The House's Crystal Ball

by Sam Householder on Jan 23, 2012 11:00 AM CST in From The Desk Of...

In what has turned out to be a tumultuous offseason for the Chicago Bears, from firing Jerry Angelo to the continued trouble in finding and hiring coaches, we've seen a lot of primary moves without many follow-up moves to replace the hole left by the first action. I found a crystal ball while I was cleaning out my basement this weekend and I decided to look deep into it, channel my inner-Miss. Cleo and see if I can spot what moves the Bears have coming, follow me below and perhaps you have a crystal ball of your own and would like to share what you see..warning the future may be a little cloudy (oooh, see what I did there)....

First let's take care of that GM thing, I see the Bears will hire the Chiefs' Phil Emery. Reports surfaced over the weekend that he was the favorite and the crystal ball believes it. The Bears seem content with who they have talked to and while Bears fans want Marc Ross, perhaps the Bears don't want to wait for the Giants to give permission to leave his current post or maybe the Bears just weren't as impressed as they were with Emery, who worked for the Bears in the past.

Next, I see that Emery will try to deliver Dwayne Bowe to the Bears in free agency. Emery has been with the Chiefs and maybe he can get his new team the inside track on the big wideout.

I don't think Emery will shy away from drafting a wide receiver in the first round either, depending on who is available. Emery was a part of the front office that came out and drafted Pitt's Jonathan Baldwin. But I am not going to predict the draft yet, my crystal ball doesn't see that far ahead.

I do think that the Bears try to bring in more than one WR though and perhaps if Bowe falls through or even not, the Bears go after Mario Manningham of the Giants. Manningham is the number three guy behind Victor Cruz and Hakeem Nicks and would probably like a chance to get out of their shadow.

The crystal ball shows Mike Tice not leaving the Bears for the Raiders. He will be the Bears' play caller next year.

The crystal ball shows that there will be no free agent offensive linemen brought, at least major ones. However a high draft pick is likely spent on a tackle or guard. It seems there are no great free agents that the Bears wouldn't have to out-bid other teams for.

The crystal ball says we haven't seen the last of Matt Forte in Chicago either. The new GM and contract guru Cliff Stein won't let him get away, even if he does sit under the franchise tag for a little while.

Lastly, as for the other Bears' free agents the crystal ball says the following:

Corey Graham - Bears try, but fail to hold onto him

Craig Steltz - Re-signs

Kahlil Bell - Re-signs

Amobi Okoye - Re-signs

Kellen Davis - Re-signs

Izzy Idonije - Re-signs

Josh McCown - Too cloudy to see...

Zachary Bowman, Roy Williams, Tim Jennings, Caleb Hanie, and Brandon Merriweather all leave and we don't miss them. Hanie is seen trying to latch on with a CFL team.

The new GM will be looking hard at bringing in some new blood into the secondary, on the offensive line and at the wide receiver position, the crystal shows. This should be an interesting couple months now.

How do you read the Bears' near-future?

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agreed

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by suckmyditka on Jan 23, 2012 11:14 AM CST reply actions

Unless I'm wrong

Bowe was drafted in 2007. Emery was with Atlanta when Bowe was drafted.

"He took a shot in the most sensitive and painful area" - MIke Tirico

by boondock_saint812 on Jan 23, 2012 11:24 AM CST reply actions

You are corrrect

I don’t know where I got that from, I will correct that.

...because Cutty does it.

by Sam Householder on Jan 23, 2012 11:51 AM CST up reply actions

Bowe would still be an excellent pick up.

"He took a shot in the most sensitive and painful area" - MIke Tirico

by boondock_saint812 on Jan 23, 2012 12:08 PM CST up reply actions

Tim Jennings is a player I might like to see return.

Not as a starter, but I think he could provide solid depth at CB for a reasonable price. I am fine with the rest of this crystal based prediction.

Bearsh!tt!n It ain't obscene- I'm a Bears fan that likes hittin and exclamation points.

by Bearsh!tt!n on Jan 23, 2012 11:25 AM CST reply actions

good predictions

When Mike Ditka calculates pi it's decimal representation ends.

by Lester A. Wiltfong Jr. on Jan 23, 2012 11:53 AM CST reply actions

Crystal ball

if its right, and they pay Forte, the whole Defense corp better get that same % raise, especially as they play twice as much and score twice as much.
WR from free agency? What team will let a good WR go? NOT ONE! Look at the Jets fiasco, the QB will be gone before a top WR.
What did a good Defense and Running game get SF? And they did have some good recievers and tight end.
The Lovie ERA has the talent of the BEARS in such decilne, its sad. We have, to be honest, Urlacher (over tired, imagine what he could do if the offense stayed out more that 3 plays?) we do have Cutler in place, we need major injection of youth and talent via the draft this year, or we are done.
My Crystal ball also tells me, that if Forte gets paid by the BEARS, the BEARS and Bears fans will lose large.

by Chopper Bear on Jan 23, 2012 12:06 PM CST reply actions

What did a good running game and defense get SF?

