Training camps have wrapped up, the NFL season is right around the corner, and it's still hot as sin outside. But instead of cooling you off with a warm island song, FanHouse break out ye old heat check for our 2009 NFL Season Previews. " We'll rate each club in 5 categories on a scale of 1 to 10, high score wins.
After the Bears made the announcement of their franchise-shattering acquisition of Jay Cutler, they didn't rest. Within a few hours, they announced they had also agreed to terms with venerable left tackle Orlando Pace. I'll admit, I was overly excited about the two new Bears, as were all my Bears fans friends -- which is weird, usually at least one of us disagrees about player movement. Make no mistake about it, though. We aren't delusional. This team is far from complete and the die-hards know it.
With the team still a decent amount below the salary cap and several holes left to fill for 2009, here's what I think the Bears should do.
I've taken time to check out many message boards and comments sections across the internet. What I'm finding, for the most part, is that fans of teams other than the Bears think this is a terrible deal. Their "evidence," though, is usually incredibly flawed. Here are some of the reasons people think the deal is poor for the Bears, followed by my rebuttals.
Because the NFL season never ends, we present our 2009 Offseason Roadmaps for front offices to navigate through the summer.
The Bears surprised everyone by being a respectable football team in 2008. Most expected them to completely unravel, winning maybe three of four games. Instead, they took down the Colts in Indianapolis to kick off a winning season.
Along the way, though, they blew several key games and ended up severely disappointing their own fans by not winning a very winnable division -- not to mention one additional win would have garnered a wild card.
I even felt confident enough in my team to call a division title last week with the team sitting only 2-2 and tied with what most believed was a far superior Packers team heading into the season.
I'm even more confident after the complete game they played this past week -- admittedly against a Detroit area JV team -- teamed with the Packers home loss to Atlanta.
''We're heading to the Super Bowl,'' defensive end Mark Anderson said. ''I really feel that way.''
I'm expecting people to make a big deal out of this and act like he's gone with the played-out guarantee. Let us try to sit back and notice his wording, though. Is it really that ridiculous for a player on a good team to deep down believe his team is going to the promised land?
Not only do I have no problem with this proclamation as a fan, but I actually love the strong belief the third-year pass-rushing specialist has in this team.
Before yesterday's season ended with a 33-25 win over the Saints, FanHouse's Ryan Wilson cautioned Bears fans to expect some big changes on the team heading into next season. While there will certainly be new faces in the lineup next year, it didn't take Lovie Smith long to assure the masses that there wouldn't be any changes at the top. He was asked if he anticipated making a change at either coordinator position and you didn't need a linguistics degree to parse his answer.
''No, I don't.''
That settles that, I guess. If the Bears are smart, though, they won't be so complacent with their roster.
The offensive line needs to be upgraded, starting with Fred Miller at right tackle. Cedric Benson struggled as the starting tailback before getting hurt but the team wasn't exactly giving him wide open spaces to scamper through on his way to a good season. Obviously quarterback remains a position of uncertainty as well, but if they had All-Pros at both positions behind this line they would still be 7-9. At least Ron Turner finally got the message about getting Devin Hester more involved in the offensive game plan.
Eagles 38, Saints 23 Bears 35, Packers 7 When the Saints have the ball: If the Saints want to keep their slim playoff hopes alive they'll need to win Sunday and then get help from the Broncos and Cowboys. If they want to win, they'll need to throw the ball early and often. While Aaron Stecker has done a fair job of filling in for Deuce McCallister and a better job than Reggie Bush, the Bears are most vulnerable through the air. Mark Anderson and Nathan Vasher are both on IR, limiting Chicago's pass rush and their coverage, and the Saints have shown that they can spread the ball around when Sean Payton looks beyond his predilection for screen passes. The weather looks like it will cooperate this week, Mother Nature was the 12th man in Chicago's performance last weekend, which will make it that much tougher for them to hang with the Saints offense. New Orleans will need to account for Brian Urlacher, however. After a middling season, Urlacher's played his best two games in the last two weeks and would love to spoil New Orleans' season.
