With only the Super Bowl left to play, let’s start talking about the moving and shaking.
Key dates:
Feb 11-25: Franchise and transition tags
Feb 24-Mar 2: NFL Combine
Mar 5: Free agency begins
Mar 21-24: Annual NFL Meeting
April 22-24: 2010 NFL Draft
This season will be dominated by the affect of the uncapped 2011 season or the increasing probability of a work stoppage. I can;t believe how stubbornly stupid both sides are being in the face of overwhelming evidence, from strikes and lockouts in the recent past, that the league will suffer enormously if it happens. Baseball and especially hockey were devastated in the years following canceled seasons, while football itself was a laughing stock during scab seasons…
In other news, Kurt Warner announced his retirement. Classy guy shows people the right way to retire.
My team, the 49ers, now have greater expectations of winning the NFC West with that news. With two first-round draft picks, they have the ability to address some personnel gaps, either using or leveraging them. The only key player they could lose to free agency is nose tackle Aubrayo Franklin, but the team has their franchise tag to keep him around if negotiations don’t result in a long-term deal. I don’t foresee any splashy free-agent signings by the team, but some under-the-radar players should play roles next year.
I love the draft. I love all the pre-draft hype. I love the Combine and Pro Days and I love watching them on the NFL Network. I love Mock Drafts. I love Mel Kiper Jr. and Todd McShay. Really, the draft is the only thing that gets me though the offseason.
I really can’t explain how disappointing it is that the Bears don’t have a 1st or 2nd round pick this year. I’m still on board with the Cutler trade and am happy to have him (not so much the Gaines Adams trade) but damn this offseason is going to be painful.
I’m stoked. I think the Bengals are in a prime position to address their needs (WR, TE, S, LB) via the draft, returns from key injuries (Antwan Odom, Pat Sims, Rey Maualuga, Roy Williams) and FA to really have another go at the playoffs next season.
The Bengals do need to make an FA play for a vet wideout, I think. The Laverneus Coles experiment hasn’t gone so well, Chris Henry is dead and the absence of a true vertical threat (along with inconsistent pass protection from the oline, crappy TE’s and Palmer’s unusual misfires) really exposed our offense this season down the stretch in the passing game.
Its so weird. Bengals fans had been anticipating a top-flight defense since Marvin Lewis arrived, only to have a top-flight offense instead and lowly defensive rankings in 2005, 2006 and 2007. 2008 was a black, injury-plagued year on both sides of the ball, and suddenly in 2009 we get the defense we always thought we’d get (ranked 4th in the NFL) but the offense fell apart.
It’s pretty much set that Alex is the starter. Management has said that the only type of free agent QB they would consider is one with hall of fame credentials.
It’s highly, highly doubtful that the 49ers would take a first-round QB, and since they took Nate Davis as a developmental project last year, so they don’t have roster room for another late-round guy.
Sooooo…Brett Favre will be a 49er next season? Interesting!
Seriously though, they are going to need to settle on someone as “their guy” for good now, give it another year at least with Alex and if it doesn’t pan out, then start looking for other options.
Tell you what, the Bengals will give you JT O’Sullivan back, and you can return to us the services of Justin Smith and Ahmad Brooks…deal?
The Bears have some gaping holes all across the roster and a good measure of how smart and savvy a commentator is can very easily be discerned by what aspect they mention when talking about the Bears. Most of the idiotic talking heads on CBS, ESPN and Fox keep talking about the Bears needed to add an elite WR. These people are morons and didn’t watch the Bears and are simply aping what they read in the Sports Illustrated NFL preview from 2009.
Anyone with any intelligence and understanding of football can see that the Bears primary issue is Safety.
The WR corps isn’t elite by any stretch but they are good enough to get the job done, in no way were they the cause of any of our problems. Youth at the WR position seemed to create some problems and led to at least a handful of Cutler’s interceptions. Knox made the Pro Bowl and Aromashodu provided a missing element when he found the field. Hester, when used properly, can be an impact player still. Turner never used these guys properly, hopefully a new OC will. The have guys like Bennett and Iglesias providing depth and while I’m not high on Iglesias at all and Bennett has some very clear limitations, but this staff isn’t going to give up on either guy this year.
The offensive line had some real issues but it started to come together a bit in the last quarter of the season. Once the sent Pace packing and moved Williams to the left and Shaffer to the right things stabilized a lot. Omiyale needs to get his head screwed on right and everyone needs to improve their run blocking but it’s not the top priority at the moment. They need to look into adding depth and drafting guys with an eye on competing for a starting role, I think that that 3rd round pick ought to go for a Guard who might step in immediately, but if they absolutely are stuck with the guys they have now they could manage. Again a smart OC could build a system that uses these guys better.
Safety however is a disaster and we simply cannot hope to find a guy who can be an impact player in the draft. Every year they draft Safeties late in the draft with hopes that they’ll develop and find a gem. Afalava was a middling success and can be a contributor but the rest of that crew needs to be purged and they need to spend some real money on the position. Sharper was available in the offseason and they didn’t get him. Brian Dawkins was available and they didn’t get him. This year they need to find comparable guys and spend what it takes.
Defensive Line is obviously going to be a issue with a couple Free Agents popping up and the death of Adams. Rookies Gilbert and Melton essentially gave us nothing and we’ll be hoping beyond hope that 2010 is a different story. While getting a free agent there would be valuable I think it might be nearly impossible. They should resign the guys they have, and draft as many guys with upside as they can in the middle/late rounds.
