Thread: Bears shift Williams back to left tackle

Originally Posted by lklrlolnlilklsox

I'm just waiting for them to move him back to LG and leave him the fuck be. The level of sheer stupidity with which we have handled him is beyond words.

Agreed! Catch my post above. Let CWill have his shot at LT this week and start him against Washington and see what he does. If he's not clearly a better choice then end the competition and put him back at LG where he's shown he can play pretty well and move Spencer back over to RG and let him compete with Louis.

As much as I appreciate Tice's thoughts about having him as a vet swing tackle I think it's a waste. He'll never be able to handle power as a RT in either the run or the passing game so why imagine that somehow that will change. It hasn't yet and it won't. He's always gonna be too much of a finesse style player for that spot.

Work Brown and Brandon as much and as hard as they can and get Brown on deck as a backup at LT and the swing tackle. It's risky to start with but be later this year we may have a pretty good OT on our hands. If CWill can't unseat Webb now it's not ever gonna happen and we need to move on. IMO Brown should be next up to have his shot at it.

From the statistics that I saw of what limited amount of time Chris Williams put in at LT, he wasn't all that bad. That being said, I'd like to see for once that they put him in at one position and keep him there. He is simply too talented to waste away on the bench waiting on someone to get injured before he can play.

All of your posts in this thread are great. Really good stuff. Here's my 2-cents worth:

Originally Posted by soulman

Well like I always say if you're gonna criticize then at least provide and alternative solution so here's mine.

LT: If CWill can't take it away from Webb within the next week or so (I'd actually give him the start next game) then I'd declare Webb the winner of the so called "competition and immediately move CWill back to LG. Then I start giving "rookie with promise" James Brown all of the reps at LT that I can spare. I push the hell out of the kid now to see if he can play LT in the NFL now, before this year is out. He hasn't got Webb's size but he does have the wingspan for LT and he's got the quickness and a nasty enough demeanor. He may not be the second coming of Jimbo Covert but right now I'd settle for a Blake Brockermeyer.

I think this would be fine. My only suggestion would be that they "get this done" soon so players can settle-in on ONE position. This is one criticism I do have with the Lovie Smith era. Let players learn one position well rather than have a "Swiss army knife that "can" kindof do multiple positions, but none of them at a high level.

LG: Spencer doesn't have all of the tools for LG. He and CWill may be about equal as pass blockers go but he can't pull and get out in front of a RB and lead block like CWill can. So once again we're moving in the direction of not playing guys at their best spots and not putting the best 5 on the field. It's just not smart to keep making these switches based on raw need. That doesn't get us the line we need. Since CWill suffers when asked to "move the pile" as a mano a mano power blocker we can always stick Rachal or EWill at LG in those situations. Rachal is a nasty ass beast who can straight ahead "power block" but struggles with his pass blocking and EWill also has shown himself to be a pretty decent run blocker. A small amount of "platooning" won't upset the timing "apple cart" if you use either of those two as "specialists". JMO

Rachal is even scary to look at. Always looks like he'd like to rip your head off and eat it. Like some animal they should keep in a cage until game time, and then when the game is over, hope and pray the "handlers" can get him back in the cage before he kills anyone.

RG: Lance Louis should be the perfect guy to play RG. He's big, strong, fast and athletic and for all intents and purposes he and Carimi should be able to run that right side of the line like a mob boss runs his organization, with ruthless efficiency. So how come Louis misses as many blocks as he makes? Is he just too overly aggressive and opponents use that to their advantage? That's what I saw when the asked him to play RT last year. He started out pretty well but as soon as DE's found they could get him lunging and off balance they ate him alive. He's been around for awhile now and you think they'd have coached that out of him yet he still does it so do we have another Webb on our hands. Another guy with a ton of tools who fell into the 7th round because he lacks basic intelligence and isn't very coachable?

I agree with all of this one, but I think Louis is a keeper at RG. Not RT. Also, he can be great pulling. I've seen him pull all the way to the left side of the field and running bigtime fast in front of Forte & just blow up a defender. For a 320 pound man to do this just blows me away. He can get it in gear.

I'd move Spencer back to RG where he proved he could handle a starting OG spot last year to compete with Louis. He pass blocks well at that spot and he can pull well enough there to be an effective run blocker. The requirements for playing one side of the line vs the other are not the same and just like CWill isn't ever gonna be a good RT I think Spencer is out of position at LG. Right now he should also be the backup OC. It was EWill who blew the snap that caused that fumble the other night. It wasn't McCown's fault. If a guy can't even execute a normal snap preseason I don't want him making shot gun snaps anytime. He plays better at OG anyway.

Spencer was decent at RG. I don't know what happened to him at LG. He'll never be great, but he could be a really solid backup interior lineman. We could do better, but we could do worse too. I think E.Will can be a solid C. He needs work there to get better. He did blow the snap Thursday, but I don't think we'll see him turn into Kreutz who did that way too much. I like to think E.Will can be a beast at center physically. I wonder how he is though as recognizing and adjusting to defenses prior to the snap.