Last year at this time the talk was about the Bears' potential Super Bowl chances, the dominating defense, and the spectacular rookie season of fifth-round pick, defensive end Mark Anderson.
Twelve months later, Chicago has been a monumental disappointment, the team is no close to finding a legit quarterback, and the defense has struggled. And Anderson hasn't been immune. After registering 12 sacks in 2006, Anderson got off to a fast start this season -- he had four sacks in the first four games -- but finished with just five. He also struggled against the run, and in 13 more starts than last season, he has just three more tackles.
'I'll say Mark's year is like the rest of our year,'' coach Lovie Smith said. ''He played a 6-9 pace like all of us have. We would like for our entire football team, for all of us to improve next year, to get back where the Chicago Bears belong.''
And now Anderson's sophomore season is over; he was placed on injured reserve earlier this week after injuring his left knee on a Chester Taylor cut-block during the December 17 Vikings game.
Alex Brown, who lost his job to Anderson at the beginning of the year, will start his second consecutive game of the season.
Where is the fine for Morelli and his crew for not doing their job the right way? That's the problem with this fine for me. Anderson wasn't penalized during the game for an infraction that happens all the time without further action from the league. It wasn't particularly egregious, there was no intent to injure Kitna and, while it should have been a penalty, it should have been left on the field.
I know the NFL treats quarterbacks like fragile little flowers and, given their importance to the game, I guess I can't bellyache too much about attempts to keep them healthy. When something doesn't fall outside the bounds of normal game play, though, my feeling is that it's football. I don't think he'd be fined if he had used the facemask while tackling Kevin Jones and if it is a quarterback, a tailback or a punter the rules should be the same.
I spent so much of my time over the past few weeks wrapping up the Chiefs' 2006 season. It's about time that I put the final nail in that coffin. Here is my overview of the good, the bad, and the ugly for the Chiefs last season.
Offensive player of the year: Larry Johnson. Raise your hand if you're surprised by that choice.
Defensive player of the year: Tamba Hali. You know what pisses me off about the sports media? They have become so obsessed with fantasy football that they are now blindly choosing award winners by paper statistical achievements. Tamba Hali should have been neck-and-neck with Demeco Ryans for Defensive Rookie of the Year; instead, Hali did not even crack the top 4 in the voting. I absolutely cannot believe there are voters out there who actually think Mark Anderson was a better defensive end than Tamba Hali. First, Hali lines up to two career backup defensive tackles; Anderson lines up with Tommie Harris and Tank Johnson, one of the most lethal tandems in the NFL. Anderson is a pure pass rusher; Hali is an every-down lineman. Anderson's outstanding 12 sacks were only marginally better than Hali's very good 8.5 sacks, but Hali's 58 tackles far surpass Anderson's 28. Tamba, you deserved better than that.
Biggest disappointment The big uglies up front becoming... just ugly. Jordan Black was better than expected, but he was still lousy. The problem is, the rest of the offensive line was just as bad.
Training camps have wrapped up, the NFL season is right around the corner, and it's still hot as sin outside. But instead of cooling you off with a warm island song, FanHouse break out ye old heat check for our 2009 NFL Season Previews. " We'll rate each club in 5 categories on a scale of 1 to 10, high score wins.
After the Bears made the announcement of their 
Because the NFL season never ends, we present our 
Look, I love the Bears. 
Before yesterday's season ended with a 33-25 win over the Saints, FanHouse's Ryan Wilson cautioned Bears fans to expect some big changes on the team 
To get you ready for week 17, 
It's not quite as bad as if he wore the wrong hat to a press conference
I spent so much of my time over the past few weeks wrapping up the Chiefs' 2006 season. It's about time that I put the final nail in that coffin. Here is my overview of the good, the bad, and the ugly for the Chiefs last season.
