How does this sound to you?

[jason]

Would you be willing to endure 2 seasons of 4 and 6 wins in the next 3 years in order to draft highly, give playing time to kids, and let them develop? Willing to let the careers of Urlacher, Peppers, and Tillman just end in order to really give an offense time to grow up together?

 

The strategy is one I don't have a problem with. The timing of it, however, would be bad right now for the reasons you have listed. You just don't throw away the back end of the careers of all-stars, and two future HOFers, for a rebuilding project, when you're only a piece or two away from going back to the big dance and competing for the championship. Before Cutler's injury last year they were 7-2, yet had glaring needs on the OL and at WR. The latter has been addressed. If the OL gets addressed, then the rebuilding project is unwise, because this team can compete with anyone.

[lemonej]

Well lets see didn't Calvin Johnson come from the same school with the same offense??? I'm sure of the school not the offense.

You have got to be kidding me! Hill is no where near the prospect Megatron was who was the best player in the 2007 draft that everyone but the Raiders agreed with as he went number 2 overall. Hill may have elevated himself into the first round because of his combine numbers but both Johnson and Thomas from the same school were the number one prospects at their position leading up to the draft. Can you say that about Hill?

[Lucky Luciano]

Would you be willing to endure 2 seasons of 4 and 6 wins in the next 3 years in order to draft highly, give playing time to kids, and let them develop? Willing to let the careers of Urlacher, Peppers, and Tillman just end in order to really give an offense time to grow up together?

 

i still am not getting your point in this. you mention 4 and 6 win seasons in order to draft highly and give playing time to young players. what young players? at what positions? what does that mean? are you talking about purposely tanking an entire season to draft in the top 10? if so nobody has ever said anything like that including me.

 

1. the gist of the discussion of drafting players highly and groom them with little or no game time behind quality aging players is geared more at two very specialized area's... offensive linemen and the quarterback position. these specifically are positions unique in the NFL compared to any other. most importantly, the OL plays together as a whole, a unit, to protect the most important player in your franchise which is the quarterback. unlike any other position you do NOT rotate players into the lineup to give one player a rest, experience or to give a different look your offense. continuity is paramount.

 

when you infuse a lineman who is young and inexperienced there is a risk factor involved that has a direct effect on the health of your franchises future. this is why, if it is possible, you give that player a space in time to acclimate himself to play in the NFL with a 'quality' aging OL player at the end of his career it makes sense to me that you sit that 1st or 2nd round pick for a season and let him learn not only the playbook and terminology of this new offense but adjust to the speed of the game. that said, of COURSE if the player this man is to replace is of inferior quality then sure, you do put him in but have the intelligence to compensate for his erratic play until he does get up to speed and save your qb some hospital time.

 

if you are a good GM and judge of talent this should NOT be a factor in drafting a player that high and of that quality because he won't necessarily START that particular season!!! *see below...

 

unfortunately we are forced in the position now, thanks to the horrendous drafts and incompetence by angelo, to draft and replace an entire offensive line (with the possible exception of RT) that would have to travel miles to be even average to protect our franchise qb. this is not a luxury but a solid must, top priority. if we lost cutler and ended his career due to injury how far does winning a superbowl get from here? it's basically non-existant.

 

*examples of this?

 

olin kreutz at center. angelo SHOULD have drafted a high quality center 2-3 years ago to replace him and please don't bring up josh beekman who couldn't even replace a one armed guard. kruetz could have played his career out while the young center learned the ropes and stepped in seamlessly.

 

the minute we hired reuben brown as a guard we should have drafted a 2nd or 3rd round quality guard to replace him within 1-2 years. the minute we hired fred miller we should have drafted a RT if they couldn't find a replacement at LT for tait.

 

our LT? we should have drafted a LT in the first round the minute we moved tait out of his RT position. in essence we wasted not just the LT position with average play we wasted very good to pro-bowl quality play at the RT position we paid dearly to fill.

 

going a little further, if cutler were our franchise qb and he was in the 33 - 34 year old range how smart would it be to draft a first round qb to replace him in a year or 2 and let him learn behind a good qb just like the packers did with rogers? obviously too smart for this franchise to comprehend.

2. let's start where the entire focus on this begins. BECAUSE of poor drafting over a period of 10 years, thank you very much jerry angelo and mike mccaskey/ted phillips, we are at the point where we have absolutely nothing in place for our future other than one or two positions on our entire team and even one of those, cutler, was not even drafted by us.

