TURF WOE

I usually don’t like Steve Rosenbloom’s useless negativity blog but today he’s nailed the Park District for their failure water the field:

Hey, people, go easy on the Chicago Park District. It’s not easy to grow decent grass in the middle of a Chicago wint… oh, wait.  I believe this is the earliest point in a football season that the Park District has ever embarrassed itself.

So they really just didn’t water the grass?  Is it possible the Park District is that incompetent?

 KNOX ON KICKOFFS?

It looks like I’ll have my opportunities to complain once again as Johnny Knox is being targeted as a return man on kickoffs.  I maintain that anytime a Bear not named Devin Hester touches the football on a return it is a gross error in the coaching department.  Hester is the greatest return man in the history of the sport and the most exciting player currently in the game.  Let him return the damn ball.

NFL TO TEST FOR HGH…

…and Congress love it!  You know what?  I don’t.  I don’t bemoan anything football players put into their bodies to survive the grueling physical toll of an NFL season.  If they have to bite the heads off live seals in order to keep their spinal cords from shattering the year after they retire so be it.

With news now officially circulating that the NFLPA will approve the new CBA, it appears all these hundreds upon hundreds of new team signings will finally be able to practice with their new teams.  So what is worth following in Bourbonnais as the Bears start training camp for real.

#1 ‘YOUR BOY’ ROY WILLIAMS

Based on Mike Martz predicting 70-80 catches and a million yards for Roy, we can all assume he’ll be lined up as the top receiver on the phantom depth chart.  Monitoring his chemistry with Cutler and his impact on Hester, Knox and Bennett will be keeping the Twitter accounts of Biggs, Jensen and the ESPN Chicago boys turned up to eleven.

#2 THE OFFENSIVE LINE: WHO IS WHERE AND WHEN

Assuming Chris Spencer steps into the middle of the line, sliding Garza back to right guard, the Bears will certainly spend the next few days experimenting with different combinations across the line.  (My bet is they’ll settle in Webb at LT and Carimi at RT in short order.)  I will not be surprised, however, if a player like Lance Louis bounces Chris Williams out of a job.

#3 WHO LINES UP OPPOSITE PEANUT?

Bowman?  Jennings?  Graham?  The Bears do not have an established starter to line up opposite Charles Tillman.  They’ll need one soon.  (Side note: How much are we going to all miss Peanut when he decides to move on?  He’s quickly becoming an all-time Bear.)

#4 THE RECLAMATION PROJECTS

Is there any chance Vernon Gholston or Amobi Okoye can fulfill the promise of their lofty draft-day expectations?  Can Rod Marinelli insert them into the rotation regularly and being to pull from them what the Bears seem to have begun pulling from Henry Melton and Corey Wootton?

It’s going to be a fun camp.

CBS CHICAGO BLOGGER AWARDS

CBS Chicago is giving out awards for local bloggers and it’d be fun to see if we can crush the competition and get DaBearsBlog to the top of the heap.  It would also be a nice promotional tool for us and the network.  If you like it here and feel like voting, click this link.

STILL AVAILABLE ON THE FREE AGENT MARKET?

There are still several game-changing type players on the market.  The most promising addition looks to be the reported mutual interest between former Seahawks linebacker Lofa Tatupu and the Bears.  Tatupu would step directly into the starting lineup, replacing Pisa Tinoisamoa.  (Pisa MAY and SHOULD re-sign with the Bears.)  A linebacking corps of Urlacher, Briggs, Roach, Tatupu, Pisa would be as talented and deep as the Bears have had in years.

Also available: WRS Braylon Edwards and Malcolm Floyd are out there but not logical targets for the Bears.  CB Kelvin Hayden, who ripped the soul from Chicago in the Super Bowl, should be a target.  You can never have too many corners in this system.

EARLY REPORTS FROM CAMP VIA TWITTER

So if you’re not on Twitter, here’s how it works.  During camp practices, every single reporter covering the Chicago Bears Tweets every single play.  Based on all these Tweets (and they can get very obnoxious) there are three guys making an early “surprise” impact: Lance Louis, Major Wright and Dane Sanzenbacher.  The latter two mean little but many analysts have predicted Lance Louis will find his way into this starting lineup and I have predicted he’ll end up being a better options at LG than Chris Williams.

We all know injuries can derail an NFL season.  If the Bears lose Julius Peppers, Brian Urlacher, Jay Cutler or Lance Briggs for any substantial period of time they’ll certainly see the impact in the Win-Loss column.  But injuries are unpredictable and outside of hiring the finest medical staff available in the world they are mostly out of the control of the football organization.  What is under the control of an organization, in this case the Chicago Bears, is player selection.  They can’t control injuries but they decide which men have the opportunity to get injured.

The 2010 Bears had one major, glaring flaw: offensive line.  They were a pretty good offense with quite arguably the worst line in Bears history and certainly the worst line in the league.  They improved as the year progressed but as the opponents reached playoff caliber in January they were unable to keep their quarterback off his back with the Super Bowl on the line.

Now they are back.  Sort of.  On first glance it would appear an offensive line in need of overhaul has not been overhauled.  They do have a new center, replacing Olin Kreutz with Chris Spencer.  They do have a new right tackle, drafting Wisconsin stud Gabe Carimi.  But the new left tackle is the old right tackle – a monster with immense talent called J’Marcus Webb.  The guards are the same as the Bears expect huge development from former first-rounder Chris Williams on the left side.  And I always say, no one ever writes or talks about Roberto Garza.

