Bears
- Neil Hayes at the Chicago Sun-Times answers your questions. This dead on response came to a fan who wanted offensive coordinator Mike Martz to be fired. Here’s part of it:
“The other key is continuity. I can’t stress this enough. Talk to quarterbacks who have had multiple offensive coordinators and they will tell you how much of a disadvantage it is. At this point of his career, Cutler needs to continue to learn and mature in one offense rather than switching to another.”
- Hayes also puts center a bit higher on the list of offseason priorities than I would but there’s little doubt he has a point.
- Trent Dilfer at ESPN makes the excellent point that the Bears need to build more depth in the offseason:
- Hayes’ opinion of whether the Bears should explore the option of adding Albert Haynesworth is also in line with my own.
- Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher told Waddle and Silvy on ESPN 1000 that he is still upset at the way Bears quarterback Jay Cutler was treated after leaving last week’s game with an injury. Give Urlacher credit. At least his anger is aimed in the right direction – towards his fellow players.
- Urlacher also had this to say:
“Hell no I’m not rooting for the Packers in the Super Bowl. I have a ton of respect for that organization and the head coach, but I don’t want them to win the Super Bowl. They’re in our division, I want them to lose.”
Couldn’t agree more.
- Mel Kiper at ESPN reviews the drafts of each NFL team one year later. Here’s what he said about the Bears:
Summary: The Bears nailed one of the top sleepers in the whole draft, when seventh-round pick J’Marcus Webb was thrown into action and performed pretty well. Suddenly, a draft that didn’t see any picks until No. 75 overall (Major Wright) found some decent value. Corey Wootton also looks like a keeper as a defensive end out of Northwestern. The Bears saw value in him as a local guy who wasn’t at 100 percent during his final season in Evanston, and it should pan out for them. There wasn’t major impact, but given where they were forced to pick, Chicago did well.
Draft grade: B | Current Grade: B
- Don Banks at SI.com has released the first of many mock drafts he will put together in the coming weeks. He has the Bears taking Derek Sherrod, an offensive tackle out of Mississippi State:
“The Bears have decent options when their turn comes around. They can get help for the offensive line that caused them so many headaches, particularly early in the season, or address their needs at either defensive tackle, receiver or cornerback. Sherrod is the highest-rated remaining tackle, but Texas cornerback Aaron Williams and LSU defensive tackle Drake Nevis would also make sense.”
- NFL Live’s Trey Wingo, Tom Jackson, and Trent Dilfer at ESPN give the Bears their season report card:
- This fan has obviously recovered from the loss:
- Barak Obama‘s special assistant and personal aide Reggie Love has betrayed his country:
Elsewhere
- James Walsh at the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports the facts behind former Bear and current Vikings wide receiver Bernard Berrian‘s law suit against a California couple who found his Blackberry. The couple say they were “negotiating a reward”. Berrian’s lawyers and apparently the FBI have called it “extortion”. I would simply call it “unethical” regardless of what the law says.
- Guard Logan Mankins told Karen Guregian of the Boston Herald that its highly unlikely that he will be back with the Patriots unless they use the franchise tag on him. He will be the best guard available to the Bears in free agency.
- Ray Lewis comments upon the honor of playing in the Pro Bowl as players around the league, including the Bears’ Brian Urlacher, back out due to “injury”:
“When you look at a guy like Peyton [Manning], when you look at a guy like Tony Gonzales, they appreciate it. When you get over, there’s a certain brotherhood. The guys you went to war against, now you come here and it’s all about family and sharing and understanding.”
- The NFL players union says the average number of injuries has risen during the 2010 season.
- ESPN‘s Outside the Lines reveals the results of a scientific study, that for the first time reveals the level of prescription painkiller use and misuse by retired NFL players.
- Scouts Inc. ranks every single player on both Super Bowl rosters for ESPN.
- It seems that green Bay nose tackle B.J. Raji has taught the world a new dance. This new step was inspired by his now famous belly dance in the end zone:
One Final Thought
Rachel Cohen writes about the NFL’s soaring television ratings for the Associated Press. Fox Sports chairman David Hill had this to say about a work stoppage:
“With the sport reaching heights that Pete Rozelle would never dreamed of, we want to keep it that way. We know what happens to sports after a strike or a lockout; people turn away and it takes a while for them to come back. It would be a great tragedy if both sides weren’t able to reach an agreement.”
In the case of baseball, some of us never went back. And the game has never been the same.
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