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Brian Billick talks Chicago Bears football

On ESPN 1000 with Waddle and Silvy Super Bowl winning coach and current Fox Sports NFL analys Brian Billick chimed in with his take on the Bears for 2009.

Billick speaking of the Bears touches on the defensive problems the Bears have had the past two years. He was overall pretty satisfied with the play of the QB last year. However he noted that the Bears are a team that is designed to succeed based on how well the defense plays.

Billick stepped in and stated “I think you can make a fair case that the difficulties for the Bears was not the quarterback position. Kyle Orton did a nice job. I did the Atlanta, Chicago game where he did a nice job bringing back the Bears the length of the field. It just turned out that Matt Ryan had one better drive after that to win the game.”

Billick’s point in the Atlanta game points directly to the Bears’ short comings on defense. Zero pass rush was generated by the front four in that game and it was essentially that way throughout the season. The Bears did not pressure the QB and their defense suffered majorly as a result.

Billick followed up with “From my perspective having seen the Bears play two times (in 2008). That is the number one issue for them, iscan they get back to playing the level of to go with the philosophy that they want to have.”

“They’re certainly capable of it and Lovie Smith stepping back in and calling the defense adds a better element to it. But it also puts Lovie at a greater risk (in terms of him being solely responsible for the success of the defense in 2009).

The crew led by fill in host Jeff Dickerson who does duty as the ESPN 1000 radio beat broadcaster for the Bears then shifted gears to the next obvious weak point in the offense, the wide receivers.

This obviously is an issue that will be beat to death through camp and until the Bears prove themselves able to compete at a high level and win games with this group of receivers.

It’s not so much the tired argument can Devin Hester be successful as a number one, and after that only Rashied Davis has an NFL reception in his career. The main focus will be can the Bears win in spite of their receivers. The production will be there, to what level we don’t know.

What we do know is there will be production and success and failures. However will the ultimate take on the season won’t be the production from the receivers if the Bears go to the playoffs, win the division and play deep into January. The Bears were one game away from the playoffs last year with a lousy group of receivers anyway. So can they muster two more wins with this crop and Jay Cutler going forward?

Billick’s take “I think that he has some choices, that’s probably as good and as deep of a tight end trio as there is in the league. And the end of the day you’re looking to get that 90-plus catches from your go to guy. You’d like to be in that 70 range with your number two, and whatever it is whether it’s your tight end whether it’s your third receiver your running back be in that 40 to 50 (receptions) range.

Well the Bears have the potential with that trio of tight ends that they have, that can be your go to guy to a certain degree. Particularly when you’re talking about the speed that a Devin Hester presents stretching the field on the outside. Could they use bona fide legitimate number one receiver? Sure. But I think they have the parts in place to use that tight end in a way that not a lot of other teams in the league can’t. You’ve got the speed with Hester. Plus you have the young running back coming off the season that he had. Forte had a great season coming out of the backfield he gives you the potential to put up a lot of numbers coming out of the back field. Could they use the number one receiver? Yes but I think they have enough weapons surrounding Jay Cutler and that there will be enough there to support him. A lot of other teams in the league at the end of the day are looking for that number one receiver that the Bears don’t have.”

Billick went on to further discuss what Hester means to the Bears. Stating analysis along the lines of should Hester held out of punt return duties if he’s a true number one receiver.

There is that debate and it’s a fair debate but at the end of the day he’s a valuable part of the return game. Sure we’ll hold our breath each and every time Hester is back there fielding a punt, but it’s an element of the return game that has made the Bears highly successful.

Billick talked very long and on strong point about what the Bears have on offense in the way of pass catching potential. Most people overlook the fact that Greg Olsen could be the number one receiver in this offense. Tight ends have done that before, plus with speed Hester has it opens up things underneath for the tight ends even more. Billick’s analysis is coming from a former head coach and a former offensive coordinator that had success. You could almost hear him salivating at the thought of what it would be like to be in the position to set up the Bears’ offense with the weapons they have. Hester’s speed, Olsen’s unlimited potential at tight end plus the franchise quarterback with the rifle of an arm that Jay Cutler brings to the table. There’s enough out there in the passing game for the Bears to win a lot of football games.

For further in depth discussion check out the forums at Midway Illlustrated

NFL Network Path to the Draft: Chicago Bears Draft Grade

The most complete NFL draft coverage you can find anywhere on T.V. today comes via the NFL Network and their half hour, now hour long program covering the NFL draft and all of the prospects in it’s entirety. You can find a more in-depth show anywhere else and the commentary is first rate and non-biased. Plus if anyone makes a biased sounding comment they typically go out of their way to correct it or clarify exactly their opinion on a team or player.

