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More Audibles From the Long Snapper: What Does it All Mean?

| June 6th, 2012

I imagine it is Twitter’s fault and it probably is. But at no point in the history of professional football have OTAs received the attention they are currently receiving across the landscape of the NFL. I heard the legendary athlete Tim Hasselbeck predict the Falcons to top the Saints in the NFC South this year because the Saints would lack for Drew Brees’ leadership…at OTAs. You know what it all is? Bullshit and nonsense.

BEARS REARRANGE PERSONNEL DEPARTMENT

I’m not going to get into the particulars of the moves but you can read Dan Pompei’s expansive breakdown of it all by clicking here. Here are the two most important changes:

The most significant moves were the promotions of longtime area scouts Marty Barrett and Chris Ballard.  Barrett will serve as the director of college scouting and Ballard will be the director of pro scouting.

The Bears had been operating without pro and college scouting directors for more than two years.

The highly respected Barrett has been an area scout in the West region for the Bears for 15 years, having worked for Mark Hatley, Jerry Angelo and now Emery. He previously was with the Saints.

Ballard long has been considered a rising star in the Bears organization.  As the Bears’ Southwest area scout, he has had considerable sway in the draft process for a number of years.  He has been with the organization since 2000.

I have nothing to add other than to say this continues to the process of Phil Emery rebuilding the entirety of the Chicago Bears organization in his own image.

HESTER WEIGHS IN ON HIS RETURN LIFE…

Here are the quotes from Vaughn McClure’s piece in the Trib:

“I think every now and then, I’m going to do kickoffs,” said Hester, who still is expected to handle most punt returns. “It will depend on how the game is going.

“If I’m involved in the offense the whole first and second quarters, maybe I’ll tell them to cut back on the kickoff returns. If I’m not getting that many touches on offense, of course I’m going to want to get some more touches on kickoff returns. That’s how I see things panning out.”

I can’t say I disagree with this, to be honest. If Hester somehow becomes a focal point of the Tice offense then the Bears should absolutely move him off the kickoff return game. If he’s not then he should return every single kick possible. With the receiving corps looking deeper and more talented than at any point in Bears history, I’m almost rooting for Hester to be returning kicks.

HENRY MELTON WANTS A NEW CONTRACT?

Henry Melton is in the last year of his rookie deal and has been essentially retweeting any individual who mentions him receiving a contract extension. Really? Melton has had one, one, ONE year that can be ranked above decent. He was good last year but why not leave your contract alone until you’ve proven you can be a productive NFL player for two consecutive seasons? If only one good year of football is required for a contract extension then why don’t NFL teams only reward players with one-year deals? One-for-one. That seems fair to me. (In case you can’t sense it I am getting royally pissed off about this contract shit. The richest sports league in the universe acts like they’re a third-tier soccer program operating out of the Pacific Northwest. It’s pathetic.)

OTAs end this week and then it’s the long wait until camp opening on July 26th. Are any of you planning to be in Bourbonnais? I’ll be soliciting fan photographs and videos to post here. Drop me an email: jeff@dabearsblog.com