Given all the holes (or potential holes), I can see this offense being extremely conservative! Basically, a run the clock, stay close, and let the defense win the game.

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Because Jerry Angelo is GM, Lovie Smith is head coach, Bob Babich heads the defense, and Ron Turner the offense. I think those four names sum up the problem.

You can have a great defense and a good offense, but the Bears have decided to sacrifice possible signifcant upgrades (Michael Turner, some of the WR's on the market, Alan Faneca, even Bernard Berrian) to the offense in return for having stability on their current roster with the focus being tieing up as many young core players to long-term deals. I'm sure there will be a thread created during the next football season laughing at some of these teams that overpaid significantly for what will be at least some busts. Angelo's strategy obviously is to lock up guys like Tommie Harris now - it costs more in the short-term, but as we have seen with free agency, the cost tends to sky rocket.

It is definitely frustrating to watch our offense last season, hear our GM tell us that he is aware of the problems/will fix them.....and then sit out the early part of free agency where most of the highly sought (and paid) free agents will be signed.

It is even more frustrating when you realize that we don't need much more than an average offense to supplement what I believe is a great defense when healthy.

The key is staying patient and hoping that Angelo is targeting players, but at a price that isn't with inflation. It paid off with Lance Briggs, and I'm guessing that he's going to add at least one offensive lineman in free agency.

Orton and Grossman are not going to have great skill players around them, and that's usually not helpful to younger QB's who will try and force plays. If Hester and/or Bradley develop, that will help, but to go into a season counting on that to happen is a bit on the risky side.

I'm not ready to call for Jerry Angelo's firing just yet. Let's see how this plays out.

From the looks of it I think this will play out poorly.

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SideshowBob311: "Sadly enough, I think we're the "intelligent" portion of the sports radio fanbase".
"I make fun of whoever sucks, including me"- Harry 11/30/07

Possibly, but I'm holding out hope that the Bears will add some offensive line help in free agency.

As much as I'd love an offense that can score 30 points a game, I realize that's not likely to happen so my expectations are for an average offense and a very good defense.

I still may be aiming high, but I'm going to remain patient and see how this team looks heading into the draft.

You have a lot more optimism than I do, it seems like they have gotten rid of most everybody and are "rebuilding" now....

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SideshowBob311: "Sadly enough, I think we're the "intelligent" portion of the sports radio fanbase".
"I make fun of whoever sucks, including me"- Harry 11/30/07

Most everybody they got rid of was crap. Good riddens to bad rubbish. I have no problem those moves. The others they lost was because of free agency and that's just business. I'm getting impatient waiting on the replacements though.

Here is a Q/A with the Titans GM, and I'm posting his first answer because it seems to close resemble what the Bears are doing:

Q: Will you be active in the free agent market going forward?
REINFELDT: We will probably not be big players in free agency. There is a reason we chose to be that way. I think the way to build a team in the NFL is through the draft. Get the young players at a premium — the really good players — and get your core players. We want to get 10 or 12 special guys and hold on to those guys. Whether franchising them or doing long term deals early, you need to have a group of 10 or 12 players that are your special guys. What happens in free agency is players that usually aren't those kind of guys are the ones that get out. They are good players, but they are not great players. What you see in free agency is good players get great money. What happens then is you have a locker room where your core players make less than those guys that they know they are better than. It’s not the right way to build a club long term. We will do some things in free agency. We’ll help ourselves and get through some areas, but unless we get the special guy, the guy that can make a difference, the guy that can get us over the hump, I wouldn’t see us being big players in free agency. At the same time, I can tell you that if you do get that special guy, I was fortunate enough to be with the Green Bay Pacers in 1993 when Reggie White came out in the first year of free agency and we signed him. He was the right guy in the locker room, on the field, and media-wise he was wonderful. Two years later we were in the Super Bowl, so it’s interesting how you play it. You see all these big huge deals where people waste money and they grab a lot of media attention, but I’m not sure at the end of the day if they were better than they were before. That is probably how we are going to play free agency going forward.

At least Im not the only one who thinks is obvious they are rebuilding. From the comments I heard yesterday, Mac, Jurko, B&B, and Larry Holmes(unfortunately ) agree with us.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

I still have yet to see how not overpaying for Berrian who isn't a game changing WR, not resigning Ayenbadejo, and cutting a bunch of OL that weren't getting the job done is rebuilding. It seems to me they are trying to get better, with so far limited success on the OL.

