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I’ll start by saying I am a Bears fan… But, here are my current thoughts on the Bears (subject to change over the next 6-12 months).

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Here’s a question to think about…  If you are the Chicago Bears and you have a player like Devin Hester, and you also have many other positions you need to fill in order to get better next season (O-line, QB, Possibly RB, WR, maybe some misc D as well…) would you trade Devin Hester off for a couple players/draft picks?

An argument for the trade is Hester really only plays punt/kick return and other than that hasn’t contributed much else to the team.  That being said, he still has been one of the top scorers on the team; however do you really want to build your team around a kick returner?

An argument to keep Hester would be he’s still very young and has a world of potential.

What do you think?

OK, this is my last Super Bowl related post; I’m sick of thinking about it so this will be quick.

Let’s start off by stating a couple things I thought before the game. First, the Bears would win. I was wrong. Rex would have a good game. I was wrong again.

Going into the game I thought the Bears would have to score at least 30 points to win, I was right about that. So really the defense giving up the 29 points wasn’t too big a surprise. What was a surprise was how badly the offense stunk it up, Rex’s two fumbled snaps and numerous bad decisions when passing. I say numerous because it wasn’t just the two picks I thought were bad, he floated a couple passes that were incomplete/caught by a Bears receiver so they were mostly unnoticed.

Do I think the Bears need a new QB? I’m not sure. Should the team look into other options for QB competition in camp? Yes. I read something about possibly getting Jeff Garcia or trading for David Carr. All I can say about Garcia is a lot of teams will be looking at him, and I don’t really want him to be the Bears QB. He’s too old, and I think his Philly success was more of a fluke than something to realistically expect out of him for an entire season. I really don’t know enough about Carr to have an opinion on trading for him, and right now I’m more looking forward to the Cubs season than the next Bears season.

That’s it, this blog post is over! Now comes the hard part, trying to not post on the Bears until around the draft at the end of April.

To me, you’re just trying to sell papers,” Grossman said. ”It doesn’t matter.”

“It’s frustrating when some of you guys don’t put too much thought into it and you’re just trying to go off the fans’ reaction or you don’t know much about what we’re doing on offense. Just realizing how ignorant some of you guys are — and I don’t mean that necessarily in a bad way. I mean, like just understanding that you may not be correct and accepting that fact and not paying attention to it much.”

http://www.suntimes.com/sports/240367,CST-SPT-bear02.article

I’m glad that Rex said this. It gets tiring constantly having people dump on you the way every writer or person with a blog or fan that caught five minutes of Sports Center the other night. Add to that a week of every sports writer plus just the casual sports reporters at the Super Bowl media fiasco this week repeating the same question hoping to be the one that makes you “slip up” and admit to being terrible. Finally enough is enough and Rex got his chance to speak his mind, to an extent, and took it.

It seems like everyone brings up the five crappy games Rex had, but no one remembers the good games he had during the season. People will bring up that Griese or Orton should be playing instead. Lets not forget Griese hasn’t been impressive at all this year, and Orton’s terrible, QB rating last year of 59 and has thrown more career picks than TDs. Grossman is your best shot as he gives you some semblance of a real quarterback on average, but has the potential to be a deep threat at any time.

Anyway, I’m tired of the Rex stuff, this will be the last post on Rex hate/love ever (hopefully) or at least next season if you want to be realistic.

Getting to watch the Bears destroy the Saints on Sunday has made my week so far.  It was a pretty entertaining game and I’m hoping the Super Bowl will be too…  I think one of the best parts of the win has been listening to all the “experts” on TV or the radio squirm and come up with all the reasons the Bears should have lost.

Something else that bugs me is almost immediately there were articles on Sports Illustrated or ESPN about how Rex Grossman is the worst quarterback to be in the Super Bowl in… …however many years it is.  My question is who cares?  The Bears don’t need to rely on a superstar QB (especially when your defense can force four turnovers in a game) so having one that is just decent will suffice for now.  Some people ripped Grossman for the 140-whatever yards he threw for, but didn’t mention his back had nearly 200 yards running.  Oh well, I still like Rex and hope he does well in the Super Bowl.

