Bears4Ever_34

LB, WR, OL, TE are the 4 major needs going into the off-season. Offensive line needs an overhaul. TE in this offense is an absolute must. A speed receiver is also a must, as well as one or two young LB'ers. The way I view taking these players is simple: Every time your team is on the clock, look at your positional needs and determine which player is the best for his position. Then you figure out which one of those players is better at his position than one of the other guys are at their positions. *Here is an example* Positional Needs (No particular order)- WR, OT, OG, LB, TE First round, pick 20 Possible best players at their position by the time the Bears are on the clock-- WR- Tavon Austin, OT- Lane Johnson, OG- John Cooper, LB- Alec Ogletree, TE Tyler Eiffert Whichever player has the better grade out of those guys is the player I take. I would do that for each round. That way you don't miss (theoretically) on the best player, instead of simply going by what you think is your #1 need and taking whichever player happens to be available at the time you pick. Obviously Free agency is going to play a factor as well. That's where draft depth, per position comes into play. If you know that the draft isn't very deep at LB, for example, that might be the position you look to improve upon via Free agency.

I would wait to see what happens this season. If he doesn't get any better, franchise him, draft a young QB in next year's draft, and then make the decision on Cutler after the following year. You'll either have to re-sign him long term, trade him, or let him walk with a new QB hopefully ready to take over. A Superbowl appearance, barring a Rex Grossman esque debacle, should warrant a long term extension.

Add Tavon Austin to my list of potential Bear's picks that would excite me. Damn this kid can fly. And he runs good routes.

I've seen 3rd-4th round as being the most likely. It would not surprise me if he's goes before that. It would shock me if he fell all the way to the 6th or 7th. Off-Field issues aside, Mathieu is a top 40 talent.

If he passes the smell test, in terms of the extensive interviews that teams will put him through, I think this kid would be a great pickup. The second he lands on a team he will instantly make them better on special teams, and as a defensive player-- is a turnover making machine that seems to fit the Bear's style of defense perfectly.

- Alec Ogletree - Arthur Brown - Marquise Goodwin - Tyronn Mathieu - Tyler Eiffert All Guys I'm highly interested in thus far.

That's actually not a lie. Sadly.. Tebow could be a helluva TE if he gave up the whole quarterbacking thing..

I'd rather have Tyrann Mathieu return punts and play some nickel for us next year

Looks like that idiot Ray Lewis gets his wish.. I'm gonna puke. No idea why the 49'ers decided to run a fade on 4th down and not put the ball in the hands of Kaepernick via the run.

Not looking good for the 49'ers thus far. Flacco looks as poised as ever. Meanwhile, The 49'er defense has been horrible since Justin Smith's injury.

I'm rooting for Frisco. I'm sick of hearing about Ray Lewis, and I want to see Kaepernick run all over that defense. I don't think it will quite happen like that but I'll still go with Frisco 31-24. Kaepernick- 17/31 243 yards 2 TD's 0 INT, 6 carries 36 yards 1 TD Gore- 20 carries 109 yards 1 TD James- 4 carries 37 yards 1 TD, 1 catch 7 yards Crabtree- 6 catches 83 yards 1 TD Moss- 3 catches 42 yards 1 TD Davis- 7 catches 111 yards 0 TD Flacco 21/35 277 yards 3 TD's 1 INT Rice- 23 carries 90 yards 0 TD, 4 catches 35 yards Boldin- 5 catches 72 yards 1 TD Pitta- 3 catches 21 yards 1 TD Smith- 7 catches 119 yards 1 TD Jones- 2 catches 30 yards 0 TD

I really have enjoyed listening to Steve Young and Trent Dilfer over the last year talking about Cutler. I used to despise Dilfer until about a year ago when he realized that he wasn't anything more than average at best as an NFL quarterback. Steve always brings up Cutler's footwork, or lack there of, for how he can go from being good to great. The mechanics of quarterbacking is a tough thing to master, and when things go bad that's when the footwork goes to hell and he's throwing off his back foot or throwing it across his body into double coverage. It's those kind of things that I hope Trestman can coach out of him. He needs to make Cutler do a better job of valuing the football. If he can do that, you're talking about an MVP candidate.