There were safe solutions for Jerry Angelo.  He could have broken the bank for Matt Light.  He could have added Jared Gaither or let Tyson Clabo’s people know he’d double the Falcons offer.  He could have added a host of names, most unknown to anyone outside the cities they’ve played in, and made claim that he’d upgraded the most attention-needy unit.  (I also have an attention-needy unit.  Had to say it.)

But he didn’t go the safe route.  He went the development route.  He believes Mike Tice when Tice says J’Marcus Webb can play left tackle, CW can develop into a first-rate left guard and Lance Louis is a sleeper across the line.  (Brad Biggs reports the starting five, left to right, is currently Webb-Williams-Spencer-Garza-Carimi.)  But they are question marks.  Is Carimi ready?  Can Webb make the transition?  Will CW improve?  And the answers will determine whether or not the Chicago Bears return to the postseason and find themselves in the title hunt.

They’re in that position for one reason and one reason only: Jerry Angelo.  After seven months of consideration, Jerry made the decision that these five men, led by big Mike Tice, give the Bears the chance to win.  If he’s wrong, he may and perhaps should pay with his job.

I don’t know anything about Chris Spencer, last season’s sixteen-game starter at center for the Seattle Seahawks and apparently the new starting center for the Chicago Bears.  Reviews are mixed, some are negative, but he’s a professional center who’ll prevent the Bears from having to line up Garza, Williams or some other member of Our Gang in the middle of the line.

Olin Kreutz provided intangibles, I understand that.  He was the leader of the huddle, leader of the locker room.  I’ve heard it described that he led the offensive linemen like a de facto mafia don.  And so yes, a particular era has ended with the Chicago Bears. 

But Olin Kreutz was not very good anymore and the offensive line he led was one of the worst in football.  If Kreutz were a don and the o-line were his family, one of the other units certainly would have had him whacked in the showers.  The NFL, with its strict salary cap, is not a league where teams can afford to enlist the services of an individual as a reward for longtime loyalty or to placate a fanbase that likes the guy more for what he’s done off the field (the Fred Miller incident) than what he’s done on it over the last four years.

The Bears organization never wanted Kreutz back.  If they did, he’d be back.  With no other teams making an offer to the former Pro Bowler, it wouldn’t have taken more than a ten minute negotiation.  And if the entire teams wants him back so badly and only 500k separated player and team, where were all the offers of restructuring salaries we see across the league in these scenarios?

A planned change took place.  And its a change that opens the huddle to be led by the man who should lead it: the quarterback.  It’s Cutler’s offense now, make no mistake about it.

So will Chris Spencer be an improvement over Kreutz?  I don’t know.  But I’m certain the middle of the line, lacking push and often toughness in 2010, will not be any worse.  This, to me, was not a move TO Spencer.  It was a move AWAY from Kreutz. 

Vaughn McClure’s Tweet:

Source tells me Corey Graham is on his way to Bourbonnais to resign with the Bears.

Dave Toub and Rod Marinelli each breathed a sigh relief as the Bears re-signed Corey Graham. Graham is arguably the second-best corner on the roster and is a special teams ace.

Olin Kreutz next?  We wait and see.

With all due respect to Corey Graham, a valuable corner and special teams ace, the Bears may find themselves in a serious predicament should they fail to reach terms with longtime center/leader Olin Kreutz.  And that predicament is not necessarily a physical one.

Kreutz is not that good anymore.  Too often he looks slow to get around corners and too easily he seems to be blown off the ball in short-yardage scenarios.  Whatever contract he signs will inevitably be a short one as it’s unimaginable to think he’ll be even competent at the position three seasons from now.

What Kreutz does provide are the intangibles we so often read about in the sports world.  He is the Bears locker room.  He is the one holding folks accountable in the huddle.  Yes he’s the signal-caller at the line of scrimmage but he means far more to his four trenchmen (sounds like a folk band) and fifty-plus roster companions than even that.

And don’t get started with the fans.  Ever since spurning Dave Wannstedt’s overtures from South Beach to stay with the Bears, Kreutz has been a folk hero on the streets of Chicago.  When he crushed Fred Miller’s face with a weight at a shooting range he basically built himself a statue on the tough side of Soldier Field.

He’s not the player he once was.  But he’s still the man and still the leader.  And taking that presence out of the locker room when you’re making your Super Bowl push is not a wise move.

The Bears signed Vernon Gholston.  Having lived in NYC for the duration of Gholston’s tenure with the Jets and having spoken daily with a Jets fan who happens to be my brother, I can tell you that Vernon Gholston stinks.  He’s awful.  If the Bears can make something of him, the entire coaching staff should be given their own wing in Canton.

UPDATES!

No news on Corey Graham and Olin Kreutz re-signing.

Gabe Carimi, Anthony Adams and Nick Roach will be at the first practice the Bears hold Saturday.  This leaves Olin Kreutz and Corey Graham as the only in-house signing that bear watching.

For those of you who criticized the lack of plan from the Bears front office, it might be time to zip it up.  The Chicago Bears added Roy Williams to their receiving corps early this morning, providing Jay Cutler that big red zone target he’s lacked in his two seasons with the club.  They followed that signing by adding the Cowboys Sam Hurd, who’ll provide depth at the receiver spot but mostly replace Rashied Davis as a special teams stalwart.  Mike Sims-Walker might still be on the radar but I expect the Bears to now turn their attention to defensive tackle and offensive line.

Stay tuned.