2011 NFC North

The Game Room
401

That’s awesome, Omni. I hope your parents (and yourself) enjoyed it.

On behalf of Packer fans, I apologize for their subhuman behavior. I wish I could pretend all Packer fans were as well behaved, intelligent, and classy as I am, but that’d be a lie.

13 Championships isn’t a little brother. It’s the big fucking bully beating on your head.

Glad to hear you had a good time. Of course I’m more glad the Packers got to secure home field throughout the playoffs at the Bears’ expense, but still glad you enjoyed it.

402

The NFC North has a pretty good showing at the Pro Bowl this year, 14 total players, which looks like the most of any division in the NFC.

Green Bay (7)
Greg Jennings, wide receiver

  • John Kuhn, fullback
  • Clay Matthews, outside linebacker
    B.J. Raji, interior lineman
  • Aaron Rodgers, quarterback
    Scott Wells, center
  • Charles Woodson, cornerback
    Chicago (5)
    Lance Briggs, outside linebacker
    Matt Forte, running back
    Corey Graham, special teamer
    Charles Tillman, cornerback
    Brian Urlacher, inside/middle linebacker
    Detroit (1)
  • Calvin Johnson, wide receiver
    Minnesota (1)
  • Jared Allen, defensive end
403

I appreciate what Tillman does, but it’s a bit of a travesty that he made the Pro Bowl this year. I’m not sure what the NFC competition was but I’d be shocked if Tillman was a top 3 CB. Also, if healthy Cutler absolutely deserved to be nominated over Manning and I think Stafford probably deserved to be there more too. Eli hasn’t been that impressive at all. Not sure why Forte is listed there since IRed players are ineligible.

404

As a Packer fan I think that Nelson should have gone instead of Jennings.

405

I don’t necessarily disagree, though I suspect that Nelson wasn’t on the fan ballot at all (teams usually submit their starters to be listed on the ballot, which would have been Jennings and Driver), which would have made it extremely difficult for him to have done well enough in the other two-thirds of the voting (coaches and players) to make it.

406

I don’t really get why John Kuhn is going to the Pro Bowl. He’s not a very good run blocker, he’s not a particularly good receiver or runner, and he’s not on the field on passing downs so it doesn’t matter if he can pass protect.

I also don’t understand why Josh Sittin isn’t going to the Pro Bowl. He’s the best guard in football. Davin Joseph deserves to be there, but I highly doubt both Saints do.

What are you, nuts? Manning passed for twice as many yards and touchdowns as Cutler in one and a half times the games. I appreciate that Manning has better receivers and a better offensive line than Cutler, but nobody voted David Carr to the Pro Bowl for his ability to take a sack.

Cutler didn’t even complete 60% of his passes this year. He cut down on the interceptions, but was otherwise the same mediocre quarterback he’s been since Year 3.

I’ll buy Stafford; he has better numbers than Manning all around and does not have an appreciably better supporting cast.

407

Name another fullback in the NFC. And, Kuhn doesn’t even actually play the fullback position much, if at all. Fullback is a dying position in the NFL, and Kuhn’s probably the most visible guy in the NFC who at least looks like a fullback.

408

Ovie Mughelli (though he’s on IR). Erik Lorig. Tony Fiammetta. Korey Hall. Henry Hynoski. Bruce Miller. Owen Schmitt.

I would have picked Fiammetta, Hynoski or Scgmitt over Kuhn. It’s true that Kuhn is probably the most visible.

I think they should just roll fullbacks into the tight end category, since there are more teams nowadays running 2-TE than 2-back sets.

409

Yeah, I can’t even find a credible argument based on stats for Cutler over Manning, or even Stafford. The best thing to happen to Cutler’s reputation this year was Hanie absolutely sucking.

410

Maybe the Bears can trade Cutler to the Redskins (assuming Shanahan still has a hard-on for him), re-sign Kyle Orton, and use the Redskins’ pick to draft a tackle.

That’s not so say that Orton is better than Cutler, necessarily, but he’s way cheaper and certainly no worse.

411

There are no stats to back it up. Cutler’s supporting staff is so pathetic that it’s a futile effort. However, watching every snap he had you could see that he was simply carrying this offense single-handedly. If you put him in a system with a competent GM and OC who supplied him with anything resembling talent he’d be dominating. You saw glimpses of it under Shanahan. He was playing great with an unreasonably high degree of difficultly this season.

412

Neither Raji nor Kuhn should have even sniffed the pro bowl. Stafford deserved the 3rd QB spot, no doubt. Some other of my Lions had strong seasons (Houston, Delmas, Tulloch, Avril) but none were worthy of a probowl spot.

413

No, he played about average with a higher than average degree of difficulty.

414

It’s being theorized in the Green Bay paper that Suh didn’t get many votes from the players (many of whom don’t seem to like him very much), and Raji may have benefited from at least some of that.

415

You know who has comparable stats to Cutler? Matt Moore. You know whose O line has given up 9 more sacks than Cutlers? Matt Moore’s. Granted Moore has Brandon Marshall (as did Cutler when he made his pro bowl), but I don’t see much clamor for Matt Moore to beat out Phillip Rivers.

416

Well, the NFC North will be, once again, sending two teams into the playoffs this year. Thanks to the Bears’ inability to judge/develop talent for 4 whole years in its backup QB, it’s only two.

The Lions get to go to New Orleans and play the Saints on Saturday night. I fear for what Brees could do to that secondary that was just lit up by Matt Flynn yesterday. The Packers will have a bye week to get even more healthy (and hopefully not rusty) and will be at home throughout the playoffs. Not a bad season for the NFC North.

