Thread: Bears QB coach Bates bullish on Cutler

The only offensive lineman I've heard of from the Broncos' line is Ryan Clady. Outside of that, I really don't know much about them because, truthfully, I don't follow the Donkeys. If that's the case as far as Manning having a better line to protect him in the pocket than what everyone gives the team credit for having, it should also bring to mind that Eddie Royal and Brandon Lloyd are no longer with the team, and that he's going to have a really inexperienced group of receivers. However, knowing Peyton Manning like I do since he was a Volunteer, his accuracy throwing the football will make the receivers on the Donkeys much better than they actually are.

Originally Posted by BigBadPapaBear

This is one of the few times that we'll agree to disagree Soul. Forte adds a whole new dimension to this offense. Bush eases the blow if Forte wants to get dumb, but his presence on the field is going to be crucial if we want to go all the way.

He won't hold out into the season. He wants to get paid and the only way for him to do that is to play. We've added so much more offensive firepower that I believe we can win without him. With him, if the rest of the offense clicks, we'll be even more dangerous but even without him we can still win big games.

Bell is a lot better back than anyone gives him credit for. He was actually outdoing Forte late last year despite having Hanie at QB and no one taking our passing game all the seriously. It isn't just Bush. It's both of them.

The Bears have the looks of being the most stacked team on both sides of the ball since those great Dallas Cowboy teams of the 1990s. On offense, we may actually be more loaded at WR than those teams were despite the fact that they had Michael Irvin and Alvin Harper. We have Marshall, Jeffery, Bennett, Hester, and the combination of Weems, Thomas, and Sanzenbacher should we choose to use them. We have Matt Forte, who is not as good as Emmitt Smith was, but is still a great back nevertheless. To back him up is a guy who has put up some numbers on the ground as well in Michael Bush, and then you have Kalil Bell as the third option. At quarterback is Jay Cutler, who I feel is more talented than was Troy Aikman. Our H-Back guy in Evan Rodriguez will probably wind up being our version of Daryl Johnston, but I don't think that Kellen Davis is going to stack up as an equal to Jay Novacek. Our tight ends and offensive line are not as good as those Cowboy teams, but we haven't seen the best out of them yet, I can assure you that.

Our defense has one of the greatest MLBs of all time in Urlacher. The Cowboys had no one to match his talent. Then you have Lance Briggs, who is better than any ROLB the Cowboys had. The defensive line of the Cowboys was superior to the Bears, but Julius Peppers is a better DE than anything the Cowboys ever had. The Cowboys had a better secondary with Deion Sanders manning the right side.

In some ways, we mirror the Cowboys of the early to mid 1990s. Let's hope for the same successes this season that those Cowboy teams had back then.

Originally Posted by BigBadPapaBear

You've got me leaning your now Soul. I agree Bell is a lot better than most realize. Its real nice to see how he's been developed by our coaches. We need to watch him this year as there are less touches for him and he'll need to make the most of his touches.

PB I don't think there's any way that Forte will hold out. He says he'll only sign a long term deal and he won't sign his FT tender. Well if there isn't another offer from the Bears forthcoming then he has the option of signing that one now. Or he has the option of signing his FT tender in mid July and coming to camp. I believe anything past that will hurt him and it will eventually hurt his value.

He gains nothing by staying out. All he does is lose $7.74 mil and if he feels flush enough to walk away from that just to salvage his pride well then I salute him. He obviously has high principals but much lower common sense. His team has already insured itself against his holdout by signing Bush and tendering Bell in order to keep him. We're two deep in good RB's without him and we've added major weapons in the passing game that will reduce our dependency on him as a receiver as well.

I want him on the team but operationally the Bears played this one just right. It seems nobody wanted to trade for him before the draft and he can't go anywhere else unless he agrees to a deal so that he can be traded IF that's even his objective. Emery has a full house and Forte is running a bluff with a pair of deuces and we all know that. If the Bears can win without him, and they can, what does he gain by holding out?

If he can't get the deal he's looking for his best bet is to show up, have another great year, make the pro bowl again and go at it after the end of this season. If the Bears have drawn their "line in the sand" as far the their offer to him goes there is nothing he can do to force them to up it. All he accomplishes by holding out is to lose $7.74 mil, lose a year of service credit towards his retirement benefits, and he ends up with potentially the same situation a year from now but that FT won't be 120% of this one because he didn't play for this one.

If you ask me this started down the wrong road last fall when they made him that "lowball" offer. I don't know if that was JA or Phillips doing but by not being willing to put an offer on the table then that was competitive with what other top backs had gotten, and using that pathetic excuse that Angelo whipped out about Forte not being a FA so he didn't deserve FA money, the scene got set for this then. Now Forte wants to make up for what he feels is a lost year and the Bears aren't buying that. This is a mess that didn't need to happen.

To quote 4th and 26: "I blame Jerry Angelo."