I endorsed this player this week. I took a beaten. I didn’t care. I think Kyle Long is the real deal and the NFL have an offensive lineman for the next decade.

He will start at guard in 2013 but don’t be surprised if he’s a tackle in 2014.

From NFL.com:

Long looked to be on the road to professional success as a two-sport high school star in Charlottesville, Va. The son of Pro Football Hall of Fame defensive end Howie Long (84 sacks in 13 seasons) and brother of Chris Long, the former No. 2 overall pick of the St. Louis Rams in 2008, had the freakish size and athleticism to excel as an all-state baseball pitcher and first baseman, as well as an offensive and defensive lineman for back-to-back state champions at St. Anne’s-Belfield High School.

The lefty pitcher decided to accept a scholarship to Florida State to play baseball after spurning the advances of the Chicago White Sox, who selected him in the 23rd round of the 2008 draft. He lasted only one semester in Tallahassee, however, failing to make grades and eventually being cited for a DUI charge. After spending time at home to ponder his future, he decided to enroll at Saddleback Junior College for the 2010 season. He played defensive end in his first year there (16 tackles, two for loss, sack) and then moved to the offensive line as a sophomore. He chose Oregon over several other FBS suitors coming out of Saddleback, and started 10 out of 12 games for the Ducks on the offensive line despite his relative lack of experience. Applied for a sixth year of eligibility via a medical redshirt, but was denied. Both Howie and Chris Long have referred to Kyle as the best athlete of the family.

We’ve got four tee shirts remaining from our illustrious and well-selling 2012 collection. The shirt, which outsold our other shirts combined by a factor of 100, is seen both above and below.

We’re giving all four of the remaining shirts away. All you have to do is guess the Bears first round selection below. If more than four people guess the first round selection correct (nobody guessed last year’s) we’ll carry those people into the second round and so on.

Your selection must be listed in its own comment. Don’t bury it in the body of some long-winded commentary about DJ Fluker. Here is an example of what your selection should look like:

1st Round Pick: Manti T’eo

I will not be providing post updates throughout the night. I will write about the selection once the selection is made. To follow my commentary throughout the first round of the draft, get over your fears and follow me on Twitter by CLICKING HERE.

Who is my guess for tonight’s selection? The guy below:

We’ve got four tee shirts remaining from our illustrious and well-selling 2012 collection. The shirt, which outsold our other shirts combined by a factor of 100, is seen both above and below.

We’re giving all four of the remaining shirts away. All you have to do is guess the Bears first round selection below. If more than four people guess the first round selection correct (nobody guessed last year’s) we’ll carry those people into the second round and so on.

Your selection must be listed in its own comment. Don’t bury it in the body of some long-winded commentary about DJ Fluker. Here is an example of what your selection should look like:

1st Round Pick: Manti T’eo

I will not be providing post updates throughout the night. I will write about the selection once the selection is made. To follow my commentary throughout the first round of the draft, get over your fears and follow me on Twitter by CLICKING HERE.

Who is my guess for tonight’s selection? The guy below:

These are hard rules. Unbreakable and unflappable.

Rule #1

Don’t draft crazy. If a player was acting crazy in college, that will not improve once he is given the economic ability to literally do anything he wants.

Rule #2

If a player was injured repeatedly in college he will not stop being injured repeatedly when colliding with bigger, stronger men.

Rule #3

Never be afraid to draft a guy named George. There’s a bunch of them in the Hall of Fame.

Rule #4

The greatest defensive player in the history of the sport spent thousands of dollars a day – throughout his career – on cocaine. So don’t worry too much about failed drug tests for marijuana use.

Rule #5

Even if you have a terrific starter, drafting a quarterback is never a poor decision. It is the only position wherein a solid performance in meaningless preseason games can provide your franchise with a bounty of draft picks in the future.

