The Bears Den: May 16, 2013 - Offseason news and notes

Larry Mayer's Chalk Talk - Larry discusses Matt Blanchard's improvement, the most impressive UDFA at rookie minicamp, and the likelihood of Marquess Wilson making the 53-man roster.

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Bearsss

Earl Bennett sees new offense helping receivers - Michael C. Wright: Like the vast majority of his teammates, Earl Bennett expressed optimism about the club's new staff, and the possibilities of the offense under Trestman and Kromer.

Forte looking for offense to be more than “one-dimensional” - Moon Mullin: One of the intriguing story lines of the season may be how Marshall responds to diminished football traffic in his direction, because that clearly is indirectly part of the plan for the Bears offense under Marc Trestman.

[Video] ESPN - Decaf Herm says the offense is the main concern for the Bears and discusses how QB Jay Cutler can have a successful season. (Warning: Herm wakes up a bit in the second half of the clip.)

NFCN Blog - Kevin Seifert: Time in pocket for all NFCN QBs. Cutler had to wait for deep routes to develop last season.

With franchise tag, Melton low key about contract talks - Brad Biggs: The franchise tag brought with it more hoopla for Matt Forte a year ago than it has for Henry Melton this spring.

Chatwrap - Adam L. Jahns' Bears Q&A session. Could have been better edited.

[Video] - Stephen Paea is facing the challenge of handling triplets.

Oldest living Bears player turns 95 years young - Larry Mayer: John W. Siegal, the oldest living former Bears player, celebrated his 95th birthday yesterday.

These fine gentlemen are eagerly anticipating the success of teams from a certain midwestern city that begins with a "C" and ends in "hicago".....

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Polish sausage

Number crunching a growing craze in the NFL - Jarrett Bell: 18 NFL teams — including already-established analytics-influenced operations such as the 49ers and Falcons — were represented at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference in Boston in March.

ChatWrap - Kevin Seifert's reader Q&A on the likelihood of Urlacher landing with the Vikings.

Know thy enemy: Lions - Marc Sessler: Matthew Stafford has passed for more than 10,000 yards the past two seasons, but some still question if he's elite. Are they right? Or is Stafford misunderstood?

Know thy enemy: Vikings - Joe Soucheray: If Bud Grant likes this Vikings stadium, so do I. But still.....