A great off-season for the Bears, adding Cutler, Pace, and Rod Marinelli.

Early reports out of camp are that Marinelli has made the greatest impact of all, which is not to malign the impact Cutler has made.

Should be a fun year with double digit wins and a hotly contested NFCN.

As a Vikings fan, I hate the idea of Pace at RT more than I mind Cutler at QB. But my feelings on QBs are well-documented so that shouldn't come as a surprise. Forte is going to have a great year with someone that good blocking Left Ends.

And we've finally gotten on board & signed a Samoan: Pisa Tinoisamoa.

Let the Hanie & Wolfe Era begin, y'all.

yeah this division goes from one of the worst to one of the strongest in a year...but thats the way things work in the nfl

I think the Packers are going to need a year to figure out where everyone needs to be in that 3-4 before they can be considered contenders at this point. The Vikings tried this transition in 2004, and there were tons of secondary missed assignments and general confusion. I could be wrong, but judging by the press I've been reading about Aaron Kampman hating his new role (pass rushing defensive ends become linebackers in the 3-4 and are required to do a lot more in terms of coverage and being in the right spot during rushing downs like James Harrison, Demarcus Ware, Shawne Merriman, etc) I expect the Packers to be mediocre.

I see the North as a two-horse race this year.

I like Pace on the OL, of course. I'm also not expecting him to hold up for 16+ games this year and probably won't be around much longer. That's why I'm so excited for this season, b/c I expect the 12 - 14 games OPace plays to be solid and offer a lot to the offense.

Not only Pace, though, but Omiyale and Williams should solidify the line for Cutler, Forte, and K.Johnson to have nice numbers this year.

Also interesting is the further development of Greg Olsen. He's earned the starting nod in camp and should see significant number increases with Cutler behind center.

I'm excited to see what Bennett and Iglesias can do at WR opposite Hester. They don't need to be great, just good.

Finally, I'm nervous about the secondary. I think we have some good depth, but the safety positions are a concern for me. Hopefully Steltz can lock it down and have a decent year in coverage.

i think itll be all 3 in a race...and itll be nice to see if theres any progression in det...

next to the 2 easts id put this at 3 in division ranks

i'll settle for respectable

no division with the lions and no great teams is a good division

givin' the lions 4 wins

that dude looked shaky as hell last year...almost like a deer in headlights when he was in non special teams plays...

I recall Steltz as being particularly good at "seeing" the play before it happens (i.e., putting himself in the right place at the right time), but unable to cover anybody. He can stick his nose in and make a tackle, though.

The coaches seem to think he's capable.

Steltz is going to look worse or better than he actually is depending on if the Bears did anything about the fact that they only had 28 sacks last year. If they don't apply pressure, quarterbacks can just wait till their receivers are past Steltz.

Good point, Matt. That's where Marinelli should make a huge difference. I'm thinking 12 - 14 sacks out of Alex Brown and solid inside presence from Harris.

I'm reading good things about Gilbert, too. Richard Seymour comparisons.

Big year from this guy...big year.

all i gotta say about the nfc

Payne and Steltz suck regardless of pass rush. But if you allow Griese to throw 70 times and not have a grass stain on his jersey, no secondary can do anything. At camp people are saying that Steltz still sucks, Payne still delivers his biggest hits on his own teammates and that Bowman looks really good at CB. Bennett looks nice but the Bears have been lining Olsen and Clark on the outside and Hester and Bennett in the slots. Don't know if that's some fluke like them running the wildcat or if the WR core is really that bad.

Agree with the Pack struggling with the 3-4 adjustment. And the Lions are a joke, but so were the Falcons at this time last year with the top QB in the draft coming in.

This is the exception that proves the rule. The Lions should have spent that draft getting stronger on their lines and they got a bunch of playmakers instead. They still appear to be a 2-4 win team until they can prove that they can resemble any sign of life on the defensive side of the ball.

you gotta credit half of atl success at qb to the rush...michael turner was a stud last year...i dont think the lions have much of a rush game to speak of

They have a decent front 7, they have an awful secondary, so I liked the 2nd rounder they got. The offensive line is brutal and passing up Oher was a mistake, but they have targets and notice how much better the Falcons WR's looked last year? The Qb will make the WR and TE better. But Stafford wont have much time to throw and I wouldn't play him early in the season.

