Anyone else noticing how old & slow Urlacher looks? Missing tackles too.

It is painful to watch Urlacher this year. He looks old, slow and is missing tackles that he would NEVER have missed before. As his skills decline further, I'm hoping he retires and goes out with his dignity intact. Rather than hang around embarrassing himself. He's not there yet. But clearly he is not the guy he used to be.

Here's our dilemma. When Urlacher is out, our defense definitely is weaker. Roach is worse at MLB than an old/slow Urlacher.

I "get it" that we need Urlacher's great football intelligence on the field to set the defense. But we're getting to the point, that soon, his mental skills won't be able to off-set his physical decline.

We need 3 to 4 new OL guys next year. Where in the mix do you put drafting a guy to groom for Urlacher's replacement? At best Brian has 1 more season. And maybe not even that. I could see him deciding to retire after this season. To go out on top. Not go out a guy you feel sorry for on Sunday.

He has looked old, slow and bad most of the year. I pointed it out here and people defended him

Yes he looks slower. But with the knee injury it is hrad to tell if its the knee or old age. He seems to be getting better game by game so that leads me to believe its his knee. But i agree, he should retire beforehe starts playnig likeour oline.


Ps. Soryy about spelling and stuff, my post op painmeds are better than jack daniels.

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Originally Posted by The Benjamin

He has looked old, slow and bad most of the year. I pointed it out here and people defended him

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I pointed it out after the titans or jags game he whiffed BADLY on a tackle attempt. With that said, i'm starting to think too much is put into his decline. The rest of the D has been playing so well, that we don't need 2005 urlacher. He's at the level where he is still acceptable for us. Was he a nonfactor againdt the 49ers? Yeah, but the only one who wasn't was McCown, based only on his clipboard holding. I would say we can hold off on getting his heir apparent another year, IF we don't take the best mlb available, that really isn't that good. If anything, we need another DT, as the dt rotation isn't doing much against stronger o-lines. Still very good, but if we can't get a good value at mlb, just keep adding to the d-line, because a damn good pass rush makes it easier on everyone else.

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Originally Posted by JustAnotherBearsFan99

It is painful to watch Urlacher this year. He looks old, slow and is missing tackles that he would NEVER have missed before. As his skills decline further, I'm hoping he retires and goes out with his dignity intact. Rather than hang around embarrassing himself. He's not there yet. But clearly he is not the guy he used to be.

Here's our dilemma. When Urlacher is out, our defense definitely is weaker. Roach is worse at MLB than an old/slow Urlacher.

I "get it" that we need Urlacher's great football intelligence on the field to set the defense. But we're getting to the point, that soon, his mental skills won't be able to off-set his physical decline.

We need 3 to 4 new OL guys next year. Where in the mix do you put drafting a guy to groom for Urlacher's replacement? At best Brian has 1 more season. And maybe not even that. I could see him deciding to retire after this season. To go out on top. Not go out a guy you feel sorry for on Sunday.

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I think Urlacher has declined but the real question is how much is it because of the knee? How much will the knee improve? It hasn't even been a full year since he hurt his knee and usually those type of injuries take over a year to fully heal. Right now all of the pressure is on the defense to perform because of the horrible oline. If you can get at least an average oline next year the defense does not have to do what it does this year. With less pressure Urlacher does not have to perform at a high level because the offense can handle more with a better oline. The question is how much cap space is available for the offensive line?

I think there's still a chance that, if nothing else, based on his popularity, Urlacher will get voted to the Pro Bowl again this year. He's still having a fine year, as I've seen him have some very good games this year (Packers - 11 tackles; pick six in the Titans game). That being said, he is noticeably slower, but that is where his football intelligence takes over and he starts taking different pursuit angles to make up for his lost speed. I can think of no better example of this than Derek Jeter, who does not have the same reflexes at shortstop that he did ten years ago, but to offset his loss of range, he takes different pursuit angles in how he fields ground balls and as a result, he still gets awarded Gold Gloves even in his late 30s. Urlacher is doing the very same things at MLB for the Bears, and as a result, he's going to be just fine.

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Originally Posted by Dagan81

I think there's still a chance that, if nothing else, based on his popularity, Urlacher will get voted to the Pro Bowl again this year. He's still having a fine year, as I've seen him have some very good games this year (Packers - 11 tackles; pick six in the Titans game). That being said, he is noticeably slower, but that is where his football intelligence takes over and he starts taking different pursuit angles to make up for his lost speed. I can think of no better example of this than Derek Jeter, who does not have the same reflexes at shortstop that he did ten years ago, but to offset his loss of range, he takes different pursuit angles in how he fields ground balls and as a result, he still gets awarded Gold Gloves even in his late 30s. Urlacher is doing the very same things at MLB for the Bears, and as a result, he's going to be just fine.

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Dags, I have to differ with you on this one. He looks really really bad. He is hurting our team at times.

Hey, I may be 100% wrong, but that's what I'm seeing. I think a veterans football smarts can make up for some physical decline. But there is a limit to how much this can make up for decline. Obviously it doesn't go on forever.

Regarding the Pro Bowl, I realize it's nowadays more of a popularity contest than a legit measurement of who's playing best in a given year - but even so, I don't think he'll get to the Pro Bowl again. Those days are gone IMHO.

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Originally Posted by JustAnotherBearsFan99

Dags, I have to differ with you on this one. He looks really really bad. He is hurting our team.

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https://lh3.ggpht.com/-6TF8k_CjaAM/T...red_forman.jpg

You can fill in the blanks.

Everyone gets old. Even the greatest athletes. The smart ones retire before they make a fool out of themselves. The others hang on too long and look pathetic.

I'm hoping Urlacher is the former, and goes out with class. Not a pathetic has-been that folks feel sorry for.

He's not there yet. But he's clearly not the player he was even a year ago.

This is a tough topic. Urlacher has lost a step. There is no doubt. However, does the present combination of physical ability (declined) and football IQ (increased) taken together mean that he is actually a liability on the field?

And how much is due to his knee? And how much will his knee get better given time?

To many unknowns, even for the people that have some of the answers. The bottom line is that you have a position with an aging star that is not able to contribute as much, but has a high level of football savvy and then in the other corner you have a porous line with several weak positions and only one veteran with a great deal of savvy (Garza).

If you don't have enough resources to go around, I think you have to put them towards the OL and try to hope that the combination of football IQ and physical ability will stretch one more year and that the backup is good enough just in case. The situation on the OL is just too bad not to address.

My concern - and for me it is a real concern is given some good talent, can Tice utilize it or will he be tempted to move people around to where he can "make them better"? In other words, will he take some good people and screw them up? I don't think Webb had a lot of natural ability (other than size), but Carimi did. And they are both struggling. Is it Tice, is it Carimi being a rookie, is it playing RT when he is used to LT?

Too many variables, but for me it brings Tices ability into question -- or at least being one of the factors to consider.