Kevin Payne has the Strong Safety spot locked down as well.

So you’ve got Peanut and Payne, and then its a free for all. Should be interesting. I just hope the team makes the right picks.

Very well done, and I agree with your thought process for the most part.

if he can stay healthy, I think he has more talent than most of this group. He was a beast at Notre Dame and played very well for Houston before his injury.

Lovie Smith answered fans emails, one of which was about Garrett Wolfe. No mention of AP here:

What type of role do you envision Garrett Wolfe filling this season?

Kevin
Sycamore, Illinois

The same role that we envisioned for him when we drafted him. We knew that he wasn’t a power back. But if you look at our running backs, you need different flavors from them and I feel we have that. Matt Forte has a combination of speed, quickness and size. He has everything that you’re looking for. Kevin Jones is more of a power runner; inside the tackles more than outside. And then Garrett brings quickness that neither one of the other two has. So we feel like we can use him in some of those situations in terms of screens and throwing the ball out of the backfield.

They are selling these:

Firstly, you have 3 ST players and they are a lock:

That leaves 50 for the rest of the team. Offense First:

OL: 8 Starters: Pace, Williams, Garza, Beakman, Kreutz , Swing Tackle, Shaffer, Guard Sub: Omiyale, Backup: Buenning

QB: 3

RB/FB 4: Forte, Jones, Wolfe, McKie

TE: 3: Olsen, Clarke, Gaines

Flex Player 1: Battle Between A Pete and Kellen Davis will hinge on the following:

1. ST Play and ST “role”
2. Davis’ improvement as a blocking TE
3. Jones health and progress as the key Forte backup— if he is solid, A-Pete will face a tougher time providing value.

WR: 6 Hester, Bennett, Iglesias, Knox— these are the 4 locks.

The remaining two spots to be won between Rideau, Kinder, Peterman, Davis— again, comes down to contributions on Special Teams:

Peterman is a great STeamer they say— watch him
Rideau is the only BIG target and has value for that.
Davis has the experience but adds little on ST.
Kinder is a draft pick and you know JA loves his picks.

These two positions are wide open.

That is 25 on Offense.

Now, 25 on Defense:

DL, 9: Brown, Ogun, Harris, Harrisson are your 4 starters. AA, Izzy are your first two back ups. Melton and Gilbert are your 2 shoe in rookies. That makes 8.—

That leaves one spot in a battle between DD and Anderson.
The outcome is up in the air and hinges on MANY factors:

1. DD’s health
2. Where does Gilber end up? Inside or Outside?
3. How quickly does Melton develop?
4. How is Tommie’s health?
5. Can Marinelli teach Anderson another move besides the table-top spin?

LB 6: Briggs, Url, Tino (3 Starters) Roach, Williams, Freeman (Backups)

That leaves HH on the outs— maybe. If the Bears go with 10 DB’s then certainly but if they go with only 9, HH has a shot but again he might end up battleing one of the (DD, Anderson pairings if they all impress.) I don’t see HH challenging Roach and/or Williams for a roster at this point. Here’s why: he is more expensive; his ST contributions are not that great and there is a youth movement afoot . The only question in my mind is how early to do the Bears let him go so he can land somewhere else.

DBs: This scenario leaves room for 10 DBs in 5 positions (9 if they keep HH or both DD and Anderson). Let’s say 10 for now because these guys are key contributors on ST:

CBs: Tillman, Vasher (2) Backup CB: Bowman, DJ Moore (2) Nickel: Manning (1)
S: Payne, Graham, (2)

That leaves three spots likley for:

Steltz, Afalava, McBride, Earl, Hamilton and Turrenne (who turned some heads in Rookie camp.) You might think Vash should go here too but the salary cap hit would be too high to let him go now—we’ve got Vash for 2009 whether we like it or not.

I’d be VERY surprised if they did that. When was the last time we intentionally went with only two QB’s on the roster? I don’t recall the Bears ever doing that….

Culter has mentioned him by name in interviews twice already (http://boards.chicagobears.com/forums/thread/1605256.aspx), and he is our tallest receiver (6’3"). I can see him getting put into the WR circus that we are bound to have in the preseason/beginning of the season until it gets figured out who is actually going to pan out for us.