 

this is just one reason why i would have replaced the entire coaching staff at the very least this season with a coach like fisher or cowher instead of tying our GM's hands behind his back before he even arrived in chicago.

 

finally, you mention urlacher, peppers and tillman (who is and has been a number TWO corner) withering on the vine. believe me, if we greatly improved our chances to be superbowl contenders for a decade by rebuilding for a year or two and letting these guys end their careers here or even elsewhere i would do it in a new york minute.

 

[jason]

i still am not getting your point in this. you mention 4 and 6 win seasons in order to draft highly and give playing time to young players. what young players? at what positions? what does that mean? are you talking about purposely tanking an entire season to draft in the top 10? if so nobody has ever said anything like that including me.

 

1. the gist of the discussion of drafting players highly and groom them with little or no game time behind quality aging players is geared more at two very specialized area's... offensive linemen and the quarterback position. these specifically are positions unique in the NFL compared to any other. most importantly, the OL plays together as a whole, a unit, to protect the most important player in your franchise which is the quarterback. unlike any other position you do NOT rotate players into the lineup to give one player a rest, experience or to give a different look your offense. continuity is paramount.

 

when you infuse a lineman who is young and inexperienced there is a risk factor involved that has a direct effect on the health of your franchises future. this is why, if it is possible, you give that player a space in time to acclimate himself to play in the NFL with a 'quality' aging OL player at the end of his career it makes sense to me that you sit that 1st or 2nd round pick for a season and let him learn not only the playbook and terminology of this new offense but adjust to the speed of the game. that said, of COURSE if the player this man is to replace is of inferior quality then sure, you do put him in but have the intelligence to compensate for his erratic play until he does get up to speed and save your qb some hospital time.

 

if you are a good GM and judge of talent this should NOT be a factor in drafting a player that high and of that quality because he won't necessarily START that particular season!!! *see below...

 

unfortunately we are forced in the position now, thanks to the horrendous drafts and incompetence by angelo, to draft and replace an entire offensive line (with the possible exception of RT) that would have to travel miles to be even average to protect our franchise qb. this is not a luxury but a solid must, top priority. if we lost cutler and ended his career due to injury how far does winning a superbowl get from here? it's basically non-existant.

 

*examples of this?

 

olin kreutz at center. angelo SHOULD have drafted a high quality center 2-3 years ago to replace him and please don't bring up josh beekman who couldn't even replace a one armed guard. kruetz could have played his career out while the young center learned the ropes and stepped in seamlessly.

 

the minute we hired reuben brown as a guard we should have drafted a 2nd or 3rd round quality guard to replace him within 1-2 years. the minute we hired fred miller we should have drafted a RT if they couldn't find a replacement at LT for tait.

 

our LT? we should have drafted a LT in the first round the minute we moved tait out of his RT position. in essence we wasted not just the LT position with average play we wasted very good to pro-bowl quality play at the RT position we paid dearly to fill.

 

going a little further, if cutler were our franchise qb and he was in the 33 - 34 year old range how smart would it be to draft a first round qb to replace him in a year or 2 and let him learn behind a good qb just like the packers did with rogers? obviously too smart for this franchise to comprehend.

2. let's start where the entire focus on this begins. BECAUSE of poor drafting over a period of 10 years, thank you very much jerry angelo and mike mccaskey/ted phillips, we are at the point where we have absolutely nothing in place for our future other than one or two positions on our entire team and even one of those, cutler, was not even drafted by us.

 

this is just one reason why i would have replaced the entire coaching staff at the very least this season with a coach like fisher or cowher instead of tying our GM's hands behind his back before he even arrived in chicago.

 

finally, you mention urlacher, peppers and tillman (who is and has been a number TWO corner) withering on the vine. believe me, if we greatly improved our chances to be superbowl contenders for a decade by rebuilding for a year or two and letting these guys end their careers here or even elsewhere i would do it in a new york minute.

 

Absolutely spot on post! Perfect logic from beginning to end.

 

This is exactly how I feel about the OL. Unfortunately, the Bears are not in a position to follow the early part of your reasoning. Webb sucks at OT. E.Williams and C. Spencer are below average OG. Louis is average at best at OG, and sucks at OT. This kind of stuff should have been thought about for a long time.

[lemonej]

i still am not getting your point in this. you mention 4 and 6 win seasons in order to draft highly and give playing time to young players. what young players? at what positions? what does that mean? are you talking about purposely tanking an entire season to draft in the top 10? if so nobody has ever said anything like that including me.

