The Bears Den: July 13, 2010

Normal people would come to the state to see where a true icon was born… who you ask we’ll I’ll tell you….

From ESPN New York

New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner has been hospitalized and is in serious condition, according to multiple reports.

According to the reports, Steinbrenner, who celebrated his 80th birthday on July 4, was taken to the hospital after emergency crews responded to his home Monday night.

I try not to equate the dollar amount to sign a free agent to the players productivity. You certainly can make the argument that there is a correlation, but there is also a thing of “supply and demand”.

Peppers was the best DE in 2010 FA and has consistently been a pass rusher for the better part of his career. The Bears and several other teams lacked a “consistent” pass rusher in a league where a pass rusher is a top 3 position on a football team.

Negotiations started and the dollar amount that outbid all other suitors was $20 million+. Is that an extreme amount of money to pay? Yes! But, did the Bears need to bring in a player at the position? Yes. And they went after the player with the HIGHEST CHANCE OF SUCCESS.

That doesn’t come cheap.

What Brad Biggs needed to question was not the price of Peppers contract, because what level of productivity would be worth $20 million dollars? 8 sacks? 15? I don’t think so…

… What he needed to ask was does the addition of Peppers increase 1.) the number of pressures on the opposing QB and 2.) the total number of sacks in 2010 in comparison to 2009.

Price has no bearance on a difference maker if it improves your teams production.

Over the past 5 years, the Bears have been able to win football games with average (Orton) to subpar (Grossman) QB play, inconsistent offense, and stout run defense.

What has always impeded their production has been the pass defense.

Although the defensive line has had it’s dry spells at times, the secondary has been on the decline since 2006. Injuries played a big part in that, but the depth has made that area an ever growing eye sore.

I am hoping that both Bowman and Tillman can remain relatively healthy for the better part of the season and that the use of depth underneath them (Graham, Turrenne, Jennings) doesn’t have to be utilized.

Also, I have big hopes for Daniel Manning and Major Wright. One (or both) really needs to step up and be the players that JA and Smith projects them to be. They have tremendous speed and athleticism which would be so useful to a division with 3 really prominent passing offenses.

can Turenne win the 3rd CB job when Graham is better, and has had an excellent off season? I guess good depth is a great problem to have.

Nice, I didn’t notice the Halas quote yesterday… good thing I check new comments.