Charlie Casserly kicks off the NFC North segment with commentary he received from Jerry Angelo. Angelo stated to Casserly, and Casserly followed with this interesting quote “Well Jerry Angelo when I talked to him at the end of the season, he’s what he told me (paraphrasing his conversation with Angelo) I wanna upgrade the following things, pass rush, offensive line and I wanna bring some competition or challenge into the quarterback position, I’m gonna look at everything out there, Casserl paraphrasing his conversation with Angelo. Casserly then goes on to state, “So what does he go and do? He trades for Jay Cutler, HE HIT A HOME RUN! He was just trying to get in some competition, he threw out the competition.”

“Alright so now you have a Pro-Bowl quarterback, how does that help your receiving core? He didn’t mention receivers prior to me. It makes Devin Hester a better player, why what can Hester do? He can run by everybody in the league, Jay Cutler’s strength? Throwing the deep ball so automatically they get better at the receiver position.”

“Hey at the offensive line he brought in depth he brought in Kevin Shaffer, he brought in Orlando Pace at the left tackle. Now I KNOW there’s controversy over whether he can play or not (Orlando Pace) but hey the Bears think he can play. Let’s hope they’re right. ”

“On the pass rush in the second round (third round) he draft the best inside pass rusher in the draft, potential wise, why do I say potential wise? You don’t see it on every play. But I’m gonna watch this, Rod Marinelli is one of the best defensive line coaches in the league, if not the best, one of the best I’ve seen. A hard-nosed ex-Marine, he’s gonna fire these guys up. Hey Jarron Gilbert is either going to be a player or he’s going to be on a long bus ride back to California.”

Charlie Casserly seemed pretty pumped up about the Bears’ draft and based on the conversation he had with Angelo you can see that Angelo met and fulfilled most of the needs he had laid out after the off-season. While most everyone wishes the Bears had the next Jerry Rice, or even Anquan Boldin on the team, the main point cannot be missed. That point is that the Chicago Bears finally have a franchise quarterback in Jay Cutler.

The final point is it took a lot to get Cutler and it didn’t leave the Bears a lot of ammo left to land a top receiver prospect via the draft or via a trade. The one possible top target in free agency that may have been worth the money was Torry Holt, but Holt decided to play with a different team.

The final word from the draft won’t be written for another few years, but the word as it is right now, is the Bears had one of the best off-seasons of any team in the league. Arguably the best off-season in the history of the franchise.

GM Jerry Angelo Interview from ESPN 1000 Part II

In part two of the interview Bears general manager Jerry Angelo expands upon the value of some of the prospects who were drafted afterr Juaquin Iglesias.

Talking about the value of fourth round selection D.J. Moore who fell primarily because of his 5-foot-9 inch height Angelo talked about why he is such a good value. “He plays a lot taller than his height, as you know there are players in the league who play a lot taller than what they are and he is one of those players. He’s got tremendous ball skills some of the best ball skills I’ve seen since Vasher. He’s got really good leaping ability, he can go up and get the ball at it’s highest point.” Angelo definitely mentioned how Moore has first round ability but fourth round height and a lot of teams reached for players with the height because of the height of the receivers these days.

While it is true that you do like to have a CB who has good height, a player who plays taller than his height, and who has the ball skills and talent that Moore has is of equal importance.

The next question comes regarding the perceived lack of a true free safety in this draft. Silvy feels that Al Afalava is more suited for a strong safety rather than a free.

Angelo became pretty adamant in saying that they like Craig Steltz, the coaching staff feels really confident in him and feel he is the starting point for the discussion. They also brought in Josh Bullocks as another person to come in and player. It appears that Steltz is going to get the first crack at the free safety spot. Steltz leaves a lot to be desired athletically but he did prove that he is a gamer and someone that won’t give up on a play. Hopefully the learning curve is something he’s crossed in moving into his second year in the league.

Angelo went on to point out that in a one-gap scheme that the Bears utilize a safety has to be good tackler first and foremost. He has to cover his gap and help out in the running game primarily. It’s also true that the Bears’ defense was typically better when Mike Brown came up in run support and the pass defense was better when there was a better pass rush.

To understand where Jerry Angelo is coming from, yes there were blown coverages last year that led to touchdowns, but the most important aspect for the success of the defense is the pass rush first and foremost. There is no argument that can be made against a weak secondary when there was such an anemic pass rush generated by the front four. This is why the Bears drafted Gilbert and Melton to specifically better the pass rush which in turn makes the safeties better.

Yes it would be ideal to have a safety who is great in the run and a great center fielder, but those types of safeties are rare. There are not a lot of safeties in the league that have the combination of great ball skills and dynamite tackling ability in the run game.

The next question that popped was in regards to Charles Tillman being moved to safety and Brian Urlacher being moved to outside linebacker. Angelo talked about it be a possibility further into their careers but right now they’ll remain at their current positions. Tillman specifically was talked about how he was a safety coming out of college and they feel if he were to make the transition to safety he’d be an excellent safety. From what they saw of him as a kid coming out of college they felt he had corner skills so they felt they would try him there at CB and if that didn’t work out he’d be an excellent safety.

