"Olin Kreutz is being shown the door over 500k? What an outrage!" This is the refrain I'm seeing repeated ad nauseum in the open threads and elsewhere. Why is this an outrage? He's a 34 year old center, definitively on the downside of his career. We offered him 3 million for a swan song season, he came back and demanded 5 million. That's fine. That's good negotiation. However, the Bears gave an ultimatum of 4 million and get in camp. Kreutz responded by asking for 500k more. For every single person lamenting the Bears blowing up the deal over 500k, you need to look also at Kreutz himself, and his willingness to do the same thing. 

Olin Kreutz is not only ready to abandon ship over 500k, but he's willing to harm the Bears front office's ability to negotiate effectively in future deals for the same amount.

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We're going to start things off right here by taking a moment to congratulate the Green Bay Packers on the Super Bowl win, now that everyone has had ample time to cool off. While I was as unhappy as any other Bears fan about our two straight defeats to our most hated rivals, after much soul searching I found that I'd much rather see the legacy that Favre led further dismantle than another football player with questionable moral fortitude cleansed of his past transgressions by a Super Bowl win. 

It was during this soul searching that I took a closer look at what made our rivalry with Green Bay one of the greatest, and what kept it from being one of the worst. Follow me below the fold where I will take a look at what makes this rivalry different, and these teams different from other teams in the league.

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Without question, Devin Hester returned to form this past year to take sole possession of the return touchdown record from Brian Mitchell, and if we were paying him solely to be a returner, it would still be money well spent. However, there are often undercurrents and discussion about Hester's worth as a receiver, specially in relation to his contracted salary. We're going to take a quick look at not only how much Hester is set to make, but how much he has already made, and what his salary looks like in relation to other number two receivers in the league.

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This is almost completely unrelated to the Bears as a whole, so I'll be relegating this to the home of quality posts, otherwise known as the sidebar. I hope you guys don't mind me cluttering up your good stuff with my mindless ramblings. So, I think I've created a little Bears fan.

For Christmas, what did he want? Presents. What kind of presents? Orange presents, and blue presents.

He turns three in a few days, and what kind of cake does he want? An orange cake with blue icing. 

Is there a sports event on TV? That means the Bears are playing. Even when it isn't football, it's still the Bears.

Should the Bears be mentioned in casual conversation, an exclamation of GOOOO BEARS is likely to follow, sometimes accompanied by the throwing of the touchdown hand signals.

I'm a super proud Daddy, and apparently a Papa Bear as well. Although, I did cede rights of baseball teams to his mom, I wouldn't wish a lifetime of Cubs fandom on anyone. :D

On a whim today, I decided to take a look at the twelve playoff teams to see who we would be possibly facing in the playoffs, and ultimately the Super Bowl, and I noticed something interesting. Five out of the six NFC playoff teams all run some form of the 4-3 defense, while the exact opposite is true in regards to the AFC with five of the six running some variation of the 3-4 defense. This isn't exactly a smoking gun showing without a doubt the relevance of the 4-3 to today's game, but it does point in the direction that those saying the 4-3 defense was a relic soon to be forgotten may have grossly exaggerated the state of the game. 

Follow me below the fold where we will take a bit of a closer look at the specifics between the teams running the defense, the numbers from this year about making the playoffs, and exactly what each defense is designed to do.

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The very definition of a defensive struggle, our beloved Bears lost by a single touchdown with a final score of 10 to 3 favoring Green Bay. The game will be remembered not only for the plethora of balls thrown Johnny Knox's way without much success, but also the continued poor line play that has haunted an otherwise talented team. On the brighter side Greg Olsen answered the call when he was leaned on heavily during the final ill-fated drive, and before the game-plan shifted away from him Matt Forte was quietly having a very good day.

Top Players 

Matt Forte 15 carries for 91 yards/8 receptions for 60 yards

Rashied Davis 7 receptions for 63 yards

Lance Briggs 7 tackles and 2 assists

D.J. Moore 4 tackles and 1 force fumble

Charles Tillman 2 tackles, 1 assist, 1 INT, 1 fumble recovery

It's that time of year again folks. The tree is turning yellow, a few more notches have been added to the belt, and we all care about the Pro Bowl picks for a few moments before remembering that half the players decline the invitation for various reasons and if your team is as good as you wish they were they will be playing in a more important game down in Texas instead.

