Is anybody else worried?

[vegas1211]

Is anybody else worried about our chances going into the 08' season. I am beginning to wonder what the Bears are thinking. I cannot believe that they truly think it is possible to find a starting LT, LG, WR, potential starting RB, and starting quality safety, not to mention a third QB and depth at DT all in one draft. Angelo has been sitting on his hands while potential quality at htese positions has been gobbled up in free agency and not every contract has broken the bank. I am still wondering why we have yet to make an offer to Olivea, or Eugene Wilson. Mike Brown seems to be hurt every year, and Archuletta is terrible. Danile Manning may become a good free safety, but Kevin Payne is untested and is looking like he will be more of a special teams player then every down safety. And if they think that they are going to improve our woefull running game by attempting to fill the guard position on the cheap mvia an in-house competition they are sorely mistaken. It is no wonder they are going out looking for a new PR agency, becuase they are going to need all the help they can get selling us fans on a lack-luster effort to improve this off-season.

[azbearsfan]

Is anybody else worried about our chances going into the 08' season. I am beginning to wonder what the Bears are thinking. I cannot believe that they truly think it is possible to find a starting LT, LG, WR, potential starting RB, and starting quality safety, not to mention a third QB and depth at DT all in one draft. Angelo has been sitting on his hands while potential quality at htese positions has been gobbled up in free agency and not every contract has broken the bank. I am still wondering why we have yet to make an offer to Olivea, or Eugene Wilson. Mike Brown seems to be hurt every year, and Archuletta is terrible. Danile Manning may become a good free safety, but Kevin Payne is untested and is looking like he will be more of a special teams player then every down safety. And if they think that they are going to improve our woefull running game by attempting to fill the guard position on the cheap mvia an in-house competition they are sorely mistaken. It is no wonder they are going out looking for a new PR agency, becuase they are going to need all the help they can get selling us fans on a lack-luster effort to improve this off-season.

 

 

I'd be more worried if we were throwing big money at mediocre players. That kills you more in the future then anything else.

 

The reason we haven't made an offer to Olivea is because he is garbage. You dont bring in a guy who is no better than what we have just because he plays Oline.

And Payne looked pretty good to me last year.

 

I agree we need to upgrade the oline, but why get all upset right now?

[vegas1211]

I'd be more worried if we were throwing big money at mediocre players. That kills you more in the future then anything else.

 

The reason we haven't made an offer to Olivea is because he is garbage. You dont bring in a guy who is no better than what we have just because he plays Oline.

And Payne looked pretty good to me last year.

 

I agree we need to upgrade the oline, but why get all upset right now?

 

I understand where you are comming from to a point. Although I do think that Olivea is better than Metcalf, Oakley, and Beekman. Payne did look good, but agin I the way it has been sounding they plan to use him more on Special Teams. Trust me I am normally one of the more optimistic Bears fans that there is, however I am just a little frustrated at the lack of urgency being shown by the team. And while I also do not wan to throw money away on the supposed "big name," guys, I feel we should at least be attempting to solve the o-line problem outside of in-house and the draft. I do not want two guys with little to no experience in the NFL starting on my line next year. I wold rather we draft one and sign another.

[madlithuanian]

In a nutshell, I am worried. I really don't think things are in place to amount to much this upcoming season. I just don't think our offense will be good enough no matter what we end up doing in the draft. There wasn't much to be had in FA other than Faneca... I kind of look at this upcoming season as a setpping stone to the next. We line the ducks up this season, and shoot 'em down next.

 

I understand where you are comming from to a point. Although I do think that Olivea is better than Metcalf, Oakley, and Beekman. Payne did look good, but agin I the way it has been sounding they plan to use him more on Special Teams. Trust me I am normally one of the more optimistic Bears fans that there is, however I am just a little frustrated at the lack of urgency being shown by the team. And while I also do not wan to throw money away on the supposed "big name," guys, I feel we should at least be attempting to solve the o-line problem outside of in-house and the draft. I do not want two guys with little to no experience in the NFL starting on my line next year. I wold rather we draft one and sign another.

