Barrett Jones or Manti Te'o

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Originally Posted by soulman

I doubt you'll see them replace four starting lineman. Looks good on paper but it's not as practical as it seems.

A LT is a given, quite possibly a guy like Branden Albert from KC if Emery believes he's an upgrade and can help. Of course KC won't just let him walk without trying to keep him so $$$ may come into play.

Once you get a better LT we have three guys now who could play RT including Webb and assuming the resign Scott which they should. With his showing some improvement in his pass blocking, how difficult it is to find big OTs like him and the fact that he has a year left on his rookie deal for short money we may as well keep Webb around. So you have Webb, Carimi and Scott vying for RT and the backup swing OT spot. You can always let one go next year if no one gets hurt but I'd at least go to camp with those three and a replacement LT provided we can get one in FA.

Louis is solid at RG as long as his injury doesn't linger or cause problems so that leaves us with needs at LG and OC. If we draft Jones and if he can start at OC then we have Brown, Garza and EWill all with starting experience at LG and we have a couple on the PS to compete and we still have the draft. So I'm thinking we may get two new starters out of the draft and FA and an outside chance of three but four? No, not gonna happen.

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Yep, our most acute needs are the left 3/5ths of the line. Need 2 new (to the team) starters there. Signing a FA LT makes everything a lot more manageable and solidifies all three OT spots with 4 players competing in TC. Then get a C or LG out of the high draft. A GOOD ONE, not a project. A guy that can start from the get go and not be a liability. Could be Jones or Cooper or Warmack most likely. I prefer a stud OC cuz that frees up Garza from starting there and adds to depth at OG. Between him, Brown, EWill (not really a fan of him), and maybe Rachal (if he can get his shit together) or another vet pickup, I would hope someone could nail down the LG job and the losers back up. It would be ideal IMO if Brown pans out to be that guy since EW & Garza can both play G or C as reserves. Spencer sucks, let him walk. I suspect Rachal will be not asked back either.

An OL of...

Albert/Long - Brown/Garza - Jones - Louis - Carimi/Webb/Scott

...would be serviceable and seems doable without having to use both high picks on OL.

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Originally Posted by little bear

Tell me how many all-pro centers you will find in the 4th or 5th round? Jones is not just an average offensive lineman, he's a guy that could easily start for the next ten years.

Yeah, I gotta go with this. What you really do around the 20th pick is to take the best BPA who meets a need you have. Last year in the Bears eyes that was McClellin because we needed an outside pass rusher and there were no LTs worth drafting at our spot.

You never know with an OC where he may go but if the past is any indication of the future then we could look at the Pouncey's both of whom were taken before we picked. So Jones may or may not be there but if he is and he's the top guy on your board at that point you take him because you need to rebuild OLines through the draft.

I still say with Te'o a lot depends on what happens with Urlacher and if Marinelli stays or goes and what kind of defense we run. If we continue to play what we play now then Te'o is not the ideal guy to play MLB in that defense. He doesn't have the speed and range for it.

If Jones is gone and Te'o is there then maybe you take him to play SLB to begin with and maybe the defense changes and he becomes more suitable for the middle but I don't believe he could step in and take over for Urlacher at MLB in 2013. If Urlacher isn't signed, and I can't see that happening if he wants to return, then my guess is Roach will be the guy with DeCicco competing with him.

Here's something to pay attention to. A short time ago people had him labeled a sure top ten guy and now he's slipping even before the combine. Why? Maybe just maybe he's not all that and a bag of chips. He may be a good 3-4 MLB but not what teams want in a 4-3 guy at and that means he gets less looks. There may be a debate as to whether he'd ever play MLB as opposed to SLB in the NFL and that may be driving his ranking down.

Bottom line is that he's not quite as good a prospect today as he was a month or two ago. So let's see what develops. A lot hinges on whether we sign Urlacher and Roach. There's MLB #1 and #2 right now and I can't see them letting both go and maybe neither. You don't usually spend the #20 pick in your draft on a guy who won't play in 2013 so if we do bring back both Urlacher and Roach he's behind two vet starters and he'll have a tough time breaking the starting lineup is they both stay healthy. Roach has upped him game and Urlacher is the defensive leader at he'll play as long as he can do it.

IF the above happens and IF Jones is on the board and you believe he can start for you that the way you go. And let's not bring up the fact that McClellin didn't start. He was drafted to be part of a rotation, he was and he was effective in that role. Wootton came on strong this year and had more to offer as a starter at LDE but McClellin made some plays while he was healthy and Emery took the press through that in his presser. OLineman and LBs are not rotational players on the Bears. DLineman are.


Sorry, not for me. We don't know how much cap space we'll have left, so I don't know if the Bears can afford a guy like Albert who wants big money. We still need Peppers to restructure his contract, then we new contracts for Melton, Roach, Louis and maybe an offensive lineman in FA.

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Any LT of a decent caliber will get big $$$ but in all likelihood it will be Long and Clady who get the biggest chunks. The cap isn't going up and most of teams who had a huge excess to burn last year, KC being one of them, won't have it again this year. So the Bears can afford one big FA signing for the OLine and to me that means we either target the second best of the top guys like Albert or Bushrod or we sign a LG like Levitre and see if we can get an even more improved version of Webb next year. I don't see us able to get two top OLine guys in FA but there's still gonna be bargains to be had.

