Bears' Louis quietly doing his job

Something positive.

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LINK to the article

http://www.trbimg.com/img-505bd90f/t...120921-001/600

By Brad Biggs, Chicago Tribune reporterSeptember 21, 2012


While one seventh-round draft pick on the offensive line leads the Bears to question their commitment to him, another could quietly be on his way to becoming a solid part of their future.

Right guard Lance Louis has avoided scrutiny after two games as he settles back into the position that best suits him. Louis will make his 20th career start Sunday against the Rams at Soldier Field, and he looks like he could be elevating his game early in a contract season.

The same cannot be said for J'Marcus Webb, who could be one poor outing away from losing his left tackle job. But Louis looks comfortable at right guard, where the expectation was he would make significant progress last season before he was shifted to right tackle for 11 starts with Gabe Carimi sidelined by a knee injury. Louis, 27, was adequate at right tackle but not a long-term solution.

"I'm a guard," said the 6-3, 320-pounder. "I am definitely more comfortable. It's where I belong. That is what I have the body type for."

It's premature to make a judgment on Louis, who has not allowed a sack. But he might just be a young lineman who pans out for the Bears, and that's why the team will have to pay close attention to him. He will be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season. The Bears don't want to be financially tied to a player they're not sold on, but the way things have gone on the line, they can't afford to develop a young building block only to watch him depart for another club. Louis is going about his business as if those decisions are a long way off.

"I just have to show what I can do," he said. "It's my contract year. I have to show the growth and steps I've made in the right direction. I still have a lot of things to work on. I am just feeling confident with my play and feeling better about it each week. Hopefully we just keep getting better as a unit each week. That is the big thing — us getting better together."

Offensive coordinator Mike Tice gave Louis his first chance to start two years ago because he liked his size, athleticism and toughness. Louis is a hard-nosed player, and it's evident if you watch him on tape. He suffered a knee injury in 2010 and never returned to the starting lineup. But he solved a problem last season when Frank Omiyale proved incapable of filling Carimi's shoes, and now things are beginning to click.

"He's done a great job of learning from what he did last year," center Roberto Garza said. "He's played well these first two weeks. He's a big kid. Strong, powerful, quick. He hits and gets after people. It's fun to see."

The hope was this would all happen a year ago.

"My expectation before he (had) to play right tackle for us last year was to take that next step forward," Tice said. "Unfortunately, it was almost like a missed year for him. The good thing he is he did play and he did get playing experience. I do expect him to continue to improve."

Like a lot of young linemen, Louis used to let one mistake turn into a bad series. Tice said he's no longer bunching poor plays together.

"In old-fashioned, Chuck Knox terminology, offensive line play is guy on guy," Tice said. "At the end of the day, Lance is on his guy a lot."

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Love the right side of this line. If the left side was 10% as good as they were we'd be sb contenders

Most of us here (me included) see things in black-and-white, rather than shades of gray. We go from one extreme to the other, with strong feelings on everything.

I'm beginning to understand that a player probably shouldn't be "crowned" or said to be a bust, until you see a fuller body of work. And then he may not be either - not great, nor a bust - but somewhere in between. Cutler is a great example. Lance Louis is another.

I've also been ranting about how you can't get a decent olineman out of an UFA or lower round draft picks. But I can see this isn't an "absolute" by any means. I guess, when you sift all through this, maybe the more accurate statement is that we simply need a guy (hopefully in Emery) that can accurately judge talent. So you don't get quite so many busts in the earlier rounds, and if you DO reach to sign a UFA or a lower round draft pick - that the guy has some talent worth developing.....like Lance Louis vs a J'Marcus Webb.

And I realize this isn't a science, and Emery will fail sometimes on personnel. Obviously. But that batting average needs to be higher than Jerry Angelo.

I think that's a perfect way to look at it. History has proven that good lineman can come from almost anywhere in the draft. From what I'm seeing these days Olineman may be the toughest guys to scout and rank properly based just on their college play. The NFL is so much faster and more physical that a standout in college may not turn out to be as great a pro.

Chilo Rachal's career so far might be used as an example. That kid was as good a prospect coming out of college as any of the top draft picks in the first two rounds of this years draft and we picked him up as a UFA following his failure in SF. Now it looks like he's gonna get another shot at becoming what scouts and SF thought he could be when they drafted him.

