"Gabe Carimi: Guard, tackle -- or neither?" - (GREAT READ!)

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Originally Posted by mdbearz

If Carimi does a good job at Guard, then what?

I have always thought that we should be drafting for need (ie Tackle), but now I'm beginning to reconsider that stance. If we had taken the Best Guarde or Center where we picked up Carimi at, you would have to think that the line might be better.

I don't pretend to be an expert, but it seems that with Williams Busting, Carimi struggling, Webb starting for this many years, we would be better off jst drafting the best avaialble lineman every year in the third round. And we need a Servicable LT in FA.
Webb is not the answer, he has been healthy and in the NFL for 3 years now, sorry but I don't care if he is going from last to 27th, he is not the solution.

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http://www.csnchicago.com/common/med...158/949227.png

Webb will be fine. We've finally identified why he struggles out there. His shoelaces were untied and he was just tripping and floundering out there. It affected the other oline players too. They'd get tangled up in those size 22 shoe laces at times too.

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_me...54axo1_500.jpg

Now we have Cutler keeping them tied, so it's all good. The #1 improvement in Webb's play, for next season, will be to see if he can learn to tie his OWN shoelaces, thus allowing Jay to focus more on being a solid QB. Tice is doing his part. They say that every single practice involves Tice working feverishly to teach Webb to tie his own shoes.

Sunday, I'm going to be riveted on Webb's shoe crisis. If Cutler keeps 'em tied - we win. And our playoff hopes go up too.

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Originally Posted by JustAnotherBearsFan99

http://www.csnchicago.com/common/med...158/949227.png

Webb will be fine. We've finally identified why he struggles out there. His shoelaces were untied and he was just tripping and floundering out there. It affected the other oline players too. They'd get tangled up in those size 22 shoe laces at times too.

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_me...54axo1_500.jpg

Now we have Cutler keeping them tied, so it's all good. The #1 improvement in Webb's play, for next season, will be to see if he can learn to tie his OWN shoelaces, thus allowing Jay to focus more on being a solid QB. Tice is doing his part. They say that every single practice involves Tice working feverishly to teach Webb to tie his own shoes.

Sunday, I'm going to be riveted on Webb's shoe crisis. If Cutler keeps 'em tied - we win. And our playoff hopes go up too.

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See that is why I do not claim to be an expert, I missed the obvious that it was the shoes. :)

Pro-Bowl here comes Webb.

Looking at those pics of Webb's shoes, I just noticed that they don't match. He's got 2 different shoes on. One's black, and the other is white/black. He's probably grabbed one of Hester's shoes, which is ~12 sizes too small. No wonder the poor guy is struggling. It's amazing he can even walk.

Tice needs to make sure the guy gets BOTH of the correct shoes on for each game. Maybe even make sure he's dressed properly (no underwear on backwards, shoes on the wrong feet and things like that).

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Originally Posted by soulman

Some good observations here MP. I had to chuckle at the 3rd worst RT rating though. I figure that no matter how bad he's been in pass protection that makes him 3x better than Webb was his rookie year and way ahead of the curve since Webb won those honors once each at both RT and LT.

So if a thick headed oaf like Webb can improve so can a guy with more brains than brawn right now. After all, by all acouunts he's still a rookie and a rookie who had to spend and entire year just getting back to where he was physically instead of getting stronger. I've never thought that he was 100% ever since the year began because he never got pushed around like that in college.

He doesn't have much in the way of natural pass blocking talent and he never developed much of it at UW either because he didn't have to. If we don't see any real improvement in him as a RT next year then I'd begin to worry but for now? No.

If we weren't experiencing all the crap we are it probably would have been better to play Scott at RT a while ago and let Carimi work his way back into that slot. His loss of confidence in his pass blocking is obvious and he needs to get that back. He's overcompensating all over the place and not getting setup properly. He's got too much Tice on the brain right now.

I have to admit the Webb is improving but his inconsistency drives us all nuts. No matter what we should be in the market for a LT next spring in FA. A rookie won't help us. If we could go into camp with Webb, Carimi, Scott, and a vet FA (the best we can afford) I think we'll be fine. Right now I'm more worried about how that ACL or MCL injury will affect Louis's future and in drafting another interior lineman.

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All I have heard is that Louis has a straight up ACL tear. Fortunately he's young so I hope he can rehab it this offseason and be back next August. No matter what, I believe we need 2 new starters/upgrades on the OL this offseason. The only way we are going to get a quality LT is to buy one in FA as you said. I would also like to see Emery use a high draft pick (late 1st round probably) to draft an interior OLman. Ideally, an OG/OC who could start at LG his first year and transition over to OC when Garza is done.

I agree and also believe that Carimi will be a very different and better RT in a year or so than he has been lately.

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Originally Posted by mdbearz

If Carimi does a good job at Guard, then what?

I have always thought that we should be drafting for need (ie Tackle), but now I'm beginning to reconsider that stance. If we had taken the Best Guarde or Center where we picked up Carimi at, you would have to think that the line might be better.

