linemen, special teams » Sunday, Feb. 23: Quarterbacks, running backs, wide receivers » Monday, Feb. 24: Defensive linemen, linebackers » Tuesday, Feb. 25: Defensive backs

I updated the first post with the latest changes. Can't wait until the combine!

http://thesidelineview.com/columns/nfl/for...2013-nfl-season Interesting article written by Angelo on a site that I did not know of. He grouped him with Ryan, Stafford, and Romo, which seems pretty hard to argue with. I just wouldn't put Cutler behind Kaepernick or Smith. He has Cam Newton at the same level as Brees? ESPN adds a little to it here: http://espn.go.com/chicago/nfl/story/_/id/...nsistent-clutch This is what Angelo says about Cutler: I don't know how accurate this is because saying he can only read half the field or is not comfortable reading defenses seems a little extreme for someone who is experienced as Cutler. I just think he believes his arm can get the ball anywhere against any coverage. The poise part is odd to me because I didn't really see a lack of poise on Jay's part, and for inconsistency in the clutch, I swear he had a very high 4th Quarter QBR. I also think year 2 under Trestman will yield some huge improvements. I guess the scary part about this if Angelo is correct. We just paid a lot of money for a guy who is inconsistent in the clutch, lacks poise, and is not comfortable reading defenses. However, I thought that this was odd coming from a guy who traded a lot for him, and then surrounded him with absolutely nothing (outside of Forte). It almost seems like Angelo thought Cutler alone could come in and save the team with no one to throw to.

I really hope it is someone on the defensive side of the ball, SMC, Bostic, or Greene.

Hell, even final mock drafts for 1st round picks alone are less than 10% accurate. One pick derails the entire thing. Most just go off basic need and best available at that position, which is all you can really do.

Which makes the stat about the Bears only having one season in the last 10 over a +10 pretty amazing. So even though we were getting turnovers, the offense was making too many of their own to really take advantage of them. Based on all the other teams with high ratios, it does show a strong trend.

Updated 2-13-2014 Timmy Jernigan, DT, Florida St, ESPN (McShay), 2/6/2014, http://espn.go.com/blog/chicago/bears/post...x-chicago-bears Timmy Jernigan, DT, Florida St, ESPN (Kiper), 2/6/2014, http://espn.go.com/blog/chicago/bears/post...x-chicago-bears Timmy Jernigan, DT, Florida St, USA TODAY, 2/3/2014, http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/d...lowney/5182783/ Timmy Jernigan, DT, Florida St, CBS SPORTS (BRUGLER), 2/11/2014, http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/draft/mock-draft Aaron Donald, DT, Pitt, SI.com (Farrar), 2/6/2014, http://nfl.si.com/2014/02/06/2014-nfl-mock...-bridgewater-3/ Kony Ealy, DE, Missouri, NFLMocks.com, 2/3/2014, http://nflmocks.com/2014/02/03/chicago-bea...nfl-mock-draft/ Kony Ealy, DE, Missouri, SB Nation, 2/3/2014, http://www.sbnation.com/nfl-mock-draft/201...ddy-bridgewater Darquee Dennard, CB, Michigan St, CBS SPORTS (RANG), 2/11/2014, http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/draft/mock-draft Ra'Shede Hageman, DT, Minnesota, DraftTek, 2/12/2014, http://www.drafttek.com/2014-NFL-Mock-Draft-Round1.asp Ha-Ha Clinton-Dix, S, Alabama, WalterFootball, 2/4/2014, http://walterfootball.com/draft2014.php Ha-Ha Clinton-Dix, S, Alabama, CBS SPORTS (PRISCO), 2/11/2014, http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/draft/mock-draft * Recent changes or additions underlined

We beat Dallas in Week 14.

Money would not be available until 2015, so I can see some restructured deals to save money this year, maybe Peppers post June 1 cut?

I saw a note that Seattle was the first team since TB (02-03) that won the Super Bowl and had the best turnover ratio (+20) on the year. I thought that was odd, so I looked back the last 10 years to see how teams finished based solely on turnover ratio. Now I know there are a million ways to skin a cat in terms of backwards compiling data, but I found this one stat alone very interesting to say the least. I don't know if you can draw the same conclusions from pts scored, pts allowed, ranked defense, ranked offense, top 10 QB, top 10 running game, etc, but this data seems to have a very solid correlation between turnover ratio and wins. Here is what I found from 2013-2004: - 50 teams since 2004 have had a turnover margin of +10 or greater - 43 (86%) of those teams finished with at least 10 wins, and only 1 team finished with a losing record (CAR 7-9 in 2004) - 11.4 was the average win total for teams with a +10 or higher - Teams with +10 in 2013 (SEA, KC, IND, SF, PHI, and CAR), all made the playoffs - 2004 was an odd year, as it had 3 of the 7 teams without 10 wins (BAL 9, BUF 9, CAR 7) Now obviously, teams can overcome turnovers, or lack of take-aways and still win games, but turnover margin seems like the strongest indicator of success over almost everything else (besides scoring more than the other team). So maybe it should come as no surprise that SEA (+20) crushed DEN (+0) and that any of those teams listed above would've made for a more competitive game against SEA. Finally, I looked at the Bears since 2004 and compared the same thing, wins to turnover ratio. The Bears have had 3 seasons worse than .500 since 2004, and in each of those years they finished with a losing record. Every other year, they finished at 8-8 or better and had a positive turnover ratio. The most amazing part about the Bears is we only had one season in the last 10 with a turnover ratio over +10, in 2012 when we had a +20, finished 10-6, and somehow missed the playoffs (Lovie's last year).