Everybody Speaking Out Against The Bears

by Adam T on Jan 13, 2009 7:32 AM CST Comment 13 comments

Ok, we get it. We have some problems over here on our ship, but for some reason tis the season to speak ill of the Bears.

First, Hines Ward comes to the defense of Darryl Drake, our wide receivers coach. He has taken some criticism for the performance of our receivers.

"Any criticism of him is not fair,'' Ward said. ``Look at the quarterback situation. They don't have a stable quarterback. I know the quarterback situation there and I don't care who you bring in to catch the ball. You could bring in the best receiver in the league. Look at Randy Moss going out to Oakland and what happened there. His stats went down. It wasn't based on Randy, it was based on the quarterback play.''

My first though upon reading that quote is "Well, duh!" Nobody is disputing that, but he is the coach and his guys are not performing. He has to take some hit for that. If he can't get Rashied Davis to catch a ball, maybe that is his fault. Or maybe it is his fault for not telling the other coaches to keep him off the field.

Next, the new creative genius behind the " Bring Vick to Chicago" theory, Carol Slezack, sat down for a talk with ex-Bears player Brandon Ayanbadejo to talk about the differences between Chicago and Baltimore.

I don't have any knocks against what was said, some of it may even be true, but Slezack ran with some of this, like this little nugget right here.

Did general manager Jerry Angelo put his faith in the wrong players? It sure has looked that way. Consider a guy like Ayanbadejo, who played with heart -- and a good amount of talent -- for three years. He wanted to stay in Chicago, but Angelo was busy tying up other players such as Harris and pacifying malcontents such as Urlacher for big bucks. Angelo decided Ayanbadejo wasn't worth $4.9 million over four years. But Marty Booker was worth $3.5 million over two years?

Really! You are going to go to the press suggesting that the Bears should have not paid Urlacher or Harris, so they could have signed a special teams guy?

BA did do a little fighting in defense of Devin Hester:

''You can't expect to have the best receiver in the league and the best returner in the league,'' Ayanbadejo said. ''It's such a specialized league. Just look at the Ravens -- we have three kickers. We have a guy who does kickoffs, a guy that does field goals and a punter. You're asking [Hester] to be the best punt returner in the league, the best kick returner in the league and the best receiver in the league? ... They asked a whole lot of Devin, which I thought was kind of unfair.''

Again, this is more talking out of your backside. Jerry Angelo has publicly stated that he is willing to sacrifice Hester's productivity as a return man for his increasing role as a receiver. That said, Hester himself has admitted that his lack of productivity as a return man had nothing to do with his inclusion on the offense. He said he was just not clicking and something was missing. We all saw it, he was hesitant, undecisive and perhaps scared.

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hines

dudes got a point and i respect his opinion(s) because of the type of football player i think he is. not really a news flash though. our depth chart on offense is pathetic. Not only do good teams get production out of starters, but subs and backups come in and make plays. Bears starters are rarely effective, so to expect a boost from the bench is almost laughable. Whether it is poor qb play or lack of receivers I don’t know. Until the Bears make a move and get a solid player at either qb or wr (O Line wouldnt hurt either) we won’t know which is the weaker of weak links on the bears O.

obviously urlacher and harris are top priorities, but i would have rather signed BA than Marty Booker. Letting BA go has also been linked to Hester’s limited success in the return game. Considering that Hester’s returns were really the Bears only offense in recent history the decision to let a special teams leader leave to make room for a non productive old receiver was a mistake in hindsight. (BTW Vick to the Bears… yes please)

hester is going to be fine. He and forte just need someone(anyone!) else to draw defenses’ attention away from them.

by No It All on Jan 13, 2009 8:40 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

Nice article...

She definitely seems like the type of writer to talk out of her backside a good bit!

My only 2 cents are on Hester… he was a rookie WR, and played like one. It always takes the youngsters a couple of seasons to catch on…

He had a good yards per catch this season (13), and if he can get a couple hundred more yards next season, he will be showing pretty good improvement. I honestly think he is only a couple of seasons away from being a #1 receiver… he’s just not there yet.