[DrunkBomber]

I would be more worried if we were in a tougher division. Green Bay is a question mark and we know what Detroit will do. Minny might be good but they arent a shoe in to do anything. I am hoping we have a good draft and then I will see how it pans out before I panic.

[balta1701-A]

I think the reality of the NFL is that you can find 32 teams right now that have reasons to worry about next season. In a cap era, it's almost even required. You can look at a team like the Patriots...nearly won every game last year they played, and they can worry about their rapidly aging defense, their linebackers in particular, their cornerbacks now that their best one just walked, they lost one of their big 3 receivers, who knows still what they have in Moroney, etc. On the other hand, how many worries do the super bowl champs have? They lost several people, particularly on defense, and they didn't manage better than what, a 10-6 record while playing in the lesser conference?

 

In the NFL offseason, you sort of have to do the best you can and leave a little bit up to fate. It's virtually impossible to build a roster with solid, unquestionable players at every position, and even if you could, I'll guarantee you some of them are going to get hurt, some of them will disappoint, and someone will step up on another team who you didn't think would do so.

 

The Bears have holes. Every team has holes. The best the team can do is do their darndest to address the biggest one (I'm looking specifically at the O-Line) and hope they get lucky with a draft pick somewhere or with someone along the lines of Grossman/Orton/Hester/Booker/Benson/Wolfe stepping up, and significantly better luck with injuries than they had last year. Every team should be worried until they play the games.

[bear trap]

I would be more worried if we were in a tougher division. Green Bay is a question mark and we know what Detroit will do. Minny might be good but they arent a shoe in to do anything. I am hoping we have a good draft and then I will see how it pans out before I panic.

Green Bay is not a ? they do have a very young and talented defense, a great group at wr and a decent running game. Minny is all adrian and defense, so they'll be good this year. Detroit is doing a lot too, they signed both db's from tampa kelly and I don't recall the other, not to mention they have williams and johnson and furrey. We are really setting ourselves up to finish last in the division this year. We've made no roster adjustments that will make us potentially better this year, so we better hope, no pray the defense stays healthy this year and devin can work his magic again cause the points aren't going to come easy this year(especially with teams kicking it away from hester knowing we can't do anything with good field position). Not behind a line with 2 rooks and a turnover proned when paniced grossman or an injury prone border line bust benson. Face it we won't be scaring any teams this year period. That's okay though we'd be a high draft pick in a draft featuring beanie wells next year. You just have to look at the glass in an it's half full mentality.

[DrunkBomber]

Green Bay is not a ? they do have a very young and talented defense, a great group at wr and a decent running game. Minny is all adrian and defense, so they'll be good this year. Detroit is doing a lot too, they signed both db's from tampa kelly and I don't recall the other, not to mention they have williams and johnson and furrey. We are really setting ourselves up to finish last in the division this year. We've made no roster adjustments that will make us potentially better this year, so we better hope, no pray the defense stays healthy this year and devin can work his magic again cause the points aren't going to come easy this year(especially with teams kicking it away from hester knowing we can't do anything with good field position). Not behind a line with 2 rooks and a turnover proned when paniced grossman or an injury prone border line bust benson. Face it we won't be scaring any teams this year period. That's okay though we'd be a high draft pick in a draft featuring beanie wells next year. You just have to look at the glass in an it's half full mentality.

Maybe Peyton Manning aside I dont think there was one player in the league last year that was as important to his team as Favre. Grant isnt going to have anywhere near the success he did when they were strictly a passing team. Driver and Jennings are nice receivers but they both severely benefited from having a great qb. They do have a good defense but their pass defense scheme was exposed terribly by the Giants and now teams know how to attack their bump and run coverage. We beat that team twice last year and that was with Favre. Im not too confident that Rodgers and Grant can be consistently effective. Im not saying were better either, Im just saying that no one team is head and shoulders above anyone else in the division so I wont panic about the off season yet.

