Rosenbloom: Drawing a line with Cutler

Rosenbloom: Drawing a line with Cutler
Steve Rosenbloom
The RosenBlog

10:03 a.m. CDT, June 14, 2012
It still makes no sense that the Bears ignored their starting offensive line in the first phase of free agency or the draft.

It makes less sense when you believe the Bears are a Super Bowl contender the way I believe.

It’s even more mind-boggling after watching new general manager Phil Emery attack free agency and the draft.

Emery grabbed a starting big receiver in each instance, one a veteran game-breaker, the other potentially growing into that. Emery drafted a likely starter at left defensive end and signed depth at linebacker and cornerback. He added speed and depth at wide receiver and special teams, and with Matt Forte trying to hold the Bears hostage, Emery signed erstwhile Oakland starter Michael Bush and moved along with other things.

Point is, Emery saw the same dearth of talent that you and I did, and did something about it. Bravo. Clap, clap, clap. Take a bow.

But for a random Chilo Rachal, how did Emery miss fixing the offensive line? I mean, it’s such an obvious issue that even the Bears head coach could see it.

Not that Lovie Smith would ever admit that J’Marcus Webb was the worst starting left tackle in the league. Nope, Smith would simply ignore Webb leading the league in sacks allowed and false-starts and tell you, “We like our people blah, blah, blah.’’

The Bears like Webb so much that they’re having failed and frequently hurt Chris Williams compete for the starting job of protecting Jay Cutler’s blind side.

The Bears will tell you that getting back a healthy Gabe Carimi at right tackle is like bringing in a starter, but considering he was injured in only his second NFL game, it’s more like bringing in a rookie.

If this week’s mini-camp is any indication, the interior of the Bears line will include a career right guard playing center again, a career center moving to left guard, and last year’s fill-in right tackle playing right guard.

The Bears also will tell you that former offensive line coach Mike Tice now calling plays will eliminate the stupidity of Mike Martz. Tice assuredly will put his players in a position to succeed, which didn’t happen the last couple seasons until aliens abducted Martz’s brain.

But there might be a more notable reason the Bears ignored improving the unit that usually defines great teams: The Bears plan to have Cutler run away from the bad blockers.

It’s part of the game plan, of course. The Bears plan to use more designed rollouts and bootlegs the way the Broncos tailored their offense for him in Denver.

But I’m talking more about expecting --- demanding --- Cutler scrambling out of trouble. The Bears know he can run around and make plays. The Bears know he will have to. The Bears can’t say this exactly, but I believe it’s part of their refusal to upgrade the personnel along the offensive line.

It looks like this to me: The Bears gave Cutler almost all the toys he wanted, but not everything because there are other areas that needed help, and so, the Bears had to choose between receivers or linemen, apparently deciding that Cutler can run away from defensive players easier than he can complete passes to himself.

You see where this is heading, don’t you? The Bears have surrounded their most important asset with weapons more talented than ever, which is another way of saying the Bears have eliminated almost every excuse in a season with Super Bowl expectations.

You know what happens when you give a player almost everything, don’t you? You give that player every reason to produce his greatest season while also setting him up to absorb every bit of blame if those Super Bowl expectations aren't met.

Cutler has gotten a pass for most of his Bears career because, well, he really had no one to pass to. Now he does. Now he has weapons he’s always wanted here. Cutler also virtually co-authored a playbook that emphasizes his athletic ability and minimizes the offensive line’s shortcoming. What’s more, Cutler has been granted the option to audible.

Now he has no excuses. This, then, seems to be the end of the "Jay Cutler Sympathy Tour.''

At least until he suffers his annual season-ending injury.



http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports...1073885.column

this idiot must not have seen the memo that Tice will make this oline the shiznit!!!!!

Just another rant from rosenbozo to fill space during the slow time. He's one of the worst "haters" in the media and isn't saying anything we don't already know. I can't wait for camp to start so we don't have to put up with this kind of crap from him.
:shakinghead:

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Originally Posted by omc1969

Just another rant from rosenbozo to fill space during the slow time. He's one of the worst "haters" in the media and isn't saying anything we don't already know. I can't wait for camp to start so we don't have to put up with this kind of crap from him. :shakinghead:

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Yeah, what he said ^^^. Thing is, what quality O-line talent was available in the draft, or even Free Agency? Slim to none. You can't sign talent when it's not available. And we certainly couldn't trade up to get one of the few in the draft with all the other holes we needed to fill. I think Emery did a heck of a job in a short time with limited resources.

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Originally Posted by Shark86x

Yeah, what he said ^^^. Thing is, what quality O-line talent was available in the draft, or even Free Agency? Slim to none. You can't sign talent when it's not available. And we certainly couldn't trade up to get one of the few in the draft with all the other holes we needed to fill. I think Emery did a heck of a job in a short time with limited resources.

