The rankings continue!
11. Matt Schaub: Matt Schaub is an unlucky bastard. For years he toiled in obscurity to anyone who didn't play fantasy football, putting up great numbers for a Texans team that couldn't keep San Jose State from dropping 30 points. This year, the Texans defense made one of the great turnarounds in history and they were playoff bound when Schaub went down. He was deprived of that first playoff start and potentially much more.
Sadly, that's been Matt's issue his whole career: he's fragile. Since coming to the Texans in 2007, Schaub's missed at least 5 starts in all but two campaigns. This year the Texans are one of the preseason favorites in the AFC and Schaub himself is bidding for an extension. We'll see if he can pull it off.
12. Matthew Stafford: 5,000 yards and 41 TDs just don't buy you what they used to. Stafford is undeniably talented and certainly had an impressive season for a guy who spent most of the previous two seasons at home nursing his various shoulder injuries. That said, can anyone shake the feeling that Stafford, without Calvin Johnson, would be lucky to be Joe Flacco? Stafford struggled in games against Green Bay, New Orleans, and Chicago when Johnson averaged just 66 yards and scored just 1 TD. Add that into his 1-6 record (including playoffs) against playoff teams this last season (and that 1 playoff opponent they beat was f*&king Tebow) and you have some questions as to how good Matthew Stafford can be when Calvin Johnson can't just run roughshod over non-contending secondaries. That said, Megatron or no, one more season of that kind of production and Stafford belongs well into the top ten. Also, I did say he'd be better than Mark Sanchez, Iggins! champion of the 2009 NFL draft, so, Ha.
13. Matt Ryan: I've been a frequent critic of Matt Ryan, even though I'm fond of the guy. He has definite limitations. Before last year, he was overly conservative, struggled to go deep with any consistency, and had watching his YPA decline every year of his career. The addition of Julio Jones helped greatly, as the Falcons finally opened up the playbook and Ryan responded with a 4,000 yard campaign and a greatly improved 7.5 YPA. Unfortunately, all of that good will went out the door when he failed to muster a single offensive point in his third one-and-done playoff appearance. I hate to say Ryan can never be More than just a very good game-manager, because others have made the leap, but at this point it's safe to say that he should get comfortable in this tier of QBs.
14. Joe Flacco: Flacco and Ryan. Forever linked by their excellent shared rookie campaigns and their never-ending playoff frustrations since. Here's the thing about rookie quarterbacks: not that long ago, and still in some cases, it used to be that rookie QBs were expected to struggle until they broke through in years two and three. If a guy like Dan Marino or Peyton Manning had an outstanding rookie year, well, he was clearly destined for greatness. Nowadays high schools are installing pro style offenses with passing camps and colleges have more preparation then ever. Players enter the NFL better-prepared than ever before. What this has done in the case of guys like Flacco and Ryan (and I'm guessing Andy Dalton) is that it's inflated people's sense of their potential. Ryan and Flacco played so well as rookies that clearly the sky was the limit! Unless, maybe, they were just really NFL-ready and were never actually going to progress that far past said rookie seasons. Flacco, especially, seems to have peaked and hasn't made much measurable progress since his second campaign. That's not necessarily a bad thing, since he's a perfectly acceptable starting QB in the NFL, especially for a defensively minded team like the Ravens, but it leads to undue pressure on a guy who may never really be That guy.
15. Michael Vick: If you look at his numbers since the Vikings upset the Eagles in 2010 by using Antoine Winfield to nickel-blitz the shit out of Vick and gave him one of his many rib injures, Vick's supposed transformation into an elite passer was really just modest improvement into an acceptable one: he has 59% completion % and an 83.6 rating in his last 15 games. Paired with his running ability, that makes him a dangerous player. Unfortunately, that running ability has led to his frequent injures, which limits his value and has him now reducing his rushing attempts (and consequently the value added by his rushing ability). What this means is Vick is now an average passer who can sometimes run and is often injured. Sounds good for #15.
16. Andy Dalton: Damn, has it really been long enough for us to designate someone as "the next Matt Ryan?" Because that's Dalton.
17. Ryan Fitzpatrick: Fitzpatrick is a perfectly adequate passer when he's healthy and his protection holds up. In Buffalo that's worth $59 million. Woof.
18. Andrew Luck: Yeah, I'm doing it. You look at the guys that are coming up and tell my you really think I'm stiffing any of them. Luck may not even have the 18th best passing stats in the NFL this year, but I'd rather have him than anyone left on this list.
19. RGIII: Okay. Maybe I'd rather have him. His rushing ability should make him more of an immediate threat than Luck, and he throws a majestic deep ball. Hopefully the Redskins won't ruin him.
20. Alex Smith: Congratulations, Alex Smith! Top 20! The 49ers will tell you they think he'll take the next step with a geriatric Randy Moss, Mario Manningham, and AJ Jenkins (I'm sorry, I'm an Illini fan who loves AJ Jenkins, but, c'mon). I think a guy who has been in the NFL for nearly a decade now has taken all of his steps, and should just continue to avoid mistakes and hope his defense will carry his ass.
That's it for now. Part 3 to come!
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
College Previewkakke: B1G Legends Division
And here we find ourselves on the final leg of our NCAA Preview journey. The B1G Legends division (Jesus that’s grating to type) will be the most entertaining division to watch this season behind the SEC West. Three teams have a legitimate shot at winning the division, two could contend or turn into a dumpster fire, and Minnesota, like every year, has a fanbase that thinks they’ll finally turn it around this season.
Remember when the ACC intentionally put FSU and Miami in different divisions because they were expected to play for the ACC Championship every year and draw huge ratings? No? Maybe that’s because it still hasn’t happened. Remember when the B1G put OSU and Michigan in different divisions, then had a huge debate over whether they were going to move the protected OSU-Michigan game away from the last game of the season because they didn’t want them playing two weeks in a row? No?
Probably because neither OSU or Michigan made it to the inaugural game, and it doesn’t look like either will this year, again (yes, OSU is on probation, but they wouldn’t have made it last year anyway, and I would wager they won’t have a better record than Wiscy this year either). Once again, the Legends division favorite is Sparty, which leads me all the way back to the B1G Leaders division preview. Here we sit, in what is supposedly a “changing” B1G, and the two teams who may play for the B1G Championship two years in a row both run pro style offenses. Certainly, we can have a lengthy discussion about whether we should change the definition of “pro-style”, but we know what it means. Hard running, good blocking, 4-3 defense, acceptable game-managing QB.
It may not be as exciting as the AIR RAID, and it may not be different or new, like a zone read. But there is something comforting in having the pro-style formation live on and win titles in the B1G. So with that, who wins this year? Here are my 100% accurate predictions:
Your SKO 2012 NFL Quarterback Rankings 1-10
Every year various writers and organizations throughout the NFL rank the various starting QBs. You can watch Ron Jaworski doing it all offseason long on ESPN. These lists are done for one reason: to troll your ass. The only thing that gets people as irritated or perhaps more so than meaningless team rankings are QB rankings. In a power poll you look for wherever your team is listed and then ignore the rest, outside of maybe a cursory glance at the top ten or whichever of your rivals is listed ahead of your team. In a QB ranking? Somehow everyone has an opinion on that and it is clearly the greatest affront to humanity to consider ranking Joe Flacco somewhere above Matt Ryan. You bastards!
I say all of this from experience, because I get noticeably irritated when people like Ross Tucker do stupid shit and rank Jay Cutler as the TWENTIETH best quarterback in the NFL. How'd that work out for Ross, by the way? Does anyone acknowledge him as a football sage for proclaiming that luminaries like Matt Cassel, Mark Sanchez, Sam Bradford, Josh Freeman, and Kyle Orton were better quarterbacks than Jay?
My point is that even though I know these lists are a cheap way to fill up space and generate discussion and troll my ass hard, I still read them. I'm betting you will too! So here's my own completely biased, hate-filled rankings that will no doubt look absurd a year from now after Cam Newton has the worst sophomore slump in history or something.:
1. Aaron Rodgers: Every now and then I run into a Bears fan who tries to say something like "Rodgers is so overrated, any QB with those receivers...." just stop. Aaron Rodgers, if he retired today, would have the highest QB rating in NFL history. Granted, that's a flawed stat and it's trended upward on average as the league has become more passer friendly, but it's just a tiny sampling of how fucking good this guy is. He may not be the best passer in the league at the moment, as I'd give that edge to Breesus, but Bears fans especially know how fucking annoying it is those few times when he has no passing options and simply gallops for 20 yards through open space. Anywho, I get that it's cool to hate on the Packers QB and it's frustrating that he's so good, but don't make yourself sound like a moron for the purposes of the rivalry. He's good. Let's be mature and just hope his offensive line gets him killed.
2. Drew Brees: Drew Brees is one of my favorite players ever and has been since his days at Purdue. I remember listening to draftniks as they tore apart his measurables (which were always underrated because he was short. His arm strength was never bad) and hoping against hope he would fall to the Bears in the second round. He did not, and the rest is history. For all of the credit that Peyton Manning got for being the Colts offensive coordinator, Drew Brees deserves just as much. He is in complete and total control of the football field. It's hard to imagine anyone having better anticipation or accuracy, or better touch on the deep and intermediate routes that are the Saints bread and butter. I don't think any QB has gotten as much done downfield with just average NFL arm strength as Drew Brees has. Oh, and he just had the greatest passing season ever. Should probably tack that on there somewhere.
3. Tom Brady: No surprises to this point. Any list that doesn't start off with these three in some order is immediately more irrelevant than the rest of all of the totally irrelevant lists. You don't need me to recap Tom Brady's resume. Early in his career he was the perfect archetype of the game manager, as he did just enough to ride the Pats stellar defense to three Superbowls, where he transformed into the second coming of Joe Montana every time. Then a combination of Brady's experience and their declining defense led them to set him free, and now he's the perfect architect of the NFL's first truly successful spread offense. The only questions are how long he can keep playing and if he'll be able to overcome their awful defense to get his fourth ring.
4. Eli Manning: I know what you're thinking. This feels...wrong. Before the 2007 postseason Eli was a below average quarterback. Just two years ago he threw 25 picks. However, he's averaged 4300 yards and 29 TDs over the last three years and just picked up his second Superbowl ring. With Peyton's return from NeckAIDs clouding his future, Eli has become the better Manning (for now) and makes his way into the top five.
5. Peyton Manning: This spot in the rankings is either too low or too high depending on his return, but it seems like a crime to keep Peyton Manning out of the top five until I see with my own eyes that it's not true anymore. I mean, shit, he's Peyton f*&king Manning. That said, even in 2010 there were some minor signs (17 interceptions, a YPA for the season below 7.0 for the first time since his rookie year) that Peyton was slowing down. I don't expect him to be better than that in a Broncos uniform, but even 85% of Peyton Manning is probably a top ten NFL passer.
6. Ben Roethlisberger: There's really no good place in a QB ranking to put Ben Roethlisberger. Your stomach churns if he's in the top 5, but there's no way to justify putting him below 6, unless you're Iggins! and others who have a raging hate boner for the guy based on the perception that he's still the dude from his first two years who throws it 15 times a game and benefits from a great team. Since his third year Roethlisberger's averaged over 400 attempts a year in every non-suspended campaign and has averaged 245 yards per game, completed nearly 63%, averaged almost 8.0 YPA, and has a QB rating over 90. He's also been to two Superbowls and won one in that time. He's good, even if there are totally valid complaints about him holding the ball too long (statistically the Steelers allow more "long" sacks, or sacks over 2.0 seconds, than any team in the NFL) and him forcing himself on women. Not to make light of rape allegations, but unfortunately you can only rank the guy as a football player. Not a human being.
7. Philip Rivers: If Philip Rivers didn't seem like such a colossal asshole I'd feel bad for him. A player of his ability deserves a front office that doesn't let all of the offensive talent around him disappear year after year. Have you seen their offensive line lately? Fuck, Vincent Jackson was chronically overrated and is still ten times better than the flotsam they've replaced him with. Despite the near constant erosion of star power around him, Rivers has gotten better nearly every year. Last year desperation and a possible injury forced him into plenty of turnovers early on, but it's hard to knock a guy who throws for 4600 yards in a "bad" year. Even if he is a jag.
8. Cam Newton: I fear ranking a one year wonder in the top ten because of the potential for implosion (see, Freeman, Josh), and this is maybe too high for Cam anyway, but I fear this monstrosity and you should too. He had a better rookie season throwing the ball than Peyton Manning and he ran for, I don't know, something like fourteen touchdowns. FOURTEEN. Why do the Bears have to play him this year?
9. Jay Cutler: Statistically, this is probably indefensible unless you're a person willing to look at the stories behind the statistics at times, especially at a position with so many variables. You've all seen what Jay Cutler does, what he's had to deal with, and what the team looked like without him. Sure, 2009 was a disaster, but over time Jay's learn to manage his risk-taking. He's learned to compensate for a god awful offensive line by scrambling around and firing darts that few QBs in this league could even attempt. He's had to eat sacks because his line is a sieve and his wide receivers, until now, couldn't get open in press coverage against a double amputee.
This year we will find out what Jay can really do, assuming the protection is at least average. He'll have real receivers, a scheme designed to match his talents and those of his teammates, and a chance to erase many of the "yeah, but..."'s on his resume. If he falls short I'll have to accept that maybe he's just never going to be anything more than "just" good. But I don't think he will.
10. Tony Romo: I don't know or care what he does in often imaginary "clutch" situations. If I told you a guy had a 96.9 QB rating, averages almost 270 yards passing per game, and has a career YPA of 8.0, you'd think he was a Hall of Famer if he was anybody Other than Tony Romo. I'd feel truly terrible for all of the undeserved shit he got if he wasn't a fucking Dallas Cowboy. This is payback for forty years of having "America's Team" shoved down our throats, Tony. You want to play for the self-titled Gods of the NFL? You'd better expect an entire nation to be laughing at your every fuck up.
That's it for now because I would assume that no one is even still reading at this point because, as usual, I'm extremely long winded.
Most of these rankings count backwards, to build anticipation or something, but I trust you'll keep reading as I go down the list because isn't bile towards shitty players more of your thing, anyway? You know you want to hear what I have to say about Blaine Gabbert and Rico Mirerez.
I say all of this from experience, because I get noticeably irritated when people like Ross Tucker do stupid shit and rank Jay Cutler as the TWENTIETH best quarterback in the NFL. How'd that work out for Ross, by the way? Does anyone acknowledge him as a football sage for proclaiming that luminaries like Matt Cassel, Mark Sanchez, Sam Bradford, Josh Freeman, and Kyle Orton were better quarterbacks than Jay?
My point is that even though I know these lists are a cheap way to fill up space and generate discussion and troll my ass hard, I still read them. I'm betting you will too! So here's my own completely biased, hate-filled rankings that will no doubt look absurd a year from now after Cam Newton has the worst sophomore slump in history or something.:
1. Aaron Rodgers: Every now and then I run into a Bears fan who tries to say something like "Rodgers is so overrated, any QB with those receivers...." just stop. Aaron Rodgers, if he retired today, would have the highest QB rating in NFL history. Granted, that's a flawed stat and it's trended upward on average as the league has become more passer friendly, but it's just a tiny sampling of how fucking good this guy is. He may not be the best passer in the league at the moment, as I'd give that edge to Breesus, but Bears fans especially know how fucking annoying it is those few times when he has no passing options and simply gallops for 20 yards through open space. Anywho, I get that it's cool to hate on the Packers QB and it's frustrating that he's so good, but don't make yourself sound like a moron for the purposes of the rivalry. He's good. Let's be mature and just hope his offensive line gets him killed.
2. Drew Brees: Drew Brees is one of my favorite players ever and has been since his days at Purdue. I remember listening to draftniks as they tore apart his measurables (which were always underrated because he was short. His arm strength was never bad) and hoping against hope he would fall to the Bears in the second round. He did not, and the rest is history. For all of the credit that Peyton Manning got for being the Colts offensive coordinator, Drew Brees deserves just as much. He is in complete and total control of the football field. It's hard to imagine anyone having better anticipation or accuracy, or better touch on the deep and intermediate routes that are the Saints bread and butter. I don't think any QB has gotten as much done downfield with just average NFL arm strength as Drew Brees has. Oh, and he just had the greatest passing season ever. Should probably tack that on there somewhere.
3. Tom Brady: No surprises to this point. Any list that doesn't start off with these three in some order is immediately more irrelevant than the rest of all of the totally irrelevant lists. You don't need me to recap Tom Brady's resume. Early in his career he was the perfect archetype of the game manager, as he did just enough to ride the Pats stellar defense to three Superbowls, where he transformed into the second coming of Joe Montana every time. Then a combination of Brady's experience and their declining defense led them to set him free, and now he's the perfect architect of the NFL's first truly successful spread offense. The only questions are how long he can keep playing and if he'll be able to overcome their awful defense to get his fourth ring.
