One of the biggest mistakes of the last 3 years

[madlithuanian]

I think you said it well!

 

I loved Jones when he was hear but I love Forte even more. I am not about to compare stats cuz they can be spun so many different ways. I just look at the fact that Forte hits the LOS hard and even when he is taking on several players his feet and legs are still trying to get several yards. My biggest point is that since we have drafted Forte has he even opened his mouth yet. TJ openly complained and even sat out part of training camp. I hate players that do that. I love players like Forte because you never have to worry about them. You can just tell that he is always giving 110% out there on that field. When Forte went down this week I immediately thought back to CB. CB gets even nicked up he is out for the remainder of the game. But with Forte he not only came back but he continued to work extremely hard.

[Connorbear]

I loved Jones when he was hear but I love Forte even more. I am not about to compare stats cuz they can be spun so many different ways. I just look at the fact that Forte hits the LOS hard and even when he is taking on several players his feet and legs are still trying to get several yards. My biggest point is that since we have drafted Forte has he even opened his mouth yet. TJ openly complained and even sat out part of training camp. I hate players that do that. I love players like Forte because you never have to worry about them. You can just tell that he is always giving 110% out there on that field. When Forte went down this week I immediately thought back to CB. CB gets even nicked up he is out for the remainder of the game. But with Forte he not only came back but he continued to work extremely hard.

Bowlingtwig - good to hear from you. Hope all is well. How is the baby doing?

 

Peace

[bowlingtwig]

We are doing good. Just trying to get ready for the holiday season. Believe it or not but he just turned 1 back at the end of November. I will be sure to fix my signature with a more up to date pic when I get the chance.

[Connorbear]

We are doing good. Just trying to get ready for the holiday season. Believe it or not but he just turned 1 back at the end of November. I will be sure to fix my signature with a more up to date pic when I get the chance.

Great to hear. Watch out - they grow up fast. My oldest is almost in high school. I am definately not ready for that.

 

Peace

[ASHKUM BEAR]

It seems like we go over this about every 6 months or so. For the record I liked TJ at hated to see him go.

 

Here is my thoughts on the process, not using hindsight:

 

. Like NFO says, were we picked and who was available Cedric Benson or Cadillac Williams were our best options

------->The Bears brass, mainly Lovie wanted to get rid of the garbage offense Terry Shea brought in

------->Lovie, a defensive minded coach, wanted to see a run oriented offense, or at least more ball control

*********With this new offense, he wanted to increase the avg. time of possesion of 28:25 vs 31:36 to favor CHI

*********The choice of Cedric over Cadillac was CB would eventually wear down defenses running between tackles

 

. The argument about not needing Benson b/c we had Jones/Peterson (also Anthony Thomas)

-------> TJ was a FA quickly acquired to fit Shea's offense and TJ was to play the part of Priest Holmes

-------> Benson was drafted after TJ first year in CHI, TJ's stats were:

**********ATT-240 YDS-948 AVG-4.0 TD-7 REC-56 YDS-427 TD-0 (2 games missed due to injury)

------->TJ was an unknown as to how he'd fit in Ron Turners offense, plus would he be durable enough

------->Adrian Peterson was almost non existant, so saying we had him when we drafted CB is purely hindsight now

************AP's stats: ATT-6 YDS-19 AVG-3.2 TD-0

------->Anthony Thomas was on the last year of his contact and deemed not special enough to resign

 

So looking back, we can say we didn't need to draft Benson b/c TJ would be a 1300 yd runner that would fit in Ron Turner's offense and Adrian Peterson would flourish once given more opportunity. We should have known that Jones would become more durable after the 2003 season (missed 2 games in 03') and only missed a total of 3 games since that season. We should have traded Cedric (almost impossible due to contact stipulations) instead of Jones b/c we knew CB wouldn't make it even though his stats in 2006 showed otherwise in split 1:3 duty. The thing is, you can always look back and say "I told you so", but a chance was taken on CB and it didn't work out. At the time when CB was drafted, everything pointed in saying this is the guy, except for that fishy personality issue. Too bad we can't go back for a redo.

[ParkerBear7]

I agree with what alot of folks have already said "Love the Forte pick". The Bears need to learn from the past so they don't live in the past and Forte allows them to turn the page on a turd "CB". Kevin jones is as good or better than TJ so it is like we have him still here but a bigger version.

