Bears4Ever_34

Oakland was the most penalized team in the National Football league this year and I believe set a record for it. They were an awful football team this year. Denver has Tim Tebow. Need I say more? They have virtually no offensive game to speak of and the only time they were winning was when their defense carried them and allowed them to stay close in games. Kansas City had probably the 2nd worst backup in the league next to Caleb Haine and lossed all of their good players to injuries. They were terrible. Seattle was below average. And Minnesota currently has a top 3 draft pick. You said, "you can't simply add Cutler and everything else is guaranteed to stay the same". What doesn't Cutler affect when he's out there? Or any quarterback for that matter? They are the single most important part to a game for any position in sports. His play affects field position, how many points we score, the defensive strategy (less 8-9 man boxes), and time of possession on offense which directly correlates to how much time the defense has to be on the field. My response was that you are right. Nothing is guaranteed to same because it most likely gets better for us when Cutler is playing. There is no word games to be played. How? Your words insinuate that you don't believe you can make the argument that adding a player of Cutler's caliber translates into winning all those games against awful football teams. But almost any human on earth would tell you that if you inserted a guy like Peyton Manning in place of Curtis Painter you win alot of football games. Of course there is always a chance you lose games, it happens to everyone but the Bears had as great a chance as anyone to finish the season off with only 1 more loss after winning 7 out of 10 games because of the sub par teams they were playing. I firmly believe in all of those remaining games with the exception of GB would have been pretty damn convincing wins. No it's not. Luck is luck. Judging luck is stupid and pointless. Things going a little better than expected? What does that even mean? If Caleb Haine plays atleast average football we are in the playoffs. The only thing that he couldn't do was be terrible and he was beyond that. If there was anyone that had luck on their side it was the team playing against the Bears. 2 pick sixes has a lot to do with it, which is what I said. Cutler's skill allows him to get away with interceptions from time to time, Caleb is simply a talentless quarterback that doesn't have that luxury. In his worst game as a quarterback Haine put the final dagger in the Bears and took the wind right out of their sails. The psychological impact from the loss of Cutler was noticeable in the very first game without him but it only got worse as the year went on and then losing our RB didn't help the cause. That game was just a microcosm of how far the Bears had fallen off w/o #6 where everything just went south in a hurry. Before Cutler went down I think people took what we had in him for granted. I know I did. I honestly couldn't believe how wrong I was about how great of a quarterback he actually was after seeing what he had behind him and how he worked magic with the talent on offense. It was a real eye opener for all Bears fans. I think you are losing sight of just how much of a difference he makes. Eh, it kind of is. Winning by two or more scores is really where I was getting at in my statements. We would have won all of those games but there would have been some like the Chiefs, and Broncos games that would have ended in blowout wins and then there probably would have been some like the Raiders, Hawks games that still would have been won by double digits but perhaps not to the degree of the other two. Still, nonetheless it would have been a game that was never in any doubt which is what I believe constitutes the word, 'easy' as an appropriate word to describe it. This conversation isn't going to get anywhere, so I've said all I need to say about how I feel, and there really isn't anything out there that could change my perception of where this team was going and the type of teams we were going up against, unless you can tell me that all of those teams upgraded their talent level considerably before each of those games and could convince me that Jay Cutler wasn't a great quarterback.

Can't say I disagree with anything in this post. I've suspected for awhile now that Mike Tice would be the new OC. We're essentially in the same position we were in when Mike Martz became OC. Guys like Bates still won't come here when Lovie is again in a make or break year.