 

1. the gist of the discussion of drafting players highly and groom them with little or no game time behind quality aging players is geared more at two very specialized area's... offensive linemen and the quarterback position. these specifically are positions unique in the NFL compared to any other. most importantly, the OL plays together as a whole, a unit, to protect the most important player in your franchise which is the quarterback. unlike any other position you do NOT rotate players into the lineup to give one player a rest, experience or to give a different look your offense. continuity is paramount.

 

when you infuse a lineman who is young and inexperienced there is a risk factor involved that has a direct effect on the health of your franchises future. this is why, if it is possible, you give that player a space in time to acclimate himself to play in the NFL with a 'quality' aging OL player at the end of his career it makes sense to me that you sit that 1st or 2nd round pick for a season and let him learn not only the playbook and terminology of this new offense but adjust to the speed of the game. that said, of COURSE if the player this man is to replace is of inferior quality then sure, you do put him in but have the intelligence to compensate for his erratic play until he does get up to speed and save your qb some hospital time.

 

if you are a good GM and judge of talent this should NOT be a factor in drafting a player that high and of that quality because he won't necessarily START that particular season!!! *see below...

 

unfortunately we are forced in the position now, thanks to the horrendous drafts and incompetence by angelo, to draft and replace an entire offensive line (with the possible exception of RT) that would have to travel miles to be even average to protect our franchise qb. this is not a luxury but a solid must, top priority. if we lost cutler and ended his career due to injury how far does winning a superbowl get from here? it's basically non-existant.

 

*examples of this?

 

olin kreutz at center. angelo SHOULD have drafted a high quality center 2-3 years ago to replace him and please don't bring up josh beekman who couldn't even replace a one armed guard. kruetz could have played his career out while the young center learned the ropes and stepped in seamlessly.

 

the minute we hired reuben brown as a guard we should have drafted a 2nd or 3rd round quality guard to replace him within 1-2 years. the minute we hired fred miller we should have drafted a RT if they couldn't find a replacement at LT for tait.

 

our LT? we should have drafted a LT in the first round the minute we moved tait out of his RT position. in essence we wasted not just the LT position with average play we wasted very good to pro-bowl quality play at the RT position we paid dearly to fill.

 

going a little further, if cutler were our franchise qb and he was in the 33 - 34 year old range how smart would it be to draft a first round qb to replace him in a year or 2 and let him learn behind a good qb just like the packers did with rogers? obviously too smart for this franchise to comprehend.

2. let's start where the entire focus on this begins. BECAUSE of poor drafting over a period of 10 years, thank you very much jerry angelo and mike mccaskey/ted phillips, we are at the point where we have absolutely nothing in place for our future other than one or two positions on our entire team and even one of those, cutler, was not even drafted by us.

 

this is just one reason why i would have replaced the entire coaching staff at the very least this season with a coach like fisher or cowher instead of tying our GM's hands behind his back before he even arrived in chicago.

 

finally, you mention urlacher, peppers and tillman (who is and has been a number TWO corner) withering on the vine. believe me, if we greatly improved our chances to be superbowl contenders for a decade by rebuilding for a year or two and letting these guys end their careers here or even elsewhere i would do it in a new york minute.

Great post and if you look at some other teams like the Steelers for instance a guy like Hines Ward is let go and there would be an outpouring of anxiety here if a player like that was let go by the Bears. The move should have been made before Peppers was brought in to upgrade the whole organization. Even though I agree with you about hand-cuffing the GM, he seems to be operating with a little sense of urgency and has gone even on all three phases by signing 2 defenders,2 ST and signing and acquiring 4 offensive players.

[Lucky Luciano]

Unfortunately, the Bears are not in a position to follow the early part of your reasoning. Webb sucks at OT. E.Williams and C. Spencer are below average OG. Louis is average at best at OG, and sucks at OT. This kind of stuff should have been thought about for a long time.

 

i agree. the quality level of our offensive line is just not there. i also doubt than any one draft can cure all that is wrong with it. that leaves us looking for temporary upgrades in free agency. there are a couple out there that could help us on multiple levels and one that could set us up for the next 5 years at LT, mcneill if he passes the physical.

[Lucky Luciano]

Even though I agree with you about hand-cuffing the GM, he seems to be operating with a little sense of urgency and has gone even on all three phases by signing 2 defenders,2 ST and signing and acquiring 4 offensive players.

 

i am hoping that he can pull us out of the 10 year tailspin. i am not unhappy so far with what he has accomplished but i certainly would like some offensive line help hopefully in free agency and again in the draft.