 

The Bears need to pay attention to the offensive side of the ball like the last 2 drafts and get away from having a lopsided draft like we have seen where one side of the ball has been ignored.

 

 

Right now it is obvious the Bears need to increase talent at OL, WR, QB, FB and sprinkle in depth for DEF & ST. I also have to admit that overall Orton's play has been above my expectation and he has proved to be more than serviceable veteran but the team should continue to look every year at trying to upgrade for the future at the most important postion on the field, QB. Look at NE and GB as great examples: they continued to bring in guysd even though they had a franchise QB and were able to get a nobody step and be pretty darn good i.e. Cassells for Brady, who's exceptional play made Bledsoe expendable. The Bears need to doi this!!!

[nfoligno]

There are some, like Jason, who can come here and say they are not arguing w/ hindsight, as they (a) felt TJ could be a workhorse back, ( never felt Benson would be a stud and © simply didn't feel RB was a need, going back to the first point.

 

With that said, I truly think it comes down to this. Was RB our top need? No. I think even the staff would have agreed w/ that. We had TJ, and at worst, he was a pretty good RB. But, at the same time, it was also believed that Benson had to potential to be "special", and you know how Angelo feels about having a "special" RB.

 

I recall some years ago. We had Minter as our MLB. Was he a stud? Nope. But he was not bad either, and many would argue pretty solid. MLB was not our greatest need, or even a close 2nd. Yet, we felt Urlacher had the potential to be a stud, and went w/ the upgrade. turned out to be a pretty solid pick, I think most would agree.

 

If Benson turned out to be the stud many felt he would develop into, I think few would look back and say we made a mistake. But, because Benson ended up being a worse pick than Curtis Enis, there is a lot of hindsight talk. We can argue whether we "needed" a RB day and night, but I think this pick was more about BPA than pure need, and is simply didn't pan out, not due to "need" but because the BPA simply sucked.

 

It seems like we go over this about every 6 months or so. For the record I liked TJ at hated to see him go.

 

Here is my thoughts on the process, not using hindsight:

 

. Like NFO says, were we picked and who was available Cedric Benson or Cadillac Williams were our best options

------->The Bears brass, mainly Lovie wanted to get rid of the garbage offense Terry Shea brought in

------->Lovie, a defensive minded coach, wanted to see a run oriented offense, or at least more ball control

*********With this new offense, he wanted to increase the avg. time of possesion of 28:25 vs 31:36 to favor CHI

*********The choice of Cedric over Cadillac was CB would eventually wear down defenses running between tackles

 

. The argument about not needing Benson b/c we had Jones/Peterson (also Anthony Thomas)

-------> TJ was a FA quickly acquired to fit Shea's offense and TJ was to play the part of Priest Holmes

-------> Benson was drafted after TJ first year in CHI, TJ's stats were:

**********ATT-240 YDS-948 AVG-4.0 TD-7 REC-56 YDS-427 TD-0 (2 games missed due to injury)

------->TJ was an unknown as to how he'd fit in Ron Turners offense, plus would he be durable enough

------->Adrian Peterson was almost non existant, so saying we had him when we drafted CB is purely hindsight now

************AP's stats: ATT-6 YDS-19 AVG-3.2 TD-0

------->Anthony Thomas was on the last year of his contact and deemed not special enough to resign

 

So looking back, we can say we didn't need to draft Benson b/c TJ would be a 1300 yd runner that would fit in Ron Turner's offense and Adrian Peterson would flourish once given more opportunity. We should have known that Jones would become more durable after the 2003 season (missed 2 games in 03') and only missed a total of 3 games since that season. We should have traded Cedric (almost impossible due to contact stipulations) instead of Jones b/c we knew CB wouldn't make it even though his stats in 2006 showed otherwise in split 1:3 duty. The thing is, you can always look back and say "I told you so", but a chance was taken on CB and it didn't work out. At the time when CB was drafted, everything pointed in saying this is the guy, except for that fishy personality issue. Too bad we can't go back for a redo.

[Butkus]

I understand the arguments about best pick at the time and hindsight etc... However, for me the bottom line is we had at the least a serviceable RB who never showed any character or behavioural issues until after the CB pick who was well liked on the team. Why throw a monkey wrench into that? Surely it could have been determined that Benson might pose a bit of a behavioural problem?

 

If you are satisfied with what you have at a given position, why try to get the next Walter Payton at the position rather than stock up on a position where there is some legitimate need? There were certainly a number of positions that could have been addressed, not least OLine...