adam

DG, One huge factor to consider is Hester was catching passes from Orton and Jackson was catching passes from Rivers. Also, the Bears conservative offense gave him his 13 YPC. Also, how many of those chances that Hester got were actually decent? He did have his share of drops, but there were a lot of bad passes thrown his way as well. I don't like YPC compared to YAC which Hester actually beat Jackson 4.2 to 3.6. Can Hester really control when he actually gets the ball (8 yards down the field compared to 15 yards down the field)?

I wish him the best of luck. I am curious to see the terms of the deal. It is amazing that he has only appeared in 36 games over the past 5 years.

Yeah, 600 yards is not much over a course of a full season. If he passed for 10 more yards per quarter over 16 games that would be 640 yards overall. I don't think 4,000 yards is out of reason for Cutler. For Hester, I think he can be better than Jackson. Look at Jackson's numbers a little deeper: - 2008 was his 4th year in the league and first with over 1,000 yards. (2008 was Hester's 2nd year at WR) - So Hester is still technically less developed as a WR than Jackson. - Jackson had a 3.6 YAC in 2008 and career is 3.2 (Hester had a 4.2 in 2008 and has a career 5.0 YAC) - His Avg was 18.6 in 2008 (compared to Hester's 13.0) So those numbers tell me that Jackson was getting the ball deeper down the field (about 6 yards deeper than Hester) every reception and actually doing less after the catch than Hester. So he basically benefited from the scheme by about (59*6) 354 yards. If you subtract those yards from Jackson he is looking at 59-744 compared to Hester's 51-665. Also, looking at 1st Down catches, Jackson blew Hester away 52-29, again telling me he was catching the ball near or beyond the 1st Down marker everytime whereas Hester was getting these little dink and dunks.

I think you are over-rating playing together. If that was the case, Atlanta's offense should've sucked last year. They had a rookie QB, a new RB who was not even a starter on his former team (Turner) with no real threat at TE and a brand new HC to boot. So using your logic, Atlanta should've finished 6-10?

Mongo, it was more of comparing the 2008 SD offensive production with the 2009 Chicago offensive production.

I think that is one of the best comparisons you can make across the board on offense. With that offensive production, we probably would've went 11-5 or 12-4 last year since we lost 3 games by 3 pts or less.

Yeah from our perspective, we don't have much exposure to it.

QB's have a huge impact on the success of receivers. Look what Marshall did before Cutler became the starting QB. There are so many examples of this. I actually think the quality of the QB is under-rated in terms of the performance of other players.

http://www.chicagobears.com/news/NewsStory.asp?story_id=5887 I am really excited about a healthy Kevin Jones and a fully developed Olsen. He looked great on the video clips. Forte and Jones have the opportunity to form a really solid duo out of the backfield.

That would be sweet.

From Marshall's blog: He gone. http://www.bmarshall15.com/blog/?p=142#more-142

The game sort of dictates what schemes are effective at the time. If the Cover-2 is completely "figured out", now matter how good your players are, as long as the other team executes, you're toast. So Lovie might have no choice but to move to some other scheme, even if it is not one he is an expert in.

Here we go: http://community.kdvr.com/_AGENT-BREAKING-...9.html?as=96399

Of all the coaches, I believe Marinelli is going to make the biggest impact. He was the TB DL coach when they were flat out dominate and was also the Asst HC when they won the SB. So if there is not improvement on the D side of the ball this year, Babich and Lovie could both be in hot water. I would just promote Marinelli to DC and leave Babich as the LB's coach.

Has he played since his injury/surgery?

http://espn.go.com/chicago/columns/blog?po...;name=dickerson

Erik Kramer in 1995 was really the last time we had a legitimate Passing threat when he threw for a franchise record 3,838 yards. He did it passing to the likes of Jeff Graham (who led the team in receiving) and Curtis Conway. The 3rd best receiver that year was the FB Tony Carter. Wow. Rashaan Salaam was the lead RB with 1074 rushing yards. Here are some other stats to chew on: The Bears have had only 5 seasons where a QB threw for more than 3,000 yards (Kramer x2, Grossman, Wade, and Harbaugh). Grossman is #2, thats how bad we've been. Many are predicting Cutler to average over that mark every year. He would break the franchise career passing yards in less than 5 years (Luckman 14,686). The Bears have had only 7 seasons where a QB threw for more than 20 TD's (Kramer, Luckman x2, Lujack, Grossman, Wade, and Bukich). Only 2 in the Super Bowl era. The Bears have had only 4 seasons where a QB had a QB rating over 88.0 (Luckman, Bukich, Wade, and Kramer). Only Kramer in the Super Bowl era. Jim McMahon is the only Bears QB to make the Pro Bowl in the Super Bowl era. So Grossman gave us some hope a few years ago, but even that year he only had a 73.9 QB Rating. Like BearFan2000 said, we are in completely uncharted territory as Bear's fans, and I am happy to be here.

More http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=4256679

http://www.denverpost.com/broncos/ci_12581741 I thought this was interesting and sort of related to Cutler.

The Bears are 16-16 since losing the Super Bowl, and Lovie's stock has fallen ever since that point. So if he was a top 5 coach that year, I could easily see him falling to 20 in 2 years+. This is a pretty important year for him. That Super Bowl visit seems like a faint memory now, and if we don't make the playoffs this year (3 straight years), the Bears will have to really consider a coaching change after the season. Ditka never had back to back non-playoff seasons as the Bears HC (full seasons). Also, Lovie is the highest paid coach in the NFL (tied with Fisher).

I'm in.

Last time I checked, it has been over 100 years since the Cubs won the World Series, so I don't think a half game better this year matters much.

Yeah, the Marshall/Royal argument is a little over done IMO. Marshall didn't do squat until Cutler started as QB and Royal was the 5th Receiver taken in the draft that had 0 go in the 1st Round. You can't give Cutler all the credit, but you can't discount his piece of Marshall's and Royal's success. Lets see how they do with Orton at the helm. Wesson, what is Cutler's record when the defense allows more than 21 pts?

I believe the Bears will have one of the more balanced attacks in the game this year. Last year we were actually pretty good in that department, but the completion % of the QB's masked it somewhat. Last year: 434 Rush (45%) 528 Pass (55%)

http://games.espn.go.com/ffl/tools/project...amp;proTeamId=3 Cutler - 3795 yards, 24 TD, 16 INT Forte - 1210 yards, 9 TD, 458 Rec yards, 2 TD Olsen - 66 - 802, 6 TD Hester - 61 - 784, 5 TD Bennett - 53 - 567, 5 TD Iglesias - 53 - 572, 2 TD I found it somewhat funny that if you add all the Bears WR, TE, and RBs receiving stats, they are around 4400 yards, yet Cutler only has 3795 (so much for accuracy). I would actually be pleased if Bennett and Iglesias put up those type of numbers. Forte is the #4 rated player for FFB, Cutler is 76, Olsen is 98, and Hester is 108. That is actually a pretty good mix having your QB, RB, TE, and WR all within that range.