4. Eli Manning: I know what you're thinking. This feels...wrong. Before the 2007 postseason Eli was a below average quarterback. Just two years ago he threw 25 picks. However, he's averaged 4300 yards and 29 TDs over the last three years and just picked up his second Superbowl ring. With Peyton's return from NeckAIDs clouding his future, Eli has become the better Manning (for now) and makes his way into the top five.
5. Peyton Manning: This spot in the rankings is either too low or too high depending on his return, but it seems like a crime to keep Peyton Manning out of the top five until I see with my own eyes that it's not true anymore. I mean, shit, he's Peyton f*&king Manning. That said, even in 2010 there were some minor signs (17 interceptions, a YPA for the season below 7.0 for the first time since his rookie year) that Peyton was slowing down. I don't expect him to be better than that in a Broncos uniform, but even 85% of Peyton Manning is probably a top ten NFL passer.
6. Ben Roethlisberger: There's really no good place in a QB ranking to put Ben Roethlisberger. Your stomach churns if he's in the top 5, but there's no way to justify putting him below 6, unless you're Iggins! and others who have a raging hate boner for the guy based on the perception that he's still the dude from his first two years who throws it 15 times a game and benefits from a great team. Since his third year Roethlisberger's averaged over 400 attempts a year in every non-suspended campaign and has averaged 245 yards per game, completed nearly 63%, averaged almost 8.0 YPA, and has a QB rating over 90. He's also been to two Superbowls and won one in that time. He's good, even if there are totally valid complaints about him holding the ball too long (statistically the Steelers allow more "long" sacks, or sacks over 2.0 seconds, than any team in the NFL) and him forcing himself on women. Not to make light of rape allegations, but unfortunately you can only rank the guy as a football player. Not a human being.
7. Philip Rivers: If Philip Rivers didn't seem like such a colossal asshole I'd feel bad for him. A player of his ability deserves a front office that doesn't let all of the offensive talent around him disappear year after year. Have you seen their offensive line lately? Fuck, Vincent Jackson was chronically overrated and is still ten times better than the flotsam they've replaced him with. Despite the near constant erosion of star power around him, Rivers has gotten better nearly every year. Last year desperation and a possible injury forced him into plenty of turnovers early on, but it's hard to knock a guy who throws for 4600 yards in a "bad" year. Even if he is a jag.
8. Cam Newton: I fear ranking a one year wonder in the top ten because of the potential for implosion (see, Freeman, Josh), and this is maybe too high for Cam anyway, but I fear this monstrosity and you should too. He had a better rookie season throwing the ball than Peyton Manning and he ran for, I don't know, something like fourteen touchdowns. FOURTEEN. Why do the Bears have to play him this year?
9. Jay Cutler: Statistically, this is probably indefensible unless you're a person willing to look at the stories behind the statistics at times, especially at a position with so many variables. You've all seen what Jay Cutler does, what he's had to deal with, and what the team looked like without him. Sure, 2009 was a disaster, but over time Jay's learn to manage his risk-taking. He's learned to compensate for a god awful offensive line by scrambling around and firing darts that few QBs in this league could even attempt. He's had to eat sacks because his line is a sieve and his wide receivers, until now, couldn't get open in press coverage against a double amputee.
This year we will find out what Jay can really do, assuming the protection is at least average. He'll have real receivers, a scheme designed to match his talents and those of his teammates, and a chance to erase many of the "yeah, but..."'s on his resume. If he falls short I'll have to accept that maybe he's just never going to be anything more than "just" good. But I don't think he will.
10. Tony Romo: I don't know or care what he does in often imaginary "clutch" situations. If I told you a guy had a 96.9 QB rating, averages almost 270 yards passing per game, and has a career YPA of 8.0, you'd think he was a Hall of Famer if he was anybody Other than Tony Romo. I'd feel truly terrible for all of the undeserved shit he got if he wasn't a fucking Dallas Cowboy. This is payback for forty years of having "America's Team" shoved down our throats, Tony. You want to play for the self-titled Gods of the NFL? You'd better expect an entire nation to be laughing at your every fuck up.
That's it for now because I would assume that no one is even still reading at this point because, as usual, I'm extremely long winded.
Most of these rankings count backwards, to build anticipation or something, but I trust you'll keep reading as I go down the list because isn't bile towards shitty players more of your thing, anyway? You know you want to hear what I have to say about Blaine Gabbert and Rico Mirerez.
Friday, August 24, 2012
Bears 20, Giants 17 (Oh Come On You Stopped Watching, Too)
Before I begin, it should be noted that in the last two years the Bears have lost both of their 3rd preseason games, looking horrible offensively in both, and went on to win their openers a combined 50-26 with over 400 yards of offense in both. So if you were worried at all about what this means for the immediate future, I wouldn't worry.
The Bears were, well, sloppy tonight. Not really bad, per se, in that the Giants did very little to make the team look like they were in trouble. The defense bent and only really broke once (not counting the TD following the blocked punt). The offense had some bright spots and yet looked mostly out of sync. All told, they left the game trailing 17-10 and the effort overall was a resounding "meh."
If Lovie holds to form none of them should play next week, so we'll see what they manage to get done in their last few practices before the opener. I know last week was exciting, but both of these games are still preseason and I hope you haven't let either of them drastically change your expectations.
Now the particulars:
THE GOOD:
Brandon Marshall: My God. Is that what real receiver looks like? He was outstanding tonight, catching a couple of tough short throws and one majestic 21 yard touchdown. God, I can't wait to see him and Cutler together for four full quarters, for 16 (and hopefully more) games. Let this happen, sweet football lovin' Jesus.
Honestly, the most impressive catch Marshall made came in the 3rd quarter and was only for a couple of yards, but it was his technique that was the most impressive. Cutler threw the ball high and inside, in a place where the corner could have jumped in front of it and taken it the other way. Were Johnny Knox standing there it would have been easy to imagine him getting outmaneuvered and watching the corner make the play on the ball. Instead, Marshall made the adjustment and hauled the pass in. That's the kind of stuff that won't show up on the stat sheet that we've been missing...forever.
Alshon Jeffery: I add him just to tack on to what I just said about Marshall. Jeffery had just one catch for nine yards, but it was an impressive play. After the defender made a nice play to deflect Cutler's pass, Jeffery had the composure and control to get the ball while it was still in the air, evade the defender, and gain first down yardage. Real. Receivers.
The Cover 2: I'm sure the usual idiots will complain about Eli Manning completing a shit ton of short passes. It was upsetting to me that the front four failed to get home. That'll need to be corrected. That said, the only points the Giants first team managed came after a couple of questionable calls and a blocked punt deep in Bears territory. Eli barely managed 7.0 ypa, and the Bears nearly escaped the half with just 10 points allowed against a damn good offense. I'll take it.
The Bad:
Jay Cutler and Receivers Not Named Jeffery or Marshall (Okay, Hester's excused as well): Cutler wasn't solely responsible for his 9/21 completion rate. There were no turnovers or forced throws into coverage. Alshon Jeffery and Earl Bennett both dropped touchdown passes that Jay placed in perfect positions. Matt Forte and Kellen Davis both made some route running mistakes.
That said, he sailed a couple of passes over his receivers heads when there was no reason for him not to step into his throw. One, to a wide open Earl Bennett, was particular glaring. I'm not concerned, since Jay's hardly been a preseason MVP in his days with the Bears and generally starts the season off strong, but he certainly was off tonight.
It's also nice that Brandon Marshall was there to bail Jay out and keep his team in the game even when jay was off.
The run-blocking: the pass protection wasn't bad. Carimi whiffed early in the 1st quarter and allowed Jay to pressured into a bad throw. Williams also got turn-stiled in the 2nd quarter and Jay was forced out of the pocket and made a bad throw. The run-blocking, however, was horrendous. Before his last two carries of the night Forte had 8 carries for 5 yards. Run blocking is always something that takes consistency and reps to get moving, but the first team o-line hasn't blocked well yet this preseason. Again, they get the benefit of the doubt because the same group paved the way for over 2,000 yards last year and the protection schemes are extremely vanilla in the preseason, but it was a negative tonight.
Special teams: It's surreal to see the Bears make special teams mistakes, even in the preseason, just because Dave Toub is so good at his job. The blocked punt is concerning. Hopefully Podlesh recovers soon. Weem's fumble was just bad all over. Guh. Oh well. I doubt that happens again.
The Ugly:
Scab Refs: Holy shit, guys. Read the definition of pass interference. You really suck at officiating, and you're probably terrible in bed.
That's all for now. I can understand some mild frustration, since we all just want to see nothing but positive indications that this team is the playoff-bound steamroller we all hope it is, but there was nothing tonight that should concern anyone. They avoided injuries and managed pretty well despite some serious mistakes.
The important thing is that the next time we see Cutler and company, it'll count. I think they'll be ready. I know I am.
Go Bears.
The Bears were, well, sloppy tonight. Not really bad, per se, in that the Giants did very little to make the team look like they were in trouble. The defense bent and only really broke once (not counting the TD following the blocked punt). The offense had some bright spots and yet looked mostly out of sync. All told, they left the game trailing 17-10 and the effort overall was a resounding "meh."
If Lovie holds to form none of them should play next week, so we'll see what they manage to get done in their last few practices before the opener. I know last week was exciting, but both of these games are still preseason and I hope you haven't let either of them drastically change your expectations.
Now the particulars:
THE GOOD:
Brandon Marshall: My God. Is that what real receiver looks like? He was outstanding tonight, catching a couple of tough short throws and one majestic 21 yard touchdown. God, I can't wait to see him and Cutler together for four full quarters, for 16 (and hopefully more) games. Let this happen, sweet football lovin' Jesus.
Honestly, the most impressive catch Marshall made came in the 3rd quarter and was only for a couple of yards, but it was his technique that was the most impressive. Cutler threw the ball high and inside, in a place where the corner could have jumped in front of it and taken it the other way. Were Johnny Knox standing there it would have been easy to imagine him getting outmaneuvered and watching the corner make the play on the ball. Instead, Marshall made the adjustment and hauled the pass in. That's the kind of stuff that won't show up on the stat sheet that we've been missing...forever.
Alshon Jeffery: I add him just to tack on to what I just said about Marshall. Jeffery had just one catch for nine yards, but it was an impressive play. After the defender made a nice play to deflect Cutler's pass, Jeffery had the composure and control to get the ball while it was still in the air, evade the defender, and gain first down yardage. Real. Receivers.
The Cover 2: I'm sure the usual idiots will complain about Eli Manning completing a shit ton of short passes. It was upsetting to me that the front four failed to get home. That'll need to be corrected. That said, the only points the Giants first team managed came after a couple of questionable calls and a blocked punt deep in Bears territory. Eli barely managed 7.0 ypa, and the Bears nearly escaped the half with just 10 points allowed against a damn good offense. I'll take it.
The Bad:
Jay Cutler and Receivers Not Named Jeffery or Marshall (Okay, Hester's excused as well): Cutler wasn't solely responsible for his 9/21 completion rate. There were no turnovers or forced throws into coverage. Alshon Jeffery and Earl Bennett both dropped touchdown passes that Jay placed in perfect positions. Matt Forte and Kellen Davis both made some route running mistakes.
That said, he sailed a couple of passes over his receivers heads when there was no reason for him not to step into his throw. One, to a wide open Earl Bennett, was particular glaring. I'm not concerned, since Jay's hardly been a preseason MVP in his days with the Bears and generally starts the season off strong, but he certainly was off tonight.
It's also nice that Brandon Marshall was there to bail Jay out and keep his team in the game even when jay was off.
The run-blocking: the pass protection wasn't bad. Carimi whiffed early in the 1st quarter and allowed Jay to pressured into a bad throw. Williams also got turn-stiled in the 2nd quarter and Jay was forced out of the pocket and made a bad throw. The run-blocking, however, was horrendous. Before his last two carries of the night Forte had 8 carries for 5 yards. Run blocking is always something that takes consistency and reps to get moving, but the first team o-line hasn't blocked well yet this preseason. Again, they get the benefit of the doubt because the same group paved the way for over 2,000 yards last year and the protection schemes are extremely vanilla in the preseason, but it was a negative tonight.
Special teams: It's surreal to see the Bears make special teams mistakes, even in the preseason, just because Dave Toub is so good at his job. The blocked punt is concerning. Hopefully Podlesh recovers soon. Weem's fumble was just bad all over. Guh. Oh well. I doubt that happens again.
The Ugly:
Scab Refs: Holy shit, guys. Read the definition of pass interference. You really suck at officiating, and you're probably terrible in bed.
That's all for now. I can understand some mild frustration, since we all just want to see nothing but positive indications that this team is the playoff-bound steamroller we all hope it is, but there was nothing tonight that should concern anyone. They avoided injuries and managed pretty well despite some serious mistakes.
The important thing is that the next time we see Cutler and company, it'll count. I think they'll be ready. I know I am.
Go Bears.
Introducing Apex: Throw it to Devin
Big day here at Start Kyle Orton. Long-time loyal reader Apex (and I mean loyal. None of the rest of you sonsabitches has taken me to a game, now, have you?) has joined the writing staff here at SKO and makes a stellar debut with a rarity here on this website, a pro-Devin Hester wide receiver article. Without further ado, introducing Apex:
Throw It To Devin
@internetapex
The last time Jay Cutler had Brandon Marshall to throw to, the former- Bronco tandem posted a season that would have made history statistically for their current team, the Chicago Bears. Both Cutler’s 4,526 passing yards and Marshall’s 104 receptions in 2008 would have broken the single-season marks for the Bears. With the two poised to obliterate several of the relatively pathetic aerial franchise records it would seem that Chicago’s perpetual woes at these two positions are finally over.
With the addition of second-round draft pick Alshon Jeffery and the return of Cutler-favored Earl Bennett at the receiver position, it would seem to some observers of influence that the Devin Hester Experiment on offense is in denouement .
I believe that’s not true. I believe it’s in sharp ascent, it’s apex still a distant and impressive reality in the offing. Indeed, the NFL’s all-time leader in return touchdowns will face more friendly competition for his quarterback’s attention. But with the other contributors demanding double teams and stretching defenses, Hester should be able to finally draw single coverage and be allowed to settle into zones as an afterthought.
And once he gets the ball in his hands, everybody and his mother knows he’s a threat to go the distance .
We’ve heard flowery assessments of his training camp performance and importance to the team’s offense from coaches literally every season since the Bears converted from a defensive back before the 2007 season. Since then, he’s produced nothing resembling number one receiver statistics in any campaign. His career highs in receptions and yards (57 for 757 in 2009) came in Cutler’s first year in town. The quarterback has yet to develop an on-field rhythm with Hester like his obvious connection Marshall or even former Vanderbilt teammate Bennett who grabbed 24 passes in 11 games last year.
While I expect Bennett to prosper from Marshall’s presence as well, I look for Hester to seize number two receiver status. Rookie Jeffery will have to prove himself against professional defenders to gain the confidence of coaches and Cutler alike. Bennett is a capable slot receiver but lacks the explosiveness of Hester who will pose a deep threat, and I believe Cutler desperately wants to destroy opponents over the top after so much frustration in his first three seasons here.
And I don’t buy the colloquialism that increased activity on the offensive side of the football will somehow diminish Hester’s value or production as a return specialist. These days, with the rule changes on kickoffs reducing the kick return to a historically rare occurrence, it makes no difference who you plan to let watch balls sail into the seats. A return man’s value will be found on punt returns, where Hester has always excelled – so much so that opposing directional punters avoid him like AIDS as often as they’re able.
Former 49er and Jerry Rice sidekick John Taylor’s best statistical season came in 1989 when he caught 60 passes for 1,077 yards and 10 touchdowns. He also returned 44 punts for 556 yards and a pair of scores. Hester’s best season as a punt returner came in 2007 when he took 42 for 651 yards and four touchdowns. Taylor was playing opposite the incomparable Rice and devastating defenses and special teams alike.
This year, after learning the position on the fly for five seasons as a pro I expect Hester to post similar numbers to Taylor’s in 1989. Write it down and stick it on your refrigerator: 60 catches, 1,000 yards, 10 TDs. Or don’t. It’s going to happen either way.
Throw It To Devin
@internetapex
The last time Jay Cutler had Brandon Marshall to throw to, the former- Bronco tandem posted a season that would have made history statistically for their current team, the Chicago Bears. Both Cutler’s 4,526 passing yards and Marshall’s 104 receptions in 2008 would have broken the single-season marks for the Bears. With the two poised to obliterate several of the relatively pathetic aerial franchise records it would seem that Chicago’s perpetual woes at these two positions are finally over.
With the addition of second-round draft pick Alshon Jeffery and the return of Cutler-favored Earl Bennett at the receiver position, it would seem to some observers of influence that the Devin Hester Experiment on offense is in denouement .
