Systems of Football: The All-Purpose Bears Game Thread

[InternetApex]

Lolz-ish.

http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-triangle/post/_/id/87384/hotsportstakes-when-do-the-bears-fire-jay-cutler

#HotSportsTakes: When Do The Bears Fire Jay Cutler?

[J. Walter Weatherman]

Lolz-ish.

http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-triangle/post/_/id/87384/hotsportstakes-when-do-the-bears-fire-jay-cutler

#HotSportsTakes: When Do The Bears Fire Jay Cutler?

"Instead of Butkus, Chicago got bubkes."

Solid.

[Saul Goodman]

(Totally Unlistenable tie-in)

According to genius should-be GM Steve Stone Hub Arkush, Kyle Long didn't improve after Preseason Week 1 whatsoever and everyone should calm down about Alshon Jeffery.  His "Look, I think really highly of ______ and we get along great" then shitting all over everything ______ does schtick is getting really frickin' old.  I wish the Score would find a new NFL expert.

Or, actually find an NFL expert to start with.

Hub is shit

Adam Hoag, who covers the Bears for The Score took him on a little bit regarding Long. He said he disagreed with Hub's statement that he "peaked in the preseason game against San Diego." He also said he graded him out better than Roberto Garza. Hub got indignant about that assessment and demanded to know who had graded Long better than Garza. Hoag stood his ground and said that he himself had done so and Hub, finally aware of what a tool he was being, kind of politely disagreed. I never really had any use for Adam Hoag other than some breaking updates that he has access to because he's embedded with the Bears but this was a positive in my book.

Even Matt Bowen refrains from smacking Hub down on the air when he definitely could. People around The Score treat Hub like he's Papa Bear or some shit. I don't get it.

I don't get it either. They're one big family of waterheaded dopes.

That said, Hoge published a fairly comprehensive look at the Bears heading into the offseason and I enjoyed it. He's definitely not Hub, that's for sure.

http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2013/12/30/hoges-2013-eulogy-start-of-something-special-for-bears/

Another cool story: that DJ Durkin guy who also covers the Bears took to Twitter to shoot down some of Hub's just plain wrong assertions regarding the Peppers situation and I replied "wait hub got something wrong?" and he favorited it. That's some passive-aggressive Hub hatred from that dude who I now like.

I now like Durkin as well.  I think Hoge's been fine in his first year on the full-time beat.  And I like Zach Zaidman.  Underscore fancies himself a guy who doesn't tolerate fools and is always first in line to call out wrong people on their wrongness, so it's especially odd that he's so fond of Hub.

Is Underscore a reference to Bernstein?

His Twitter handle is @dan_bernstein, and when he says it on air it sounds like his middle name.  That's all there is to it, really.

Your whole persona reeks of effort, man.

All the time, or just when I'm asked to explain references?  Man.

[PenFoe]

I see that the Tribune's poll about wanting Cutler back is exactly 50/50 after almost 18,000 votes. That sounds about right.

Cutler can be frustrating and I don't think he's as good as SKO has built him up to be in his prickly, strawmen-busting brain (love you anyway, Kyle), but I don't see another reasonable option besides bringing him back unless you don't care about next season. Because what's even more frustrating than Cutler is a genuinely bad QB, which is probably what they'll have next year if Cutler is elsewhere.

I guess I'd lean toward franchising him, drafting a QB fairly early and seeing how it plays out with that development. An extension wouldn't bother me either, I suppose.

I don't want a Cutler extension if it comes at 20 million a year or whatever the hell it is Flacco/Romo got, but I don't see why it has to be that way. "THEY ARE SIMILAR-ISH QBS" does not a contract make. The Bears have leverage. Romo had the Cowboys over a barrel because they needed to extend him just to get under the cap. The Ravens didn't have the money to franchise Flacco, plus he had a Superbowl win to point to.

The Bears have two years of a tag, an injury history that's not entirely insignificant at this point, plus the McCown Bluff that I don't think Emery would actually pull as leverage against Jay. I'd expect he'll get extended at somewhere in the 13-15 million a year range.

Bump.

[InternetApex]

I see that the Tribune's poll about wanting Cutler back is exactly 50/50 after almost 18,000 votes. That sounds about right.

Cutler can be frustrating and I don't think he's as good as SKO has built him up to be in his prickly, strawmen-busting brain (love you anyway, Kyle), but I don't see another reasonable option besides bringing him back unless you don't care about next season. Because what's even more frustrating than Cutler is a genuinely bad QB, which is probably what they'll have next year if Cutler is elsewhere.

I guess I'd lean toward franchising him, drafting a QB fairly early and seeing how it plays out with that development. An extension wouldn't bother me either, I suppose.

I don't want a Cutler extension if it comes at 20 million a year or whatever the hell it is Flacco/Romo got, but I don't see why it has to be that way. "THEY ARE SIMILAR-ISH QBS" does not a contract make. The Bears have leverage. Romo had the Cowboys over a barrel because they needed to extend him just to get under the cap. The Ravens didn't have the money to franchise Flacco, plus he had a Superbowl win to point to.

The Bears have two years of a tag, an injury history that's not entirely insignificant at this point, plus the McCown Bluff that I don't think Emery would actually pull as leverage against Jay. I'd expect he'll get extended at somewhere in the 13-15 million a year range.

Bump.

$18 Mil a year for the first three.

[Eli]

I see that the Tribune's poll about wanting Cutler back is exactly 50/50 after almost 18,000 votes. That sounds about right.

Cutler can be frustrating and I don't think he's as good as SKO has built him up to be in his prickly, strawmen-busting brain (love you anyway, Kyle), but I don't see another reasonable option besides bringing him back unless you don't care about next season. Because what's even more frustrating than Cutler is a genuinely bad QB, which is probably what they'll have next year if Cutler is elsewhere.

I guess I'd lean toward franchising him, drafting a QB fairly early and seeing how it plays out with that development. An extension wouldn't bother me either, I suppose.

I don't want a Cutler extension if it comes at 20 million a year or whatever the hell it is Flacco/Romo got, but I don't see why it has to be that way. "THEY ARE SIMILAR-ISH QBS" does not a contract make. The Bears have leverage. Romo had the Cowboys over a barrel because they needed to extend him just to get under the cap. The Ravens didn't have the money to franchise Flacco, plus he had a Superbowl win to point to.

The Bears have two years of a tag, an injury history that's not entirely insignificant at this point, plus the McCown Bluff that I don't think Emery would actually pull as leverage against Jay. I'd expect he'll get extended at somewhere in the 13-15 million a year range.

Bump.

$18 Mil a year for the first three.

Seems like it's structured pretty well, if those reports are accurate.

[Quality Start Machine]

Now we just have to sit back and wait to see how much the Jets pay McCown to come in and start for them.

[Slaky]

/thread

[Saul Goodman]

/thread

Hopefully the Bears will still play games. Speaking of that, they're coming to "San Francisco" to play the Santa Clara 49ers in the new stadium's opening game. Besides selling organs, does anyone have advice on scoring tickets? Sites to watch, if prices go down, when to pull the trigger, yadda yadda. I've pretty much resigned myself to paying a lot but maybe one of you morans has a system of football (tickets).