This year the Pro Bowl will be taking center stage even less than usual due to the announcement falling on the same day as the first Tuesday game since 1946. Let us give thanks for the opportunity to repost the infamously good picture of Lance Briggs at the Pro Bowl and bask in the waning glow of these selections in this live updated open thread until the actually relevant football starts in about an hour.

Full selections below the fold...

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It can be a struggle at times for fans to look past a devastating loss at home and look at the bigger picture. Let us not kid ourselves, that's exactly what the loss to the Patriots was. Devastating. It's tough to see your team outplayed on offense. It's tough to see your team outplayed on defense. However, we were outplayed in both phases which caused the acceptable special teams play to be less of a bright spot, and more salt in the wound due to the good returns that were wasted. Then to add some spice to this warm batch of disappointment, I need only remind you that this was a home game that we were embarrassed in.

It's always darkest before the dawn, true believers, and there is a silver lining coming out of Week 14. The Chicago Bears now completely control their own playoff destiny. Follow me below the fold where we will look at the playoff implications of the next three weeks, and some of the more likely scenarios.

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Everyone is well aware of the looming strike that could occur at the end of the current season, and while most of us are extremely happy and enjoying the game of football for the first time in months, there have been very few signs of progress in any way, shape, or form towards a new agreement. There are a few things to keep in mind when thinking about the issues at hand in this discussion. This is in large part millionaires fighting with billionaires over more money than most people will see in a lifetime. However, the agreement that is eventually reached is definitely going to affect the fans, and more likely than not will have a much greater effect on the lower echelon of players and us than it is on the owners or the Lance Briggs/Jay Cutler's of the football world.

Follow me below the fold where I'll take a quick look at some of the facts of matter, and things to keep in mind during the coming season. I'll also take a small moment to share exactly how I feel on the matter.

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It's time at last. It's time at last. Thank Ditka and Halas it's preseason time at last. We've waited, we've prognosticated, we've pumped up players that might not even make the roster, and we've downplayed guys that may end up being diamonds in the rough. All statements about players could and might generally end as soon as those cleats hit the live field; and while the first game of the preseason is too soon for doomsaying, it's certainly not too soon for rays of beautiful orange and blue sunshine.

There were plenty of things to be worried about coming into the first game, and just as much to be excited about as well. Both statements are still true, but hilariously, most of what the national outlets wanted to worry about and focus on ended up being non-factors. On the flip side of that coin, the vast majority of what the fans wanted to focus on ended up being front and center. Let's stay as excited as we were before this game about the rest of the season, and I'll do my best below the fold to give you some reasons why that excitement should be overflowing after what some deemed an underwhelming performance.

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Kahlil Bell, famously known for one excellent run last season, may have had a terrible misstep in his effort to make the final roster this year. Although it was only mentioned in passing in a few of the training camp reports it appears Bell has suffered a mild hamstring strain that kept him from working for the day. This seemingly innocuous injury may prove to be a death knell for Bell's chances as it's been noted on more than one occasion that the number three back is going to be chosen more on ST ability than as a primary runner, and Garrett Wolfe already has a lot of on the field experience in a ST role. That, combined with the lingering nature of many hamstring strains, means Bell possibly won't make the field for the first preseason game, and if so it's likely this will be the end of Bell's 72-yard run towards relevance.

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Everyone seems to recognize the Chicago Bears as a defensively minded team. You've got the Monsters of the Midway listed among the upper echelon of namesake defenses over the past 50 years. You've got all the wonderful footage of smash mouth football in the snow, sleet, rain, mud, and above all else the wind. It's because of this historical narrative that when it comes to the prowess of the Bears defense, many times we're over-rated and at the same time it causes players to be underrated just as much.

Either we've got a terrible defense that is struggling mightily and being carried on the back of one or two players while the pundits and national talking heads still talk about the dominating Bears defense, or we have a fantastic top notch defense and somehow we're downplayed as a defense because of the abysmal offense and historical comparions. Well historical comparisons be damned, we've got the best linebacker group in the league this year.