I believe that’s not true. I believe it’s in sharp ascent, it’s apex still a distant and impressive reality in the offing. Indeed, the NFL’s all-time leader in return touchdowns will face more friendly competition for his quarterback’s attention. But with the other contributors demanding double teams and stretching defenses, Hester should be able to finally draw single coverage and be allowed to settle into zones as an afterthought.
And once he gets the ball in his hands, everybody and his mother knows he’s a threat to go the distance .
We’ve heard flowery assessments of his training camp performance and importance to the team’s offense from coaches literally every season since the Bears converted from a defensive back before the 2007 season. Since then, he’s produced nothing resembling number one receiver statistics in any campaign. His career highs in receptions and yards (57 for 757 in 2009) came in Cutler’s first year in town. The quarterback has yet to develop an on-field rhythm with Hester like his obvious connection Marshall or even former Vanderbilt teammate Bennett who grabbed 24 passes in 11 games last year.
While I expect Bennett to prosper from Marshall’s presence as well, I look for Hester to seize number two receiver status. Rookie Jeffery will have to prove himself against professional defenders to gain the confidence of coaches and Cutler alike. Bennett is a capable slot receiver but lacks the explosiveness of Hester who will pose a deep threat, and I believe Cutler desperately wants to destroy opponents over the top after so much frustration in his first three seasons here.
And I don’t buy the colloquialism that increased activity on the offensive side of the football will somehow diminish Hester’s value or production as a return specialist. These days, with the rule changes on kickoffs reducing the kick return to a historically rare occurrence, it makes no difference who you plan to let watch balls sail into the seats. A return man’s value will be found on punt returns, where Hester has always excelled – so much so that opposing directional punters avoid him like AIDS as often as they’re able.
Former 49er and Jerry Rice sidekick John Taylor’s best statistical season came in 1989 when he caught 60 passes for 1,077 yards and 10 touchdowns. He also returned 44 punts for 556 yards and a pair of scores. Hester’s best season as a punt returner came in 2007 when he took 42 for 651 yards and four touchdowns. Taylor was playing opposite the incomparable Rice and devastating defenses and special teams alike.
This year, after learning the position on the fly for five seasons as a pro I expect Hester to post similar numbers to Taylor’s in 1989. Write it down and stick it on your refrigerator: 60 catches, 1,000 yards, 10 TDs. Or don’t. It’s going to happen either way.
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Why Alshon Jeffery Needs to Restore My Faith in Humanity
So far this preseason Bears rookie receiver Alshon Jeffery has given me hope about a great. many. things. He's currently got 7 receptions for 97 yards in his first two games, which, added onto the many excellent reviews he's drawn throughout training camp, give us all a reason to think that maybe, for once, the Bears have drafted a good wide receiver.
Now it's no surprise to anyone that the Bears have had about as many good wide receivers in the last 50 years as they have quarterbacks (yes, I understand that's reciprocal), but even more upsetting is the fact that even the few relatively decent guys they've thrown out there were often free agent pickups or castoffs. The Bears draft history with wide receivers the last 20 years (we'll pick that arbitrary number because why the hell not) is replete with failure. So why not look back at all of them?
1992: John Brown, WR, Houston, 7th rd, 192nd Pick: John Brown, one of the many wide receivers to benefit from the wide open Run N Shoot offense that got Andre Ware and David Klingler drafted, was the Bears seventh round draft choice in 1992. He never made the team, and dolefully predicted Ditka's firing that year by stating that he "saw now that the crimes of this coaching staff cannot be purged away but with blood."
1993: Curtis Conway, WR, USC, 1st Rd, 7th Pick: Curtis Conway is kind of a polarizing figure among Bears fans I know. Lots of people my age (grew up post Ditka-era) latched onto him as one of the few exciting players the 90s Bears had. Others saw him as an underachiever. I'm kind of in both camps. On one hand, when Kramer-to-Curtis was working it was as ballstastic of a connection as any this franchise has had until, well, this year. On the other hand, THEY SHOULD HAVE TAKEN JEROME BETTIS. C-Way suffered from inconsistency and troubles at QB, as he only had two 1,000 yd seasons which were also the only two years where he played all 16 games. Still, he finished with the #5th most receiving yards in Bears history (two of the guys ahead of him are a TE and an RB. Jesus this team sucks at throwing and catching footballs) and must be considered one of the few successes on this list. He's also a cool dude to talk to on Twitter.
1994: Lloyd Hill, WR, Texas Tech, 6th Rd, 170th Pick: Like John Brown, Lloyd never made the team. He did capture Harper's Ferry, though.
1995: Jack Jackson, WR, Florida, 4th Rd, 116th Pick: A highly productive player at Florida (where he caught passes from Danny Wuerffel and Shane Matthews), Jackson made 4 catches for 39 yds in 12 games as a Bear. He also sounds like a character from a Stan Lee comic, where everyone had to have alliterative names.
1996: Bobby Engram, WR, Penn State, 2nd Rd, 52nd Pick: Bobby Engram had a 14 year career as an incredibly successful poster boy for the sure-handed slot receiver. He's easily the most productive receiver the Bears have drafted during the last two decades, so he naturally spent just five of those years in Chicago. Had to make room on the roster for David Terrell, I guess. At least we now have his spiritual descendant, Earl Bennett, the BBE.
1997: Marcus Robinson, WR, South Carolina, 4th Rd, 108th Pick: You want to learn a fun trick? Mention Marcus Robinson around Iggins! and laugh as he bursts into tears, yanks out his own hair, curses Cade McNown's name, and cuts his own wrists. Marcus was the one explosive, big receiver the Bears have had in my lifetime. In 1999 he was unstoppable, going up high to haul in wobbly ducks from Matthews, Miller, and McNown for a franchise record 1400 yds and 9 TDs. Unfortunately, all of the leaping he did to catch McNown's flutterballs left his back exposed to vicious hits from defenders, and he never again started more than 11 games in a season or managed more than 738 yds receiving. He finished his career with 4,699 receiving yards, meaning 30% of his career production came in just 1 of his 9 years in the NFL. Such a waste. But at least there's some precedent for a receiver from South Carolina having a 1400 yard season for the Bears?
1999: D'Wayne Bates, WR, Northwestern, 3rd Rd, 71st Pick: The first of three receivers the Bears took in the 1999 NFL draft (they needed to load up on talent for Gary Crowton's wide open offense. Ha), Bates had 80 catches for 1,061 yds and 6 TDs. Those would be fine totals for a single season. D'Wayne managed those jaw-dropping numbers in four years. Woof.
1999: Marty Booker, WR, Louisiana-Monroe, 3rd Rd, 78th Pick: Man, the Bears really tried hard for a long time to convince us that Marty Booker was an elite receiver, didn't they? He's certainly the most productive receiver on this list, and, like Conway, is one of the few players in Bears history to record back to back 1000 yd seasons. We know better, however. Do you ever think a defense Feared Marty Booker? For chrissake, when he had his first 1,000 yd season in 2001 he averaged 10.7 yards per catch. You can blame John Shoop's conservatism, but Marty was merely the guy most capable of catching 100 eight yard hitches a year. Let's not even discuss his 211 yard comeback tour in 2008. However, by the standards of this list, Marty, the #6 receiver in Bears history, is a huge success.
1999: Sulecio Sanford, WR, Middle Tennesse State, 7th Rd, 221st Pick: Never made the team, despite his awesome name.
2000: Dez White, WR, Georgia Tech, 3rd Rd, 69th Pick: Jesus, did Dez White really start 31 games for this team? And he managed 1667 yards and a whopping 11.3 yards per catch while doing so? Guh. John Shoop.
2000: Frank Murphy, WR, Kansas State, 6th Rd, 170th Pick: No, I don't remember Frank Murphy, but he apparently played five seasons in the NFL had a total of eight catches. He sure sounds like a Bears receiver.
2001: David Terrell, WR, Michigan, 1st Rd, 8th Pick: God damn David Terrell. Never mind that he bitched incessantly about not getting any opportunities when he dropped every single one of the 10 deep balls that found their way to him in his career. Never mind his constant trash talk despite never gaining more than 650 yards in a single season. Never mind that Braylon Edwards was scared to wear #1 at Michigan because it was tainted by David Terrell. The only thing you need to know about David Terrell is that Santana Moss, Reggie Wayne, and Chad Johnson were available in that draft and the Bears took David Terrell. Fuck, TJ Houshmanzadeh was in that draft and He was fucking better than David Terrell. Godddammit.
2002: Jamin Elliott, WR, Delaware, 6th Rd, 203rd Pick: Played in 2 games, had zero career receptions, but was unstoppable in Madden 2003 if you went 5 wide and had him run a slant to the sideline.
2003: Bobby Wade, WR, Arizona, 5th Rd, 139th Pick; & Justin Gage 5th Rd, WR, Missouri, 5th Rd, 143rd Pick: There was a time when some Bears fans tried to argue that Jerry Angelo was great at finding hidden gems late in drafts because he found both Bobby Wade and Justin Gage in the 5th round. Guh. If you don't remember, Justin Gage was the big, tall, slow one and Bobby was the short, quick one who dropped everything, got cut the day after muffing multiple punts in one game, and later stirred up shit as a Viking by claiming that Brian Urlacher called Jay Cutler a pussy. The two of them combined for 5,816 yards in 211 career games. Awesome.
2004: Bernard Berrian, WR, Fresno State, 3rd Rd, 78th Pick: There was totally a time when Bernard Berrian was one of Jerry's hidden gems as well. After averaging a whopping 236 yds a season in his first two injury-plagued years, Berrian seemed to emerge as a great deep threat in 2006 before finishing just shy of 1,000 yds in 2007 while ranking among the league leaders in drops. Berrian demanded an annual salary of 8 million dollars despite no 1,000 yard seasons in his career and fortunately convinced the fucking Vikings to pay that before the Bears lost their minds and did it themselves. He's now out of the NFL after doing literally nothing since 2008.
2005: Mark Bradley, WR, Oklahoma, 2nd Rd, 39th Pick: Has there ever been a better receiver to never gain more than 380 yards receiving in a season? Mark Bradley was always perpetually on the verge of breaking out, or so we thought, but was actually just shitty. He looked great in exactly one career game against the Lions in 2005 where he caught a couple of skinny posts before shredding his knee. He was never the same and ended up in Lovie's doghouse frequently. Despite tons of supposed potential, he managed just 1283 yards in 5 NFL seasons.
2005: Airese Currie, WR, Clemson, 5th Rd, 140th Pick: Despite the God Of War's awesome name, he never caught a single pass in the NFL. He had a 167 yards for the Hamilton Tiger Cats of the CFL in 2009, though.
2008: Earl Bennett, WR, Vanderbilt, 3rd Rd, 70th Pick: Okay, we all know how much I love the BBE. Statistically, however, he's not been very impressive. In 2008 he sat out all year as he learned the playbook. In 2009 he put up respectable numbers (54 receptions, 717 yds) in his first year as a starter. The last two years he's emerged as an excellent 3rd down option and slot receiver, but has been injured often and disappeared following Jay Cutler's injury last year. Hopefully this season will be Earl's most productive yet, with a full year of him and Cutler together and no pressure on him to be anything more than what he is.
2008: Marcus Monk, WR, Arkansas, 7th Rd, 248th Pick: Never made an NFL roster.
2009: Juaquin Iglesias, WR, Oklahoma, 3rd Rd, 99th Pick: the first of three receivers taken by the Bears in the 2009 draft, Juaquin Iglesias was apparently the Spanish translation of Mark Bradley, as he never recorded a single catch for the team.
2009: Johnny Knox, WR, Abilene Christian, 5th Rd, 140th Pick: Now that Marshall and Jeffery are here to make Knox superfluous even if he heals in time to make a contribution to the Bears this year, it's time to breathe easy and admit that Johnny Knox is probably not that good at football. He's definitely a certifiable deep threat (19.2 yards per catch the last two years), but he's also a terrible route runner with bad hands who shirks from big hits and has no ability to go up for a contested ball. I feel terrible about what happened to him but am okay with the fact that he'll never be more than the #3 receiver if he ever takes the field in a Bears uniform again (which I doubt).
2009: Derek Kinder, WR, Pittsburgh, 7th Rd, 251st Pick: The latest in the fine tradition of meaningless 7th round picks wasted on wide receivers, Kinder never took an NFL snap.
So there you have it. In 20 years the Bears have spent 25 draft picks on wide receivers. Of the 24 before Alshon Jeffery, 10 never started a game or even made the roster. 1 (David Terrell) was a colossal first round bust. Others made utterly forgettable minor contributions (Mark Bradley, Bobby Wade, Justin Gage, D'wayne Bates, Dez White).
Boiled down, the Bears have drafted a grand total of seven "productive" receivers in 20 years, and that's stretching the term a bit. They drafted one legitimate yet inconsistent starter in Curtis Conway, 1 reliable and terribly unexciting starter in Marty Booker, two very good slot receivers in Earl Bennett and Bobby Engram (who had all of his best years AFTER he left), 2 soft, mediocre deep threats (Bernard Berrian and Johnny Knox) and 1 one was Marcus Robinson, who is featured in the dictionary under "one year wonder." So let's hope their 25th attempt at finding one, consistent, dynamic starting wide receiver is much more successful than their previous 24. If not, at least they traded for one. Thank God for Phil Emery.
Now it's no surprise to anyone that the Bears have had about as many good wide receivers in the last 50 years as they have quarterbacks (yes, I understand that's reciprocal), but even more upsetting is the fact that even the few relatively decent guys they've thrown out there were often free agent pickups or castoffs. The Bears draft history with wide receivers the last 20 years (we'll pick that arbitrary number because why the hell not) is replete with failure. So why not look back at all of them?
1992: John Brown, WR, Houston, 7th rd, 192nd Pick: John Brown, one of the many wide receivers to benefit from the wide open Run N Shoot offense that got Andre Ware and David Klingler drafted, was the Bears seventh round draft choice in 1992. He never made the team, and dolefully predicted Ditka's firing that year by stating that he "saw now that the crimes of this coaching staff cannot be purged away but with blood."
1993: Curtis Conway, WR, USC, 1st Rd, 7th Pick: Curtis Conway is kind of a polarizing figure among Bears fans I know. Lots of people my age (grew up post Ditka-era) latched onto him as one of the few exciting players the 90s Bears had. Others saw him as an underachiever. I'm kind of in both camps. On one hand, when Kramer-to-Curtis was working it was as ballstastic of a connection as any this franchise has had until, well, this year. On the other hand, THEY SHOULD HAVE TAKEN JEROME BETTIS. C-Way suffered from inconsistency and troubles at QB, as he only had two 1,000 yd seasons which were also the only two years where he played all 16 games. Still, he finished with the #5th most receiving yards in Bears history (two of the guys ahead of him are a TE and an RB. Jesus this team sucks at throwing and catching footballs) and must be considered one of the few successes on this list. He's also a cool dude to talk to on Twitter.
1994: Lloyd Hill, WR, Texas Tech, 6th Rd, 170th Pick: Like John Brown, Lloyd never made the team. He did capture Harper's Ferry, though.
1995: Jack Jackson, WR, Florida, 4th Rd, 116th Pick: A highly productive player at Florida (where he caught passes from Danny Wuerffel and Shane Matthews), Jackson made 4 catches for 39 yds in 12 games as a Bear. He also sounds like a character from a Stan Lee comic, where everyone had to have alliterative names.
1996: Bobby Engram, WR, Penn State, 2nd Rd, 52nd Pick: Bobby Engram had a 14 year career as an incredibly successful poster boy for the sure-handed slot receiver. He's easily the most productive receiver the Bears have drafted during the last two decades, so he naturally spent just five of those years in Chicago. Had to make room on the roster for David Terrell, I guess. At least we now have his spiritual descendant, Earl Bennett, the BBE.
1997: Marcus Robinson, WR, South Carolina, 4th Rd, 108th Pick: You want to learn a fun trick? Mention Marcus Robinson around Iggins! and laugh as he bursts into tears, yanks out his own hair, curses Cade McNown's name, and cuts his own wrists. Marcus was the one explosive, big receiver the Bears have had in my lifetime. In 1999 he was unstoppable, going up high to haul in wobbly ducks from Matthews, Miller, and McNown for a franchise record 1400 yds and 9 TDs. Unfortunately, all of the leaping he did to catch McNown's flutterballs left his back exposed to vicious hits from defenders, and he never again started more than 11 games in a season or managed more than 738 yds receiving. He finished his career with 4,699 receiving yards, meaning 30% of his career production came in just 1 of his 9 years in the NFL. Such a waste. But at least there's some precedent for a receiver from South Carolina having a 1400 yard season for the Bears?
1999: D'Wayne Bates, WR, Northwestern, 3rd Rd, 71st Pick: The first of three receivers the Bears took in the 1999 NFL draft (they needed to load up on talent for Gary Crowton's wide open offense. Ha), Bates had 80 catches for 1,061 yds and 6 TDs. Those would be fine totals for a single season. D'Wayne managed those jaw-dropping numbers in four years. Woof.