Just to show the difficulty of projecting college lineman at and NFL level I'll use the same example I did in another post. Recently the Packers spent two late first round picks on LTs, Buluga and Sherrod, yet neither of them has been able to secure the LT position. Buluga is playing RT and Sherrod has had some injury issues and he's playing behind Marshall Newhouse who was a mid round pick.

Few college lineman come into the NFL ready to start day one. Especially LTs. This year there was only one sure thing in the entire draft and that was Matt Kalil. I think the key thing that 99 points out is that somewhere along the line a determination has to be made. Who is worth developing and who isn't. To make matters worse if you draft one very early you're kind of stuck with him like it or not. So high pick or lower pick seems to make little difference other than it's much harder to cut a first or second rounder than it is a fifth or a sixth rounder.

Obviously the Bears saw things in two separate 7th round picks, Webb and Louis, which they felt were worth the time and effort to develop. One is beginning to show a return on their investment but so far the other hasn't and yet Webb has actually started more games. I agree that LT is a more difficult spot to play than RG but you have to look at the pattern, or the trend. Is their progress? Does the guys show signs of "getting it". Is each game just a little bit better than the last?

I think we're beginning to get that answer in both cases. One has learned how to not let his man attack his QB and the other just can't seem to develop that same skill and yet he's the one whose job is most important in that respect. Even if he couldn't run block worth a lick we could learn to do without that but Webb has to pass block and so far it seems he's got it the other way around. He can run block fairly well but he can't pass block worth a lick.

I'd say he's about one or at most two bad games away from losing his job. If that happens whether or not he has any future will depend on how he responds to that. If it motivates him to grow up and take his job seriously he may not be a lost cause yet but if not this will probably be the end of his career as a Bears LT and he'll become someone else's project next year.

This afternoon I've kept thinking about Rachal starting instead of Spencer. While I've been disappointed with Rachal, I do see where he has some "positives" that Spencer doesn't have. Nobody is going to bull rush Rachal like Spencer. And I believe our run blocking should be better with Rachal.

And surely the pass blocking can't be worse than what we've seen with Spencer. Seriously. I can't see that. So maybe we see Bush have a better blocker in there.

Carimi is a better run blocker than pass blocker at this early stage of his career. Louis is solid. Garza is OK (I've notice that he can pull pretty well). Maybe we fire up this run game, eat the clock & give Cutler some confidence, so the passing game is better.

I wish Tice would get the point of this article and that is if you put the players where they belong maybe they will play better. Case in point how good is Spencer well we don't know we know he isn't a good LG but he is a good C but we don't play him at C. Wasn't Garza a better G, then he is a C. And look at poor Webb he isn't a good LT but maybe he would be a great order taker for Taco Bell.

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Originally Posted by JJ-30

And look at poor Webb he isn't a good LT but maybe he would be a great order taker for Taco Bell.

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At the very least, a taste tester for them.

Here's a radical thought. It looks like none of our players are going to be decent at LT. Not Webb, C.Will or Scott. So why not just resign to the fact we'll need a player to help the LT all season long? RB, TE, whomever.....just see to it that Cutler's blind side is protected.

The plane is in the air. You can't install new engines while the plane is in flight. It's going to be a white-knuckle flight now. Tighten those seat belts. Tice is going to be throwin' pixie dust out the cockpit window the whole flight :smile:

http://www.watchrepairny.com/media/A...kers_Stunt.jpg

That's Lovie flyin' the plane. Tice is that dude tossin' the pixie dust on the wing. Gotta love it. :smile:

If you Take an extra player to help protect cutler you end up losing that player on the play, i understand that protecting culter should be the main goal but that is what the LT is for if he cant do his job then the offense has to suffer, i see where ur coming from and its not a bad idea. they just need to realize the threat for a sack is there on that side and culter need to adjust acoordingly.

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Originally Posted by ChicagoBears1983

If you Take an extra player to help protect cutler you end up losing that player on the play, i understand that protecting culter should be the main goal but that is what the LT is for if he cant do his job then the offense has to suffer, i see where ur coming from and its not a bad idea. they just need to realize the threat for a sack is there on that side and culter need to adjust acoordingly.

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I totally agree that this situation sucks. But this is the "reality" of the situation we are in. Blame Jerry Angelo. I do.