I am asked, starting around…oh…October, who I’d like to see the Bears select in the first round of the coming NFL Draft. I not only don’t answer the question then  but I don’t answer the question now. The truth is this. Barring a few players here and there I’ve fallen in love with over the course of their collegiate careers, I don’t really care who the Bears select in the draft.

I did, when I was a kid. When I was thirteen years old I remember turning in my blue and white pinstriped Little League baseball uniform to John Cali – one of the only other Bears fans I knew in the world – and exclaiming with joy on a late Saturday morning, “We drafted Rashaan Salaam!” We did. The Bears did. I don’t really remember a moment in his career bringing me anywhere near the joy of that moment at the north field at Gunnell Oval in Kearny, NJ.

The whole of the NFL cares passionately about the draft until about three days after the draft. Then – unless your team has made a significant veteran talent trade or selected a quarterback in the early rounds – the entire football media realizes the selections made over the final weekend in April will not drastically impact the upcoming season. Even solid performers like Trent Richardson, Doug Martin, Bruce Irvin and Chandler Jones were not defining factors for their clubs over the whole of 2012. Everyone fixates over the pending rookies until they actually become rookies. Everyone fixates over rookies until they hit the rookie wall.

And I hate the new format for the event. Draft weekend used to be the football connoisseur’s binge weekend. We’d cut football into thin white lines on a mirror and bury our noses in it.

Two full, long days. Now we not only have speculation an analysis on the lead-up to the overall draft, we have speculation and analysis (none of which matters) before and after rounds one, two and after each of the weekend days.

I like the draft because I like to watch how teams approach it. I am far more interested in what positions team target than in which players they select. Will the Packers attempt to add more weapons for Aaron Rodgers? Will the Vikings be attempting to replace Percy Harvin? Will the Lions ever attempt to add good players to their secondary? The players are a guess. An educated guess, sure, but a guess nevertheless. The positions tell you everything.

But fans love the NFL and anything NFL-related draws interest. I can’t complain. Thursday-Sunday will see my Twitter gain followers and this blog gain readers. But as an event, it just doesn’t excite me anymore. Maybe it’s this guy’s fault.

Schedule release day!

Schedule release day!

Put the kids to bed early because the schedule hast been released! (I care about two significant elements of the schedule release: the national games and my fall bears-related travel schedule.)

WEEK ONE

Sunday, September 8th

Bears v. Bengals

NOTE: This is my favorite day of the year and I’m very happy the Bears are playing the early game. There is nothing worse than waking up at 5 AM from the excitement of a new season and having to wade through seven hours of other teams playing before the Bears kickoff.

WEEK TWO

Sunday, September 15th

Bears v. Vikings

NOTE: Two home games to start the season will be gold in Marc Trestman’s eyes. All he has to worry about from mid-August to mid-September is winning football games.

WEEK THREE

Sunday, September 22nd (Primetime)

Bears at Steelers

NOTE: You knew this game was going to draw an NBC slot and it’s wise of them to play this one early. Both these teams can just as easily win 7 games as win 11. Get them both in September when their seasons are in front of them.

WEEK FOUR

Sunday, September 29th

Bears at Lions

NOTE: Am I the only one who found this game more frightening before the Lions replaced Jason Hanson with David Akers? It is a Bears/Lions game. It’ll be close.

WEEK FIVE

Sunday, October 6th

Bears v. Saints

NOTE: This begins the most difficult stretch of the Bears season. I am sure the Bears were hoping to see Sean Payton and the Saints on the schedule once the weather flipped to frigid in late December. A beautiful early-October day was not what they had in mind.

WEEK SIX

Thursday, October 10th (Primetime)

Bears v. Giants

NOTE: Mel Tucker has to prepare for one of the most dynamic offenses in the sport – the Saints – the previous Sunday. He then has three days to prepare for another of the most dynamic offenses in the sport. Bears should be happy to split these games.

WEEK SEVEN

Sunday, October 20th

Bears at Redskins

NOTE: Impossible to evaluate a Redskins game until we find out the status of Robert Griffin. I Tweeted the other day that I believe many of us will throw the remote control at the TV at least once this summer and scream, “Just tell us when he’s ready to play football!” I think the entire league wanted to see the Redskins on their schedule inside the six-week PUP window.