1999: Marty Booker, WR, Louisiana-Monroe, 3rd Rd, 78th Pick: Man, the Bears really tried hard for a long time to convince us that Marty Booker was an elite receiver, didn't they? He's certainly the most productive receiver on this list, and, like Conway, is one of the few players in Bears history to record back to back 1000 yd seasons. We know better, however. Do you ever think a defense Feared Marty Booker? For chrissake, when he had his first 1,000 yd season in 2001 he averaged 10.7 yards per catch. You can blame John Shoop's conservatism, but Marty was merely the guy most capable of catching 100 eight yard hitches a year. Let's not even discuss his 211 yard comeback tour in 2008. However, by the standards of this list, Marty, the #6 receiver in Bears history, is a huge success.
1999: Sulecio Sanford, WR, Middle Tennesse State, 7th Rd, 221st Pick: Never made the team, despite his awesome name.
2000: Dez White, WR, Georgia Tech, 3rd Rd, 69th Pick: Jesus, did Dez White really start 31 games for this team? And he managed 1667 yards and a whopping 11.3 yards per catch while doing so? Guh. John Shoop.
2000: Frank Murphy, WR, Kansas State, 6th Rd, 170th Pick: No, I don't remember Frank Murphy, but he apparently played five seasons in the NFL had a total of eight catches. He sure sounds like a Bears receiver.
2001: David Terrell, WR, Michigan, 1st Rd, 8th Pick: God damn David Terrell. Never mind that he bitched incessantly about not getting any opportunities when he dropped every single one of the 10 deep balls that found their way to him in his career. Never mind his constant trash talk despite never gaining more than 650 yards in a single season. Never mind that Braylon Edwards was scared to wear #1 at Michigan because it was tainted by David Terrell. The only thing you need to know about David Terrell is that Santana Moss, Reggie Wayne, and Chad Johnson were available in that draft and the Bears took David Terrell. Fuck, TJ Houshmanzadeh was in that draft and He was fucking better than David Terrell. Godddammit.
2002: Jamin Elliott, WR, Delaware, 6th Rd, 203rd Pick: Played in 2 games, had zero career receptions, but was unstoppable in Madden 2003 if you went 5 wide and had him run a slant to the sideline.
2003: Bobby Wade, WR, Arizona, 5th Rd, 139th Pick; & Justin Gage 5th Rd, WR, Missouri, 5th Rd, 143rd Pick: There was a time when some Bears fans tried to argue that Jerry Angelo was great at finding hidden gems late in drafts because he found both Bobby Wade and Justin Gage in the 5th round. Guh. If you don't remember, Justin Gage was the big, tall, slow one and Bobby was the short, quick one who dropped everything, got cut the day after muffing multiple punts in one game, and later stirred up shit as a Viking by claiming that Brian Urlacher called Jay Cutler a pussy. The two of them combined for 5,816 yards in 211 career games. Awesome.
2004: Bernard Berrian, WR, Fresno State, 3rd Rd, 78th Pick: There was totally a time when Bernard Berrian was one of Jerry's hidden gems as well. After averaging a whopping 236 yds a season in his first two injury-plagued years, Berrian seemed to emerge as a great deep threat in 2006 before finishing just shy of 1,000 yds in 2007 while ranking among the league leaders in drops. Berrian demanded an annual salary of 8 million dollars despite no 1,000 yard seasons in his career and fortunately convinced the fucking Vikings to pay that before the Bears lost their minds and did it themselves. He's now out of the NFL after doing literally nothing since 2008.
2005: Mark Bradley, WR, Oklahoma, 2nd Rd, 39th Pick: Has there ever been a better receiver to never gain more than 380 yards receiving in a season? Mark Bradley was always perpetually on the verge of breaking out, or so we thought, but was actually just shitty. He looked great in exactly one career game against the Lions in 2005 where he caught a couple of skinny posts before shredding his knee. He was never the same and ended up in Lovie's doghouse frequently. Despite tons of supposed potential, he managed just 1283 yards in 5 NFL seasons.
2005: Airese Currie, WR, Clemson, 5th Rd, 140th Pick: Despite the God Of War's awesome name, he never caught a single pass in the NFL. He had a 167 yards for the Hamilton Tiger Cats of the CFL in 2009, though.
2008: Earl Bennett, WR, Vanderbilt, 3rd Rd, 70th Pick: Okay, we all know how much I love the BBE. Statistically, however, he's not been very impressive. In 2008 he sat out all year as he learned the playbook. In 2009 he put up respectable numbers (54 receptions, 717 yds) in his first year as a starter. The last two years he's emerged as an excellent 3rd down option and slot receiver, but has been injured often and disappeared following Jay Cutler's injury last year. Hopefully this season will be Earl's most productive yet, with a full year of him and Cutler together and no pressure on him to be anything more than what he is.
2008: Marcus Monk, WR, Arkansas, 7th Rd, 248th Pick: Never made an NFL roster.
2009: Juaquin Iglesias, WR, Oklahoma, 3rd Rd, 99th Pick: the first of three receivers taken by the Bears in the 2009 draft, Juaquin Iglesias was apparently the Spanish translation of Mark Bradley, as he never recorded a single catch for the team.
2009: Johnny Knox, WR, Abilene Christian, 5th Rd, 140th Pick: Now that Marshall and Jeffery are here to make Knox superfluous even if he heals in time to make a contribution to the Bears this year, it's time to breathe easy and admit that Johnny Knox is probably not that good at football. He's definitely a certifiable deep threat (19.2 yards per catch the last two years), but he's also a terrible route runner with bad hands who shirks from big hits and has no ability to go up for a contested ball. I feel terrible about what happened to him but am okay with the fact that he'll never be more than the #3 receiver if he ever takes the field in a Bears uniform again (which I doubt).
2009: Derek Kinder, WR, Pittsburgh, 7th Rd, 251st Pick: The latest in the fine tradition of meaningless 7th round picks wasted on wide receivers, Kinder never took an NFL snap.
So there you have it. In 20 years the Bears have spent 25 draft picks on wide receivers. Of the 24 before Alshon Jeffery, 10 never started a game or even made the roster. 1 (David Terrell) was a colossal first round bust. Others made utterly forgettable minor contributions (Mark Bradley, Bobby Wade, Justin Gage, D'wayne Bates, Dez White).
Boiled down, the Bears have drafted a grand total of seven "productive" receivers in 20 years, and that's stretching the term a bit. They drafted one legitimate yet inconsistent starter in Curtis Conway, 1 reliable and terribly unexciting starter in Marty Booker, two very good slot receivers in Earl Bennett and Bobby Engram (who had all of his best years AFTER he left), 2 soft, mediocre deep threats (Bernard Berrian and Johnny Knox) and 1 one was Marcus Robinson, who is featured in the dictionary under "one year wonder." So let's hope their 25th attempt at finding one, consistent, dynamic starting wide receiver is much more successful than their previous 24. If not, at least they traded for one. Thank God for Phil Emery.
Saturday, August 18, 2012
Bears 33, Redskins 31 (Preseason Game 2)
The Bears first team offense came firing on all cylinders tonight. The first drive, an 82 yard beauty marked by the first Cutler-Marshall bomb in a Bears uniform and two more great throws to Marshall and rookie Alshon Jeffery, ended in a TD, as did the third drive following an Israel Idonije strip sack. All told, Cutler and company racked up 17 points before exiting the game with over 6 minutes left in the first half.
On the other side, the first team defense looked equally crisp, with the defensive line getting consistent pressure and RGIII having very little room to do much of anything. They held the Redskins first unit to just 3 points on their first four drives.
That about sums up the relevant (well, as relevant as any preseason game gets) part of the night, so onto the individuals:
The Good:
Jay Cutler: God's it's good to see him again, isn't it? Cutler came out very sharp and completed 5 of his first 6 passes for 99 yds. He threw a beautiful deep ball to Marshall on the first play, but was most impressive with his quick decisions and the darts that he threw in the intermediate game (20 yds to Marshall, 16 yards on a skinny post to Jeffery, an 18 yard laser to Hester after avoiding the rush). He misfired high to Bennett, and had one near-interception, but also had another deep ball to Marshall that could very well have been a TD that Marshall was unable to catch after he stopped his route too soon. Cutler also ran for another first down. All in all a very good night for #6 in his return.
Brandon Marshall: He started with a 41 catch on the first play and followed up with a 20 yard catch and run where he actually muscled over a CB for more yards, becoming the first Bears wideout to do so since, well, ever.
Alshon Jeffery: Confession. I'm totally writing this in the 2nd quarter because there's no way I'll watch this whole game. As I write, however, Jeffery just picked up a 34 yard reception on a beautiful catch and run. He has 3 catches for 62 yards, following his strong performance last week. The sudden surplus of talent at wide receiver for the Bears is startling and glorious.
The rest of the receivers: Earl Bennett and Hester added 3 catches for 41 yards from Cutler. Suddenly this is the most dangerous looking unit on the team.
Michael Bush: 5 rushes for 21 yds and 2 TDs in his role as red zone battering ram. Hopefully he's finally the answer to their #2 runningback woes.
The Defensive Line: Israel Idonije isn't quite ready to give up his starting job to Shea McClellin. The always underrated Izzy had 2.5 sacks and played well against the run. I love how they're rolling him inside to DT with McClellin at end to add more speed to their nickel pass rush.
The rest of the line played very well, though, as well. Toeaina added half a sack. Price and Melton made some nice plays against the run. Peppers recovered a fumble forced by Idonije. McClellin forced RGIII outside the pocket twice.
Updated for the second half:
Robbie Gould: He was 4-4 on field goals, including a 57 yard game winner. I love Robbie.
Eric Weems: Had a couple of nice returns and a great 33 yard catch and run.
Evan Rodriguez: the rookie has some nice moves and great hands. He had 3 catches for 49 yds.
The Bad:
Jason Campbell: True, it's only the second quarter but good heavens, that guy holds the ball FOREVER. Cutler was rushed a few times, but got made good decisions and avoided sacks. Campbell's been sacked three times and it's not even halftime. (Update: okay, he finished 9/15, 141 YDs with a 91.3 rating, but those sacks were awful).
Replacement Refs: They called pass interference on Charles Tillman on a ball that was uncatchable. Oh, and the receiver was out of bounds. But yeah, totally pass interference.
The Ugly:
Sam Rosen: Apparently Gabe Carimi is actually named Ben, and Blake Costanzo is named Matt. Oh, and it's Jake Campbell. Somebody get this drunken bore a program.
That's all for now. The Bears got everything they could have hoped for out of their starters tonight. Hopefully that improve the narrative somewhat after the DOOM of Urlacher's minor surgery. At the very least it's only increased my excitement for the opener. Football, folks. It's back.
On the other side, the first team defense looked equally crisp, with the defensive line getting consistent pressure and RGIII having very little room to do much of anything. They held the Redskins first unit to just 3 points on their first four drives.
That about sums up the relevant (well, as relevant as any preseason game gets) part of the night, so onto the individuals:
The Good:
Jay Cutler: God's it's good to see him again, isn't it? Cutler came out very sharp and completed 5 of his first 6 passes for 99 yds. He threw a beautiful deep ball to Marshall on the first play, but was most impressive with his quick decisions and the darts that he threw in the intermediate game (20 yds to Marshall, 16 yards on a skinny post to Jeffery, an 18 yard laser to Hester after avoiding the rush). He misfired high to Bennett, and had one near-interception, but also had another deep ball to Marshall that could very well have been a TD that Marshall was unable to catch after he stopped his route too soon. Cutler also ran for another first down. All in all a very good night for #6 in his return.
Brandon Marshall: He started with a 41 catch on the first play and followed up with a 20 yard catch and run where he actually muscled over a CB for more yards, becoming the first Bears wideout to do so since, well, ever.
Alshon Jeffery: Confession. I'm totally writing this in the 2nd quarter because there's no way I'll watch this whole game. As I write, however, Jeffery just picked up a 34 yard reception on a beautiful catch and run. He has 3 catches for 62 yards, following his strong performance last week. The sudden surplus of talent at wide receiver for the Bears is startling and glorious.
The rest of the receivers: Earl Bennett and Hester added 3 catches for 41 yards from Cutler. Suddenly this is the most dangerous looking unit on the team.
Michael Bush: 5 rushes for 21 yds and 2 TDs in his role as red zone battering ram. Hopefully he's finally the answer to their #2 runningback woes.
The Defensive Line: Israel Idonije isn't quite ready to give up his starting job to Shea McClellin. The always underrated Izzy had 2.5 sacks and played well against the run. I love how they're rolling him inside to DT with McClellin at end to add more speed to their nickel pass rush.
The rest of the line played very well, though, as well. Toeaina added half a sack. Price and Melton made some nice plays against the run. Peppers recovered a fumble forced by Idonije. McClellin forced RGIII outside the pocket twice.
Updated for the second half:
Robbie Gould: He was 4-4 on field goals, including a 57 yard game winner. I love Robbie.
Eric Weems: Had a couple of nice returns and a great 33 yard catch and run.
Evan Rodriguez: the rookie has some nice moves and great hands. He had 3 catches for 49 yds.
The Bad:
Jason Campbell: True, it's only the second quarter but good heavens, that guy holds the ball FOREVER. Cutler was rushed a few times, but got made good decisions and avoided sacks. Campbell's been sacked three times and it's not even halftime. (Update: okay, he finished 9/15, 141 YDs with a 91.3 rating, but those sacks were awful).
Replacement Refs: They called pass interference on Charles Tillman on a ball that was uncatchable. Oh, and the receiver was out of bounds. But yeah, totally pass interference.
The Ugly:
Sam Rosen: Apparently Gabe Carimi is actually named Ben, and Blake Costanzo is named Matt. Oh, and it's Jake Campbell. Somebody get this drunken bore a program.
That's all for now. The Bears got everything they could have hoped for out of their starters tonight. Hopefully that improve the narrative somewhat after the DOOM of Urlacher's minor surgery. At the very least it's only increased my excitement for the opener. Football, folks. It's back.
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Man, That Awesome Offseason Was Fun While It Lasted
I don't mean to steal Iggins! thunder when he's passionately writing articles about how the X-Men saved US gymnastics from racism or something, but this is a Bears blog and there's been some Bears news what needs addressin'.
There was a time early in this offseason when we were excited because, hell, the Bears had acquired a ton of talent and looked like they were under the guidance of a competent GM. The offense was supposed to be good! The defense was still good! Forte signed a goddamn contract! Lance Briggs has shut the hell up!
But no. Per usual, there's been some relatively unfortunate news and now everyone needs to freak the fuck out.
Why, you can't whitewash the ugly details of a 31-3 preseason loss. They looked bad in all four phases. This is totally true! Why, if the Bears go into a regular season game without Cutler, Forte, Urlacher, and Peppers, you can bet your ass I'll have something less than a sunny disposition.
Here's what you needed to take from that first preseason game:
-The OMG terrible long first drive where Peyton drove down the field and had all kinds of time in the pocket until he made a mistake to Major Wright:
Let's ignore for a second that that kind of drive is exactly the kind of thing the Bears do to beat good, patient QBs like Manning. The pass rush was off in their first drive of a preseason game without Peppers? I'm going to select a choice razor blade from my collection to cut myself with.
Maybe, just maybe, the Bears run the same damn vanilla offense and defense every offseason. I'm guessing Peyton Manning's more than capable of handling a four man rush and a bland, unchanging Cover 2 or Cover 3 scheme. I know he is, actually, because I watched him get a Super Bowl ring doing it.
I don't get why NFL fans need a reminder every fucking year that the preseason means absolutely nothing. Since 2001, the Bears have gone 7-10 in the preseason in years in which they've made the playoffs. Those numbers mean nothing. NO
-The terrible offense: I don't think the Bears even attempted a pass past the first down marker. They obviously had other things they were concerned with, and I've never known Lovie to tip his hand on anything in the preseason.
-The terrible defense: The starting defense (if you can call it that, without Urlacher and Peppers and with the others in for a couple series at most) allowed all of three points. If you're going to stay up at night worried over the 28 points they put up against Thaddeus Gibson and Dom DeCicco, well, I can loan you my razor blade collection.
What I took from what little of that game I watched was that McClellin got some solid playing time and looked like a good speed rusher who is somewhat hopelessly lost against the run. That's about what I expected.
I also noticed (and the offseason has consisted of one long rave review) that Alshon Jeffery looks awesome. That alone should get help your flagging Bearrections revive. For those of us that can't remember the last time the Bears had one bonafide star receiver, the idea of two is incomprehensible.
Now for the other big bit of news coming out of Bears camp: yes, Brian Urlacher had knee surgery.