RT: Let's just keep our fingers crossed that Carimi will be 100% by the time the season begins and that this year he stays healthy or once again we're in big trouble. Just like my suggestions at LT I'd start giving Cory Brandon, if he's the best prospect, all that I could in the way of practice snaps even if it's on the PS scout team once the season begins. Right now I'd use him or Brown to give Gabe some rest instead of CWill. As badly as we need an experienced swing tackle I think CWill either makes it at LT or we put him back at LG and Tice and Holt work their asses off to get one of the rookies ready.......or we cull the waiver wire here in another week or two for a vet OT. One that can play swing tackle.

I think this makes sense. Perhaps the best bet would be claiming a training camp roadkill player for RT. I love the idea of moving C.Will back to LG. I don't think they'll do that though.

Well there ya' go. This would be my plan of attack beginning this week. There's roughly one month and three preseason games between now and the opener so there is time enough to get this done provided we clear up the uncertainty on the left side of the line.

I want to think Emery will get the oline personnel sorted out after this season is over. It's frustrating for me. Building a good oline is not rocket science. And solid offensive linemen play many years. Well into their 30's. So it's a great investment too. Once you get it set, you're "good" for years and years to come. Instead of drafting 20 crap players over the years and maybe hitting on a couple of mediocre players over the years. Why not invest in solid players, through the draft, and reap the benefits for years to come? Then you just draft "as needed" when a guy does crap out on you due to major career ending injury or age.

The thing is, if you DO this, then it makes every single "skill player investment" pay off max dividends over many years. Otherwise, your skil players never (NEVER) can play up to their potential. They just can't overcome a crap oline play.

Originally Posted by bearsinhouston

A few observations I have are:

If I were Emery, I would be wondering where Tice was coming from when he said that were were fine with the line. I feel that will reflect badly on Tice. As it should.

Also, in TC, neither CW nor Webb were able to prove they were the answer. CW did have the chance to pull away from Webb, but he couldn't up until the time he was pulled to help Carimi. So whether CW was the same a little better or a little worse, the two of them seem to be pretty close. In other words, we are going into this year about the same as we were last year except for Carimi being back (hopefully with a knee that will let him play well). That may well still change, either due to one of the OT's growing into it or some type of intervention by Emery. But right now, I'd say that's where we are at.

If I had to say which one they think is better, I now have to change to CW because they are putting him in at LT. Either CW is a little better or they still don't like Webbs consistency. Hopefully, Tice is not just playing Yoda mind games with him. I am already wondering WTH Tice is doing, and my faith in him has gone down a notch.

One thing I can say that still gives me some hope. We were able to run block last year. There is absolutely no reason we shouldn't be able to do that this year which tells me that the line wasn't playing up to what they can do. Either that or the mad scientist Tice stuff is taking a toll. I just wish that Tice would not have given the line such a ringing endorsement. Emery might have gone after an OT a little harder.

This all means that Cutler better get the kind of underarmor that contains real armor.

I have to agree with you, houston. Tice is starting to resemble another man with the same first name - namely, Mike Martz - in his propensity to experiment with different things on the offensive line. While Tice may be a better play caller than was Martz based on the strategy his Viking teams used in the past (run, run, run, and run some more; playaction passes; heavy use of tight ends), I see no difference in how he handles the offensive line than with the way Martz dealt with the offense as a whole. Tice has yet to field an offensive line during a season that stuck together for the entire sixteen game schedule, though some of that, admittedly, can be blamed on injuries. This year, there is no excuse for the fiddle-fucking around that is going on with the line. We've had ample opportunities over the past two seasons to get OTs either through free agency (Bushrod in '11) or the draft (Reiff or Adams this draft), and we failed to do so. In reality, we have both Angelo and Emery we could blame for part of this, but they would've acted differently had Tice spoke up about his desires.

Originally Posted by JustAnotherBearsFan99

All of your posts in this thread are great. Really good stuff. Here's my 2-cents worth:



I want to think Emery will get the oline personnel sorted out after this season is over. It's frustrating for me. Building a good oline is not rocket science. And solid offensive linemen play many years. Well into their 30's. So it's a great investment too. Once you get it set, you're "good" for years and years to come. Instead of drafting 20 crap players over the years and maybe hitting on a couple of mediocre players over the years. Why not invest in solid players, through the draft, and reap the benefits for years to come? Then you just draft "as needed" when a guy does crap out on you due to major career ending injury or age.

The thing is, if you DO this, then it makes every single "skill player investment" pay off max dividends over many years. Otherwise, your skil players never (NEVER) can play up to their potential. They just can't overcome a crap oline play.

Buddy, you hit the hammer right on the head of the nail with that one, and I'll add something to that as well. In both college and pro football, there is a shift away from building big time defenses. While it is true that most of the championships that are won are won by teams who have great defenses, most playoff teams this past offseason were only average to below-average in terms of yards allowed and points given up per contest. If we can at least get the offensive line stacked up and maintain the nucleus we have at the skill positions right now, we will have the weapons it will take to make deep playoff runs for years to come. Right now, though, the main priority is to build up the offensive line. I said this prior to the draft in each of the past two seasons, and outside of drafting Carimi, who has proven to be little more than someone who went on IR early in his rookie campaign, we've chosen to ignore it, especially with Jerry Angelo at the helm.

Originally Posted by Grizzblue

What did i miss lol when did BBPB get banned

This last week I believe.

When you badmouth people, are condescending toward other posters, and you openly challenge the moderators to ban you, shit tends to happen. I say good riddance to bad rubbish.