Thread: Bears' Louis quietly doing his job

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.

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



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

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.

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