This is concerning, I agree. Anytime a player of his age has any kind of operation it's worth raising an eyebrow. That said, arthroscopic knee surgery is as routine in the NFL as unaddressed steroid use and heavy-handed, misplaced punishment from the commissioners office. We're looking at a worst case scenario in which he'd be back by week three.
I understand he's Brian Urlacher. He's the face of the defense and we're all still scarred from 2009, when the defense fell apart without him. The difference now is that Julius Peppers is there to provide a pass rush and help against the run. They're better off at DT with Henry Melton, Toeiana, Paea, and new addition Price than they were in 2009 with Anthony Adams and post-injury Tommie Harris as the starters. The corners are better, with Charles Tillman healthy and Tim Jennings (or Kelvin Hayden) better than Bowman.
None of this even addresses the improvements on offense they've made since then. I don't doubt for a second that the Bears will miss Urlacher if he's out for an extended time period, but the only reason you're freaking out over a routine, 4-6 week knee operation is because you don't trust the Bears and think they're a bunch of incompetent boobs because of years of frustration and "seeing it too many times." Urlacher will be fine, and so will the Bears.
I've seen nothing yet to break me of my confidence that the Bears are going to be a damn good football team this year, and, per my usual approach to the preseason, I'm not going to worry about a damn thing until the results matter.
Go Bears.
There was a time early in this offseason when we were excited because, hell, the Bears had acquired a ton of talent and looked like they were under the guidance of a competent GM. The offense was supposed to be good! The defense was still good! Forte signed a goddamn contract! Lance Briggs has shut the hell up!
But no. Per usual, there's been some relatively unfortunate news and now everyone needs to freak the fuck out.
Why, you can't whitewash the ugly details of a 31-3 preseason loss. They looked bad in all four phases. This is totally true! Why, if the Bears go into a regular season game without Cutler, Forte, Urlacher, and Peppers, you can bet your ass I'll have something less than a sunny disposition.
Here's what you needed to take from that first preseason game:
-The OMG terrible long first drive where Peyton drove down the field and had all kinds of time in the pocket until he made a mistake to Major Wright:
Let's ignore for a second that that kind of drive is exactly the kind of thing the Bears do to beat good, patient QBs like Manning. The pass rush was off in their first drive of a preseason game without Peppers? I'm going to select a choice razor blade from my collection to cut myself with.
Maybe, just maybe, the Bears run the same damn vanilla offense and defense every offseason. I'm guessing Peyton Manning's more than capable of handling a four man rush and a bland, unchanging Cover 2 or Cover 3 scheme. I know he is, actually, because I watched him get a Super Bowl ring doing it.
I don't get why NFL fans need a reminder every fucking year that the preseason means absolutely nothing. Since 2001, the Bears have gone 7-10 in the preseason in years in which they've made the playoffs. Those numbers mean nothing. NO
-The terrible offense: I don't think the Bears even attempted a pass past the first down marker. They obviously had other things they were concerned with, and I've never known Lovie to tip his hand on anything in the preseason.
-The terrible defense: The starting defense (if you can call it that, without Urlacher and Peppers and with the others in for a couple series at most) allowed all of three points. If you're going to stay up at night worried over the 28 points they put up against Thaddeus Gibson and Dom DeCicco, well, I can loan you my razor blade collection.
What I took from what little of that game I watched was that McClellin got some solid playing time and looked like a good speed rusher who is somewhat hopelessly lost against the run. That's about what I expected.
I also noticed (and the offseason has consisted of one long rave review) that Alshon Jeffery looks awesome. That alone should get help your flagging Bearrections revive. For those of us that can't remember the last time the Bears had one bonafide star receiver, the idea of two is incomprehensible.
Now for the other big bit of news coming out of Bears camp: yes, Brian Urlacher had knee surgery.
This is concerning, I agree. Anytime a player of his age has any kind of operation it's worth raising an eyebrow. That said, arthroscopic knee surgery is as routine in the NFL as unaddressed steroid use and heavy-handed, misplaced punishment from the commissioners office. We're looking at a worst case scenario in which he'd be back by week three.
I understand he's Brian Urlacher. He's the face of the defense and we're all still scarred from 2009, when the defense fell apart without him. The difference now is that Julius Peppers is there to provide a pass rush and help against the run. They're better off at DT with Henry Melton, Toeiana, Paea, and new addition Price than they were in 2009 with Anthony Adams and post-injury Tommie Harris as the starters. The corners are better, with Charles Tillman healthy and Tim Jennings (or Kelvin Hayden) better than Bowman.
None of this even addresses the improvements on offense they've made since then. I don't doubt for a second that the Bears will miss Urlacher if he's out for an extended time period, but the only reason you're freaking out over a routine, 4-6 week knee operation is because you don't trust the Bears and think they're a bunch of incompetent boobs because of years of frustration and "seeing it too many times." Urlacher will be fine, and so will the Bears.
I've seen nothing yet to break me of my confidence that the Bears are going to be a damn good football team this year, and, per my usual approach to the preseason, I'm not going to worry about a damn thing until the results matter.
Go Bears.
Monday, August 13, 2012
The NFE: T.O.'s Return
GOOD EVENING, fans, and welcome to CenturyLink Field in Seattle, WA, where National Football Entertainment has landed for a colossal matchup! BAH GOLLY we've got one helluva show for you folks tonight, August 11, 2012! The matchup tonight may pit the Seahawks against the Titans, but we all know the big news is the return of one of the greatest entertainers in the history of the NFE: Terrell Owens!
Music hits: Music is "Flashing Lights" by Kanye West. Terrell Owens appears to deafening boos, walks down to the field. T.O. grabs a microphone.
I hear ya boos, I hear ya boos! It's good to be back, people. I've been out of the league for a bit.... BECAUSE I CHOSE TO. You see, the truth is, I hate you people! I CHOSE to go back home. I've been relaxing, loving the ladies... things that STARS do. I've got my money... I've got my fame... so why am I here? I'm back to take that title.
Crowd boos inexplicably, considering T.O. wants to win the title for Seattle... but when have wrestling crowds ever cheered for the right reasons? Crowd boos until the speakers shout "TASTE THE RAINBOW". The crowd erupts into cheers as the Titantron plays a video of Skittles raining on strippers as "Make it Rain" plays. Marshawn Lynch emerges from the tunnel and breaks four tackles en route to the field.
Monday, August 6, 2012
For the Record: Ricky Stanzi Deathmatch Edition
So here's part two, as promised, in which we briefly discuss ESPN bloggers and irrational Cutler-hate, then vault into a verbal deathmatch over Iowa's own Ricky Stanzi. Enjoy.
I read opinion pieces on ESPN solely for the lulz. None of them are good or bad, they just kind of do what you would expect.
I browbeat the crap out of Seifert one day in 2010 when he wrote an article called “Cutler finally a winner” where he started with an anecdote about Christian Laettner doing the most horribly dickish thing ever. Laettner pointed at his teammates one by one saying “Loser” “Loser” Loser” and then pointed at himself and said “winner.” Seifert said he could picture Cutler doing the same thing and I attacked him and demanded he point out one instance of Cutler ever badmouthing a teammate. When he couldn’t find one he apologized.
There was certainly a lot of irrational and misinformed Cutler hate. Most of which stemmed from Cutler requesting a trade, which is probably the most ridiculous reason to hate somebody on the planet. If I hate the area I live in and want to move, is everybody going to tell me I'm a dick? If the place I'm at has no chance of helping me to achieve the career success I desire, am I a big baby and and a bad co-worker if I apply for a better job? More specific to Cutler; if I find out my boss has been trying to replace me with his old college buddy when my numbers are clearly superior and I clearly have more talent, am I a huge crybaby for requesting a transfer? I THINK NOT.
I read opinion pieces on ESPN solely for the lulz. None of them are good or bad, they just kind of do what you would expect.
I browbeat the crap out of Seifert one day in 2010 when he wrote an article called “Cutler finally a winner” where he started with an anecdote about Christian Laettner doing the most horribly dickish thing ever. Laettner pointed at his teammates one by one saying “Loser” “Loser” Loser” and then pointed at himself and said “winner.” Seifert said he could picture Cutler doing the same thing and I attacked him and demanded he point out one instance of Cutler ever badmouthing a teammate. When he couldn’t find one he apologized.
There was certainly a lot of irrational and misinformed Cutler hate. Most of which stemmed from Cutler requesting a trade, which is probably the most ridiculous reason to hate somebody on the planet. If I hate the area I live in and want to move, is everybody going to tell me I'm a dick? If the place I'm at has no chance of helping me to achieve the career success I desire, am I a big baby and and a bad co-worker if I apply for a better job? More specific to Cutler; if I find out my boss has been trying to replace me with his old college buddy when my numbers are clearly superior and I clearly have more talent, am I a huge crybaby for requesting a transfer? I THINK NOT.
Friday, August 3, 2012
For the Record: Random Violence, Three-ways, and The Hobbit Edition
Due to what would have been an obscene length, this one has been chopped into two pieces: enjoy piece number one, in which we discuss random gang violence, the Seahawks, and Peter Jackson.
Good news is, even though McClellin supposedly looks inconsistent and sort of like a defensive end from Boise State playing his first couple of practices against NFL players, Alshon Jeffery looks good. WHO NEEDS A DEFENSE?! Cutler can just fart the ball at this point and send it flying into the hands of a tall, waiting receiver. Supposedly Rodriguez looks real good too. How about a two TE set with Davis and Rodriguez and Jeffery and Marshall on the outside? HEIGHT. FADES. TOUCHDOWN BEARSSS
I am not opposed to an eternal precession of fade routes to Brandon Marshall. I believe a similar strategy won the Giants the Super Bowl a few years ago? Then something about shooting yourself in the leg... anyway. Looks like Montee Ball just got randomly run up on by five guys and curb stomped for a while. My guess? Indiana students.
Holy crap. Really?
Yeah yesterday morning! He got released from the hospital and they say he's alright. Apparently five people he didn't even know just ran up to him when he left some building, threw him down, and kicked the shit out of him. Very, very strange.
"Hey, bro, you ever just want to go kick a guy for no reason?"
"All the time!"
"Well, me and Chad and Chester and TANK and Swifty were gonna go just, like, camp out in front of Gentry Hall and just beat the shit out of the next guy that comes out!"
"SWEET."
The weirdest thing is that Tank is Russell Wilson.
Good news is, even though McClellin supposedly looks inconsistent and sort of like a defensive end from Boise State playing his first couple of practices against NFL players, Alshon Jeffery looks good. WHO NEEDS A DEFENSE?! Cutler can just fart the ball at this point and send it flying into the hands of a tall, waiting receiver. Supposedly Rodriguez looks real good too. How about a two TE set with Davis and Rodriguez and Jeffery and Marshall on the outside? HEIGHT. FADES. TOUCHDOWN BEARSSS
I am not opposed to an eternal precession of fade routes to Brandon Marshall. I believe a similar strategy won the Giants the Super Bowl a few years ago? Then something about shooting yourself in the leg... anyway. Looks like Montee Ball just got randomly run up on by five guys and curb stomped for a while. My guess? Indiana students.
Holy crap. Really?
Yeah yesterday morning! He got released from the hospital and they say he's alright. Apparently five people he didn't even know just ran up to him when he left some building, threw him down, and kicked the shit out of him. Very, very strange.
"Hey, bro, you ever just want to go kick a guy for no reason?"
"All the time!"
"Well, me and Chad and Chester and TANK and Swifty were gonna go just, like, camp out in front of Gentry Hall and just beat the shit out of the next guy that comes out!"
"SWEET."
The weirdest thing is that Tank is Russell Wilson.
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
For the Record: Inappropriate death jokes and Joe Flacco factory edition
In a new feature called “For the Record” which attempts to capture the madness of our everyday conversations (and also alleviate work-related boredom) Code Red and Iggins! will discuss recent relevant (and completely irrelevant) sports topics. These conversations are uncensored and reading them may result in a loss of sanity, or even a complete and total descent into madness. You have been warned.
So, on a scale ranging from Gaines Adams to Julius Peppers, how good do you think this Price fella will be?
Hard to say. Injuries have kept him from being as effective as he can be. He was a 2nd round pick for a reason. Considering the Bears don’t really Need him, but seem to think he’s got major potential, I’d say he’ll probably be somewhere near where Amobi Okoye was last year. A solid rotation guy who is somewhere in between a true 3 technique (like Melton) and a true nose (like Toeiana). Good depth if healthy.
That's a good transition to my opinion on the guy, which is this: if the Bears wanted Amobi Okoye so bad why didn't they keep Amobi Okoye?!
Because Amobi Okoye played well enough as a role player to convince the Bucs that he could be more than that, and they paid him accordingly. The Bears knew they could probably replace Okoye’s production for less money. Considering I expect Melton and especially Paea to be better this year, this was a smart move. The key is McClellin. I’m not going to be a meatball reactionary who overreacts to the people who gave him mixed reviews on his FIRST DAY OF FUCKING PRACTICE (google it or search on twitter, then facepalm), but he’s got to be a pure speed rushing presence on 3rd down. Izzy’s a workhorse but his pass rushing went into the tank the last half of the season last year. As I said, I could also see the Bears rotating Izzy inside to make room for McClellin on plays where teams try to spread them out. You know that NASCAR package the Giants have where they line up JPP, Tuck, Umenyiora, and Kiwanuka? The Bears could try something similar with Peppers, Wootton, Izzy, and McClelin, or even just Peppers, Melton, Izzy, and Shea since Melton was a DE before last year and is a pure pass rusher. I’d really like to see Wootton take a step up. It’d take a lot of pressure off of McClellin if Wootton develops, and it would also allow them to get Peppers off the field sometimes, which they’ve rarely been able to do the last two years.
How much did Okoye make? I think this "rent a former bust D-Linemen for one good year" strategy works out well in a lot of ways. If he turns out to be amazing, sign him up! If not he outplays his actual ability, let someone else overpay him! If he sucks? Cut him for no cap penalty!
So, on a scale ranging from Gaines Adams to Julius Peppers, how good do you think this Price fella will be?
Hard to say. Injuries have kept him from being as effective as he can be. He was a 2nd round pick for a reason. Considering the Bears don’t really Need him, but seem to think he’s got major potential, I’d say he’ll probably be somewhere near where Amobi Okoye was last year. A solid rotation guy who is somewhere in between a true 3 technique (like Melton) and a true nose (like Toeiana). Good depth if healthy.
That's a good transition to my opinion on the guy, which is this: if the Bears wanted Amobi Okoye so bad why didn't they keep Amobi Okoye?!
Because Amobi Okoye played well enough as a role player to convince the Bucs that he could be more than that, and they paid him accordingly. The Bears knew they could probably replace Okoye’s production for less money. Considering I expect Melton and especially Paea to be better this year, this was a smart move. The key is McClellin. I’m not going to be a meatball reactionary who overreacts to the people who gave him mixed reviews on his FIRST DAY OF FUCKING PRACTICE (google it or search on twitter, then facepalm), but he’s got to be a pure speed rushing presence on 3rd down. Izzy’s a workhorse but his pass rushing went into the tank the last half of the season last year. As I said, I could also see the Bears rotating Izzy inside to make room for McClellin on plays where teams try to spread them out. You know that NASCAR package the Giants have where they line up JPP, Tuck, Umenyiora, and Kiwanuka? The Bears could try something similar with Peppers, Wootton, Izzy, and McClelin, or even just Peppers, Melton, Izzy, and Shea since Melton was a DE before last year and is a pure pass rusher. I’d really like to see Wootton take a step up. It’d take a lot of pressure off of McClellin if Wootton develops, and it would also allow them to get Peppers off the field sometimes, which they’ve rarely been able to do the last two years.
How much did Okoye make? I think this "rent a former bust D-Linemen for one good year" strategy works out well in a lot of ways. If he turns out to be amazing, sign him up! If not he outplays his actual ability, let someone else overpay him! If he sucks? Cut him for no cap penalty!
College Previewkakke: B1G Leaders Division Preview
Finally we have arrived at the B1G (isn’t that easier to digest than “Big 10+2-Penn State and Ohio State kind of”?), and, by default, we have to start in the division with two teams who will not matter at all to anybody ever this season (or, in PSU’s case, for many years into the future).
So what the hell happened to the B1G? Where did the league known for infinitely replaceable, immobile, white quarterbacks go? Didn’t this league used to be the last bastion of pro-style game plans in the entire NCAA? Suddenly 7 of the 12 teams run some form of spread, 2 of the 12 just run (and neither of those two were even here 30 years ago… who was supposed to guard the door?!), and we’re left with only three teams still running some semblance of NFL game plan. Leaving Iowa and MSU for the Legends division, that leads us nicely to Wisconsin, the current dominant B1G team.
