Bear(ing) the News – A Chicago Bears Blog

Matt Bowen at the Chicago Tribune runs through things he wants to see about Marc Trestman’s new offensive and defensive schemes and personnel during this week’s minicamp.  Amongst the things he’s curious about are how Trestman and offensive coordinator Aaron Kromer will use new tight end Martellus Bennet.

“With Bennett, and second-year pro Evan Rodriguez, the Bears can bring their Ace personnel (two receivers, two tight ends, one back) on the field to create matchups versus base defensive fronts and try to exploit the second level of the defense. There will be opportunities here for [quarterback Jay] Cutler to use the tight end to beat up the middle of the field.”

Only if they can run the ball with that personnel.  If both Bennett and Rodriguez can block well enough to force an opponent to use a base scheme against that personnel, they’ll be able to do something.  But as of now if I’m a defensive coordinator, the Bears will rarely see a full compliment of linebackers against that personnel.  Certainly not in anything that looks even close to a passing situation.

The problem is that you won’t really be able to evaluate that in a mini camp.  The Bears won’t really know what they have until the players get out of shorts and start hitting people.

I thought this comment from the Friday Buzz feature at The National Football Post was interesting:

There is an uncomfortable and eerie feeling in the agent community. More players than ever have been ask to take pay cuts and the amount of unsigned quality players still on the street has agents feeling uneasy. From one veteran agent: “I’m not sure if this is just an anomaly in the market place because of a flat cap this year, or if there is some informal collusion going on amongst owners, or if this is a trend that’s here to stay. If so, it looks like the back end of the second deal is just window dressing and the chance for a third deal is dead.” We won’t really know until next year.

First, I despise the word “collusion” when it comes out of an agent’s mouth only marginally less than I do when it comes out of the mouth of a representative of the player’s union.  The NFL doesn’t need any more lawsuits, particularly from the union.

Having said that, I really doubt that its justified.  Teams are spending to the cap.  In fact, to some extent they’re obligated to spend to the cap.  As long as they’re doing that, I can’t see how there can be a complaint.  If they’re spending less cash up front its almost certainly because the cap won’t be increasing to accommodate the back end of those contracts like it used to.  At least not for the next year or two.

My message to the players is “welcome to the real world”.  Finances are tight all over and, to a certain degree, the NFL is probably feeling it.  Your cap might be flat for the next couple years but be grateful you aren’t dependent upon government funding right now.

Brian Urlacher is really going to wish he’d taken that $2 million from the Bears.  Its not that I’m unsympathetic to the players’ situation.  But looking back on it, no one should be surprised.

Sean Jensen at the Chicago Sun-Times gives a list of players who mock drafts going to the Bears (without reference or links to whose drafts they are):

1. Alec Ogletree, LB, 6-2, 242, Georgia

2. Manti Te’o, LB, 6-1, 241, Notre Dame

3. Jonathan Cooper, G, 6-2, 311, North Carolina

4. Sylvester Williams, DT, 6-3, 313, North Carolina

5. Arthur Brown, LB, 6-0, 241, Kansas State

6. Chance Warmack, G, 6-2, 314, Alabama

7. Desmond Trufant, CB, 6-0, 190, Washington

8. Tyler Eifert, TE, 6-6, 250, Notre Dame

9. Tank Carradine, DE, 6-4, 265, Florida State

This promises to be a good draft for the Bears.  Some of these players, particularly Ogletree, Cooper and Warmack, are expected to go higher than 20.  The team can afford to sit back and take which ever steal falls to them.  A nice situation.

Like myself, ESPN‘s NFC North blogger Kevin Seifert is wondering what the Bears are going to do at left guard.  In doing so, he reminds us that the Bears are only adequate at best at the center position.  He makes a good point:

“[I]t’s worth noting, at least, that the Bears signed free agent center Taylor Boggs on Tuesday and [hosted] California guard/center Brian Schwenke on a visit Wednesday. The Bears don’t necessarily need to find a new center for 2013, but much like their short-term transition at middle linebacker from Brian Urlacher to D.J. Williams, it is time to construct a longer-term plan.

In this case, of course, the Bears have some flexibility. If they find in training camp that they have another starting-caliber center on the roster — be it Boggs, a draft pick or another free agent — [Roberto] Garza could conceivably move back to guard. The Bears signed free agent Matt Slauson presumably to replace the departed Lance Louis, but there is still one guard position without an obvious starter.

Garza is a much better left guard than he is a center.  Moving him there would kill two birds with one stone, improving the the center position and the guard position at the same time.

The more I think about it, the more I like it and the more I think this is exactly what the Bears may be planning to do.

Another good question for Dan Pompei from the Chicago Tribuune:

“Is Gabe Carimi destined to become the next Chris Williams — a first round “left tackle” who couldn’t play either tackle position and had to be switched inside to save his career? I don’t think there’s any way Carimi beats out both J’Marcus Webb and Jonathan Scott at right tackle. — David Jones, East St. Louis

“As it stands now, it’s looking more like Carimi’s best chance will be at guard rather than right tackle.  You can’t have a three-man competition for a starting spot and give all three players an equal shot.  My hunch is Marc Trestman and Aaron Kromer will let Webb and Scott battle it out at right tackle and move Carimi to guard at the start.  The way the roster is now, Carimi is needed more at guard than tackle.  None of this means Carimi won’t eventually end up back at tackle though.  I still think he has the ability to play right tackle at a pretty high level in the NFL if he can get his legs back.  In fact, he could still be moved to tackle this year even if he starts out at guard.  For that to happen, both Webb and Scott would have to disappoint.”

I’ll leave aside the fact that Carimi probably wasn’t drafted to be a left tackle.

I don’t have any big problems with Scott other than that he’s not the most athletic of linemen.  But the thought of J’Marcus Webb starting at right tackle worries me.  Webb’s problem isn’t athletic ability.  It’s his lack of concentration and consistency.  That seems to be unlikely to get better on the right side.

I’d just as soon seem Carimi at right tackle if his knee is healthy.  Here’s hoping the Bears haven’t given up on him at the position too soon.