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We had a fantastic story a day ago from Just Dave about Brian Urlacher, and his status as one of the all-time greats, not only for the Chicago Bears, but for the league as a whole. I'm not going to dispute Urlacher's skill as a player, his freakish physical prowess, his prototypical Cover 2 MLB skill set, or anything along those lines. However, I am going to dispute his ability to enter the NFL Hall of Fame if he doesn't win a ring during his career. Brian Urlacher may be a man amongst men and one of the corner stones of this franchise for the past decade, but neither of these are going to gain him entry into the Hall without paying for admission. Follow me below the jump where we'll look at why this All-Pro player may end up falling short.

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That's right folks, I'm definitely sitting down for a glass of that orange and blue Kool-Aid on this one. On top of other such prognostications that are better suited for a drunken vagrant sporting a Ditka jersey outside of Soldier Field, such as my proclamation that the Chicago Bears will win the NFC North this year, I'm going to step my heavily marbled frame out on that willow thin branch again for the following statement. Tommie Harris is going to be going to the Pro Bowl this year for his stellar play, and is going to rekindle the faith of the Chicago Bears faithful not only in Tommie Harris the man, but Tommie Harris the player.

Follow me below the fold, where we will take a look at what Tommie Harris is, and what Tommie Harris will be, this coming season.

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"As they speed through the finish, the flags go down. The fans get up and they get out of town. The arena is empty except for one man. Still driving and striving as fast as he can"

It's almost all said and done, our starting six have all been chosen by the fans in the following order as the guys they wanted to see on the Bears this season. Devin Aromashodu, Johnny Knox, and Devin Hester got nods as the first three off the board, and the final trio consisted of Earl Bennett, Juaquin Igleasis, and Freddie Barnes. Not a bad player in the bunch in my opinion, and we'll take a quite look at the ones we've already mentioned, as well as the final additions below the fold. However, first things first, who is going to fill that mythical seventh wide receiver slot? Which special teams focused player is going to be something special for the Bears this year?

It's time for the final showdown between Eric Peterman, and Rashied Davis. Two men enter, and one Bear remains standing. Choose your sides folks, and join us in the comments to offer your feelings about the Bears receiver group this year.

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A stunning upset in round three has kept Rashied Davis in the hunt by a single vote, and sent the hometown hero Eric Peterman to the proverbial unemployment line. Devin 'Anytime' Hester has made the case to the fans that Anytime also includes right now, as they have made him the third receiver to make our preferred six man wide receiver grouping.

We're getting down to the nitty gritty here folks, so there is going to be a small change to the way this is going to work. The top three vote getters in this round will be moving on, with the others cast off into the abyss, or maybe the Oakland Raiders. So fight hard for your chosen ones, and we'll see where it all shakes out. Will Davis surprise again? Will Earl Bennett get the respect he deserves? Will Igleasis claw his way onto the field? Will Freddie Barnes prove why he was a Biletnikoff finalist, and the man that broke Randy Moss's MAC record for single-season yardage?

Follow this thread to find out, and follow us below the fold while we take a closer look at Dangerous Devin Hester, and what he brings to the team.

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Another day is to another dollar as another woman is to another holler. Oh, and another week means another round of the Chicago Bears wide receiver roulette! So, this was another somewhat unpredictable week as you, the fans, voted Johnny "Fort" Knox to the second position on the roster for wide receivers and sent Vic Hall to the pits of the practice squad. It's shocking that you guys had absolutely no love for Vic Hall, then again Vic Hall had less of a chance of finding love in this stacked wide receiver group than Flava Flav had of finding love on a reality TV show.

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After week one, we've got our first two losers and one of our winners. First up, the losers of round one are the two relative unknowns of Antonio Robinson and Greg Matthews that tied with one vote a piece. It seems the Nicholls State and Michigan products just didn't resonate with the readers. However, in the defense of everyone who didn't see fit to vote for them, they are such unknowns I don't know if their names would resonate with their own mothers. Robinson is a small school project known more for his return skills than his ability as a receiver, and that's when he's known at all. Greg Matthews is the big bodied Michigan product that failed to impress despite showing flashes of quality and having excellent measureables.