Yesterday’s games weren’t the best representation of those teams though. The Bears beat the Vikings in a meaningless game. We learned that Jared Allen is still pretty damn good, that J’Marcus Webb … isn’t, that Brian Urlacher is human after all, that Leslie Frazier can make a mess of a team (see the chaos of the last seconds of the first half), and that both these teams have some serious issues to deal with in the offseason.

The Packers beat the Lions in an almost as meaningless, but pretty damn exciting if you like passing pyrotechnics, game. While resting their Pro Bowl OLB (and only real pass rush threat) and their Pro Bowl CB, the Packers pass defense looked as bad as … well the Lions’. Which is really saying something. While I would like to say that I’m not concerned, the defense was so bad it might not have mattered if every Woodson and Matthews who ever played football was out there. There are some serious concerns, especially with pass happy teams like the Saints and Lions out there in the playoffs.

417

Technically Matt Flynn has a better 2010 QB rating (124.8) than Aaron Rodgers (122.5)

More of an amusing stat than a indicator of quality, since AR had several games with a rating of > 140

Brian

418

I know I should be disgusted by the atrocious performance that the Lions defense turned in, but I am just so excited by the way Stafford and CJ have found their groove. The way those two are playing, the Lions can expect to be perennial contenders. It’s a QB league and the Lions have a great one.

The Lions, thankfully, look to be healthy going into the playoffs. None of Corey Williams, Nick Fairley, Louis Delmas, or Aaron Berry played this past game but it sounds as if it were a playoff game all would have given it a go. So no excuses for this team. Getting Delmas back should be the biggest addition. His replacement, former Bear Chris Harris, is fat and useless back there.

It won’t be easy heading to face the 13-3 Saints who are undefeated at home, but after the Lions recent history, I’m as excited and hopeful as ever. Should be a wild, high scoring game.

Matt Flynn just earned himself a huge payday. Wonder if he will be more like Schaub and less like Kolb and Cassell when it comes to QBs who go to a new team after being a highly touted backup who doesn’t play much behind a good QB. He sure looked great yesterday.

419

Per the Sun Times: Jerry Angelo fired as Bears GM.

420

It’s too early to start the annual offseason/free agency NFL thread, but Bleacher Report trotted out a list of Free Agents the Bears should target this offseason and I wanted to talk about it. I figured this was as good a place as any. Here’s the column, in wildly annoying slideshow form.

Long story short, this is the list.

  1. Dan Connor, LB
  2. Cortland Finnegan, CB
  3. Demetrius Bell, LT
  4. Dwayne Bowe, WR
  5. Robert Mathis, DE
  6. Brent Grimes, CB
  7. Marques Colston, WR

I’d say that it’s a pretty damn excellent list. Obviously you’re not going to be able to get all of these guys and some of them are probably pipe dreams, but it’s a very well thought out list.

Starting at the top. Dan Connor fills a huge need for the Bears. We are dangerously shallow at LB and need an upgrade at SLB for Roach. Connor will be the Panthers 4th LB when Beason comes back in Carolina and should be able to be gotten at a fair price. And he gives us Urlacher insurance that is a dire need. I wouldn’t have put him at the top of my list originally, but they make a hell of a case here.

I despise Cortland Finnegan, but he too is such a good fit that it’d be a coup to land him. I love the toughness, so long as you can get it without too many penalties and we are going to need a guy like him in this division. This guy could break the bank, which would probably rule him out, but if the character issues drag down his cost you’ve have to consider it.

To jump ahead, Grimes is a guy I don’t know a ton about but the statistics are pretty undeniable. He seems like a real up and comer and would be an excellent fall back option for Finnegan. Grimes being a bit off the radar could make him more affordable and if the Finnegan character stuff isn’t a fit for the wholesome Bears that makes Grimes the top candidate. We need a CB desperately and these two guys are tough to argue against, if you have to get into a bidding war somewhere this is the position to do it. Though they could have gotten Carlos Rogers on the cheap last season so maybe they’ll be able to get one of these guys at a similar cost.

Improving on the OL is critical, but I’ve been opposed to spending another high draft pick on one all season. We are young already and we don’t have time to develop anyone any more. BR makes the same case and highlights Demetrius Bell as a low cost veteran option at LT which could demote Webb to the swing tackle where he probably belongs for a while. Great choice, we don’t need to spend top dollar on an LT but if we can get Bell for a mid-level cost he’d make us much better.

Things get really interesting with Bowe. He’s was at the very top of my list before reading this column, and frankly he may still be. However I think the bidding war on him will be insane and there’s a really deep WR FA class this year. I’d do back handsprings if we landed Bowe without crippling out cap but I suspect that’s what it would take. I dislike Colston as a second option, both he and Jackson are great players but I don’t want another injury prone guy at the position. We should draft a WR in the first round if we can regardless, but adding a big body FA WR is a must as well. At what cost is the question.

Mathis is probably a pipe dream. He’ll be really expensive and have a lot of suitors. He’d fit in impeccably well, but we need a pass rush specialist and not an every down guy. Mathis will be too expensive for that. Izzy is a good option on run downs and will be back, and if we end up spending money on Mathis that probably means we’re not getting a quality CB or WR. A bad result in my view. If there’s one need I’d feel comfortable addressing solely in the draft it’s pass rusher.

We should pick the best WR we can in the 1st round, hopefully Floyd will be available and pair him with a FA at the right price. Ideally Bowe, but lets not get too silly. We should pick a DE in the second round if at all possible. We should pick a OG/CB in the 3rd round, and bring in a stop gap LT in Bell and a reasonably priced CB who can play the Tampa 2 and move Tillman off the top threat. We should spend the rest of our draft picks on LBs and Safeties.