The scary part is that much of this will depend on the choices at OC and DC and that’s becoming a complete disaster. I’ve given up predicting and hoping, I’m just going to surrender myself to the process. I’m this close to just giving up on 2010 and hoping that a post-Lovie 2011 with Heimerdinger at the helm will be the start of something good.
Just to add a bit to the last paragraph about the Bears coaching search: Mike Martz apparently has flown down to Nashville in order to meet up with Jay Cutler today following yesterday’s interview at Halas Hall with Lovie and company. This is supposedly the first person who’s interviewed with the team who’s been asked to make such a journey and might indicate that he’s the first candidate who’s actually interviewed with the team other than Bates who actually passed the initial stage of the process.
Martz as OC would probably be a feast or famine proposition. His system will either get Cutler killed, drive Cutler insane, make the WRs heads explode and send Forte into witness protection, or it will unleash a beast. If this happens we’ll have to pray that Cutler and Martz can coexist and that Lovie’s conservative style will rub off on Martz and force him to be just conservative enough to keep Cutler upright and Forte and the second RB TBA to occasionally get some positive carries. One can’t argue the potential that a Martz scheme could have with the copious speed of the Bears WR corps and Cutler’s cannon. Accuracy and route running will be the major Achilles heels.
I think I like the idea of a 1-year Martz experiment much more than a Kevin Rogers trial run. The caveat is that the marginal possibility that Martz could be a raging success might lead to a reprieve for Lovie and Angelo in 2011 which I cannot abide. The Kevin Rogers experiment accomplishes 2 things I like, it has less likelihood of being a complete sea change and it might weaken the Vikings in the long run. The odds of Rogers turning us into a winning team in 2010 is pretty slim so long as this defense continues to be mediocre.
Well, the Senior Bowl is done. The big stories for the NFL draft are that Tebow isn’t ready to be an NFL quarterback, Brandon Graham is a first round DE, Dexter McCluster is Percy Harvin-lite with a fumbling problem, and there are some intriguing young QB potential out there in the 2nd and 3rd rounds. I missed the game itself, of course, but I’m just starting to look at some of the talent coming out for the draft now. Later, maybe I’ll resurrect an old NFL draft thread and laugh at just how wrong I can be (I think I thought that Mark Clayton would be a stud WR).
Now, onto the combine, which is my least favorite of the offseason draft events.
Well, it’s apparently official, the Bears have hired Mike Martz to be their new OC. My previous post sums up my thoughts already, but I suppose it’s good that it’s decided finally. I didn’t have any expectations that we’d find some wunderkind in this process, nor did I really want one in what I hope is Lovie’s final season. All things considered, after Bates, Martz seems like the clear best choice.
Whatever happens from here on in, it’s going to be a tall order for Cutler and the O line. Hopefully it doesn’t ruin them. I have no concept of how good or bad Martz is at player evaluation, one would hope he can contribute long term in that way by getting some talent in the house.
Jeff Dickerson wrote an interesting blog post today regarding the speculation that Julius Peppers could be a free agent target for the Bears this offseason. There’s no question that he fills a desperate need for the Bears and with Ogunleye’s contract being up and his production slipping (not to mention the death of Adams) they could be convinced to pony up the dough to secure the position with a shortage of draft picks.
I’ve never really been a huge Pepper’s guy. He’s a physical freak and is occasionally dominant but when I think of defensive players who scare me Peppers isn’t on that list. His stats are consistent but he’s aging and it’s not as if the Panther defense has be particularly dominant with him on the edge. More fundamentally I dislike the thought of being the team that spend money to land the premiere free agent in a given offseason. The amount of money it costs and the long history of it becoming a marginal success at best and an anchor around your neck at worst leads me to think the money could be better spent on 2-3 players as opposed to one.
It’s food for thought though. If Peppers came to the NFC North and put up Jared Allen like numbers or better there’s little question that the Tampa 2 we run would find new life, and Tommie Harris might look like he’s worth the money too with some help outside.
My favorite part of it was when the Bears forced Martz to go to Tennessee to meet with Cutler. That made me laugh.
From what I’ve read, it seems Martz was pretty much the “take your sister to prom” choice, because they couldn’t get anyone else that they wanted. It should be interesting to see how it works out. At least you’ll get more production from the passing game, which will help Cutler’s ego.
Cutler may be able to handle the Martz offence, Martz did give Kitna a 4000 yard season in Detroit after all. But Hester, Knox and Forte are a looong way from being Bruce, Holt and Faulk. I see a very painful year in Chicago’s future.
On the other hand, for my poor, pitiful Rams pretty much anything they get will be a huge upgrade from what they have. Except HB and FS.
Who? I feel like I’m missing the punchline to something here…
And on a lighter note, Rey Maualuga got sentenced to 7 days in jail for a DUI and reckless operation. He had an 18 and 17 year old girls in the car with him (a Pontiac Sunfire? Really?) and he struck two parked cars and a parking meter leaving a Covington, KY bar a few nights ago.
When the arresting officer asked him where he thought he was trying to go, he replied “Looking for some place to fuck her” and pointed at the 18-year old girl with him.
Ah, my lovable Bengals, stay the fuck out of Northern Kentucky, and hire the Odell Thurman limo service, for crying out loud!
Oh, sorry. Trade him to the Bears. O’Sullivan is a Martz guy. He knows the system and can impress compared to better QBs who are still learning it. (He’s been with the Bears twice before, too.)
← opaque glasses.