It’s still strange to say something like that in a conference featuring Michigan and Ohio State, and I didn’t even grow up during a time in which Michigan was great. Somehow Wisconsin has managed to pull together several great seasons in a row on the strength of… well, the same exact thing Wisconsin always did well with; great offensive lines, better running backs (and at least one offensive lineman PLAYING running back at all times), solid defense, and the same quarterback you could swear has been there since you were born (The Russell Wilson aberration notwithstanding. Lord knows the only reason he transferred to Wiscy is because he didn’t want to change jersey colors).
Their competition in the Leaders has been… removed? Yes, that’s a nice way to put it. Ohio State is still serving time for selling things they earned for other things they wanted (yeah, the bigger deal was that Tressel lied about it, but seriously: if I fucking win something I should be able to sell it all I want), and Penn State is… well, they’re going to be busy with lawsuits and things (AVOIDING OBVIOUS SUBJECT MATTER). So the remaining competition is… oh jesus. Illinois, Purdue, and Indiana? I won’t even have to try with this one. What follows are 100% accurate predictions for the Leaders this season! Wow, they need to change that division name:
Monday, July 30, 2012
College Previewkakke: Big 12 Minus 2 Edition
AIR GENO
AIR GENO
So the most recent round of expansion might not have made much sense. The Big East added San Diego State and Boise State, and those schools are east of… Japan? The Pac-12 added Utah and Colorado, which is like being the sole proprietor of the Taj Mahal then allowing a couple of hobos to live there. Missouri and Texas A&M? Those make more sense regionally, but they made more sense regionally where they were. We haven’t gotten to the B1G yet, but Nebraska is a perfect fit there. The best move in realignment so far, however, has to be the Big 12-2 adding West Virginia and TCU.
TCU not only fits regionally with its old Southwestern Conference brethren, they also run a very Big 12-esque system. As for WVU, the Big 12 lost Mike Leach, so what did they do? Added a Leach disciple. West Virginia, as a school and state, may have lost a few rivalries by leaving the Big East, but they gained a group of states and schools that mesh much better with that state. Seriously, do you think West Virginia has more in common with New York and Pennsylvania or Texas and Oklahoma? I rest my case.
Speaking of the hill people, WVU is poised to contend in this conference in their first year as a member. They run an offense (AIR GENO) that fits so snuggly into this conference it will seem like they were always there. Their defense, however, could leave the door open to other contenders. Oklahoma has a Heisman hopeful at quarterback (who I believe has played QB for them for at least 12 years now) and National Title aspirations. Texas is out to prove their lull is over. Baylor and Oklahoma State need to prove they can win without last year’s stars. Iowa State and Kansas State need to prove they can maintain their levels of success and build on them. SO MANY STORYLINES. It’s like a goddamned Gore Verbinski movie up in this conference.
So get ready for the longest preview: TEN TEAMS, one conference, MASS HYSTERIA. Here are your 100% true predictions for the Big 12 in 2012:
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Your Start Kyle Orton Bears Training Camp Preview: The Defense
*- New to team
Defensive Ends: #90 Julius Peppers, #71 Israel Idonije, #99 Shea McClellin*, #94 Chauncey Davis, #98 Corey Wootton, #93 Thaddeus Gibson, #76 Cheta Ozougwu*
The first three spots are obviously set. Julius Peppers is the best pass rusher Chicago's had since Richard Dent and will continue to play nearly every snap on defense so long as he's healthy. Izzy is still solid against the run even if his pass rush declined considerably. He'll probably get the starting nod over McClellin for most of the year, but he'll lose nearly all of his 3rd down reps and more than that as the season goes along. McClellin will get every opportunity to play and play often. Try to remember 2006 Mark Anderson. That's the plan for McClellin.
The real interesting story here is whether Corey Wootton can hang on to a roster spot. The Bears had high hopes for Wootton before he lost nearly all of last season to injury. If he can show the talent that made him a potential first rounder in college before his injuries set in, he'll get an opportunity. If not, I'd expect the Bears to keep the solid, unimpressive Chauncey Davis, who was drafted by Atlanta when Phil Emery was a scout there. Gibson's a long shot over Davis and Wootton, and Ozougwu's awesome name won't be enough to get him to the final 53.
Defensive Tackles: #69 Henry Melton, #92 Stephen Paea, #75 Matt Toeiana, #78 Nate Collins*, #70 John McCargo*, #79 Ronnie Cameron*, #96 Jordan Miller*, #68 DeMario Pressley
The thinnest position on the depth chart, which is scary considering the importance of DTs in Lovie's scheme. I like the starters, as Henry Melton was my pick for breakout player last year and I think he'll be even better and more consistent this year. Paea will take a huge leap forward in year two. He's an absolute monster. Toeiana is a solid runstuffer.
The rest of the lineup is a bunch of flotsam and castoffs. McCargo is a former first round pick who has never done anything. Nate Collins is already suspended for the opener. Cameron, Miller, and Pressley are just bodies. I'd expect someone to be picked up before the season, but if not I assume we'll see plenty of situations where Izzy moves back inside on pass-rushing downs while McClellin takes over at end.
Linebackers: #54 Brian Urlacher, #55 Lance Briggs, #53 Nick Roach, #91 Geno Hayes*, #52 Blake Costanzo*, #58 Dom DeCicco,#97 JT Thomas, #64 Ronnie Thornton*, #59 Patrick Trahan, #95 Adrien Cole*, #57 Jabara Williams
Urlacher and Briggs will take every snap so long as they're healthy, obviously. Roach is chronically underrated and rarely makes a mistake, but Hayes can play all three spots and has more potential (and also makes a ton of mistakes), so that battle should be interesting.
The backup linebackers are all extremely important on special teams, so I'd have to believe the Bears didn't sign Costanzo only to make him compete for a roster spot. He's in. They seem to like Dom DeCicco quite a bit, so he's my best bet as well. The Bears sometimes keep five linebackers and other times keep six, so Thomas and the others will have to show something in order to stay on. I'm guessing Patrick Trahan is most likely to stick out of that group.
Cornerbacks: #33 Charles Tillman, #26 Tim Jennings, #30 DJ Moore, #24 Kelvin Hayden*, #27 Jonathan Wilhite*, #36 Cornelius Brown*, #31 Isaiah Frey*, #39 Greg McCoy,
Tillman and DJ are locked in as the starters at LCB and Nickel, respectively, and they should be. Tillman's one of the best Cover 2 corners...ever. Moore has so far been the best nickelback of the Lovie Era.
The battle between Jennings and Hayden should be extremely interesting. Jennings is younger and healthier and was solid in coverage last year. He didn't come up with turnovers, however, and that's key in this system. Hayden, when healthy, is a playmaker, and Lovie's coveted him for quite some time. Hayden's been injured often the last couple of years, however, so we'll see if he can crack the lineup. His roster spot is safe, regardless, and he adds quality depth.
Only one of the Wilhite, Brown, Frey, and McCoy group will make it, I believe. The Bears rarely carry six corners, and I think they'll be more inclined to keep six receivers again this year. Wilhite has a slight edge since he's a veteran that they targeted in the offseason, but Frey is the kind of big, physical corner Lovie wants. McCoy's greatest asset is his ability as a returner, and that's a tough way to crack this roster. He seems like a strong candidate for the practice squad or the IR/Redshirt. Cornelius is named Cornelius, so that's something.
Safeties: #47 Chris Conte, #27 Major Wright, #20 Craig Steltz, #35 Brandon Hardin*, #43 Trevor Coston*, #46 Jeremy Jones*, #37 Anthony Walters.
This one's pretty easy. Conte and Wright will start until Hardin takes Wright's job somewhere around week five. Steltz is an excellent special teamer and can play both spots (and played both of them well last year, which I'm still not convinced wasn't an aberration), so he's the primary backup. Walters played well and special teams last year and should get the nod over Jones and Coston for the fifth safety spot.
My prediction for the depth chart, barring injury and the likely free agent signing at defensive tackle:
RDE: Peppers/Wootton
LDE: Idonije/McClellin
3 Technique: Melton/Collins
Nose Tackle: Paea/Toeina/McCargo
WLB: Briggs/Trahan
MLB: Urlacher/DeCicco
SLB: Roach/Hayes
CB: Tillman/Moore/Frey
CB: Jennings/Hayden
FS: Conte/Steltz
SS: Wright/Hardin/Walters
That makes 25. Throw in the 25 I predicted on offense yesterday and add the locks on special teams in Robbie Gould, Adam Podlesh, and Patrick Mannelly and you have your 53 man roster. Seems like a damn fine team.
Go Bears.
Defensive Ends: #90 Julius Peppers, #71 Israel Idonije, #99 Shea McClellin*, #94 Chauncey Davis, #98 Corey Wootton, #93 Thaddeus Gibson, #76 Cheta Ozougwu*
The first three spots are obviously set. Julius Peppers is the best pass rusher Chicago's had since Richard Dent and will continue to play nearly every snap on defense so long as he's healthy. Izzy is still solid against the run even if his pass rush declined considerably. He'll probably get the starting nod over McClellin for most of the year, but he'll lose nearly all of his 3rd down reps and more than that as the season goes along. McClellin will get every opportunity to play and play often. Try to remember 2006 Mark Anderson. That's the plan for McClellin.
The real interesting story here is whether Corey Wootton can hang on to a roster spot. The Bears had high hopes for Wootton before he lost nearly all of last season to injury. If he can show the talent that made him a potential first rounder in college before his injuries set in, he'll get an opportunity. If not, I'd expect the Bears to keep the solid, unimpressive Chauncey Davis, who was drafted by Atlanta when Phil Emery was a scout there. Gibson's a long shot over Davis and Wootton, and Ozougwu's awesome name won't be enough to get him to the final 53.
Defensive Tackles: #69 Henry Melton, #92 Stephen Paea, #75 Matt Toeiana, #78 Nate Collins*, #70 John McCargo*, #79 Ronnie Cameron*, #96 Jordan Miller*, #68 DeMario Pressley
The thinnest position on the depth chart, which is scary considering the importance of DTs in Lovie's scheme. I like the starters, as Henry Melton was my pick for breakout player last year and I think he'll be even better and more consistent this year. Paea will take a huge leap forward in year two. He's an absolute monster. Toeiana is a solid runstuffer.
The rest of the lineup is a bunch of flotsam and castoffs. McCargo is a former first round pick who has never done anything. Nate Collins is already suspended for the opener. Cameron, Miller, and Pressley are just bodies. I'd expect someone to be picked up before the season, but if not I assume we'll see plenty of situations where Izzy moves back inside on pass-rushing downs while McClellin takes over at end.
Linebackers: #54 Brian Urlacher, #55 Lance Briggs, #53 Nick Roach, #91 Geno Hayes*, #52 Blake Costanzo*, #58 Dom DeCicco,#97 JT Thomas, #64 Ronnie Thornton*, #59 Patrick Trahan, #95 Adrien Cole*, #57 Jabara Williams
Urlacher and Briggs will take every snap so long as they're healthy, obviously. Roach is chronically underrated and rarely makes a mistake, but Hayes can play all three spots and has more potential (and also makes a ton of mistakes), so that battle should be interesting.
The backup linebackers are all extremely important on special teams, so I'd have to believe the Bears didn't sign Costanzo only to make him compete for a roster spot. He's in. They seem to like Dom DeCicco quite a bit, so he's my best bet as well. The Bears sometimes keep five linebackers and other times keep six, so Thomas and the others will have to show something in order to stay on. I'm guessing Patrick Trahan is most likely to stick out of that group.
Cornerbacks: #33 Charles Tillman, #26 Tim Jennings, #30 DJ Moore, #24 Kelvin Hayden*, #27 Jonathan Wilhite*, #36 Cornelius Brown*, #31 Isaiah Frey*, #39 Greg McCoy,
Tillman and DJ are locked in as the starters at LCB and Nickel, respectively, and they should be. Tillman's one of the best Cover 2 corners...ever. Moore has so far been the best nickelback of the Lovie Era.
The battle between Jennings and Hayden should be extremely interesting. Jennings is younger and healthier and was solid in coverage last year. He didn't come up with turnovers, however, and that's key in this system. Hayden, when healthy, is a playmaker, and Lovie's coveted him for quite some time. Hayden's been injured often the last couple of years, however, so we'll see if he can crack the lineup. His roster spot is safe, regardless, and he adds quality depth.
Only one of the Wilhite, Brown, Frey, and McCoy group will make it, I believe. The Bears rarely carry six corners, and I think they'll be more inclined to keep six receivers again this year. Wilhite has a slight edge since he's a veteran that they targeted in the offseason, but Frey is the kind of big, physical corner Lovie wants. McCoy's greatest asset is his ability as a returner, and that's a tough way to crack this roster. He seems like a strong candidate for the practice squad or the IR/Redshirt. Cornelius is named Cornelius, so that's something.
Safeties: #47 Chris Conte, #27 Major Wright, #20 Craig Steltz, #35 Brandon Hardin*, #43 Trevor Coston*, #46 Jeremy Jones*, #37 Anthony Walters.
This one's pretty easy. Conte and Wright will start until Hardin takes Wright's job somewhere around week five. Steltz is an excellent special teamer and can play both spots (and played both of them well last year, which I'm still not convinced wasn't an aberration), so he's the primary backup. Walters played well and special teams last year and should get the nod over Jones and Coston for the fifth safety spot.
My prediction for the depth chart, barring injury and the likely free agent signing at defensive tackle:
RDE: Peppers/Wootton
LDE: Idonije/McClellin
3 Technique: Melton/Collins
Nose Tackle: Paea/Toeina/McCargo
WLB: Briggs/Trahan
MLB: Urlacher/DeCicco
SLB: Roach/Hayes
CB: Tillman/Moore/Frey
CB: Jennings/Hayden
FS: Conte/Steltz
SS: Wright/Hardin/Walters
That makes 25. Throw in the 25 I predicted on offense yesterday and add the locks on special teams in Robbie Gould, Adam Podlesh, and Patrick Mannelly and you have your 53 man roster. Seems like a damn fine team.
Go Bears.
Monday, July 23, 2012
Your Start Kyle Orton Bears Training Camp Preview: The Offense
Bears camp begins this week, so it's time for my annual look at the camp roster to try and shake out what the Bears will look like come opening day and what we might expect from those 53 guys. Today we start with the offense.
A brief recap: when we last left our heroes they were grinding out a meaningless season finale win over Minnesota that only resulted in Brian Urlacher getting injured on a Hail Mary...wait, Hail Mary......CHIEFS GAME...fuck...Chiefs...AFC West...TEBOW...MARION BARBER. CALEB HANIE. GAHHHHH. Why is there all this blood everywhere? Who put this dead horse in my bed? OH MY GOD, THAT'S NO HORSE, IT'S JOHN ELWAY...*wakes up in cold sweat* Jesus. Okay, where was I?
Oh yes, the Bears ended last season at 8-8 following an excellent 7-3 start and a horrifing 1-5 finish. Since then they've replaced the GM, overturned the talent at the offensive skill positions, took care of several headaches by re-signing Lance Briggs and Matt Forte, and now enter training camp free of controversy and full of optimism. This should be good. Let's see who gets to have fun in Bourbonnais over the next month:
*- New to team.
QUARTERBACKS: #6 Jay Cutler, #2 Jason Campbell*, #12 Josh McCown, #4 Matt Blanchard*
No surprises expected here, of course. Cutler will start so long as he stays healthy, which will hopefully be all 16 games, and the franchise goes as he goes. Even ESPN has come around to the idea that they were wrong about him, since the addition of actual talent on offense means Jay will finally put up numbers they can't ignore. This will be his best year yet.
Jason Campbell, not long ago, was the type of guy Bears fans would have worshipped: slightly above average. He's more than capable of keeping the ship upright if Cutler goes down again. Ideally you never have to use him, but even if the exact same scenario as last year should happen again (Cutler out for 5-6 weeks, team simply needs to go .500 to keep playoff hopes alive) the Bears are in an infinitely better situation than they were a year ago thanks to Jason.
McCown makes a lot of sense as the third stringer. Considering the team will likely only get to him if the offensive line is so bad that it gets both Cutler and Campbell knocked out, it's not a bad idea to have a guy who can run for his life back there.
Matt Blanchard went to the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. I hope he enjoys his two week break from working as a kayaking instructor, which I assume is the only degree available at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.
Obviously the depth chart here is set and Blanchard's just a camp arm. Overall this is the best depth chart the Bears have had at QB since Johnny Lujack and Sid Luckman were both on the roster. Hopefully they don't need it, but it's nice to know it's there.
HALFBACKS: #22 Matt Forte, #29 Michael Bush*, #32 Kahlil Bell, #25 Armando Allen, #38 Lorenzo Booker*, #45 Harvey Unga
Forte and Bush are locks and will get about 90% of the touches. Forte is the best runningback the Bears have had in my lifetime (sorry, Neal Anderson and Thomas Jones), and I'm glad he's been extended. Bush is attempt #3 at finding a highly paid complement to Forte. Marion Barber, statistically, wasn't bad, but was oft-injured and fell out of favor after the Denver game. Bush should easily exceed Barber's production and should outproduce Chester Taylor's 2010 season somewhere around the third preseason game.