Urlacher there are no immediate plans to move him to SAM. Though Angelo expressed he could be successful just about anywhere you put him. If you moved him to tight end he could probably have an impact there.

To wrap up the interview the focus was on the receivers and Angelo feels that they like the group of receivers they have, they think they have a good balance of players with size and speed. He hopes one can emerge into the complete player the Dairy Queen referenced player with a twist and sprinkles. Right now they are going forward with the group they have and they think they’ll get good production from them.

I don’t think the words Angelo used necessarily put the receiver position at ease or into stable territory. I don’t think the rotation out there is chiseled in stone and going forward they can add to it as necessary. They are not starting camp tomorrow and don’t play a game for a few more months so things can change between now and then.

GM Jerry Angelo Interview from ESPN 1000 Part I

Jerry Angelo joined the Waddle and Silvy show yesterday to talk Chicago Bears football after the NFL Draft on Sunday. It’s one of the first interviews Angelo has done with local sports talk radio in a few years and it was great to hear where some of his motivation lies in regards to making this team better. In part one of the interview we cover what steps the Bears made to trade for Anquan Boldin and cover the motivation behind trading down out of the first day of the draft.

To start things off it’s fair to say that everyone should recognize and mostly does recognize that this draft wasn’t about any of the players taken, but rather about Jay Cutler. The talk of the draft and it’s impact essentially starts and stops with Cutler.

A point that should be made that maybe hasn’t been touched on as much as it perhaps should be, is that lack of overall great talent in this draft. The value in the players from the Top-5 arguably all the way down to the top of the second round wasn’t all that much different. Evidence in this can be seen in some of the players who fell out of the first round and into the second. Ray Maualuga considered by many as a Top-5 talent fell out of the first round. Everette Brown precisely the same thing, arguably a top-10 level pick who fell to nearly the middle part of the second round.

So the talent and the depth not being as strong as it was in past years made it all the more easy for the Bears to trade out. There are players in this draft that are hard to project and have a very high boom or bust factor that was likely taken into consideration when the idea to trade for Cutler came around.

The Bears also made a trade phone call to the Arizona Cardinals about Anquan Boldin. Angelo could not and didn’t want to get into all the specific details surrounding the trade talks (Boldin is still under contract) and he wants to be able to keep a solid reputation around the league with other GMs. Angelo could have said explicitly what prevented the trade from Boldin from happening, but that in turn would hurt any future endeavors he may have in the trade market. He wants to keep a good solid working relationship so the refusal to go into specific details is easy to understand.

A certain level of respect needs to be maintained and he didn’t want to throw the Cardinals under the bus or affix any blame for any possible outrageous demands the Cardinals may have made etc.

However the point of emphasis should that Jerry Angelo did everything within reason, and within his power to explore the possibility of landing Anquan Boldin. Angelo definitely feels that Boldin would make the Bears a better football team and with the line of thought being that the Bears want to win now, Boldin is a player that would help him achieve that goal.

The next segment flowed into the decision to trade down out and out the first round of the draft. Angelo was pretty explicit with this answer as well in that the Bears had an idea of what player they would take at 49 and what type of player gave them the most value at 49. The focus obviously being on the big three receivers that we had all hoped would slide into the second round. In my Chicago Bears Draft Day Thoughts Blog I touched on the exact line of thinking that Angelo went with. The dream scenario being all three receivers fall into the second round, giving the Bears a better chance to grab one at 49. The more likely scenario I gave obviously is the one that panned out and I was right on target with where I thought the Bears could target either Massaqoi or Iglesias. Iglesias turned out to be the player taken at 99th overall in the third.

Angelo did the best thing for this football team by trading back and picking up an extra third and an extra fourth round pick. The third round pick netted him high value prospect Jarron Gilbert (arguably a first or second round worthy target). This immediately boosted the position on the team that cause the most losses on the team in a direct way. The pass rush defensive end problem that was again addressed in the fourth round with the Henry Melton selection.

Angelo touched on the Jarron Gilbert selection by talking about a few points:

A) Jarron Gilbert is a player that they plan to play at defensive end “versus the run but when we get into our third down situation he’s going to shift inside just as he was in his senior year. He’s been exposed to playing defensive end a bit.”

Dick Tomey (San Jose State’s head coach) as Angelo went on to explain has been a college football coach for a number of years. Tomey has been a specialist in developing defensive lineman for a number of years at schools that he’s coached. Tomey is probably most famous for the Arizona Wildcats’ “Desert Swarm” days when the UofA had one of the best and most consistent defensive lines in the country. Tomey is unquestionably a good football coach and any NFL coach or GM (Angelo in this case) receiving advice from him should take it to heart because he’s one of those coaches that’s been around the block a few times. