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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.