WEEK EIGHT

Sunday, October 27th

Bye week.

WEEK NINE

Monday, November 4th (Primetime)

Bears at Packers

NOTE: Kudos to the NFL on seemingly altering their relationship with ESPN and Monday Night Football. ESPN has been sitting with some truly awful games the last few years and their slate in 2013 is solid. The Bears have two months to prepare for the Packers – essential for a new head coach.

WEEK TEN

Sunday, November 10th

Bears v. Lions

NOTE: Win.

WEEK ELEVEN

Sunday, November 17th

Bears v. Ravens

NOTE: I still think the NFL made an error not playing this game on the opening Thursday night but they also put the Raiders on the Thanksgiving slate so maybe I’m the crazy one. Sending the Ravens to Chicago would enable the league to send Peyton Manning back to Indianapolis on the opening Sunday night and create a really magical first weekend.

WEEK TWELVE

Sunday, November 24th

Bears at Rams

NOTE: I’ve never been to St. Louis…

WEEK THIRTEEN

Sunday, December 1st

Bears at Vikings

NOTE: I’ve never been to Minneapolis either but I’m sort of okay with that.

WEEK FOURTEEN

Monday, December 9th (Primetime)

Bears v. Cowboys

NOTE: One thing to watch here: the rating. If the Bears and Cowboys are both in fine form entering the game this will do the highest rating in the history of Monday Night Football on ESPN.

WEEK FIFTEEN

Sunday, December 15th

Bears at Browns

NOTE: If the Browns are struggling into December, expect this game to feel like a Bears home game. (It may not matter if the Browns are struggling or not.)

WEEK SIXTEEN

Sunday, December 22nd

Bears at Eagles

NOTE: Tough to win back-to-back road games in the NFL but if the Bears fancy themselves a playoff team in 2013 they are most likely going to need to win these two.

WEEK SEVENTEEN

Sunday, December 29th

Bears at Packers

NOTE: What else needs to be said?

OVERALL THOUGHT ON THE SCHEDULE

It’s fine.

The league did not wait as long as many believed, announcing the 2013 schedule will be released Thursday evening at 8 PM in a live special on the NFL Network and on NFL.com. While this has been a difficult week to focus my mind on football (or sports in general) it will be a welcomed relief. Here are some of my thoughts and hopes for that schedule.

• I hope the Ravens open in Chicago on Thursday night. The way I see it there are three options for the opener. (1) Ravens at Steelers. It may very well be the sport’s best rivalry but a game of this level of importance shouldn’t be played to open the year. (2) Ravens at Broncos. Peyton Manning is always an attractive star but this game doesn’t need his star power. It is going to do the best rating of the fall anyway. (3) Ravens at Bears. Why would the league NOT want to open their season in America’s greatest football city? I think the league will be crazy if they choose to play this game elsewhere.
• I am always a believer that the NFL should schedule more inter-conference games early. They count but they are games teams feel slightly better about losing. How about this one for the first Sunday nighter: Broncos at Colts. Peyton returns to Indianapolis. What a perfect way to celebrate the end of the greatest day of the year.
• Don’t give us some shitty Raiders or Chargers game in the second Monday night slot on opening weekend. There are west coast teams people WANT to see in Seattle and San Francisco. So if you want to avoid a marquee game in this slot, how about Gus Bradley returns to coach against Pete Carroll. Jacksonville at Seattle.
• Don’t make the Bears play the Packers on Thursday night. And certainly not on the road. Those games are too damn important to have one team ill-prepared and chances are the ill-prepared squad might be the one with a rookie head coach.
• THANKSGIVING on CBS. Baltimore at Detroit. Since we are forced to watch the Lions every year we might as well see them against the defending Super Bowl champions.
• THANKSGIVING on FOX. Green Bay at Dallas. Will just blow the roof off the ratings.
• THANKSGIVING on NBC. Denver at the Giants. This is the biggest no-brainer in the history of NFL scheduling. This is a family day and the Mannings are the first family of the NFL. If NBC were smart they’d have Archie either in the broadcast booth or sitting next to Dan Patrick at halftime.
• Make Andy Reid against the Eagles a Monday Night Football game.
• Keep the Jets as far from primetime as possible.