It seems to me that about 75% of the league is getting rid of the bad players they have trying to get better ones. This isn't like Miami getting rid of Jason Taylor.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Its not the guys they let go of, its the guys they didnt get. I dont see how this is anything other than rebuilding. They still dont have a future QB. They still dont have future RB probably. They still dont have a future #1 WR. I think there is a very decent chance I can repeat all of those statements after the draft. They are going to need to be thinking about replacing Urlacher soon. Ogunleye and Brown arent getting any younger, and only seem to play well when the entire team is. They need many starting positions replaced still. They didnt get one significant FA on the market. So if they are planning on drafting like 7 guys and hope they all start next season, thats rebuilding in my eyes. If they are going with all their current guys, well.. I guess its not rebuilding, just sucking.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Also, let's not forget getting rid of the underperforming play and poor attitude known as Moose. How will we ever survive without his inability to get separation and catch passes.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

But you dont think its a bit discouraging that the best transaction your GM made was releasing someone?

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

So the Bears fall into the other 25% who are getting rid of bad players and NOT replacing them?

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It's not rebuilding, in as much as there's nothing really to build upon on the offensive side, and your defense is going to look pretty much the same (as it should.) Rebuilding is what's going on in Atlanta, where they're cutting anyone even remotely of value to start the whole thing from scratch.

In all seriousness, the Bears had one of the worst offenses in the NFL last year. How much can they really miss Berrian? Yeah, maybe his numbers are worse than they should have been if he was in an optimal QB situation. But that works both ways too; good wide receivers open up possibilities for the rest of the offense.

Here's how I see it:

2007 Bears offense = Shit

Shit - Berrian = marginally worse shit

marginally worse shit + Booker = shit

shit + 1st round OT, 2nd round WR and lots of 2 TE sets = below average offense

Below average offense + top three defense = playoff team in 2008 (potentially)

2009 Bears = younger O-line, new weapon at WR, all defensive players locked up, and no cap problems from shooting the cap load on overpriced, 32 year old declining guards.

That's the plan, anyway. That doesn't quilify as rebuilding. Rebuilding would be cutting every expensive part to make way for younger players. That's not happening, and doing that would be rash.

I think you are being way too optimistic IB. Did Harry log onto your account? Your implication is that Booker = Berrian. I really disagree with that. 2nd, why do you assume that these offensive picks by JA will work out? Have they ever? Who's a good offensive player that JA has drafted? According to your theory, they already did that and they have Berrian, Bradley, Marc Columbo, and Rex. We obviously know how those have played out so far. I fully expect any offensive players drafted by the bears this season to be busts, and thats based on a track record by JA. I think anyone predicting a below average offense for the Bears this season will be in for a big surprise. I think it will be one of the bottom 5, and a good shot to be the worst.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

They will solve WR, RB, and one of the OL spots in the first three rounds of the draft and still have an extra pick left over for another player that can help. The offensive line still has a few decent players but will have some flaws unless some people really step up.

Let's say the Bears weren't rebuilding, who would you have kept? Moose, Darwin Walker, Fred Miller, Griese? Did any of those players deserve to be kept?

Now they chose not to overpay for Berrian who they believed wasn't a game changing WR. I agree with that.
They got rid of Ayenbadejo and I don't know why but it wasn't to rebuild.

The Bears are going to try and get younger on offense but they kept the defense largely in tact and kept the best LB they had last year in Briggs. They kept two QB's who have been around the Bears for a long time.

Every team is going to be drafting 6 or 7 players and hoping some of them can contribute. The Bears will rely a little more heavily than some but the Bears are still a very veteran team. They also are hoping that some previous draft picks can step up after injuries(Bazuin and Dvorachek and Bradley).

The draft is important to the Bears as it is to most teams. I guess when I think of rebuilding I think of a team dropping all veterans and going young. I don't see the Bears doing that. I think a team like Miami is rebuilding. The Bears are attempting to fill holes with unproven or newly drafted players.

Besides Berrian and Ayenbadejo, they won't see a dropoff of production from whoever else they fill in those positions. None of them were that good anyways.

Now you may be right that the Bears may need to rebuild soon and it may start if this season doesn't start, but there would be a lot more players released or traded if the Bears were truly rebuilding. I think they think they can win next year and with the way the NFL works, I think they can too.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

The best transaction was keeping Lance Briggs.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Rick, you are smarter than that. What makes you so absolutely sure. Angelo is fucking terrible at drafting offensive players. Its a much better proposition that none of those positions will be solved, even if they are all drafted.



Im not even sure what this is supposed to mean. They both suck.



Dvorachek can be a good player. Good luck relying on the other two, especially Bradley.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

You're making the perfect the enemy of the good, FF. There needs to be a plan, and there needs to be continuity, if only because there aren't enough warm bodies in the NFL to fill 53 new spots, or even 11 spots on offense. But here's the more important point; Once you've made your big move in free agency, that's it. The plan damn well better work, because if it doesn't, you're in cap hell for the next 2 or 3 years. So you can spend a ton of money on a couple of guys- let's say that the Bears got both Turner and Faneca at the price that the Jets and the Falcons paid. There's your cap, especially if you resign Briggs, which you probably aren't doing because you need to resign Tommy Harris. The rest of the cap space will be needed for your draft picks. Now, you're tapped out, but here's the real problem- those signings are going to accelerate over time. If the cap continues to grow as it has, great, but it's not projected to do so indefinitely.