Uh, a 14-4 record and two muffed punts from the superbowl? And good receivers? Who do the niners have who is a good receiver outside of Vernon Davis? Nobody.

by lopey986 on Jan 23, 2012 1:31 PM CST via mobile up reply actions

If you havent heard it, check out Drake's song "The Motto"

towards the end of the song Tyga gives a shout out to Matt Forte.

Wouldnt it be funny if we had another DE with the last name Salters!

by fortefan09 on Jan 23, 2012 12:18 PM CST reply actions

I see Jennings and Graham and Forte returning

upgrades needed at DE, #1WR,#2WR,OT and we are ready to rock GB’s world.

All other moves would be to add or upgrade depth.

. "Most football teams are temperamental. That's 90% temper and 10% mental."
--Doug Plank

by ed_brown on Jan 23, 2012 12:29 PM CST reply actions

Please no Manningham.

Its not that he’s terrible or not better than what we have, he’s just not enough better.

by timoteo1312 on Jan 23, 2012 12:34 PM CST reply actions

We still need a replacement for Knox

I think Manningham is better than a healthy Knox. But at the same time I think Johnny’s best days are behind him.

by Joeb'n777 on Jan 23, 2012 12:42 PM CST via mobile up reply actions

Good predictions

Bout the only thing I would change is I think that either Tim Jennings or Corey Graham are back and maybe both.

by Joeb'n777 on Jan 23, 2012 12:45 PM CST via mobile reply actions

I dont see the Chiefs lettinf Bowe go

Realistically Colston ar Vjax will be a Bear. i see the Bears picking up a cb via Free agency and drafting bpa in the draft which will be a wr, De, OT, Cb, and lb in no particular order

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by EmmCeee on Jan 23, 2012 1:00 PM CST via Android app reply actions

Good stuff. Here's my best guess...

GM – Emery… a good choice but was about 5th on my list. As long as it’s not Ruskell. Question is… how much rope will he be given to get the job done or will it be business as usual with poor front office decisions?

WR – The Bears are going to make a play for one of the big names. If Emery had a good relationship with Bowe, he’ll be target #1. I don’t think most WRs will make it to FA, but I can see Bowe, Colston, Floyd (not VJax) and DeSean Jackson all becoming FAs, as well as Wayne.

RB – Forte will be re-signed, and this will be a good indicator of how the new GM will run things. If he’s signed fairly quickly then I think that means the new GM will have a lot more freedom to do what he thinks will be right. Personally I think we’re going to overpay Forte, but we’ll see. If it goes to a franchise tag/holdout, it’ll be another disappointing move by the FO.

Of the major FAs on our roster…

We will re-sign: Forte, K.Davis, Idonije, Jennings, Steltz.

We will cut: Omiyale

We will not re-sign: Hanie (obvious), Bell (I think someone gives him #2 RB money), R.Williams (obvious), Meriweather.

Coin Flip: Sanzenbacher, Iwuh, Bowman

In the draft…

…we will target a WR in the 1st round unless we are able to sign a #1/#2 type in FA. If we aren’t targeting a WR early, I suspect we will look at OL or DE.

…we will look to get depth in the secondary and in the LB corps, grab at least one WR (two if we don’t get one in FA) and grab at least one OL.

by IOftenPanic on Jan 23, 2012 1:10 PM CST reply actions

Whoops... we already have Sanzenbacher signed apparently.

by IOftenPanic on Jan 23, 2012 1:20 PM CST up reply actions

So basically what will happen is the opposite of what everyone rational bear fan wants.

This means they promote ruskell to gm. Draft defensive lineman and safeties. Don’t sign free agent o lineman or wr (they will re sign Roy Williams and maybe sign another veteran washed up wideout as well, but no difference makers).

Hopefully they at least invest in some shovels for our offensive players to scrape cutler’s limp body off the turf.

by lopey986 on Jan 23, 2012 1:34 PM CST via mobile reply actions

Who'd You Rather Have?

When the Bears were interviewing Jimmy Raye, there was talk he would have some influence in bringing Vincent Jackson from San Diego. I think it’s most important that we get the best GM, but after watching Jackson torch the Bears for about 170 yards, I’d rather have him as the X receiver than Bowe.

by taketheunder on Jan 23, 2012 2:27 PM CST reply actions

I'd take bowe over Jackson or colston.

Bowe has done more with less (played with bad qb’s compared to rivers and brees).

Bowe has played in similar conditions to what he’d have to play in in Chicago (v jax is warm west coast weather, colston is a dome guy).

Bowe is younger than both of those receivers as well.

by lopey986 on Jan 23, 2012 2:42 PM CST via mobile up reply actions

Idk

I would think the Bears resign either Graham or Jennings. The certainly need to draft or sign one in free-agency as well.

Bowe and Manningham would be a nice tandum.

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by propheteer on Jan 23, 2012 4:12 PM CST reply actions