The Kansas City Chiefs acquired hot QB prospect Matt Cassel and veteran linebacker Mike Vrabel from the New England Patriots for a high 2nd round pick.  Um, Jerry, we have the #18 pick in the first round and chances are there will not be a QB of Cassel’s caliber available at that spot in the draft.

A side story coming out of the Cassel trade is that the Denver Broncos tried to trade for Cassel and would have subsequently moved Pro Bowler Jay Cutler to make room for a QB better suited to new Bronco head coach Josh McDaniels‘ system.  Rumor has it that Cutler was close to being moved to the Tampa Bay Bucs for the #19 pick.  Um, Jerry, we have the #18 pick and I am quite certain that there will not be a quarterback with a Pro Bowl on his resume available in the first round.  And to be quite honest, even if there were, you couldn’t find him.

Among the other top free agents to get away was former Bengal WR TJ Houshmandzadeh, who signed with Seattle.  Here’s Jerry Angelo on Housh from Vaughn McClure’s Huddle Up blog on chicagotribune.com:

Houshmandzadeh is a fine receiver.  Would we have entertained him? Yes, but we wanted to see what his marketplace was. In this case, we felt like [what he received from the Seahawks] was an exorbitant amount of money. Remember, he was a No. 2 in Cincinnati. That’s not to say that what Seattle did wasn’t right for them; their situation is different in my mind than ours. They had an inordinate amount of injuries with receivers and they felt like they needed to get somebody that was established and healthy.

A lot of teams would have liked to have had Houshmandzadeh. But he’s going to be 32 in ’09 and the price that you’re paying for that receiver we felt was very high. You have to look at economics when you look at players. Who doesn’t want Houshmandzadeh? But you have to look at the economics: What are the implications to the cap going forward and what does that prevent us from doing in other areas within our team and/or in free agency?

Hey Jerry, how about the Bears set the market for once?  You talk about how Seattle needing to get someone established and healthy.  Um Jerry, which receiver on the Bears is “established,” Rashied Davis?  Up until last season, Devin Hester needed someone to tell him where to go.

I hope my rant didn’t wake you from your nap.  Would someone please wake up Jerry before the draft?

BOOM!!!

It’s time to start the building process for the 2009 Chicago Bears.  Jerry Angelo hasn’t exactly been a master builder in recent drafts, but whenever draft talk comes up, he seems to talk enough about floors and ceilings (of players) that you’d think he was a carpenter and not a GM.  Since the Bears announced that they won’t be raising ticket prices in 2009, I don’t expect any big splashes in Free Agency, so the bulk of the work will have to come through the draft. (more…)

Free Agent wide receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh appeared on ESPN 1000′s Waddle and Silvy show on Thursday morning and chatted up his upcoming free agency on the morning show.  So the question that all Bears fans want answered:  Is he coming to Chicago?  Great question.  The answer, however, is not so simple.  Here is the Tribune headline for Vaughn McClure’s article:

Houshmandzadeh appears open to playing for Bears

and this headline from Brad Biggs’ Inside the Bears blog post:

Houshmandzadeh sounds off and it sounds like Bears aren’t a match

So which is it?  Both articles have an excerpt of the transcript from the interview. (more…)

Quarterback

Kyle Orton manned the most important position on the field admirably for the better part of the season, though he wasn’t quite the same after the ankle injury sustained Week 9 versus Detroit.  I think it’s important to keep everything in perspective.  A few years of Grossman may have blinded Bears fans as to what a real QB is supposed to be.  Other than not being Rex, did Orton really do that well?

The Bears offense ranked 21st in passing with 191.5 passing yards per game. Some of that may be attributed to the lack of WR’s, but we’ll get to that later.  Orton finished with 18 TD’s and 12 INT’s with a QB rating of 79.6.  Hardly mind-blowing numbers.  Does Orton deserve an extension?  I say no.  Let him play in a contract year with a sense of urgency and earn some new paper. (more…)