State of the Union address is on in a few, this should make it a little more interesting: http://www.drinkinggame.us/ looks like it could be fun, but doesn’t come even compare to the Spelling Bee drinking game or the 24 drinking game.

I was watching Sports Center earlier and I figured it was a mistake but nothing else was on. I’m so sick of Saints love I’ll just be glad when the game is over. Apparently, according to ESPN’s web poll, 69% of the U.S. expects the Saints to beat the Bears. Somehow a team that is 10-6 is now infinitely better than the 13-3 Bears.

I’ll agree the Saints have a good offense, but the Bears still have a pretty damn good defense, even if it hasn’t been as sharp lately as it had been earlier in the year. However I recall some stats showing the Saints play better on the turf than real grass, and the real grass in Chicago was beginning to look a little rough last week. Any of the snow that’s being predicted (anywhere from two to five inches) should have an adverse impact on the running game as well after the field gets a little sloppier.

Let’s not forget too the Bears offense, while it isn’t perfect it’s not bad either; and with the secondary of the Saints I’d expect to see a few of the Rex-tastic bombs he’s become known for. Overall the Bears still should rely on the run more than the pass to try to manage the clock better and keep Rex calm.

If Devin Hester can hold on to the ball during returns, I think the Bears will be in much better shape. Sure the Saints have Bush returning, but the Bears special teams should be able to contain him.

In any event the game will probably be high scoring, I’m guessing in the 60-70 point range (total). Final score 38-27, Bears.

Now that my prediction is out of the way a little rant is in order so here it goes.

I hope the Saints lose, not only because I’m a Bears fan, but because I’m sick of hearing the “feel good Saints” story. This past week has been painful enough hearing that garbage day after day, the game will add to it too, the last thing I need is to hear about it until (and possibly beyond) the Super Bowl. ESPN is already running the stories about all the Saints fans that came to Chicago for the game, some even paying $1,000+ for some sort of game package that doesn’t include tickets.

First of all, someone that pays $1,000 or more for some kind of “game package” that doesn’t include tickets is a moron. Go to a bar or go to a friend’s house, that can be had for the low low price of FREE (plus drinks/food, but still way less than the $1,000 package).

Second, I would tend to think these Saints fans that made it to Chicago for the game aren’t the people that were really hurricane victims, at least in the way they will be portrayed.

All I know is I’ll have a fun day of listening to Joe Buck rip into Rex, praise the Saints, and talk about “Bears Weather”. Maybe I’ll get lucky and Joe will (again) ask which is longer, the ½ inch cleat or the 5/8 inch cleat…

One of the most noticeable differences between the ‘05 and ‘06 Bears is the offense. Not only the fact that the Bears replaced the bearded rookie QB with a rookie-ish (in terms of experience) veteran and have become a more passing oriented offense, but last year’s strengths have seemingly become trouble areas this year.

One such example, last year the Bears O-line performed well and aided the running game. This year the running game still hasn’t gained any traction and it seems like the offensive line has missed a number of key blocks, as have the backs, most noticeable in the Monday night game vs. Arizona. Is the decline in the running game due to a need to protect Rex? Possibly, with all the injuries he’s had over the past few years I wouldn’t be surprised if the coaches are taking more measures to protect him, even if it means sacrificing some of the run game.

What worries me now is that opposing defenses may be picking up on this and are more actively attacking the Bears passing game. I don’t know that I will be able to validate (or disprove) this assumption during this weekend’s game against San Fran (they do have one of the worst, if not the worst defense in the league).

I’m expecting the offense to come out firing again with some early bombs to try to help Rex get back into his rhythm. The running game probably wont come into play too much until later in the game. Given the defense of their opposition I feel the Bears will want to make sure Rex gets right before going on to some tougher opponents.

I also think the defense will be fired up and ready to kick some ass after the way Arizona marched down the field on them early in the game, and then later at the end. After losing Mike Brown I’d expect to see a good deal of pressure from the front seven to try to prevent the run and keep Alex Smith uncomfortable. I’ll be interested to see how Todd Johnson performs. He’s had some big hits in the past when I’ve seen him, hopefully he isn’t looking for the big hit so much that he makes some mental mistakes.

Go Bears!