Kahlil Bell was tendered as a restricted free agent, and should make the roster as the #3 back, but he may have some competition as the Bears signed veteran Lorenzo Booker last week. Booker has some more experience on special teams than Bell, and the Bears may want to go cheaper at the #3 HB spot since they've invested so much in Forte and Bush. Bell himself may want an opportunity to earn more carries on a team with a less crowded depth chart.
I don't expect Armando Allen to make the roster. that's really all I have to say about him. I forgot all about Harvey Unga, who the Bears took in the supplemental draft in 2010 and who has now been injured or dismissed for personal reasons for two seasons. He'll be cut as well.
FULLBACKS: #44 Tyler Clutts
Clutts is overrated by meatballs who were just happy to have a fullback again, but it looks like he's here to stay. Oh well. At least we'll get more horrible puns every time another checkdown pass bounces off of his stone hands.
WIDE RECEIVERS: #15 Brandon Marshall*, #17 Alshon Jeffery*, #80 Earl Bennett, #23 Devin Hester, #14 Eric Weems*, #11 Devin Thomas*, #13 Johnny Knox, #18 Dane Sanzenbacher, #81 Terrien Crump*, #82 Britten Golden*, #19 Joseph Anderson*, #83 Chris Summers*
This is the most vastly upgraded unit on the Bears roster, and maybe the most improved receiving corps in the NFL.
The top four are clear: Marshall is the big, game-changing receiver the Bears haven't had, well, ever. Jeffery has the potential to be Brandon Marshall. The BBE, who will hopefully stay healthy this year, is an outstanding slot/possession guy who can also play outside the hashes opposite of Marshall when the Bears stick Hester in the slot to work him deep (something they'll do more this year than they ever have). Hester is now a role-player, something he was always meant to be.
The real question comes after those four. How many receivers will the Bears keep? Last year they kept six, the first time in the Lovie Era where they've kept more than five. They'll probably keep six again this year as Eric Weems is a lock for the roster as well, but probably won't see any reps at wide receiver since he's simply a poor man's Devin Hester.
So who is the sixth man? Knox is easily taken care of, as they're not going to throw him out there before he's 100% healthy and they may not want him anymore as it is. He'll likely hit the injured reserve, or maybe the PUP list, and the Bears will make their decision on whether to cut or keep him after he's in playing shape again.
The camp bodies don't stand a chance, so ignore Crump, Golden, Anderson, and Summers, even if Crump has an awesome name.
It all boils down to a battle between Devin Thomas and Sanzenfucker for the last roster spot. Thomas is a 6'2, 221 former second round pick who may have some untapped potential on offense and has played very well on special teams in the NFL. Sanzenfucker is a roughly 4'8", 97 lb undrafted schmuck who didn't make an impact on special teams last year and only made the roster as Martz's little toy. He got some playing time when Bennett was hurt and committed the cardinal sin of white wide receiverdom by dropping six passes. My point, basically, is Sanzenfucker is gone and I will dance and bathe in the meatball asshurt the day he is cut. Welcome to the Bears, Devin Thomas!
TIGHT ENDS:#87 Kellen Davis, #89 Matt Spaeth, #88 Evan Rodriguez*, #86 Kyle Adams, #84 Draylen Ross*, #85 Brandon Venson*
In Ron Turner's last two years the Bears had one of the deepest tight end corps in the NFL, with Greg Olsen and the vastly underrated Dez Clark combining for nearly 1000 yds each year and Kellen Davis as the third string TE. After two years of transition under Martz, the Bears tight ends will once more be featured as receivers between the twenties.
Kellen Davis will start, and I'm confident he'll perform adequately in a much bigger role this year. I'd think 400-500 yds receiving and anywhere from 5-8 touchdowns would make sense. He'll lose some reps on third down to Rodriguez, who will also play in two tight end sets. I'd expect Rodriguez to chip in somewhere around 400 or so yards this year as well before earning more reps in year two. Spaeth may get some reps at fullback and is solely a blocking specialist. He may fit into a role similar to that of Jim Kleinsasser in Minnesota during Tice's Vikings years.
I don't think the Bears will break camp with more than 3 tight ends this year, so expect Kyle Adams to continue bouncing back and forth between the practice squad, the waiver wire, and the roster as he did last year. Draylen Ross and Brandon Venson will most likely never be heard from again.
OFFENSIVE TACKLES: #72 Gabe Carimi, #73 J'Marcus Webb, #74 Chris Williams, #75 AJ Greene*, #76 Brandon Cory*, #79 Tyler Hendrickson*
Carimi is the key to damn near everything this year. If he stays healthy and plays as well as most believe him capable off, the entire line will stabilize. If the line is stable, there'll be very little that can stop the Bears offense this year thanks to their additions at wide receiver and runningback. If Carimi goes down again? Let's just not discuss it. For the record, I think he'll be a great player.
Left tackle is still J'Marcus Webb's job to lose. Unfortunately, I think he's more than capable of losing it to Chris Williams. Williams was really coming along at guard before he went down, so moving him back to tackle is somewhat irritating. It's hard to say Williams was a bust at LT, though, since he started just seven games there between 09-10 before he was injured and later moved to guard. Whoever wins will benefit from a coordinator that places less emphasis on the left tackle as an isolated blocker. I think the Bears will make something work with these two this year and will avoid the disasters of the past, but I think a true standout will be their top priority next offseason.
The Bears usually carry only three tackles, so I'd expect Greene, Cory, and Hendrickson all to get cut. One of them will make their way to the practice squad of course.
OFFENSIVE GUARDS/CENTERS: #63 Roberto Garza, #67 Chris Spencer, #60 Lance Louis, #70 Edwin Williams, #62 Chilo Rachal, #78 James Brown, #64 Ricky Henry, #68 Nick Pieschel.
Garza and Carimi are the only two players locked into starting jobs on the offensive line at the moment. I think Spencer and Louis are the likely starters at guard, which makes sense. Louis has always played well at guard but has suffered from injuries and a move to right tackle forced by the awfulness of Frank Omiyale. While Louis was wildly inconsistent on the outside, he's earned the right to start on the interior. Spencer played very well last year and also deserves to begin the season as a starter.
The main backup should be Rachal, who is a dominating run blocker (the best run-blocking guard in all of football in 2010 according to ProFootballFocus), but extremely inconsistent in pass protection. If Tice can tap the potential that made Rachal a 2nd round pick in 2008 I'd expect him to force his way into the lineup. Edwin Williams played extremely well last year after Chris Williams went down, so there's no reason to expect him not to make the roster. I'd also not be surprised if the Bears go younger soon and drop Garza in favor of shifting Spencer to center and making room for Rachal or Eddie at guard. Either way, the Bears will be as capable on the interior as they were last year when they paved the way for over 2,000 rushing yards.
Henry and Pieschel are just guys, but James Brown is highly intriguing prospect from Troy who was at one point a potential second-third rounder at tackle. His versatility makes him difficult to cut, as the Bears may not be able to sneak him onto the practice squad. He may make the roster as a backup at both guard and tackle, or the Bears may try their injured reserve redshirt.
If you were keeping track, my expected depth chart on offense is this:
QB: Cutler/Campbell/McCown
HB: Forte/Bush/Bell
FB: Clutts
WR: Marshall/Jeffery/Bennett/Hester/Weems/Thomas
TE: Davis/Spaeth/Rodriguez
LT:Webb/C.Williams
LG:Spencer/E. Williams
C: Garza/Spencer
RG:Louis/Rachal
RT: Carimi/Brown
That's a total of 25 players if they opt to keep Brown on the roster.
As a whole, this offense should, provided the key players stay healthy, be the most productive unit the Bears have fielded since 1995. I probably could have just typed "JAY CUTLER TO BRANDON MARSHALL, TOUCHDOWN BEARS" and your pants would have exploded. I know mine just did.
Go Bears.
A brief recap: when we last left our heroes they were grinding out a meaningless season finale win over Minnesota that only resulted in Brian Urlacher getting injured on a Hail Mary...wait, Hail Mary......CHIEFS GAME...fuck...Chiefs...AFC West...TEBOW...MARION BARBER. CALEB HANIE. GAHHHHH. Why is there all this blood everywhere? Who put this dead horse in my bed? OH MY GOD, THAT'S NO HORSE, IT'S JOHN ELWAY...*wakes up in cold sweat* Jesus. Okay, where was I?
Oh yes, the Bears ended last season at 8-8 following an excellent 7-3 start and a horrifing 1-5 finish. Since then they've replaced the GM, overturned the talent at the offensive skill positions, took care of several headaches by re-signing Lance Briggs and Matt Forte, and now enter training camp free of controversy and full of optimism. This should be good. Let's see who gets to have fun in Bourbonnais over the next month:
*- New to team.
QUARTERBACKS: #6 Jay Cutler, #2 Jason Campbell*, #12 Josh McCown, #4 Matt Blanchard*
No surprises expected here, of course. Cutler will start so long as he stays healthy, which will hopefully be all 16 games, and the franchise goes as he goes. Even ESPN has come around to the idea that they were wrong about him, since the addition of actual talent on offense means Jay will finally put up numbers they can't ignore. This will be his best year yet.
Jason Campbell, not long ago, was the type of guy Bears fans would have worshipped: slightly above average. He's more than capable of keeping the ship upright if Cutler goes down again. Ideally you never have to use him, but even if the exact same scenario as last year should happen again (Cutler out for 5-6 weeks, team simply needs to go .500 to keep playoff hopes alive) the Bears are in an infinitely better situation than they were a year ago thanks to Jason.
McCown makes a lot of sense as the third stringer. Considering the team will likely only get to him if the offensive line is so bad that it gets both Cutler and Campbell knocked out, it's not a bad idea to have a guy who can run for his life back there.
Matt Blanchard went to the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. I hope he enjoys his two week break from working as a kayaking instructor, which I assume is the only degree available at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.
Obviously the depth chart here is set and Blanchard's just a camp arm. Overall this is the best depth chart the Bears have had at QB since Johnny Lujack and Sid Luckman were both on the roster. Hopefully they don't need it, but it's nice to know it's there.
HALFBACKS: #22 Matt Forte, #29 Michael Bush*, #32 Kahlil Bell, #25 Armando Allen, #38 Lorenzo Booker*, #45 Harvey Unga
Forte and Bush are locks and will get about 90% of the touches. Forte is the best runningback the Bears have had in my lifetime (sorry, Neal Anderson and Thomas Jones), and I'm glad he's been extended. Bush is attempt #3 at finding a highly paid complement to Forte. Marion Barber, statistically, wasn't bad, but was oft-injured and fell out of favor after the Denver game. Bush should easily exceed Barber's production and should outproduce Chester Taylor's 2010 season somewhere around the third preseason game.
Kahlil Bell was tendered as a restricted free agent, and should make the roster as the #3 back, but he may have some competition as the Bears signed veteran Lorenzo Booker last week. Booker has some more experience on special teams than Bell, and the Bears may want to go cheaper at the #3 HB spot since they've invested so much in Forte and Bush. Bell himself may want an opportunity to earn more carries on a team with a less crowded depth chart.
I don't expect Armando Allen to make the roster. that's really all I have to say about him. I forgot all about Harvey Unga, who the Bears took in the supplemental draft in 2010 and who has now been injured or dismissed for personal reasons for two seasons. He'll be cut as well.
FULLBACKS: #44 Tyler Clutts
Clutts is overrated by meatballs who were just happy to have a fullback again, but it looks like he's here to stay. Oh well. At least we'll get more horrible puns every time another checkdown pass bounces off of his stone hands.
WIDE RECEIVERS: #15 Brandon Marshall*, #17 Alshon Jeffery*, #80 Earl Bennett, #23 Devin Hester, #14 Eric Weems*, #11 Devin Thomas*, #13 Johnny Knox, #18 Dane Sanzenbacher, #81 Terrien Crump*, #82 Britten Golden*, #19 Joseph Anderson*, #83 Chris Summers*
This is the most vastly upgraded unit on the Bears roster, and maybe the most improved receiving corps in the NFL.
The top four are clear: Marshall is the big, game-changing receiver the Bears haven't had, well, ever. Jeffery has the potential to be Brandon Marshall. The BBE, who will hopefully stay healthy this year, is an outstanding slot/possession guy who can also play outside the hashes opposite of Marshall when the Bears stick Hester in the slot to work him deep (something they'll do more this year than they ever have). Hester is now a role-player, something he was always meant to be.
The real question comes after those four. How many receivers will the Bears keep? Last year they kept six, the first time in the Lovie Era where they've kept more than five. They'll probably keep six again this year as Eric Weems is a lock for the roster as well, but probably won't see any reps at wide receiver since he's simply a poor man's Devin Hester.
So who is the sixth man? Knox is easily taken care of, as they're not going to throw him out there before he's 100% healthy and they may not want him anymore as it is. He'll likely hit the injured reserve, or maybe the PUP list, and the Bears will make their decision on whether to cut or keep him after he's in playing shape again.
The camp bodies don't stand a chance, so ignore Crump, Golden, Anderson, and Summers, even if Crump has an awesome name.
It all boils down to a battle between Devin Thomas and Sanzenfucker for the last roster spot. Thomas is a 6'2, 221 former second round pick who may have some untapped potential on offense and has played very well on special teams in the NFL. Sanzenfucker is a roughly 4'8", 97 lb undrafted schmuck who didn't make an impact on special teams last year and only made the roster as Martz's little toy. He got some playing time when Bennett was hurt and committed the cardinal sin of white wide receiverdom by dropping six passes. My point, basically, is Sanzenfucker is gone and I will dance and bathe in the meatball asshurt the day he is cut. Welcome to the Bears, Devin Thomas!
TIGHT ENDS:#87 Kellen Davis, #89 Matt Spaeth, #88 Evan Rodriguez*, #86 Kyle Adams, #84 Draylen Ross*, #85 Brandon Venson*
In Ron Turner's last two years the Bears had one of the deepest tight end corps in the NFL, with Greg Olsen and the vastly underrated Dez Clark combining for nearly 1000 yds each year and Kellen Davis as the third string TE. After two years of transition under Martz, the Bears tight ends will once more be featured as receivers between the twenties.
Kellen Davis will start, and I'm confident he'll perform adequately in a much bigger role this year. I'd think 400-500 yds receiving and anywhere from 5-8 touchdowns would make sense. He'll lose some reps on third down to Rodriguez, who will also play in two tight end sets. I'd expect Rodriguez to chip in somewhere around 400 or so yards this year as well before earning more reps in year two. Spaeth may get some reps at fullback and is solely a blocking specialist. He may fit into a role similar to that of Jim Kleinsasser in Minnesota during Tice's Vikings years.
I don't think the Bears will break camp with more than 3 tight ends this year, so expect Kyle Adams to continue bouncing back and forth between the practice squad, the waiver wire, and the roster as he did last year. Draylen Ross and Brandon Venson will most likely never be heard from again.
OFFENSIVE TACKLES: #72 Gabe Carimi, #73 J'Marcus Webb, #74 Chris Williams, #75 AJ Greene*, #76 Brandon Cory*, #79 Tyler Hendrickson*
Carimi is the key to damn near everything this year. If he stays healthy and plays as well as most believe him capable off, the entire line will stabilize. If the line is stable, there'll be very little that can stop the Bears offense this year thanks to their additions at wide receiver and runningback. If Carimi goes down again? Let's just not discuss it. For the record, I think he'll be a great player.
Left tackle is still J'Marcus Webb's job to lose. Unfortunately, I think he's more than capable of losing it to Chris Williams. Williams was really coming along at guard before he went down, so moving him back to tackle is somewhat irritating. It's hard to say Williams was a bust at LT, though, since he started just seven games there between 09-10 before he was injured and later moved to guard. Whoever wins will benefit from a coordinator that places less emphasis on the left tackle as an isolated blocker. I think the Bears will make something work with these two this year and will avoid the disasters of the past, but I think a true standout will be their top priority next offseason.
The Bears usually carry only three tackles, so I'd expect Greene, Cory, and Hendrickson all to get cut. One of them will make their way to the practice squad of course.
OFFENSIVE GUARDS/CENTERS: #63 Roberto Garza, #67 Chris Spencer, #60 Lance Louis, #70 Edwin Williams, #62 Chilo Rachal, #78 James Brown, #64 Ricky Henry, #68 Nick Pieschel.
Garza and Carimi are the only two players locked into starting jobs on the offensive line at the moment. I think Spencer and Louis are the likely starters at guard, which makes sense. Louis has always played well at guard but has suffered from injuries and a move to right tackle forced by the awfulness of Frank Omiyale. While Louis was wildly inconsistent on the outside, he's earned the right to start on the interior. Spencer played very well last year and also deserves to begin the season as a starter.
