Holy Shit

[anotheridiot]

I'm with you, Pete. I have never seen the Bears make this many moves in the off season. The activity gives me a lot of hope... Because they are making some good moves.

It has been pretty amazing that this team with very little wiggle room after signing cutler did a whole bunch of wiggling.

These are mostly great moves, getting competition for spots, getting quality backups, but the glass is half full part of me is saying this still wont give Emery a pass in my book if he is terrible in the draft again. Great teams are built thru the draft, not by signing the guys other teams wont resign because they are replacing them thru the draft. We need some defensive side of the ball wins. Maybe with Shea playing his college position again he will turn Shea into a win, but there definitely need to be more on the defensive side.

Just seems like every pick ends up being best player available now.

 

[Peter Gozintite]

It has been pretty amazing that this team with very little wiggle room after signing cutler did a whole bunch of wiggling.

These are mostly great moves, getting competition for spots, getting quality backups, but the glass is half full part of me is saying this still wont give Emery a pass in my book if he is terrible in the draft again. Great teams are built thru the draft, not by signing the guys other teams wont resign because they are replacing them thru the draft. We need some defensive side of the ball wins. Maybe with Shea playing his college position again he will turn Shea into a win, but there definitely need to be more on the defensive side.

Just seems like every pick ends up being best player available now.

I agree, the draft is key to long term success and viability. They arent going out and signing all the glitz and glamour FA either. They are getting serviceable players for decent prices and not getting locked into long term deals. Generally speaking of course.
This draft is key, and they wont need to try and land guys to start this season necessarily. Get some raw talent guys, and develop them.

 

[63bears40]

I think we have a few things to consider. On the one hand, there's no doubt that the way the team should publicly (and even, for now privately) handle this is to say Garza is the man, DLP needs to win the job from him. There's totally zero reason for them to anoint a newcomer over Garza. It motivates both of them, it affords Garza the respect he deserves, etc.

But I don't think anyone should be surprised if not only does DLP win the job during camp, but that Garza might even be cut. I may be wrong, but I don't think Garza's money would be a $1.5 million dead money hit (correct me if I am wrong on this). Sportrac says $100,000.

That being said, DLP signing a one year at vet minimum worries me that something happened to him. I'm planning on watching some Saints football this weekend and see if anything sticks out.

Just wondering who our BU guard is? Garza could possibly fill both BU G&C. I wouldn't cut him so quickly (Though I have a distaste for the guy).
Besides the cap #'s which I have no idea about . I agree W/ the rest of your post.

 

[cubzzzfanincali]

OK, so I just got done watching a few Saints games. Here was my overall impression of De La Puente (DLP). He is very inconsistent. He fairly quick, and athletic, but he loses his balance a lot, particularly against bigger guys against whom he is overmatched (3-4 NTs). He is definitely better at pass blocking than run blocking in pure man-blocking situations (bad on the goal line runs, that's for sure). But even both of those come with a caveat. To me, his biggest weakness in pass blocking is that he often looks....well....stupid. He either doesn't have great vision, or recognition, or I don't know what, but he pretty frequently is left alone covering no one and LOOKING at the side of the protection that is well covered, oblivious to the other side where the line may be collapsing. It's is his decision-making that struck me as a weakness.

Although he isn't really big enough to outplay the big inside DT/NTs on the run in power situations (gulp...Detroit), he does have one really good strength in run blocking. On stretch plays, he does an awesome job getting to the second level and executing nice blocks. He is like the polar opposite of Garza in this respect.

So this got me thinking...if memory serves, the Bears ran more zone-blocking plays than I remember in previous years last year, although if I had to call them anything, I'd still call them a hybrid. But let's pretend for a second they want to go full bore over to stretch/zone. In many ways, they have good personnel to do it. Long is athletic for a guard, DLP is well suited for zone, Bushrod is kind of a wash. I wouldn't be surprised to see them go heavier on zone blocking runs this year at all.

Anyway, something to keep an eye on. I didn't see any obvious falloff in play as the season wore on, but he didn't play "great" at any point either. Of course, when you make as many mental errors as he appears to have, that's what you get.

 

[richig07]

OK, so I just got done watching a few Saints games. Here was my overall impression of De La Puente (DLP). He is very inconsistent. He fairly quick, and athletic, but he loses his balance a lot, particularly against bigger guys against whom he is overmatched (3-4 NTs). He is definitely better at pass blocking than run blocking in pure man-blocking situations (bad on the goal line runs, that's for sure). But even both of those come with a caveat. To me, his biggest weakness in pass blocking is that he often looks....well....stupid. He either doesn't have great vision, or recognition, or I don't know what, but he pretty frequently is left alone covering no one and LOOKING at the side of the protection that is well covered, oblivious to the other side where the line may be collapsing. It's is his decision-making that struck me as a weakness.

Although he isn't really big enough to outplay the big inside DT/NTs on the run in power situations (gulp...Detroit), he does have one really good strength in run blocking. On stretch plays, he does an awesome job getting to the second level and executing nice blocks. He is like the polar opposite of Garza in this respect.

So this got me thinking...if memory serves, the Bears ran more zone-blocking plays than I remember in previous years last year, although if I had to call them anything, I'd still call them a hybrid. But let's pretend for a second they want to go full bore over to stretch/zone. In many ways, they have good personnel to do it. Long is athletic for a guard, DLP is well suited for zone, Bushrod is kind of a wash. I wouldn't be surprised to see them go heavier on zone blocking runs this year at all.

Anyway, something to keep an eye on. I didn't see any obvious falloff in play as the season wore on, but he didn't play "great" at any point either. Of course, when you make as many mental errors as he appears to have, that's what you get.

I'd be intrigued to know whether or not the mistakes were kept at more of a minimum in 2012 under Kromer, which according to PFF was far and away his best year (checking in at 2nd overall amongst center's in the league).

It seems like the two have a good relationship, and after seeing what Kromer did in his first year here with guys like Long, Mills, and Slauson. I have to think perhaps you'll see those mistakes taper off a bit this year. However, the short yardage/goal-line problem does concern me. Like you mentioned, we play in the same division as Detroit. Who beat the hell out of us in short yardage situations in both games last season. Between those two games last year, and the few years prior where short yardage was kind of a disaster... I've about seen enough of that.