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Bingo. Give that man a prize!

You're 100% right Shark. There were no good solutions as far as finding a LT was concerned. Why is he griping about not drafting any lineman when he turns around and admits that Carimi's return is tantamount to doing just that? Then he completely ignores CWill's return at either LT or LG.

There have been times in the past when Rosenbloom has written some funny but painfully accurate columns. This is not one of them. This one is constructed out of a need to create his own reality in order to fit what he wanted to write. Garza was a pro bowl alternate last years, Spencer was credited with allowing only allowed one sack, and Louis was forced to play out of position because of need. Unfortunately that's the way it needed to be done.

Now Carimi is back, Louis is in his normal spot at RG and so is Garza. He's an OC now Steve not a RG playing out of position so get used to it. Spencer did a nice job filling in at OG last year and it may be a better spot for him than OC. CWill returns and either bumps Webb out of his spot or takes over back at his LG spot and we get another vet lineman back from injury. Unless Webb improves dramatically it's hard to believe CWill could be any more inept than Webb was last year.

And this crap is totally useless.

Now he has no excuses. This, then, seems to be the end of the "Jay Cutler Sympathy Tour.''

At least until he suffers his annual season-ending injury.


It's nothing more than sour grapes. We fix just about every other leaking hole and he's gives Emery credit for that but wants to smack him for a failure to bring in any lineman? That's not exactly the way it worked but I guess it needs to work that way to fit the reality of those like Rosenbloom who feel the Oline is just another disaster waiting to happen.

I'll give Emery more credit than that and I'll take the word of a former Bears pro bowl OG when he says that there's some talent there. It just needs to be harnessed and coordinated. I believe that and so does every other Tom, Dick and Harry who knows that Olines require time playing with one another to gel properly. It's only been in every article ever written about offensive linemen so how could anyone miss it. Well apparently Rosenbloom doesn't' even read his own newspaper because it's been in several articles there in just the past couple of weeks.

No one is playing "Hearts and Flowers" for Cutler. He doesn't need any excuses if we don't make it to a SB. That won't be all on him anyway so why even imply that. Annual season ending injury???? Yeah one ended in the last game of the playoffs in 2010 and we wouldn't even have been in it if not for him. Last year he gets injured trying to make a tackle off a pick.

So Steve, exactly wtf does that one have to do with the Oline. Even if I give you 2010 because it came off a sack he still took the Bears to the NFCC game and he played one half of that and tried to play the other half. So he missed one half of one game in 2010 but played in 17 1/2. That's a season ending injury? We may have lost that game whether he finished it or not so you're really clutching at straws here.

It's too bad that so much time and ink went into writing and publishing this piece of crap because it's pretty obvious not much real thought went into it.

Reilly Reiff (who is looking to be the Lions' LT), DeCastro and a few others were available. Granted, ya can't fix everything, but talent was available, but Emery had to choose which was a more pressing need: Fix the nonexistent pass rush(boy did it disappear without Cutler) or fix the nonexistent pass blocking (boy did it disappear without Cutler), and I hope he chose right. With that said, I believe however good our o-line plays this year, we'll still be getting at least one new starter next year, or (ugh) more depth at the positions.

All this is, is setting a foundation for future articles. This way , if the Bears flounder, he can refer back to this column and say " see I told you so ".

Who cares. Have you ever seen what Rosenfraud looks like ? He's the definition of a sissy nerd waterboy columnist who never made the team.

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Originally Posted by Henry Burris

Reilly Reiff (who is looking to be the Lions' LT), DeCastro and a few others were available. Granted, ya can't fix everything, but talent was available, but Emery had to choose which was a more pressing need: Fix the nonexistent pass rush(boy did it disappear without Cutler) or fix the nonexistent pass blocking (boy did it disappear without Cutler), and I hope he chose right. With that said, I believe however good our o-line plays this year, we'll still be getting at least one new starter next year, or (ugh) more depth at the positions.

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Part of the problem with those two guys is that Reiff dropped down into the 20's because most teams saw him as a RT only and of course DeCastro wouldn't have solved our problem at LT. As much as I would have loved DeCastro (Reiff didn't interest me) we needed a pass rusher more than another OG. Pitt was lucky to get the guy. He and Pouncey are gonna make one hell of an inside line core for those guys.

We haven't hit camp yet so it's anybody's guess how the battle between Webb and CWill will turn out and there area couple of FA OT's still hanging around out there if any of them can still play. I agree with you about the line. No matter what happens this year Emery will be looking for Olineman next offseason.

I really dislike that clown Rosenbloom. He's so obnoxious and a major tool like that Tony KornBALLHeiser.