Follow me below the fold where we will take a look at the first winner in our little fan poll, and we'll vote again for round two. Remember the lowest leaves, and the highest gets added to the list and a small write up about them. Feel free to campaign for your favorite in the comments.

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There has been a lot of discussion by myself, the rest of the staff, and you the readers about how good our wide receiver group is going to be. You've got people like me who have high hopes of seeing a top 8 group this year, and you have others who firmly believe we might be the worst in the league. I set out to do some research on our guys, their productivity both in the NFL, and in college, and how their skills would translate to the Martz offense when I ran into a problem.

I'm not sure if I, or anyone else, actually know who our wide receiver group is going to be this year. So I'm going to leave it up to all of you to whittle down our list of receivers to a more manageable seven receivers. It's safe to say that's the maximum we might carry in 2010. So the way this is going to work is simple, I'm going to give it a day or two, and then tally up the votes and drop the lowest, and dropping both in the event of a tie, rinse and repeat until we hopefully get what we're looking for. A legitimate threat out of our wide receivers.

Feel free to campaign for your favorite third stringer to get a few votes to keep them in the running below the fold.

I'm finished listening to concerns about our apparently weak wide receiver group, when it's actually going to be a strength. I'm finished listening to people talk about how Martz is going to be the death of the tight end position with the Bears, because it won't be. Above all else I'm absolutely finished listening to people say that if Brut Favray rises from the grave, like an Altered Beast with a surgically repaired ankle, that the Minnesota Vikings are going to be the hands down favorite to take the division.

I'm going to step out on a limb for not only what I believe as fact, but to specifically be the contrarian when it comes to those already spelling out the Bears demise even before the first second of the first preseason game ticks off the clock.

The Chicago Bears are going to win the NFC North in 2010. 

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We have all had discussions either on this fair site, or around the water cooler about the one known as Danieal Manning. There are two things that everyone knows about Danieal Manning. The first is that he is a fantastic athlete, and the second is that he is an athlete seemingly without a position. The Chicago Bears have played him at multiple positions over the last few years including cornerback, free safety, and nickleback, but the only place he has been a stand out has been as a kick returner, but is also incidentally the only place he has stayed for a prolonged period of time.

As a guy that has been moved around so much that the fan base has coined the phrase Danieal Manning Syndrome in his honor to describe any player who has seen reduced productivity on the field due to position changes, it's easy to say they should stick him somewhere and let him learn the position. So now it's time to make that call, if you had the power where would you play Danieal Manning for the next five years as his assigned position? 

If you'd like a bit of reading material, links and notes will be provided below the fold to give your thoughts a bit more backing.

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With the recent launch of O.J. Atogwe into the real free agency waters the question has been asked should the Bears still go after him? This is an extremely valid question, but isn't really one that lends itself to a yes or no answer. We've brought Chris Harris back home where he belongs, we picked up Major Wright in the draft, and we apparently have decided to attempt to de-DMS Daniel Manning by keeping him at the safety position. This takes an already extremely crowded position that has a lot of younger guys, and crowds it even further. With that in mind, there is no question that Atogwe is a fantastic player and would be an upgrade over Wright or Manning once on the field at full strength, but is he worth what we'd have to give up?

This seems to be the question that is asked more often than any other, is X better than Y if we have to give up Z. Again, there isn't anything wrong with that question, but the better question in my mind is when is enough actually enough in free agency and the draft? When do you stop going back to that buffet table that is the free agent market? When do you stop stockpiling lower round picks and make grabs for guys that you really want by trading up, or vice versa? When do you decide to stand pat on what you have and let it ride?

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To say our offensive line needed help last year would be like saying you might want to pack sunscreen for that upcoming vacation to the Sahara. We had a right tackle attempting to learn the left gaurd position on the fly, and do so alongside an aged left tackle that who still had plenty of power. The downside is there was a better chance of Izzy getting a blocking a field goal in a game than Orlando Pace blocking the defensive end if there was any kind of speed move involved.

