I've abandoned my Weekly Musings post for a while, and there's no better time than now to start it back up. This week, I'll be discussing Pisa's signing to the Bears and Jerry Angelo's Cutler trade.
Pisa joins the Bears
Most of us are pretty excited about this signing. I am. Hunter Hillenmeyer was constantly injured and didn't possess any semblance of pass coverage skills. Nick Roach filled in well, but I wasn't sure that he was the answer. I was thrilled with the Marcus Freeman pick, mostly because that would signal the end of either Hillenmeyer or Roach.
In this article, Brad Biggs thinks that the Bears will keep six linebackers. I'll run down my list:
Brian Urlacher
Lance Briggs
Pisa Tinoisamoa
Nick Roach
Marcus Freeman
Jamar Williams
Urlacher, Briggs, LTP, Roach, and Freeman are locks, IMO. The first three are obvious - Roach will stay due to his ST play and they won't cut Freeman this early. I figure Williams will stay over LaRocque and Hillenmeyer.
If the Bears do keep seven, I believe LaRocque stays over Hillenmeyer. Why? Jerry has done a masterful job of keeping the Bears well under the cap. If Hillenmeyer won't be starting as the Sam backer, why pay him $1.5 million? LaRocque is a cheaper option and he's somewhat valuable as a ST player.
Big Picture: Jerry Angelo
Jerry has done a great job this offseason. I'm always excited for the Bears season to start, but this is a little different. I'm really excited because the Bears retooled their team and they have a legitimate shot of doing great things.
However, let's take a step back and view Jerry's offseason, specifically the Cutler trade, through a different lens.
After the season, Jerry said that he was looking at all options at the quarterback position, whether it was a rookie or a veteran. At that point, the only legitimate option that could be conceivable was Matt Cassel. No one really knew if he would stay a Patriot or get traded to another team when Tom Brady came back. The Jay Cutler saga in Denver hadn't happened yet.
If Cutler hadn't become available, where would we be?
Most likely, Orton would still be a Bear and Jerry would have drafted a mid-round QB. Now, Jerry could have made a legitimate shot for Anquan Boldin, but I highly doubt that he would have.
Now, we can take Jerry's word and believe that he made the trade because Cutler was an elite quarterback. My cynical theory: I bet that Jerry felt the heat and knew that he didn't have many average seasons as a Bear left. When Cutler became available, he made the move: He legitimized his quote earlier in the offseason that it was on the coaches to make the team better and he bought himself some time to put forth winning teams.
Moron of the Month
Since I've abandoned my weekly post for a month, we're switching it up. The Moron of the Month goes to: ESPN.
Why? Their coverage of Brett Favre and Tom Brady. I could maybe understand how they covered Favre last fall; covering Favre now and giving him legitimacy is ridiculous and absurd. Now that Tom Brady made an appearance at the Pat's OTA, they wrote a story on how he stretched and threw in light rain.
I realize that Favre was and Brady is an elite quarterback, but ESPN, stop. No one truly wants to know every single little detail about how those guys are doing. If you show a punishment lap run by anyone during Training Camp 2009, I'm fairly certain my head will explode.
In other words: Stop being their PR agency. Stories like these are exactly why I have a love/hate relationship with your network.