They were dead last against the run and only had 30 sacks last year. They've got a long way to go to get that front 7 to mediocre. I know they've made some additions, so we'll see. But with a new coaching system, I'm not optimistic for them just yet.

cutler took a nice jab at denver fans on this espn article

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/trainingcamp...tory?id=4383316

sorry to see kyle gettin booed in denver already

Cutler: "It's a lot [different]. Denver's like a 6 and Chicago's like a 9,"

Shouldn't he have just gone all the way and said Chicago is a 10?



A friend of mine was at that Blackhawks playoff game where they had Cutler drop the puck. And as he got to the center of the rink the entire crowd was belting 'Bear Down Chicago Bears' at the top of their lungs. Cutler apparently was pretty taken by the moment and basked in it for a while before dropping the puck.

the irony is that denver has historically provided a much better home field advantage for it's football team

i distinctly remember as a kid a monday night football game from mile high in the '80s that featured like a foot of snow. a beautiful thing. the kind of thing that sets football apart. fuck artificial turf

I never said i was optimistic, its just with all the parody in the NFL I dont really count anybody out, except maybe the Broncos. But I dont think Detroit will be very good.

What's the attitude on Cutler's post-game press conference, saying Hester didn't do all he could do to bust up that INT? He's probably right, but it's kind of lame that that couldn't be handled in the locker room.


I'm glad that now there's a Bear who is talented and easy to respect, yet also apparently very easy to hate and think is a little bitch too.

he was as taken aback as jay cutler could be...i was at the game and it was pretty sweet cause all the hubbub of us signing him was just like day 3 in...

but he was his slacker attitude self...kinda nonchalantly went out there and dropped it...tipped his cap and walked off with his head down...

it was sweet for all us fans though...

aimlessly flipped through a fantasy football mag this weekend and saw that matt forte was #3 on their big board

fantasy indeed

I have him pretty highly ranked on my personal big board (like #4-5 because most players in my league are Bears fans and if he starts strong I have massive trade value). I think besides Olsen, he's Cutler's most reliable target and has a real chance to put up Westbrookian numbers.

But also keep in mind that if your finals are in Week 16, he's got a good chance to lay an egg for you against the Vikings. I'm being objective and not trying to be a homer there. Barring a key injury, the Vikings are probably going to be a top run defense again this year.

i like the way you think

man sad to see dusty dvoracheck is gonna be out for the 4th year in a row...torn acl...sucks cause i like the guys intensity a lot...time to let him go

Dusty is all glass. I wanted to like him, just was never given a chance. Good to see he'll be cut.

I really liked what I saw out of the the offense on Saturday against a pretty good Giants defense. I'll be looking for more of that throughout the season.

My gut tells me DD will be picked up by another team and have an injury-free, productive few years. Real bummer, I liked him when he was on the field.

i was at the game on saturday and everyone around us was saying the same thing. they looked pretty sharp.

Jay got a nice welcome back from Denver fans

Cutler didn't look too good in the first series, or two, but really came around by the 2nd quarter. I liked what I saw out of him, again. He won't see/hear that kind of adversity/hatred in other stadiums (maybe GB, but not to that level, certainly) and I liked how he handled it.

The defense didn't look impressive.

i thought the D looked rather impressive...especially without almost any starting secondary...