Plus, since you're getting a player right in the heart of his prime (Turner) or a little past it (Faneca), you need to win right away, because if you don't, you're going to be paying huge amounts of money to old, bad players when your younger players are starting to get good (hopefully). You can cut them, but then you're taking a cap hit and paying for nothing whatsoever.

Finally, I am assuming that the draft will be OK. You almost have to, regardless of the team. Any 21st century NFL team that does not make the draft the integral part of their plan is doomed to failure.

I don't know that the plan is going to work, but it's at least a plan, and I give credit to JA for not having an itchy trigger finger on these guys.

Yes, if the draft fails, then it's over. The draft is critical, as always. Fine, point conceded. JA has had a substandard record of drafting offensive players, fine, point conceded, although I think it's rather overplayed. But you're argument has assumptions against which it's impossible to argue. If any team fails in the draft, they're in trouble. There's no other way to do it anymore. And I refuse to believe that the Bears have been a bad drafting team since JA took over (take a look at Bears drafts 1990-2000 to get an idea of what bad drafting looks like, just scan the first rounds.)

All I need to know is that there's a plan.

OK IB I dont disagree with anything you said necessarily(although I would have gone after Faneca), but if you are going to rely on the draft alone, dont you need a better offensive evaluator if you ever plan on fielding a complete team. I agree that the draft is the best way to build a team. Ted Thompson does it almost exclusively, and its worked out really well up untill not because he has had picks on both sides of the ball work out, not just one. If Greg Olsen hadnt fallen in their lap, and the jury is still out on him, I cant think of any other offensive player Angelo has drafted thats been pretty good, except possibly Berrian, who you guys all hate.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

My god. How have you already made a final verdict on Bazuin? I don't even remember seeing him on the field. Nothing should be expected of Mark Bradley, but he has shown some talent.

The Bears have it pretty easy in the first round as an incredibly high quality WR, RB, and OL should all be available. Nothing is a sure thing, but that will be an easy pick. The pick will easily be as good as the Greg Olsen pick was last year and have a similar impact. He could watch the ESPN coverage and pick the best player available from that group of positions and it would be the right pick.

The same situation will happen in round two. This is where I would go for a WR. I'd love to see James Hardy go here to the Bears. He'll come in day one and be a starting WR. If Hardy played at a halfway decent college he would be a top ten pick.

Angelo has done a poor job of drafting offensive talent in the past. You are right about that. I'm not going to think that trend is destined to continue. Greg Olsen was a great pick. I'm sure Angelo has changed his philosophy and if he's smart he has new people he consults for advice.

I hope you are as critical about your GM that failed to do half as well as Angelo has done the past five years with a hall of fame QB at his disposal.

_________________
You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

But how is that rebuilding? That's my point. The Bears aren't rebuilding. Rebuilding indicates your plan is to win 2 or 3 years from now. The Bears want to win next year, and if they didn't about 4 other players would be gone.

_________________
You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Are you kidding me? The Packers were the youngest team in the NFL last season and went 13-3. Unlike the Bears, they are pretty complete on both sides of the ball. They have drafted very well over the past few years, and its showed. They picked up Ryan Grant for nothing, hes better than any RB the Bears have, or have had in quite some time(I dont think last season was a fluke). Jennings and Jones worked out 10x better than Berrian and Bradley. They have a very good young interior offensive and defensive line. Justin Harrell was a curious pick I thought at the time, but I think its a good pick looking back on it. I'd take Ted Thompson right now over JA in a heartbeat. JA is definitely a better defensive scout, but when your track record is something like 0-734 on offensive picks, its hard to say you've twice as good a job as the guy to the north.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Great, hows that working out for you?

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

I don't know that it's a good plan. I think it's the best possible plan. In fact, I think it's the only viable plan. I don't know the odds of it working out, however. Chances are the Bears rattle around that 6-10/8-8 corridor once again. But things change quickly, so who knows.

What screws the Bears over in the end, as always, is the QB thing. All the QBs suck in the draft, probably. If there were 2 or 3 good ones, one of them would have fallen to 14. Instead, we'll wait another year to find a QB and hope that something works out then. I'm sure we'll draft someone, but he'll suck, just on account of having been drafted by the Bears.

The results are in Jerry Angelo's favor, especially the season they went to the Super Bowl and dominated the NFC. I'm not a fan of Jerry Angelo's offensive picks either but they were good enough to get them to a Super Bowl.

It will be interesting to see how great those offensive picks look when Brett Favre's not throwing the ball to them.

You can have Ted Thompson, I'll keep Angelo but I won't be on a Green Bay message board ripping Ted Thompson at any chance I can.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!