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Originally Posted by MPBears68

Yep, our most acute needs are the left 3/5ths of the line. Need 2 new (to the team) starters there. Signing a FA LT makes everything a lot more manageable and solidifies all three OT spots with 4 players competing in TC. Then get a C or LG out of the high draft. A GOOD ONE, not a project. A guy that can start from the get go and not be a liability. Could be Jones or Cooper or Warmack most likely. I prefer a stud OC cuz that frees up Garza from starting there and adds to depth at OG. Between him, Brown, EWill (not really a fan of him), and maybe Rachal (if he can get his shit together) or another vet pickup, I would hope someone could nail down the LG job and the losers back up. It would be ideal IMO if Brown pans out to be that guy since EW & Garza can both play G or C as reserves. Spencer sucks, let him walk. I suspect Rachal will be not asked back either.

An OL of...

Albert/Long - Brown/Garza - Jones - Louis - Carimi/Webb/Scott

...would be serviceable and seems doable without having to use both high picks on OL.

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I think Long is a pipe dream MP and he may end up being a nightmare for whoever signs him if his play continues to decline. Clady may actually be the better FA prospect of the two but I don't see anyway the Broncos let him get away. Not now that Manning is here.

I think Albert comes far cheaper and maybe that Blake Brockermeyer/John Tait kind of guy who won't be spectacular but can give you some solid consistent play both in the run and the pass game. He's about as good as he'll ever get and can give a team three or four years of good play if he stays healthy. That's enough time to make other plans at LT. Hell, if Webb sticks around long enough he may actually make it one day. I still think in his case it has far less to do with his physical skills than it does the fact that the light bulb in his brain is dim and turns on very slowly.

If Jones is on the board we can use a guy like that to anchor the line like we did with Kruetz. I think they're a very similar type of player. Then you build out from there. Find the best OG combination you can out of the guys you have and whatever else you can scrounge up and stabilize RT with some competition between Carimi, Scott and Webb. I still refuse to believe that Carimi won't come back a far better player next year than he was this year but just in case they need to sign Scott to be certain we have a vet we know can handle it.

If we end up with one OT too many next September we can cut one or trade him. As long as we can get a LT in FA I'm not all that concerned about OT. If we don't then I am concerned because that means another year with Webb because I doubt we'll find any better in the draft picking where we do.

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Originally Posted by soulman

I think Long is a pipe dream MP and he may end up being a nightmare for whoever signs him if his play continues to decline. Clady may actually be the better FA prospect of the two but I don't see anyway the Broncos let him get away. Not now that Manning is here.

I think Albert comes far cheaper and maybe that Blake Brockermeyer/John Tait kind of guy who won't be spectacular but can give you some solid consistent play both in the run and the pass game. He's about as good as he'll ever get and can give a team three or four years of good play if he stays healthy. That's enough time to make other plans at LT. Hell, if Webb sticks around long enough he may actually make it one day. I still think in his case it has far less to do with his physical skills than it does the fact that the light bulb in his brain is dim and turns on very slowly.

If Jones is on the board we can use a guy like that to anchor the line like we did with Kruetz. I think they're a very similar type of player. Then you build out from there. Find the best OG combination you can out of the guys you have and whatever else you can scrounge up and stabilize RT with some competition between Carimi, Scott and Webb. I still refuse to believe that Carimi won't come back a far better player next year than he was this year but just in case they need to sign Scott to be certain we have a vet we know can handle it.

If we end up with one OT too many next September we can cut one or trade him. As long as we can get a LT in FA I'm not all that concerned about OT. If we don't then I am concerned because that means another year with Webb because I doubt we'll find any better in the draft picking where we do.

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Yeah, I know Clady will never escape Denver and Long is probably a pipe dream too. Albert or Bushrod are more realistic. As long as we push Webb down the LT depth chart, ok by me. I think Webb would be a very cheap and serviceable swing tackle and maybe a demotion finally fires him up to get serious about his career. He's ridden the lazy Tice-train from 7th rounder to "starting LT" about as far as it can go. I agree that Carimi should be a much better RT next year with a full offseason to heal and, lets face it, a lot left to prove as motivation.

As you point out, we still need an upgrade inside. We may have had most (but certainly not all) pass pro breakdowns from the edges but the push from the middle sucked too. We had too many TFLs/no-gains on runs and often the pocket was not clean enough in front for Cutler to step up into. If B Jones pans out as a guy who can be our "general" in the middle of the OL, things start to look a lot better. Maybe we will actually be able to run the ball consistently and send more than 2 receivers down the field.

I don't know how many starters we will bring in through the draft and free agency. My hope is that the starting 5 (whomever they are) get set early in training camp, and they are allowed to remain in their set positions (no flip flopping the guys around and playing them out of position). If a guy goes down to injury, then let the #2 guy on the depth chart step into that #1 role - rather than moving starters around and playing guards as tackles and tackles as guards.

I can't help but think some of our problems were compounded by Tice having a new OL lineup ever game or so. That doesn't allow the offensive linemen to fully develop and excel at their positions, and the overall blocking/timing of the OL will never ever reach its potential that way. This is really a pretty basic concept. One that results in crap offenses (like we've had in recent years) if you don't abide by it.

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Originally Posted by JustAnotherBearsFan99

I don't know how many starters we will bring in through the dra
ft and free agency. My hope is that the starting 5 (whomever they are) get set early in training camp, and they are allowed to remain in their set positions (no flip flopping the guys around and playing them out of position). If a guy goes down to injury, then let the #2 guy on the depth chart step into that #1 role - rather than moving starters around and playing guards as tackles and tackles as guards.

I can't help but think some of our problems were compounded by Tice having a new OL lineup ever game or so. That doesn't allow the offensive linemen to fully develop and excel at their positions, and the overall blocking/timing of the OL will never ever reach its potential that way. This is really a pretty basic concept. One that results in crap offenses (like we've had in recent years) if you don't abide by it.

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Completely agree that our musical chairs Tice crap has been hurting our oline beyond belief

We do need 2 new starters tho, simple as that