Residence: Portland, Oregon Pro Team: Da Bears NCAA Football: LSU Baby!! Make sense?

by Dane Noble on Jan 13, 2009 8:41 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

I read the whole article... and the comments.

And pretty much share the sentiment by the comments.

We just don’t have very good talent to work with at WR. Face it… our guys are garbage. I thought Drake did a very good job with Berrian and Hester. Two raw talents that needed to learn how to play the position. He also did a pretty good job with Rashied Davis, turning a marginally talented converted arena league DB into a WR.

We don’t need to have HOFer WRs like Montana, Marino, Manning, Brady, and Warner had. But, we do need to have some capable route runners like Drew Brees has.

I'm not going to even bother trying to update this sig everyday anymore... that's what the standings column on ESPN is for.
Updated on May 25, 2008

by SackMan on Jan 13, 2009 8:59 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

Some of the bashing is unfair

but I do think that the Bears’ largest weakness is roster talent identification and development, something that is attributable to the coaches alone – which is why firing coaches makes sense.

The identification of good talent filters up from the position coaches to the head coach – Lovie can’t be in all places at once, so he has to rely on the reports from the position coaches. Similarly, it’s up to those position coaches to bring players along – when Lovie started working personally with Manning – Manning became markedly improved – but why wasn’t a position coach able to do that? It shouldn’t take the head coach giving extra attention to a player to develop that player.

by mac30 on Jan 13, 2009 9:35 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

in no way

did harris or urlacher earn their money this year.

by mike b on Jan 13, 2009 9:37 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

who did?

by No It All on Jan 13, 2009 9:39 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Briggs and Forte

Being Who You Thought We Were Since 2005!

by Adam T on Jan 13, 2009 10:00 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

And the assistant to the

2nd waterboy, but I think that is all.

Being Who You Thought We Were Since 2005!

by Adam T on Jan 13, 2009 10:00 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Nope, you forgot another one.

The guy who laces the shoes every week. Not once did I see a player without shoelaces this year.

Residence: Portland, Oregon Pro Team: Da Bears NCAA Football: LSU Baby!! Make sense?

by Dane Noble on Jan 13, 2009 10:18 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Hines sight is far from 20/20

First of a self starter like hines ward dosent need to be coached up to perform and he has a lot of god giving talents so i see how his view of a coaches success can be askew. that being said I find it far beyond arogant for him to speak out publicly against decisions our GM makes regarding our staff coaching wise. Talent speaks for itself and it dont need an overgrown, bald head, chimpmunk faced lawyer representing it. If drakes the cream then he’ll rise to the top nothing has to be said. Have you ever noticed that when a quality guy like shannahan is let go former players dont have to speak out about it ,because his resume do the talking. anything more would be stating the obvious. So go ahead and let him take shots at kyle orton and grossman and the bears receivers and scream its not fair but never forget he devoted his life to catching an oblong ball and thats why he get paid, not to evaluate coaching talent, that my friend is out of his depth.

by WavyGravy on Jan 13, 2009 12:07 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

It's True

As a die hard Bears fan I find it hard to disagree with most of the statements above. The air attack is a mess. I disagree that Orton is the problem and throw most of the blame on the garbage WR we have. Average QB + Below Average WR’s = mess.

Also, there was a reason Devin Hester wasn’t a wide out, he has terrible hands. Catching kicks is very different than catching passes. Hester had 1600 yds and 6 TDs as a returner in 2007. In 2008 he had 670 yds and 3 TDs as a receiver. Put him back where he is making an impact.

And to me, it appears the defense is getting older and they know it. Hence, they start reaching for money before someone catches on that they aren’t as productive as they used to be.

by Polish Engineering on Jan 13, 2009 1:29 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

Whatever Hines

I think he’s a great player, but has he actually watched the Bears wide receivers in action? Bottom 5 in the league bar none. How can Orton work with them and be consistent when they can’t get separation or catch perfectly thrown balls? It’s not the QB this year, not a chance. That ship has sailed already.

"I'm not so mean. I wouldn't ever go out to hurt anybody deliberately - unless it was, you know, important, like a league game or something." - Dick Butkus

by propheteer on Jan 13, 2009 11:49 PM CST reply actions 0 recs