Da Bears 2011

[RickD]

So what do we have?

A Revamped Offensive Line! Still can't believe the Bears let the one bright spot on the O-Line go. Olin Kreutz was aging but serviceable. I mean sure, the O-line gave up a gazillion sacks this year but will the revamped line do any better? Only time will tell...

The Defensive line is solid but with 2 aging linebackers, it is the one position without much depth. Urlacher is still da man but Briggs has been nursing a knee bruise and complaining about his contract...again!

The bears picked up a good receiver but putting Roy Williams ahead of Johnny Knox may have been a mistake. Of course it won;t matter if the O-Line can`t give Cutler time to blink!

Forte is back and seems to have better back up this year.

Of course Gould is back and Golden as a kicker though I hate that the Bears yanked their punter.

Here`s to a great superbowl run!

[Mickey Mental]

Who signed Olin Kreutz?

[sjnemeth3]

Kreutz signed with the New Orleans Saints. That was a great pickup by them.
I worry about another year with a disgruntled Lance Briggs, again arguing about the status of his contract. This is a team built off the defense, and the front seven is the strength behind that. I would hope that Briggs doesn't become a distraction.
As for Roy Williams, I fully expect him to fall to the #3 receiver behind Knox. Nothing against Williams, he's still a serviceable receiver, but Knox just gives Chicago a better chance to win.

But this team is going to miss Kreutz and the stability/leadership that he brought to that O-Line. And I think they're going to miss their best pass-catching play maker, Greg Olsen.

[RickD]

Of all the changes to the O-line, losing Kreutz will hurt the most.

I don't see Williams dropping to 3rd...more like 2nd....good complement to Knox!

Briggs ALWAYS complaijs about his contract and frankly I hate when a guy signs a deal and then starts griping! In that respect, I like what the Bengals are doing with Palmer...play or retire!

[sjnemeth3]

I can't see Knox and Williams as the 1 and 2 in Chicago with all of the noise that Chicago has made about Hester being a "real" receiver this year. I agree that Knox and Williams as the 1 and 2 with Hester has the 3 would work best and would look a lot like the Tory Holt, Isaac Bruce and Az-Zahir Hakim.

[RickD]

My thoughts exactly.....keep Hester at 3 and let him do kickoff and punt returns!

[Baseballnum3er0]

My thoughts exactly.....keep Hester at 3 and let him do kickoff and punt returns!

Problem with that is kick returns are now going to happen considerably less often because the NFL moved up where kickoffs start from creating more touchbacks.

I'm not sold on Knox as a 1-2 receiver right now to be honest. He's got a nice upside but last year he had problems with doing things like not breaking up interceptions, not finishing routes, etc all of which can be chalked up to being young, however, if those things you don't see in the statbox do not improve he will be hard pressed to warrant more playing time than Hester and Williams. The Hester being a 'real' reciver doesn't seem to be much of a new thing either, I've heard that one before and will believe it when I see it.

I still see the Krutz/Olsen moves as just stupid, I hope the management proves they know what they were doing on those moves but I don't plan on holding my breath waiting on that either.

[RickD]

Briggs, who has three years remaining on a six-year, $36 million deal he signed after the 2007 season, is scheduled to make a base salary of $3.65 million in 2011.

Yet today, his agent asked the Bears to trade him since they won't restructure his contract!

[Mickey Mental]

Problem with that is kick returns are now going to happen considerably less often because the NFL moved up where kickoffs start from creating more touchbacks.

That may be the stupidest rule change I've seen in awhile in any sport. "Hey, we've got something really exciting going on in our sport. Let's change it so it'll eventually become nonexixtant."

[sjnemeth3]

I'm wondering how far we are away from simply starting football games the way that the XFL did it, put the ball in the middle of two guys and have them sprint towards it. The winner gets 1st possession.

[Baseballnum3er0]

I'm wondering how far we are away from simply starting football games the way that the XFL did it, put the ball in the middle of two guys and have them sprint towards it. The winner gets 1st possession.

I think we're headed the opposite way, to starting with the ball from their own 20 eliminating big hits on kickoffs(or to get the ball in this case) as that is why the line was moved up.

[Baseballnum3er0]

Horrible holding call on the punt return, every angle they could find showed that the player they called it on was nowhere near a Packer. Great play call by the Bears there too. It probably would not have changed the outcome as the Bears still would have had to recover an onside kick, get down field in to field goal range, and then kick the field goal all under a minute left and no timeouts but it still would have been nice to count.

[RickD]

The Bears offense could not get it done. Forte got NO yardage today...the run came up empty. -1 yards by the 3rd quarter is horrible.

Cutler threw his normal # of interceptions.

Bad game and the Bears deserved to lose as even their defense seemed like swiss cheese at times.

[Old Sweater]

The Bears offense could not get it done. Forte got NO yardage today...the run came up empty. -1 yards by the 3rd quarter is horrible.

Cutler threw his normal # of interceptions.

Bad game and the Bears deserved to lose as even their defense seemed like swiss cheese at times.

Yep, not a pretty game to watch at all for us Bear fans.