Comments on: Rumor Mill: Bears Will Release Chester Taylor

By: Ben

Ben — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 21:48:25 +0000

It’s not about the money. It’s about the roster spot and the reps. The Bears have a nasty habit of sticking with the safe option and becoming attached to do-good in-house guys. The likes of Garrett Wolfe, Rashied Davis, Rod Wilson and Craig Steltz. These players and others from the past whose upside was never better than “Special Teams contributor” held roster spots and took practice reps from guys who might have actually been developmental prospects with starting potential one day.

Granted, finding those UDFAs and practice squad players is tough and there’s a higher bust/knucklehead factor than sticking with known quantities but you need to take those risks. There’s a reason the Bears almost never develop players in house, especially on offense, and never seem to score a Pro Bowler out of the blue. It’s because they are too willing to reward the nice guys and keep guys around at a cheap price in hopes that they “bounce back” or “blossom”.

The Bears need to dump Taylor (and Wolfe) in order to get Unga and Bell, in addition to a late round rookie/UDFA or two, onto the field. They need to figure out if they can play, if they can’t they need to move on. Sooner is better and Taylor, while affordable this year, stands in the way of that.

By: Phil

Phil — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 19:46:31 +0000

Any new word on this Boom?

By: LJ

LJ — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 06:25:40 +0000

I would much rather have Taylor as a third down back vs an unproven Bell/Wolfe. In marts offense pass catching/blocking are vital. Forte is yet to prove he is reliable in this category and what do we know about harvey unga. I say cut Bell and Wolfe, hang on to Taylor for the 1.3 mill and your backfield is stacked

By: midnightblue

midnightblue — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 08:35:56 +0000

The games I watched I saw Taylor repeatedly fail to make it through holes. I felt like he was used too much. He would have been fine in short yardage and goal line situations but not for one in three series.

By: City

City — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 16:39:20 +0000

The Bears WILL and SHOULD cut Chester Taylor. Up through the last three weeks of the season, Chester was getting 1/3 of the reps, and gaining 1/6 of the rushing yards. He was terrible. He’s too small for the grass-based rushing game that Chicago evolved to, and he played like a guy who made his big paycheck (and like Todd Collins) didn’t care anymore.

The reason they WILL and SHOULD cut Chester is because next year Chester will make TWICE as much as Forte! That’s right, Forte (i believe this is correct) is expecting a whopping $500K in salary. That’s going to change before training camp (and Forte’s walkout) is completed.

You WILL see an extension for Forte, and you will see CT disappear.

PS: I will make one caveat: IF (and this is an enormous IF) Chicago’s Park District realizes it’s time to update the turf at Soldier’s Field, then CT’s style of play will be better suited to what Martz WANTS to do.

PPS: We need to start a billboard that says Fire Tim Mitchell, the Park District head, and hire one who puts in the new artificial turf!

By: DeCon

DeCon — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 04:39:33 +0000

The fact is, Taylor didn’t play much during the season, so there is something Martz wasn’t comfortable with. That said, the majority of the money went out the door on Day 1, so if the Bears have to cut their losses to spend money more wisely elsewhere (i.e. Forte extension), then so be it. Now outside of a Forte extension, do I have confidence Angelo will spend the money wisely??? Hell NO, but the Taylor money is already water under the proverbial bridge…

By: Chicago Irish

Chicago Irish — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 22:37:17 +0000

There are two things that I don’t understand about possibly releasing Taylor:

1. All I have ever heard for the past few years is in the NFL you need a proven back-up at RB. Gone are the days of the main back taking 95%+ of the snaps. So if Forte were to go down next year (even for a week or two) who would you feel more confident with? Taylor? Or a guy with (my favorite word) “potential”?

2. Did Tayor even play this year? I watched every snap of every game, and I swear I can count on both hands the number of plays he was in on. Did the Bears see something in practice during the season that made them realize they made a mistake?

By: Boomer

Boomer — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 20:58:39 +0000

Well, since he’s a great person, that changes EVERYTHING. Maybe they should give him an extension for MORE money. Let’s face it, this is still a business and the Bears will have to make a business decision.