I don't pretend to be an expert, but it seems that with Williams Busting, Carimi struggling, Webb starting for this many years, we would be better off jst drafting the best avaialble lineman every year in the third round. And we need a Servicable LT in FA.
Webb is not the answer, he has been healthy and in the NFL for 3 years now, sorry but I don't care if he is going from last to 27th, he is not the solution.

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Let's cross that bridge when we come to it. I doubt we ever will. I'm not an expert either but from I've read, its pretty tough for a 6' 7" guy to play OG because compact powerful DTs will find it too easy to get under his pads and move him with that leverage. Usually you want your OGs to be several inches shorter than your OTs as a general rule. I think that the Carimi-at-RG gambit is merely a temporary move since Louis and Spencer are gone. I doubt it means anything long term.

Cwill was 6'6 so there are exceptions to the rule. Might be easier in some cases for a slower tackle to convert to the footwork of a guard. For pulling/trapping athletic guards length isn't a bad thing sometimes.

As far as the strategy goes: Rachal is gone, Spencer is hurt (probably wouldn't keep him next season anyway b/c of $). Dumped Cwill which was written on the wall in advance but yet strangely the mere thought of drafting anyone anywhere within the rounds of the draft was an anethema to the staff. The chorus of "oh he's a rookie he wouldn't help out right now" or "UDFA is just as good" or my personal fav "Let Tice work his magic on this guy(s) they let go".

Nope-despite being near last overall the past few seasons on o-line they were "good". I would have liked them to have drafted DeCastro, Zeitler, or Reiff but the part time DE was needed eventually. Now, how many years will it take to draft talent back into the o-line thereby foregoing the needs of yet other positions?

It's called contingency planning. I really hope they get one.

Webb and Carimi. Talk about a tale of two totally different personalities with totally different approaches to how they prepare for football games. On the one hand, you have Carimi, who came from a pro-style offense at Wisconsin that balanced running with passing at about a 50-50 clip or 45-55 in favor of the run, where he was the anchor of that great offensive line from the 2010 Badgers that won the Big Ten Championship and played in the Rose Bowl against TCU and lost a heartbreaker. Carimi DID pass protect quite a bit at Wisconsin contrary to popular belief. To me, he fits the mold of a solid offensive lineman from years ago in the NFL whose primary job was to run block and to pass protect second. Nowadays, this league has turned to a pass-first style of play and because Wisconsin, despite averaging 240-250 yards per game passing on offense, ran to set up the pass, Carimi did not familiarize himself with pass protection as much. I think that if he had played all of last season, he would be fine today and he might even be starting at LT by now.

And then there's Webb. What can you say about him other than he's consistently proven to be an abject failure at both tackle positions? He is only marginally better than OMG was for us, and it is only because of Tice's "benevolence" that he has been kept around. Somehow, I don't think Tice will be back next year calling the offensive plays or coaching the offensive line, so I have to believe that whomever comes in to replace him will no doubt push Phil Emery to either cut Webb or relegate him to the swing tackle position. Webb has probably been the object of more coaching than any other lineman on the team over the past three seasons, so I seems to me that Lovie Smith has been more than patient enough to let this player develop only to find out that he's not going to amount to shit.

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Originally Posted by mdbearz

If Carimi does a good job at Guard, then what?

I have always thought that we should be drafting for need (ie Tackle), but now I'm beginning to reconsider that stance. If we had taken the Best Guarde or Center where we picked up Carimi at, you would have to think that the line might be better.

I don't pretend to be an expert, but it seems that with Williams Busting, Carimi struggling, Webb starting for this many years, we would be better off jst drafting the best avaialble lineman every year in the third round. And we need a Servicable LT in FA.
Webb is not the answer, he has been healthy and in the NFL for 3 years now, sorry but I don't care if he is going from last to 27th, he is not the solution.

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We might have but that would have been Mike Pouncey and Miami got him at #15. Based on who was on the board Carimi was the best pick for us. It's still too early to make any kind of snap judgements about him or where he'll play.

And I completely agree with you as far as finding LT help in FA. As I posted previously if we went into camp next year with Webb, Carimi, Scott and the best LT we could buy in FA we'd be worlds better off than we were going into camp this year.

In that case there would be legitimate competition for the two starting OT spots and who ever ended up as the #3 guy would be a good swing OT. Assuming Louis returns without an hitch and EWill continues to show he belongs then what the draft needs is a good interior line prospect to compete with the others.

If Emery plays this right I'd say we're just one year away from having the components of a good line in place. Not perfect but far better and deeper than this or last years unit.

The problem with the part about getting a premium LT in free agency next year is that most likely, a player with the skill set like Long and Clady probably won't be an option since they might be a bit pricy for what Emery is willing to part money for. That being said, I fully expect Emery to go after either Long, Clady, or Bushrod simply because at this point, we're at Desperation's Door.

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Originally Posted by short faced bear

As Sox put it on another thread Carimi could fill out nicely at OG. Not sure why this kid isn't getting the same (or at least a portion) of slack some of the other OL have gotten. 2 knee surgeries and he's still a rook, plus learning the nuances of RT.

At least give him another year. C'mon man!

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I think he'd be a decent RG. He sure didn't play bad there when filling in last week.