My hypothetical is also highly probable due to the fact that the teams we played were god awful while we were busy winning 5 in a row. You're right, adding Cutler doesn't make things stay the same, it makes them much much better. It's like going from Curtis Painter to Peyton Manning. The Colts easily win more than 2 games with Manning healthy for the season. Is that not fair to say? It works both ways though. Wasn't Denver lucky that Marion Barber found a way to single handily cost us the game with his numerous miscues throughout the game? The illegal formation, the stepping out of bounds, the fumble etc.. Was Kansas City lucky that Chris Conte decided to slap the ball away from Urlacher in the final seconds of the half, leading to a hail mary touchdown? Lol 2 pick 6's is going to do that to you. Has Cutler ever done that in his career? I don't believe so. Cutler is also a player that while having an off game, has the ability to get his team back into the game by making some good passes. All you get with Haine is either bad or really bad. Yeah but they also didn't lose to a Tyler Palko lead offense. Kyle Orton is a serviceable quarterback in this league. I still think anytime you go up against a significantly worse team basically 4 games in a row after Cutler went down, you should win this games and with the way we were playing at the time most of those games would have been won by double digits if not all of them.

Did it make anyone else feel a little uneasy when you found out that Ted Phillips pretty much is in control of everything important for the organization? Because it did to me.

Why can't they just fire Tim Ruskell? He was Jerry's hand picked guy and now he's gone. Makes no sense to keep him.

I don't see how it's an exaggeration in the least bit. Did you see what we were up against?? Cutler could not have played any worse than Caleb Haine did in those 5 games he started in. And we were in ALL of those games! The way Cutler was playing we would have easily beaten the Raiders, Chiefs (Tyler Palko? lol), the Broncos (Tim Tebow? lol) and the Seattle Seahawks. None of those teams are playoff teams and at the time Cutler went down the Bears were scoring 26 ppg which was good enough for 6th in the league. I can't honestly see any scenario in which the Bears lose any of those games that Caleb Haine played in. He was playing at quite possibly the worst possible level you could play at quarterback and we were still in every single game until the very end. There is no way in the world that Jay Cutler plays that poorly in the same games and gets the same result. All they needed is essentially a Josh Mcown to come in and play like he did and they still probably win most of those games. Average football beats those teams and Jay Cutler was playing well beyond average before his injury.

Tim Ruskell is still there. That has me worried a little bit.

I'm thinking it's going to be Tice. But I'm not a big fan of that because he's never called plays before and we really don't have any idea of what system he would want to run. I imagine, being an offensive line guy, he'll go with a run heavy offense but as we've seen with Bob Babich, there is a huge difference between being a position coach and a coordinator.

Dan Pompei on twitter: Cutler won't be happy about that. Time to bring in a west coast guy. Who that is? I have no idea.

Yeah but that's drafts beyond the last 5 years. He had an excellent run for a while but then him and his son started to suck and suck alot from 2005-on. It's a "What have you done for me lately" league and lately he's been pretty bad.

I wanted Cowher a couple of years ago but at what point is he not even going to be looked at as a candidate anymore? How long has he been out of the league now? 5-6 years? Jeff Fischer is nice but he really hasn't been any more successful than Lovie has during his tenure with Tennessee. Just one Super bowl appearance and alot of mediocrity after that. I'm not a Lovie Smith fan but I don't know if there is a guy out there now that I can definitely say is a clear upgrade over him. Maybe Gruden? He might be the only guy right now that I can think of but I'm blacking out on names.

Polian is 69 years old, he's closer to retirement than he is running another team. I don't want him, especially if his son is involved who practically ruined the entire franchise with his draft picks. Here's the list of 1st round draft picks in the last 5 years. 2005 29 Marlin Jackson CB Michigan 2006 30 Joseph Addai RB Louisiana State 2007 32 Anthony Gonzalez WR Ohio State 2008 — — No Pick — — [18] 2009 27 Donald Brown RB Connecticut 2010 31 Jerry Hughes DE Texas Christian 2011 22 Anthony Castonzo OT Boston College None of those guys are standout players and they're ALL 1st rounders! That's horrendous.

Both of those have Michael Floyd going 13th.. And like I said, he's the #1 that I really really want. I wouldn't trade up for Jeffery but I would for Floyd.

Fire Lovie Smith too while they're at it! I wish..

It better not be Tim Ruskell to replace him or we actually get worse.