Not many believers in Bears’ wideouts, outside of locker room

It’s got video of OTAs on it with a roundtable discussion with Steve Mariucci and Warren Sapp… and has 1155 comments

do you think we’ll be seeing less of him than we did previous quarterbacks at the end of seemingly-sealed games? That’s be an interesting jump for our back-ups.

a Special Teamer.

and the NFL network/ESPN’s obsession with the gimmick. That’s all you hear is wildcat “this” and wildcat “that”. Its getting as old as the “west coast offense” of the 80’s/90’s and the “cover two” of the new century. Yes I know that the “wildcat” is a gimmick while the other two are schemes, but a catch phrase IS a catch phrase and no two “schemes” are ever identical so why lump them all together under one umbrella? Cause it makes it easier to analyze and it makes it easier to sell it to the fans. You want to turn heads and make people talk then lest put Forte and Jones in the backfield with Cutler and run the DOUBLE WISHBONE BABY!!!! Just kidding, but it would give the talking heads a new catch phrase to trot out there.

good job, Skiz. very impressive.

I can see Joe Clermond and Dennis Conley making the roster hands down.

So you left off:

Bowman
Afalava
Kellen Davis
A Pete
Peterman
Kinder
HH
Bullocks

Not saying you are wrong but I would I would like to see Bowman stay healthy through camp and pre-season and replace McBride and for Afalava to come in and replace Earl— I think this kid has tremendous up-side.

It’s crazy that we have sooo much talent competing to make Da Bears this year. Although it is a nice position to be in, they are going to have to make some really difficult cuts before the season. It will be very interesting to see how it all plays out.

a solid breakdown… I’m getting excited for those Pre Season games!

Quarterbacks

    * 14 Brett Basanez
    * 6 Jay Cutler
    * 12 Caleb Hanie
                                                 so far 3
Running Backs

    * 22 Matt Forté
    * 27 Kevin Jones
    * 37 Jason McKie FB
    * 29 Adrian Peterson

    
                                                         so far 7
Wide Receivers

    
    * 80 Earl Bennett
    * 23 Devin Hester
    * 17 Juaquin Iglesias
     * 13 Johnny Knox
    * 84 Brandon Rideau
                                                               so far 12
Tight Ends

    * 88 Desmond Clark
    * 87 Kellen Davis
    * 85 Michael Gaines
    * 82 Greg Olsen
                                                                so far 16
Offensive Linemen

    * 67 Josh Beekman G/C
    * 72 Dan Buenning G
    * 70 Dennis Conley G
    * 63 Roberto Garza G/C
    * 57 Olin Kreutz C
    * 60 Lance Louis G
    * 68 Frank Omiyale T
    * 76 Orlando Pace T
    * 78 Kevin Shaffer T
    * 74 Chris Williams T
                                                         so far 26
Defensive Linemen

    * 97 Mark Anderson DE
    * 96 Alex Brown DE
    * 73 Jarron Gilbert DT
    * 91 Tommie Harris DT
    * 94 Marcus Harrison DT
    * 71 Israel Idonije DT
    * 69 Henry Melton DE
    * 93 Adewale Ogunleye DE

                                                          so far 34
Linebackers

    * 55 Lance Briggs OLB
    * 58 Marcus Freeman OLB
    * 92 Hunter Hillenmeyer OLB
    * 53 Nick Roach OLB
    * — Pisa Tinoisamoa OLB
    * 54 Brian Urlacher ILB
                                                          so far 40

Defensive Backs

    * 35 Zackary Bowman CB
    * 21 Corey Graham FS
    * 24 Marcus Hamilton CB
    * 38 Danieal Manning FS
    * 26 Trumaine McBride CB
    * 30 D. J. Moore CB
    * 44 Kevin Payne SS
    * 20 Craig Steltz FS
    * 33 Charles Tillman CB
    * 31 Nathan Vasher CB
                                                                   so far 50
Special Teams

    * 9 Robbie Gould K
    * 65 Patrick Mannelly LS
    * 4 Brad Maynard P
                                                                   so far 53