[ASHKUM BEAR]

Green Bay is not a ? they do have a very young and talented defense, a great group at wr and a decent running game. Minny is all adrian and defense, so they'll be good this year. Detroit is doing a lot too, they signed both db's from tampa kelly and I don't recall the other, not to mention they have williams and johnson and furrey. We are really setting ourselves up to finish last in the division this year. We've made no roster adjustments that will make us potentially better this year, so we better hope, no pray the defense stays healthy this year and devin can work his magic again cause the points aren't going to come easy this year(especially with teams kicking it away from hester knowing we can't do anything with good field position). Not behind a line with 2 rooks and a turnover proned when paniced grossman or an injury prone border line bust benson. Face it we won't be scaring any teams this year period. That's okay though we'd be a high draft pick in a draft featuring beanie wells next year. You just have to look at the glass in an it's half full mentality.

 

 

No need to be so down about things yet. Our O-line will get a boost when we add a potential stud OLT. At G, we have Garza and most likely St. Clair (competing w/ Beekman, Metcalf, and draft pick). St. Clair will be better than most give him credit for, he always filled in nicely when he stepped in at OT. Our WR is iffy, but I think Booker, Bradley, Hester & Loyld will be just fine especially if we use Clark/Olson as main threats (Gates/Gonzalez). Benson will have to man up, or his NFL days are done. I think he'll be fine with a stronger line that can drive off the ball. At D, we have Mike Brown coming back. These guys just need to stay healthy and they'll be elite once again. Just b/c we see all these holes written out on paper doesn't mean these are real holes. They are worth the concern, but nothing we need to be unloading cap space on especially if we want to keep our some of our own. If a good deal comes along, you will see a signing. Otherwisse we will go with our group and bring in some draft picks.

[selection7]

I didn't realize we had given up on Tait already. I know he didn't have his best year, but if he is a weakness on the line then who is a relative strength? And there's always nagging injuries the fans don't know about until the players heal over the offseason and talk about it the next year (or sometimes maybe never).

[ASHKUM BEAR]

I didn't realize we had given up on Tait already. I know he didn't have his best year, but if he is a weakness on the line then who is a relative strength? And there's always nagging injuries the fans don't know about until the players heal over the offseason and talk about it the next year (or sometimes maybe never).

 

 

Who said we gave up on Tait? I think most of us have said we'd like the Bears to draft a potential OLT and shift Tait back to the right side. That may give us two added strengths. RT Tait, RG Garza, C Kreutz, LG St. Clair, LT Williams. Lately, the OLT coming into the league have been pretty good lets hope we can find that same luck.

[Iguana]

if JA doesnt get any OL help, the Bears will be lucky to win 5 games.

[DrunkBomber]

Who said we gave up on Tait? I think most of us have said we'd like the Bears to draft a potential OLT and shift Tait back to the right side. That may give us two added strengths. RT Tait, RG Garza, C Kreutz, LG St. Clair, LT Williams. Lately, the OLT coming into the league have been pretty good lets hope we can find that same luck.

Exactly. If we can get a LT and move Tait to RT our line has a huge upgrade already.

[AZ54]

Tait fought through a bad ankle injury last year, or something like that. It wasn't widely talked about but it did affect his mobility and ability to block faster DEs. Yet he was still far from our worst problem on the Oline. I'm one of those who would love to be able to move him back to RT but I'm not so sure we couldn't get away with leaving him at LT this year. The biggest problem I have with that plan is how do we fill that spot in '09 because I think by then he'll need to slide over to the right side.

 

It's a great point about the Patriots. They didn't win the Superbowl with all that talent. We all know how their fans feel since everyone one of us knows an arrogant Patriot fan.

[selection7]

Ok, I was confused because a couple of posts mentioned a need for LT. ....made me wonder what had happened to Tait. And of course we do have a need to groom replacements at every OL position.