You are really all over the place with this one. I'm not sure what point you are trying to make. You say we lost 4 out of 5 games to teams without winning records but that was without Cutler. I'm not talking about w/o Cutler. I'm talking as if we had him. We would easily be 12-4. We had 7 wins at the time he went down, while he was playing the best football of his career, do you honestly believe we would not have beat the Raiders, the Chiefs, Broncos, or Seahawks with #6? We were in all of those games with one of the worst quarterbacks in football. How would we not easily beat any of those teams with a significantly better quarterback?

They would have been 12-4 if Cutler had not gone down with his injury. They aren't bad like an 8-8 team but they still need to invest in getting younger impact players on defense. Urlacher, Briggs, and Tilman can only play at a high level for so long before they start to decline. Melton is the only young starter out there that I see significant talent in. Moore is the other but he's not a starter.

I myself would rather add a #1 receiver through the draft if at all possible. There aren't a whole lot of spring chickens out there that will be available at WR in free agency, and I'd like someone here that can grow with Cutler and be here for the long haul as opposed to a guy that is already borderline 30 waiting for that inevitable decline in performance. Floyd, Blackmon, and Jeffery are the cream of the crop when it comes to standout WR's. Obviously Blackmon will be gone before the top 5 selections are made so he's out of the question but Floyd, from most mocks that I've seen has fallen somewhere between 8-16, sorta that middle tier part of the first round. The way we are positioned now, outside of that middle tier, and unless I'm completely wrong about where Floyd will fall, we would need to trade up to get him. Whatever we do, we NEED to add 2 quality starting receivers before the start of next year.

That's one way of viewing it. Another way would be that because of that security, a loss isn't going to make or break his tenure with the Bears. It's not like another loss all of a sudden means he's out as head coach. Although I wouldn't mind it . I do think Lovie will push to have Martz resigned but it's not going to be an ultimatum sort of deal where its either him or me. That would be pretty ballsy of Lovie to do something like that and frankly I don't think he has it in him to force the hand of his GM. I'm not a fan of having Tice come in to be the OC. Cutler has already let it be known he'd like Martz back and I think that will play a role in his resigning but ultimately it comes down to whether or not Angelo offers Martz that pay raise he believes he's worth. If I had to guess I'd say he doesn't and I'm not even sure if Martz wants to come back. He may explore other coaching venues whether it be in the NFL or college. He comes off as the type of guy who likes to be wanted. I'm not sure he's got that here in Chicago because like you said, it was Lovie not Angelo that wanted him here to begin with.

Flynn is good because of the talent around him but also because of the coaches. After watching this kid carve up New England last year, he reminded me of Aaron Rodgers.. mannerisms and all were nearly identical to Rodgers.

I have yet to see a mock draft from a credible site that has either one slipping past 16th. There are way too many bad teams ahead of us that need WR talent for them to pass up on either Floyd or Jeffery. With Barkley going back to college that doesn't help. We will need to trade up to get Floyd. Jeffery may slip if his 40 time is not very good but I'm not sold on him like I am with the other two.

General Managers and Owners look at the bigger picture and have authority over the Head Coach. You're not telling them to go out and tank games, you are putting lesser talented players on the field to simply "Get a look". I don't get what part of this you guys don't understand. Teams do this from time to time when it's the last week of the season with nothing to play for and you've got some banged up superstar players. You take them out and put in their subs to see what you've got for next year.

But they could have made the excuse that they were evaluating some of the young guys. They could have started Enderle, put Decico in, all the scrubs.. Which of course we didn't do because our dumb ass coach thinks a win would end the season "on a good note". My ass.

Wow this pisses me off even more. If we would have lost we would have got the 11th pick! 11th now to 19th thanks to these losers. Unbelievable. Say goodbye to Michael Floyd or any of the high end players in this draft. The Bears ALWAYS find a way to screw things up.

I felt like crying when I saw Major Wright thrust himself into the body of Urlacher, only to see his facial expression as he grabbed at his knee in significant, noticeable pain.