That's what I focused on mainly - the secondary. I wanted to see better play out of them - especially against Orton.

right now i think the thing to focus on is the d line...if the d line can get pressure on the qb, which we havent been able to do consistently for the last 2 years, then the secondary will be able to do its job even if it is banged up...

marenelli has these guys playing pretty good...and if tommie can stay healthy and mark anderson can shape up and be the player we though he was gonna be his rookie year the d will be pretty good

I am very excited about the 2009 Bears. Green Bay and Minnesota will be tough as hell, Detroit can only surprise people with any number of wins, and the division will be a 17-week brawl, the way it should be, the way it used to be. I'm not too worried about the offense, things are going well and will only start clicking better - Forte is there, the short passing game is there, Cutler's arm is certainly there for the longball and it's only a matter of establishing rhythm which just takes some time. Ron Turner is a genius. I am not worried about the offense. The defense just needs to play like we know it can and will, the aggressive, gap-shooting, tenacious D the Bears are known for and that which Marinelli coaches. The personnel is there, they just need to be healthy.

I was born and raised in Boston, spent the best ten years of my life in Chicago ('94-'04). These are my teams. I love them both. It's easy enough, balancing the AFC-NFC thing in football just like I do the American-National League thing in baseball, the Eastern-Western thing in hockey (it's not as easy in hoops). A Pats-Bears Super Bowl, I dream of this. It only comes to a head when it's for all the marbles. We came close in baseball in '03, one game away on each side.

A Bears-Pats Super Bowl would make my head explode. I'm not saying it will happen this year, but I am saying this: it almost happened three years ago, and while it may not happen this year these teams look a whole lot more likely now than they did then to play into February.

OH MY GOD I AM PSYCHED FOR FOOTBALL THIS YEAR!!!

edit: Bears-Pats Super Bowl did happen, but it was 24 years ago, I was 14, and nobody in Boston had any expectations for victory.

i wouldnt go so far to say ron turner is a genious...dude did well with what he had last year, well see how his playcalling is this year now that he has a qb who can make all the throws

Peter King of Sports Illustrated wants to be your tooth fairy.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/foot...tml?eref=sihpT1

He fudges the winner, though - the Bears don't lose to the Patriots in Super Bowls. Hey, how do you do that thing where you don't copy & paste a link but it's embedded or whatever?

edit: and both Des Clark & G. Olson will be Pro Bowlers this year.

Weird predictions there:

Houston
Seattle
Philly
Carolina
KC
Miami
Dallas

i dont know...i think if schaub stays healthy houston is gonna be pretty outstanding this year...or at least i hope so...i got 4 texans on my team

I like their front 7, but they're still the 3rd best team in that division even if Schaub kills it this year.

i dont beleive so...i think the colts will have a mediocre year this year...offensive line looks pretty bad so far despite a top 7 finish last year, coaching changes and the titans and your also banking on collins to have a good season two years in a row which i dont believe will happen - no matter how good their d is...i think both tenn and houston finish 9-7 and indy 8-8 splitting with loses to @az, @hous, ne, @balt, @buff, @tenn, tenn and either the jets or miami but if i had to bet miami just cause its earlier in the year

texans were a top 5 offense last year with a bottom 5 d...that defnesive ranking will change this year

lol @ these pics

http://www.michiganavemag.com/MA_SP09_100_NEW.html

wish i hadn't seen those

on the other hand, now i won't mind so much if some defensive end fucks him up

by the way, i'm calling a 17-14 bears win over the steelers in week 2

What I'd like to see out of tonight's game:

- no injuries
- Rashied Davis securing his pink slip or Rideau earning his spot
- Hanie showing he can fill in smoothly, if necessary

ugh where to start...

ok jay cutler will be fine im much more worried about the following:

nathan vasher....dude was getting beat left and right

our offensive line...looked solid in the preseason but looked absolutely befuddled against the 3-4...we could get no push off the line to solidify the run, therefore we tried to run off the edges which didnt work all game...forte does not have the spreed to run tosses to the left or right (toss plays are ineffective in the nfl 9 out of 10 times because the speed of the d-end now anyways)

and the receivers...can we please get someone who knows how to run a route!!!!!!!!!

i thkn we need to seriously visit the idea of picking up marvin harrison today...as much as the bears need a big physical receiver (which hopefully aromashadu can be) we need someone who knows when to break off his route and when to run through it

and urlachers surgery today...as soon as hillenmeyer was in the game the pack ran the ball right down our throats

urlacher out for the season now too...fml

Bears