I brought this idea up yesterday out of curiosity. I think it would be pretty cool. He will be 25 by the time the season starts so I don't know how high the ceiling is, but if Trestman truly is the quarterback whisperer, maybe he can work some magic with this kid. Would make for some pretty entertaining games between the Packers, going up against his older brother.

Two names I thought about today were the WR from Texas (Marquis Goodwin?) and Jordan Rodgers. That WR can run like nobody's business, and occasionally would line up behind the quarterback and mix in a few running plays. I'm not as serious about Rodgers, but I do think it would be pretty funny if the Bears, of all teams, took him with a 6th rounder to maybe one day square off against his brother.

How do you think they come up with the data in the first place? Just because they don't list every snap every player has ever taken doesn't mean they don't analyze play-by-play footage before coming up with a score. PFF is contracted with several NFL teams that trust their data enough to use for evaluation purposes. They actually work with real NFL people. So you can say that you could scrutinize their data, but at the same time, keep in mind that there are teams in the league right now that use that information to some degree. Football isn't a science, so no matter who's doing what, everything that's put out there should not be looked at as the "Be all end all." However, I would venture to say that when it comes to advanced statistics and player analysis, you'd be hard pressed to find better, more reliable information out there on the internet, than STATS inc. or PFF.

He's a friend of my cousin. Went to ISU at the same time. I don't really know too much about him though as a football player.

Who says he would sit on the bench? You could plug him in at SAM until Urlacher gets hurt, or retires at season's end. The value wouldn't be as great playing on the strong side but if you know he's eventually going to take over as MLB within a year, why would you not do it?

I'm a bit hesitant on taking someone like Lane Johnson with a 1st round pick because of that "Project" label. I haven't spent enough time really getting to know more about each player in the draft yet, but that label scares me. We just spent a first round pick last year on a project in McClellin who barely played. Is Johnson legit enough early on that he could become an impact player right away, like 1st rounders are generally suppose to do? I'd feel more comfortable if it was Warmack or Fisher.

Why? He's not 25 years old anymore, and frankly, not really that good either. You have to look at the bigger picture. We NEED youth at LB. Urlacher's time is up at some point, whether it's right now or after the year. Briggs isn't getting any younger either. I think it would be incredibly dumb to use Urlacher's re-signing as a reason to diminish the level of need at that position.

Regardless of whether or not the Bears re-sign Urlacher, they still need to get younger at LB. Signing him should have no baring on what direction they go in the draft.

If the mods want to change the thread title, feel free. It doesn't bother me at all. I can see there are still people on here that are up in arms about it. Frankly, the more this story drags on the worse it looks for Te'o. From the very beginning, he should have sat down in front of the press and answered every single question about this story until nobody had anymore questions to ask him. If he's 100% innocent, this should have been easy. There certainly shouldn't have been anything to hide. Instead, he hires a lawyer and gets coached up on what to say before he sits down and does these scheduled interviews. He hasn't done himself any favors. They have only made him look worse.

I don't know what the exact number was, but I was surprised to hear McClellin had near the most total disruptions this season for the team despite missing games and his playing time being sporadic. Tells you that he made his snaps count. My question is whether or not he has it in him to become more than just a 3rd down pass rusher. As a 1st round pick, he better, or it was a failure.

Some other team can have fun with that. Don't want lineman with back injuries, and I certainly don't want expensive lineman with a back injury.

My only point being is that everybody always says we don't have the personnel to run a true 3-4, but in reality, no base 4-3 defense has perfect personnel to run it either, otherwise they'd already be doing it. It applies to almost every team. It doesn't have to be a zero sum situation either. Meaning, making a switch = wasted season. The Bears could switch to a 3-4 today and be successful after one off-season. The problem is more about being able to sustain success as a 3-4. GB lost a few key players to their defense after the Superbowl season that they haven't been able to replace. It is hard to consistently draft the right players for that defense.

Name me teams in the past that have had the personnel in place already to move to a 3-4 defense before they actually make the change.