The main backup should be Rachal, who is a dominating run blocker (the best run-blocking guard in all of football in 2010 according to ProFootballFocus), but extremely inconsistent in pass protection. If Tice can tap the potential that made Rachal a 2nd round pick in 2008 I'd expect him to force his way into the lineup. Edwin Williams played extremely well last year after Chris Williams went down, so there's no reason to expect him not to make the roster. I'd also not be surprised if the Bears go younger soon and drop Garza in favor of shifting Spencer to center and making room for Rachal or Eddie at guard. Either way, the Bears will be as capable on the interior as they were last year when they paved the way for over 2,000 rushing yards.
Henry and Pieschel are just guys, but James Brown is highly intriguing prospect from Troy who was at one point a potential second-third rounder at tackle. His versatility makes him difficult to cut, as the Bears may not be able to sneak him onto the practice squad. He may make the roster as a backup at both guard and tackle, or the Bears may try their injured reserve redshirt.
If you were keeping track, my expected depth chart on offense is this:
QB: Cutler/Campbell/McCown
HB: Forte/Bush/Bell
FB: Clutts
WR: Marshall/Jeffery/Bennett/Hester/Weems/Thomas
TE: Davis/Spaeth/Rodriguez
LT:Webb/C.Williams
LG:Spencer/E. Williams
C: Garza/Spencer
RG:Louis/Rachal
RT: Carimi/Brown
That's a total of 25 players if they opt to keep Brown on the roster.
As a whole, this offense should, provided the key players stay healthy, be the most productive unit the Bears have fielded since 1995. I probably could have just typed "JAY CUTLER TO BRANDON MARSHALL, TOUCHDOWN BEARS" and your pants would have exploded. I know mine just did.
Go Bears.
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Preseason Colleg Previewkakke: SEC West Division and Championship
Onto the SEC West, home to the winners of four of the last five National Championships. Remember when Mike Shula coached Alabama? Ah, the good days. Alas, all good things are destined to end, and Nick Saban ended up turning not one, but TWO SEC West universities into juggernauts. First a national title with LSU, then a short dalliance with the Miami Dolphins, then a quick and humorously lie-filled exit (Alabama? What’s that?) which saw him retreat back to the same freaking division as the college team he had left merely two years prior. Now? A damned dynasty wherein the man whose name is eerily similar to a certain fiery demon wins a title every couple years.
Add to this the LSU Tigers, who hired Les Miles after Saban left, which has led to some of the most fantastic endings/games in college football history (And another national title for LSU). Add to that Arkansas, who just fired its bike-riding, daughter’s-age-girl-banging, Atlanta Falcons-leaving head coach… and replaced him with John L. Smith. John L. Smith inspired THIS. That is all.
Outside of those three incredible stories we also have three other coaches in transition. Gene Chizik at Auburn needs to prove he can win without Cam Newton. Dan Mullen needs to take the next step with Mississippi State. And Texas A&M needs to prove they can compete in the SEC when they struggled so mightily to do just that in the Big 12-2.
So what happens in the most storyline-laden division in the NCAA? Glad you asked! Because I happen to have a fresh batch of 100% truthful predictions right after the jump:
Predicting the Playbook
The Bears are rarely a team with an over-arching offensive philosophy. While Green Bay had Mike Holmgren, a West Coast purist if ever there was one, and followed him up with two more West Coast adherents in Mike Sherman and Mike McCarthy (although McCarthy's obviously branched out and adapted many spread concepts thanks to Aaron Rodgers' incredible ability and his plethora of talented receivers), the Bears offensive coordinators throughout the years have mostly paid mere lip service to some over-arching scheme and have been pragmatic at best and clueless at worst.
Ron Turner claimed to be in the Don Coryell camp, but frequent injuries and talent deficiencies at quarterback often limited him to a more controlled short-passing scheme. Even when it worked, Turner's offense was hardly the deep-throw at all costs attack of Coryell disciples like Mike Martz. Ask any Bears fan or Bears opponent what Ron Turner wanted to do and the answer is quite simple: run the ball and throw off of play-action. It really was that simple.
Before Ron, Terry Shea spent one year trying to install Kansas City's version of the Martz offense, a more balanced and tight-end friendly alternative to Mike's original attack. It's really hard to describe Shea's offense as anything like Kansas City's at the time, since the offensive line was, recent history included, the worst in Bears history (66 sacks allowed) the receivers were, and stop me if you've heard this before, terrible, with David Terrell leading the pack, and the quarterbacks (Jonathan Quinn, Craig Krenzel, Chad Hutchinson) that came in after Rex Grossman went down in week 3 were incapable of completing even a rudimentary quick slant.
I'll not spend much time describing John Shoop's offense, since his philosophy simply revolved around avoiding turnovers and praying the defense would win the game, which leads us to Gary Crowton, the last Bears offensive coordinator before Mike Martz to have a reputation as a unique offensive mind. Crowton of course brought the spread to the NFL (well before the Patriots) and somehow got over 4,000 yds passing out of Shane Matthews, Cade McNown, and Jim Miller before the league caught on in 2000 and ran Crowton off to a disappointing head coaching career at BYU.
Considering this history, it's no surprise that the Mike Martz experiment was quite a radical departure from normal Bears procedure. Martz is nothing if not a man with his a strong commitment to his offensive philosophy, and it's one that undoubtedly produces when he has the talent to do so. In Chicago he did not, and we all know how that ended.
This long-winded digression into the history of recent Bears offensive schemes leads me up to my question today, which is: what the hell are the 2012 Bears going to run on Sundays now that they, once again, appear to be without one clear philosophy?
The only answers the media provides are somewhat contradictory. Mike Wright of ESPN claimed the Bears, thanks to Jeremy Bates, were going to use the 2008 Broncos playbook verbatim, which of course would mean that the Bears were running Mike Shanahan's version of the West Coast offense, which he developed by altering the original West Coast scheme to fit the running talents of Steve Young and later John Elway (which is also why he drafted the mobile Jay Cutler).
The offensive coordinator, however, is Mike Tice, not Jeremy Bates, and Tice has his own history on offense from when he and Scott Linehan (now the OC for the Lions) had a very productive operation going in Minnesota in the first half of the decade. So one would have to assume the Bears offense would resemble the Vikings playbook from that time period, no?
Well, that doesn't seem to be the case either. Many Bears players have noted that the playbook, with the notable exception of the recently eliminated seven step drops, still contains anywhere from 50-75% of last year's playbook. So I'm forced to wonder how all three of these influences (the Ghost of Martz, Tice/Linehan, and Bates/Shanahan) are going to gel into one coherent offensive scheme this year. I've decided to take a guess and explore a couple of run and pass concepts from all three offenses that I think the team will make extensive use of: Mike Martz's Mesh concept, Mike Shanahan's Near/Solo Left QB Keep Pass Right (in English: play-action bootleg to the right), and the Inside Zone running play from the Tice/Linehan offense.
1) MESH
Mesh is an outstanding concept that Martz had great success with all the way back in his earliest days of coaching. It's a play that's also been popularized in college by the Air Raid offenses of my beloved Mike Leach and his disciples. The great thing about Mesh is that, while it's a Martz staple, it's a shallow cross concept and doesn't require one of the dreaded deep drops. Here is Mesh as drawn up in Martz's offense:
The image is a little small, but basically the key to Mesh is that the X receiver (Brandon Marshall) and the Y receiver (Earl Bennett) cross paths in the middle of the field on what's known as a rub (in practice coaches will sometimes make these two receives touch hands so they understand just how close they need to get together on the play) in order to confuse the defense and get one of them open. The Z receiver (either Alshon Jeffery or Devin Hester) runs a deep curl to the middle of the field in order to draw one of the linebackers away from the X and Y as the CB goes deep to cover the RB on the wheel route. The QB then reads (as the illustration shows) right to left, from X to Z to Y.
This play is primarily designed to beat man coverage, but it can also be used against zone since the deep curl by the Z receiver will draw the MLB and the RB threatens both the flat and the sideline with the wheel route, keeping both the corner and safety in place on Cover 2. Martz's QBs have racked up hundreds of yards over the years on this play. The addition of a big, strong receiver in Marshall means that Jay should have no trouble turning this relatively short, easy throw into a big play.
2)Near/Solo Left Fake 15/35 QB Keep Pass Right
These two plays are basically identical, with the difference being that one has a fullback in the backfield who released into the flat and another has two tight ends, with the second tight end releasing into the flat. This is a concept that Shanahan/Bates have used to great effect with Steve Young, John Elway, Jake Plummer, and Jay Cutler (One of these things is not like the other...) and I would expect, given the repeated cries over the last three years for the Bears to take advantage of Cutler's ability to throw on the run, we will see it plenty this year:
Ron Turner claimed to be in the Don Coryell camp, but frequent injuries and talent deficiencies at quarterback often limited him to a more controlled short-passing scheme. Even when it worked, Turner's offense was hardly the deep-throw at all costs attack of Coryell disciples like Mike Martz. Ask any Bears fan or Bears opponent what Ron Turner wanted to do and the answer is quite simple: run the ball and throw off of play-action. It really was that simple.
Before Ron, Terry Shea spent one year trying to install Kansas City's version of the Martz offense, a more balanced and tight-end friendly alternative to Mike's original attack. It's really hard to describe Shea's offense as anything like Kansas City's at the time, since the offensive line was, recent history included, the worst in Bears history (66 sacks allowed) the receivers were, and stop me if you've heard this before, terrible, with David Terrell leading the pack, and the quarterbacks (Jonathan Quinn, Craig Krenzel, Chad Hutchinson) that came in after Rex Grossman went down in week 3 were incapable of completing even a rudimentary quick slant.
I'll not spend much time describing John Shoop's offense, since his philosophy simply revolved around avoiding turnovers and praying the defense would win the game, which leads us to Gary Crowton, the last Bears offensive coordinator before Mike Martz to have a reputation as a unique offensive mind. Crowton of course brought the spread to the NFL (well before the Patriots) and somehow got over 4,000 yds passing out of Shane Matthews, Cade McNown, and Jim Miller before the league caught on in 2000 and ran Crowton off to a disappointing head coaching career at BYU.
Considering this history, it's no surprise that the Mike Martz experiment was quite a radical departure from normal Bears procedure. Martz is nothing if not a man with his a strong commitment to his offensive philosophy, and it's one that undoubtedly produces when he has the talent to do so. In Chicago he did not, and we all know how that ended.
This long-winded digression into the history of recent Bears offensive schemes leads me up to my question today, which is: what the hell are the 2012 Bears going to run on Sundays now that they, once again, appear to be without one clear philosophy?
The only answers the media provides are somewhat contradictory. Mike Wright of ESPN claimed the Bears, thanks to Jeremy Bates, were going to use the 2008 Broncos playbook verbatim, which of course would mean that the Bears were running Mike Shanahan's version of the West Coast offense, which he developed by altering the original West Coast scheme to fit the running talents of Steve Young and later John Elway (which is also why he drafted the mobile Jay Cutler).
The offensive coordinator, however, is Mike Tice, not Jeremy Bates, and Tice has his own history on offense from when he and Scott Linehan (now the OC for the Lions) had a very productive operation going in Minnesota in the first half of the decade. So one would have to assume the Bears offense would resemble the Vikings playbook from that time period, no?
Well, that doesn't seem to be the case either. Many Bears players have noted that the playbook, with the notable exception of the recently eliminated seven step drops, still contains anywhere from 50-75% of last year's playbook. So I'm forced to wonder how all three of these influences (the Ghost of Martz, Tice/Linehan, and Bates/Shanahan) are going to gel into one coherent offensive scheme this year. I've decided to take a guess and explore a couple of run and pass concepts from all three offenses that I think the team will make extensive use of: Mike Martz's Mesh concept, Mike Shanahan's Near/Solo Left QB Keep Pass Right (in English: play-action bootleg to the right), and the Inside Zone running play from the Tice/Linehan offense.
1) MESH
Mesh is an outstanding concept that Martz had great success with all the way back in his earliest days of coaching. It's a play that's also been popularized in college by the Air Raid offenses of my beloved Mike Leach and his disciples. The great thing about Mesh is that, while it's a Martz staple, it's a shallow cross concept and doesn't require one of the dreaded deep drops. Here is Mesh as drawn up in Martz's offense:
 |
| Source: www.smartfootball.com |
This play is primarily designed to beat man coverage, but it can also be used against zone since the deep curl by the Z receiver will draw the MLB and the RB threatens both the flat and the sideline with the wheel route, keeping both the corner and safety in place on Cover 2. Martz's QBs have racked up hundreds of yards over the years on this play. The addition of a big, strong receiver in Marshall means that Jay should have no trouble turning this relatively short, easy throw into a big play.
2)Near/Solo Left Fake 15/35 QB Keep Pass Right
These two plays are basically identical, with the difference being that one has a fullback in the backfield who released into the flat and another has two tight ends, with the second tight end releasing into the flat. This is a concept that Shanahan/Bates have used to great effect with Steve Young, John Elway, Jake Plummer, and Jay Cutler (One of these things is not like the other...) and I would expect, given the repeated cries over the last three years for the Bears to take advantage of Cutler's ability to throw on the run, we will see it plenty this year:
 |
| Source: www.theburgundywarpath.com |
This play is pretty self explanatory, really. Cutler fakes it to Forte and rolls right, while Marshall (X) runs a deep comeback to the play side (taking advantage of the gap between corner and safety, as the corner should stay to cover the second tight end (T) or the FB in the flats and the LB should be preoccupied with the first TE (Y) running the shallow cross) and the Z (Hester or Jeffery) runs either a deep post against Cover 2 in order to draw the safety deep or a deep dig against Cover 1 in order to get the safety to "sink" on the route.
3)Inside Zone
This is a play that nearly every NFL team runs, and one that the Bears have already had a great deal of success with under Tice the last two years, but it's also a staple of the one-back offense that Tice/Linehan run and you'll see it plenty this year as well.
 |
| Source: www.smartfootball.com |
When you hear people talk about "zone runs" vs. man or power runs, the difference is what an "uncovered" lineman does. If a guard lines up and there's a defensive tackle right in front of him obviously his assignment is to block that guy. If there's not a defensive player directly in front of him, however, the offensive lineman's job is to shift towards the playside and double team the nearest defensive lineman. Once that defensive player is blocked, one of the two offensive lineman then shifts off to the nearest defender in the "zone" of the play. It's not really rocket science.
In the above version of inside zone, for example, the TE, RT, RG, and C all block the person covering them. The zone blockers are the LT and LG, who shift to block the WLB and the Nose Tackle, respectively. The runningback aims for the outside hip of the RG and shoot between the RG and the RT. If there's no opening there, he makes one cut and shoots back between the RG and the C. It's a running play that's both simple and effective, and Matt Forte and 30 other runningbacks will hear it called every Sunday. Tice has admitted in the past that it is his favorite running play, as he coaxed a 1300 yd season out of Michael Bennett and several great seasons from the two-headed monster of Fred Taylor and MJD largely off of this play during his time in Minnesota and Jacksonville, respectively.
So there you have it. I'm guessing the Bears offense will be very similar to the one they ran the last couple of years after the annual "Run the Damn Ball, Martz" intervention, with the biggest difference being a considerable increase in the amount of play-action passes and bootlegs, and fewer screens in response to pressure. These three plays, however, will almost certainly be locks for the gameplan every week. I apologize for the length of this post, but, shit, I really don't. If you're here, I assume you came to read.
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Preseason College Previewkakke: SEC East Division
You may be asking yourself what order this round of previews is going in. If it were by national relevance, the SEC would obviously be the last conference previewed before the BCS Bowl prediction blowout. The SEC has won (approximately) the last 27 national titles and will, unless the SEC has 14 teams with at least 2 losses this season, send a minimum of one team to the National Championship. But this preview series is going in terms of relevance to our potential readership, and since anyone who cares about Chicago sports probably has a dog in either the Big 12-2 or B1G race, the SEC gets previewed before both of them.
What more can be said about the SEC? They’re dominant. They’ve had the undisputed champions in college football since 2007 and won it as well in 05 and 04 (05 Auburn was 13-0 despite not participating in the title game).
The most recent winners, however, lie in the West. That’s where LSU, Alabama, and Auburn (plus the ever-dangerous Arkansas) reside. The East is a division in transition. Florida was down last year, Tennessee has been down due to the Fulmer curse, Missouri is transitioning from the Big 12 minus 2, Vanderbilt has put together a couple top-25 recruiting classes and solid seasons, Mark Richt is regaining the respect of his fanbase, and Steve Spurrier is finally in contention for those titles his hiring promised.
Can any of these teams be relevant enough to contend for the SEC title (and thus the National Title)? Can any of them go unbeaten? How much credibility do I lose for what I’m about to say Vanderbilt will do? Let’s see! Here they are; 100% accurate predictions for the SEC East:
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