Thread: James Brown Was a Good UDFA Pickup........

I don't pay attention to Mel Kiper very often simply because I think he's a cheese ball. I mainly listen to Mike Mayock since I'm more of a fan of NFL Network. Mayock seems pretty solid and spot on most of the time.

Originally Posted by codykoch

There is a lot of optimistic and wishful thinking going on here by the vast majority of you in regards to the state of our Offensive Line.

Phil Emery, you wanna crown his ass then crown him. Same song, different girl. Phill Emery, he is so "active". In contrast, I suppose aquiring Jay Cutler & Julius Peppers was a real slouch job.

It it unexcusable to whiff or be absent in both the Prime/1st Half or Free Agency and Draft.

I haven't missed a game in the past 4 years.

Remember how bad these guys have been. Remember how hard it was to watch that Giants game and the many other games similar. There were just too many good lineman in this draft to repeatedly pass up on.

Our GM didn't draft Offensive Lineman, what else is new.

You want to count on Gabe Carimi to be our saving grace? I hope his knee holds up. While were at it, here's to also hopeing Chris Williams isn't injured again or failing at Left Tackle; for a 2nd time in his career. For all you "Let's try Chris Williams at Left Tackle", fans.

But most of all, Here's to 7th-Round Blue-Chipper J'Marcus Webb, who failed misserably in 2010 at Right Tackle and followed it up with a league-leading 13 sacks allowed in 2011 on the Left side.

If these guys fail, or get hurt again; who we got behind them?

Well not you Cody, that's for sure.

There are a lot of different ways to look at it and we've been beating most of them around for quite a while. Long before the draft and long before FA. I'm anything but satisfied with the way the line played last year. There's a lot of room for improvement. What I tend to disagree with are many of the ideas of how we should go or have gone about that.

For the most part our problems are at OT and LT in particular because with Carimi returning that's no longer a problem. Let's hope his knee holds up? Yeah, well let's hope the same for Urlacher since he got his racked up as well and we don't really have quality backup for him either. This isn't SF in the 80's. There's a salary cap now and no team can be two deep at every position the way they were.

Cody there were no LT's in FA who could have done much of anything to help. That was last year and JA blew it when he didn't sign one when he could have. There also weren't any in the first round of the draft that were sure fire solutions either save Kalil. Reiff was the only other OT to go in round one. He'll probably start out at RT and I doubt he could beat Carimi out of his job so what would we have done with him?

DeCastro would have been a nice pick and it must have been hard to pass on him. I admit that much. But we needed a DE just as much or more than another OG we needed to spend a first round pick to get. Once we picked up Rachal I knew OG was pretty much a dead issue unless we couldn't get our guy at DE. We'll have something like 6 OG's in camp all of who have had starting experience in the NFL so that alone should push the level of competition for those two starting spots up a couple of notches.

Once we took Jeffrey in the second any chance of drafting a guy who could have taken a spot away from anyone of those guys was slim. So we took the best guy we could as an UDFA to develop for the future. A guy who showed enough potential to have some rank him as a mid round pick but we didn't have to burn a mid round pick on him.

We had some holes to fill and given where the talent was Emery did as good as job of filling them as most anyone could expect. The only sure fire way to have a great Oline is to build it. You really can't buy it. Not when top guys are getting $10 mil per year. Hell, our entire line costs us half that for five guys. You start signing $10 mil per year FA OG's and there goes some of your strength at other positions. FA lineman who have talent are very pricey. So we've got guys we're building with and the process seems to be that we keep bringing in more in order to assure we've got the best ones we can get. Like I said, a good line is a process, not an event.

I tend to listen a lot to what former pros have to say about most things. They've been through the draft and training camps and played the game that we can only watch and talk about. There's a wealth of real "insider" info there and we have members on this site who have played the game. It pays to listen and hear what they have to say and the opinions they share.

Here's some comments from Tom Thayer who should know a lot about the Bears offensive line and the OG position in particular since he was one, and a very good one at that. Here's the guy who was the RG on that 1985 Bears team and a former pro bowler.

May 2, 2012 Thayer discusses Bears draft, offensive line depth


By: Larry Mayer | Last Updated: 5/2/2012 2:31 PM



Bears radio analyst and former guard Tom Thayer is excited about the battles for starting positions that will be waged on the offensive line heading into the season.


“The competitiveness on the offensive line is going to be better,” Thayer said during an exclusive video interview with ChicagoBears.com. “The key is Gabe Carimi has to have a healthy start to the season. J’Marcus Webb has to have considerable development going into his third year.


“But with all the action they gave all the other players last year, they’re going to come in to compete as starters. Edwin Williams, Lance Louis, Chris Spencer, Roberto Garza, Chris Williams: every one of those guys has starts under their belt. They’re going to come in and compete as starters. They’re not coming in as good backups and competing for a backup role.”


While some NFL analysts thought the Bears would pick an offensive lineman in the draft, Thayer understands why they didn’t.

“It’s not a surprise to me because I do have respect for the talent they have,” Thayer said. “Let me speak from experience. Once you’re a starter, you never want to go back to that backup role. So are you bringing in a college talent that’s going to compete for an immediate starting role? I’m not so sure that was going to happen.”

Watch the interview; SportsFanLive.com: Bears players work out on practice field

Past round two with the drafting of Cordy Glenn, there really wasn't an offensive lineman available who would make an immediate impact on the Bears this year. We needed another receiver in the worst way, so I am not surprised that we stuck with drafting Alshon Jeffery.

I do think, however, that the Bears will probably draft OL in the first round next year if things don't work out this season. Hopefully, the pool of players will be deeper so we don't have to worry about moving up in the draft to get an OT or a G. Eventually, we will need a new OC, so we will have to address that soon.

Originally Posted by BigBadPapaBear

You see this is what I've been saying for some time and have repeatedly been flamed for it. lol Thayer is a guy that knows the score. Playing time is so valuable to young OL. People expect them to get better, without seeing the field, and it can't happen. It simply can't happen that way. Going through reps in practice is never a substitute for real game experience. And I am a firm believer many of us will be very shocked at how much the Bears O-line improves it overall play this year because virtually everybody last season, gained valuable game experience and will be better this year because of it.

BBPB, you are the ultimate eternal optimist! lol

I agree with you, though. I do think that the offensive line will be better this year, but the only question is how much better will it be over last season? A lot will ride on two factors as Tom Thayer said: Gabe Carimi must stay healthy all season, and J'Marcus Webb absolutely must make head ways this year over what he did last season where he gave up thirteen sacks. The good thing about this is that at OG, we have plenty of depth and we have a good OC in Roberto Garza. We also have the option of trying Chris Williams out again at LT should Webb continue to struggle even with the chip blockers that Tice will be packaging into his playcalling. I still haven't been convinced that Williams won't make a solid LT in the NFL simply because he's never been allowed to settle down into any one position outside of LG long enough to develop and hone his skills.