That’s all for now. I’ll post the schedule Thursday night once it is live.

NFL Network has blocked off two hours tomorrow night to announce the 2013 NFL regular season schedule. That release – and the 5,000 word opus I’d penned as a compliment – have both been delayed to the week of the draft.

The drama surrounding this year’s schedule could very well involve the Bears – among three teams expected to be in the running to host the Ravens on the opening night of the NFL calendar (along with Denver and Pittsburgh). And while I would greatly miss the experience of the first NFL Sunday – my favorite day of the year – I can’t imagine the league NOT wanting to hold their opening night festivities in the great city of Chicago.

For now, the drama waits.

Brian Urlacher, Charles Woodson, John Abraham, Dwight Freeney, James Harrison, and Casey Hampton all have much in common.

They have all been perennial Pro Bowlers, they were all cornerstones of their respective franchise cornerstones, and they may all get serious Hall of Fame consideration.

They were all starters in 2012.

And they are all out of a job.

It’s nearly a month into free agency already, and almost no team has shown much interest in any of these men. How could such capable, experienced players find themselves on the outside looking in?

All about the Benjamins

As with most things in life, it all comes down to money.  All of these players are in line to take a significant pay cut from their previous hefty contracts, and not all of them may be willing to do so.  Brian Urlacher, for example, was offered a one-year, $2 million contract by the Chicago Bears, which he turned down and called a “slap in the face.”  Yet if he wants to play football in 2013, he’ll probably end up playing for even less than that.

Other veterans face similar pay cuts from previous lofty salaries, and many — Elvis Dumervil, Brent Grimes, Nnamdi Asomugha, and Antoine Winfield to name a few — have been cut and left no choice but to sign new, significantly smaller contracts.

The NFL is finally starting to see the effects of the 2011 collective bargaining agreement, and it is not looking pretty for veterans.  Many of them were very happy to see rookie salaries slashed and veteran minimum salaries increased, but the flip side of this is that younger players are now significantly cheaper than veterans. As a result, teams placing an emphasis on acquiring young, cheap talent. Aging veterans who are used to getting paid well find that the league is not nearly as kind to them as they might like.

Speed kills

Another reason older players are finding themselves phased out is simply due to their lack of speed.  The NFL is increasingly becoming a pass-oriented league, making it ever more challenging for defenders to keep up in coverage.  Older players tend to struggle in space. Charles Woodson is still solid against the run and can make some intelligent gambles to produce turnovers, but he has also been prone to getting burned in coverage the last few years. Woodson is right when he says that he has no job because of his age.

Conclusion

Welcome to the new NFL, where young players are at a premium and older players can either swallow their ego or pack their bags.  Although this can be hard for the players and fans to accept, it is probably better for the league, as it allocates more money for true stars and gives more young players a chance to prove they belong.  Greater depth, competition, and parity are a large part of what has made the NFL the most popular sports league in America, and these changes from the new NFL collective bargaining agreement should only continue that beneficial trend.

My conversation with Scott Wright was one of the best I’ve had. He’s smart. He’s funny. He’s willing to defend even the most unpopular decision. Expect him to be around this site for years to come. In our Bears-centric conversation we discuss the following:

• the fall-off at linebacker after Te’o, Minter, Ogletree and Arthur Brown.
• how much game tape/production matters when evaluating wide receivers.
• after Warmack and Cooper, is there another starting guard in this draft.
• why Tavon Austin is an overrated prospect.
• why Jarvis Jones is not.

And much more. Give it a listen.