Saying that Chris Williams will be a game changer for the Chicago Bears this year may be the understatement of the season, and the season hasn't even started yet. Follow me below the fold where we'll take a better look at our starting left tackle for the next decade, and why the man I lovingly refer to as CDub is going to make the league take notice this year.

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We've had more than a few opportunities to read about what Mike Tice thinks of the guys he has that could play left guard in the coming year. He likes a lot of the young linemen we have, and he likes some of the older guys we have just as much, but it begs the question. Who do you actually want starting at left guard next year?

An open competition is all well and good, but just as important as competition for a position is taking into consideration that an offensive line needs to gel as a unit if you hope to get consistent play, which means this can't be one of the Chicago Bears patented open competition until the last preseason game debacles. Follow me below the fold where we'll take a look at the players we have, why we'd want them starting, and why we wouldn't.

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I'm really not a fan of meta-critique of sports writers as while their job is highly enjoyable it is also fraught with deadlines, story requirements, and the same things us brethren known as bloggers run into on a regular basis during the off-season and that's an almost complete lack of quality stories to cover. With that in mind, you can speak ill of the work of others as much as you please, but at the end of the day it must be done with a whole pile of salt.

With this in mind it pains me to take issue with a story by Brad Biggs, a writer for the Chicago Tribune. The story in question is about one of our favorite sons, Rashied 'Droppapotumus' Davis, and how the new system Mike Martz is installing means a new life for him on the team. Follow me below the fold where we'll take a closer look at this story, and the extremely disingenuous conclusion it jumped to.

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It's somewhat shocking that this question can even be asked with a straight face. Going back into time immeasurable when men were men, Bears were Staleys, and Honey Bears still brightened your day with short skirts and pom pom's instead of sweetening up your morning biscuit the Bears have been a defensively minded team.

Sure we've had some all time greats scoring points for our beloved Bears, including Ditka, Grange, Payton, and Sayers, but the offensive players stand out like shining orange stars on a dark blue smothering expanse of Chicago Bears defense. There are just so many names that struck fear into the hearts of opposing teams, and so many broken bodies and shattered dreams left on the ground at Soldier Field when the Monsters of the Midway got finished with their opponents.

Oh how the cold winds shift in our old Chicago home as a sea change of young talent has infused the offense, and the defensive side has become a bastion for times long past, stocked to the brim full of grizzled veterans and battle-tested war machines brought over from past conquests. Well, all the Pepper cannons in the world can't hide the fact the old tower is showing its age, and has more than a few holes once you get past its formidable front.

Follow me below the fold where I'll take a quick look at the state of both phases, and who I think is going to come out on top in 2010.

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Another day of drafting, and another moment of wanting there to be more picks to follow. Count me among the many who aren't a fan of this draft set up, but it is what it is. We've got news from around the division and the first new Bear to walk his way into the Den.

• The Vikings filled a need at cornerback with Chris Cook, and drafted what should be a decent replacement for Chester Taylor in a few years in Toby Gerhart in the second round.
• The Packers once again rekindled the burning fires of menace that burn in the souls of Bears fans by trading up to take Morgan Burnett in the third, and tried to build up that defensive line in the second with Mike Neal.
• The Lions due to trades had only one pick in the last two rounds, but managed to fill a fairly desperate need at CB with Amari Spievey.
• The Bears made good use of their sole second day pick by grabbing Major Wright with pick 75 in the third round.

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Draft Day is only a few days away and while we aren't likely to be making any picks the first day, what happens that day is going to greatly effect our decisions on Day 2. It's incredibly difficult to make a successful mock draft as the draft is a living breathing entity, it changes and morphs while it is in process.

For example, if you see two offensive tackles go it's not uncommon to see a run begin on the position for those with need leading to a depleted position when you get to the third round and later. It's not uncommon to see players taken up to 20 places above their overall ranking due to needs and runs so it becomes very difficult to get a firm grasp of who is actually going to be there for you.

However, we do have one thing going for us when it comes to making the pick. We know what we need as a team, we now know we need a G, and we need a FS, and we need them to start. Follow me below the fold where I'll hedge a few bets and make the call on who I want to see as a Bear come draft day.

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