It’s too early in the season to speculate on blowing up the defense. The only way this becomes an issue is if the Bears make the playoffs with Urlacher on IR, Harris playing sub-par, and Vasher riding the pine. Time will tell.

however, many of your points are pretty good, other than afalava there arent any young players on the team that I can imagine being future probowlers let alone starters.

For now though I think they’ll be ok. I think they need to rebuild the offensive line and then rebuild the defense.

After the loss to the Packers, everyones all positive and like, were ok were ok, well be fine. And then when they win everyone nitpicks and is all like, our D sucks and we cant run the ball and the o line sucks. It really confuses me, while I dont like to be all mister positive after tough losses, I certainly hate when I gotta hear negativity after a couple of hard fought resilient wins.

And to your post, while I dont appreciate the play calling on 3rd down when we are on D (never jamming at the line and giving the WRs 10 yards), I dont really know who all you want to “blow” up. You really only mentioned Wale, Harris, and Urlacher (thats not really overhauling the whole D thats only 3 of 11 starters) and Wale will probably be gone because Anderson is also in a contract year along with Idonije so they probably wont give all three new contracts, and to your point Anderson is younger than Wale, so there you go. Urlachers days are numbered but the guys behind him still have work to do so you give them more time and MAYBE move Urlacher to the outside when Roach is ready (Hillenmeyer is a backup whos only playing ahead of Roach because of his 57 starts of experience).

As far as DTs, I dont know if you noticed but our first pick in the draft wasnt a WR like everyone thought it would be, it was a DT, Jarron Gillbert, so theres some more youth and an incumbent to Harris eventually. I happen to like some of the young bloods on our linebacking core as well with Jamar and Roach, theyve shown some things.

Now the secondary, Tillman just got a contract last year so forget it, hes not going anywhere and I dont mind that, hes the leader of that secondary and I know youll say he has health issues but the guy is pretty tough when it comes to that, he seems to battle through them more times than not. And Bowman and Afalava are making strides so theres some more youth for ya there too.

 So what, that leaves about one position we havent covered here and that is Free Safety. So yea if Manning makes some of the same bone headed mistakes hes made in the past this year, then yes, we can blow up that position and maybe go after someone in free agency next year and move him back to nickel where Manning seems to excel (he forced the safety against GB this year in the nickel already). And then that pushes Graham back to being a backup corner along with DJ Moore (who are both young too by the way) and Vasher, who probably wont be here next year.

They have the talent, they have the depth, theyve got young incumbents waiting for their chance and for the most part a lot of them are stepping up when their name is called i.e. Roach, Williams, Bowman, Afalava, even Adams and Anderson are doing some good things under the tutelage of Marinelli.

No its not the guys, its the freaking play calling that is making you upset about our D. Just check out the film, look how many yards theyre giving recievers, especially on 3rd down. Alot of it makes absolutely no sense, sometimes they will blitz the house and the corners are still playing back. Yea real smart blitz and then when the quarterback goes to make a throw to the quick out our a slant, are freakin guys are playing 10 yards off and unable to jump those routes, the play calling or the coaching is what needs to change not the players.

Ask Greg Olsen and Tommie Harris to give their paychecks back. Everybody on the OL too, bar Garza. Yeah our DL have shown promise, every one else – including Briggs – showed a distinct inability to wrap up the tackle. Only Afalava seemed to know how to tackle. Thank god Payne and Vasher have been demoted.

Definitely agree with some of your statements, about Tommie and Nate. They are paid way to much for far too little production. I think that both will be cap casualties next year and the extra money will go to helping us shore up our offense and defensive lines as well as signing Cutler to a long term deal. Cutting those two players will hit our salary cap I believe.

I think Urlacher will be fine. I know he was hurt over the past two years and his stats went down, but I don’t really think that he will be too old for this game for a few years yet. By all accounts, and it’s a moot point now, his neck and back were completely healed for this year. So I assume they will be for next year too.

The defense undeniably dropped off after the 06 season. In 07, I’m completely willing to chalk it up to post super-bowl slump. For some reason it happens to a lot of teams. Look what is going to happen to the Cardinals this year, I don’t think they will make the play-offs. Also Urlacher and Tommie playing injured this year.

In 08, Urlacher and Tommie still playing dinged up, enter Bob Babich as a horrible play caller, terrible motivator, and great excuse for a terrible defense that looked like it was in decline.

09, I really do believe that Urlacher was better than he had been since the 06 season. Bob Babich is gone and Lovie has put the defense squarely on his shoulders. Though seemingly decimated with injuries early on. I’ve been pretty happy with the defensive play calling. Only real complaint that our CB’s need to play more physical sometimes.

Our defense really isn’t that old. I hear it all the time, “The Bears aging D-fense”, it just isn’t true. Adewale Ogunleye is 32, Alex Brown is 30 they are the only two defenders that we have over the age of 30. If Urlacher was listed on the 53 man he would be 31. Not that old. The average age is like 25-26 years old.

Anderson will not be gone— esp if he continues to play as he did against Seattle.
Ogun will be gone unless he agrees to become the swing DE (Anderson’s current role) and take a modest deal.
Vasher will be gone.
Tommie will likely be gone.
Urlacher will not be gone but his days are numbered.
Roach will emerge as our starting MLB of the future.
PNut and Bowman are solid CBs
Afalava is a solid S
Manning is still young and will get extended if continues to play at the current level
Graham is a young, solid NB
Gilbert will get his first snaps vs Detroit— let’s see how it goes for him
Harrisson will continue to get opps to compete for Adams role. Either way, they’re both young enough to stick for a couple years.
Briggs isn’t going anywhere.
Pisa may get extended, he may not. Depends on how he rebounds from this injury. He is not old.
J. Williams is going into FA this year. If he thinks he can get a starting role someplace else, he gone.
Briggs— no need to discuss. He’s staying.

What exactly does “blowing” up the defense mean to you? To me it means firing Lovie, Babich, Marinelli, Hoke and getting rid of the Tampa 2.

If you just want to cut Harris and Vasher and Urlacher— fine. But that is NOT blowing up the defense.