Admit it, you’re jealous of his mustache.
Yeah. Dolphins cut Johnson.
So Weeden is interesting. He seems to be completely uninterested as to whether or not a receiver is open when he throws the ball. On the other hand, he’s placing the ball in a good position, away from the defender, with good rotation and velocity. But he’s completely been oblivious to the underneath coverage on some of the crossing routes and slants.
He’s pretty much the exact opposite of Colt McCoy. McCoy can move pretty well, Weeden can’t. McCoy throws few picks, but only because he won’t throw the ball unless a receiver is way open. He almost never makes tight throws or anticipates a receiver getting open after a brake. Then he floats a hard to catch ball behind a receiver. Weeden is much riskier - he throws the ball regularly to well covered guys, but it’s a really nice ball.
Weeden would really benefit from having big receivers with great body control - if he was throwing to Larry Fitzgerald or Calvin Johnson (or Justin Blackmon) he’d put up monster stats. Those guys would box out the defenders, and Weeden would throw the ball to the receiver’s hands away from the defenders even if they were double covered.
Unfortunately the Cleveland receiving corps is a bunch of pussies. They won’t use their bodies to block out the defenders or fight for the balls, and Weeden is going to end up throwing a lot of picks that were the fault of a shitty route and bad positioning from the receivers.
In any case, at least this gunslinger shit will be fun to watch. I’ve had enough of McCoy throwing a 3 yard wheel route to the RB on 3rd and 9.
Just watched the replay of the Bears 2nd preseason game and have some thoughts.
This is probably the most impressive collection of skill position players I’ve ever seen in blue and orange. For the first time in my memory there will be a legitimate decision when cuts come along.
At WR things look peachy. Marshall is legit and looks pretty much uncoverable. Jeffery has been a real surprise as well, I liked him a lot before the draft but worried about drops and separation. Through 2 games, I haven’t seen a single drop and he’s so big and uses that size to well that he doesn’t really need to separate. He and Marshall could make any team with undersized CBs lose sleep. Bennett and Hester will be there in the slot and there’s a bunch of other guys fighting for roster spots behind them. Weems looked great this week and is a special teams ace, Rashied Davis is back and probably will not make the team but the coaching staff loves his intangibles and special teams work. Sanzenbacher after a decent rookie season might be left fighting for a roster spot. They’ve got another 6’5" guy on the outside in Chris Summers who has been getting open a ton, but he needs to work on those drops. He’d make a great practice squad guy if he doesn’t make the final roster.
We’ve got a log jam at TE as well, though with quite a bit less upside. Davis is the defacto starter, he’s been unimpressive so far but I’m high on him. They drafted a rookie who’ll be a hybrid H-back type in Rodriguez, he’s been atrocious as a blocker so far but has great hands. Spaeth is back as the in-line blocking specialist but I’m not sure there’ll be room for him on the roster. Kyle Adams was a surprise UDFA last year and is playing like the best TE on the roster right now, he will almost certainly make the team.
At RB we’re pretty well set with Forte and Bush. There’s a battle for the 3rd spot with Bell as a frontrunner, his fumbling issues worry me. They like him because he’s an all-around type back who could replace Forte if he goes down but I think I’d rather give the 3rd spot to a 3rd down scat-back type. They’ve got a pair of guys fighting for that spot in Armando Allen and Lorenzo Booker. Not sure who I prefer, Allen had some nice moments last season and Booker had a kickoff TD this week.
Even the QB position is a bit deep for a change. Cutler is obviously the guy and looks completely healthy and will throw the ball to Marshall about 15 times each game. Campbell gives us a lot of security as a backup and he played really well last night. They brought back McCown as the 3rd QB but he might lose his job to UDFA Matt Blanchard who’s really caught some people by surprise. Odds are good that McCown is the guy but the Bears might be worried that Blanchard won’t survive cuts to get to the practice squad. Will be very interesting to see what happens between these two in the 4th game.
While that’s all good and rosy, things aren’t nearly as positive on the O line. They still suck. The first team held up fairly well this week when Cutler was in there, but the backups got their asses handed to them. Both the LT and LG spots have been an issue and not a single guy has stepped up to claim the job. It’s really bad news, and the one strength they had was in run blocking last season and thus far in the preseason they haven’t even been doing that. Really wish we’d have used that 1st round pick on a OL.
Our punter got hurt last night, which is bad news. Hopefully it’s not serious, he set a Bears record for net average last season.
The defense is pretty worrisome. They are basically getting nothing out of McClellin and unless something clicks with him I find it hard to see him ever being a starter, let alone a star. The inside of the D line is looking like a strength and Peppers is Peppers, but they still need to generate more pressure on obvious passing downs.
With Urlacher still hurt the linebackers are pretty shaky. Briggs is a rock. They’ve got some young backups they are hopeful about but they are all late draft picks and are pretty limited athletically. Roach filled in for Urlacher fairly well, but he’s not the impact that Urlacher is in the passing game. We’ve got to get healthy here.
The defensive secondary is better than it has been in recent years, at least it looks it so far, and we’ve brought in a couple of tested veterans. The starters are pretty well set and both safeties Wright and Conte should be improved, so long as they can stay healthy. Still, there’s a reason guys like Wilhite and Hayden were available on the open market for cheap.
Overall I’m optimistic about the defense, but for the first time in years I’m actually feeling more confident in the offense.
I’ll check back in a couple more times before the start of the season to see if my positivity holds up.
Yeah. Already looking at who might be the best guy available with the inevitable high pick that our shitty QB play (combined with porous OL) is going to bring us. 2012 is a write off and we’ve not even got to Week 1 yet.
I feel sad for Larry Fitzgerald (at least as much as I can for a multi-millionaire, but still, he deserves better than this).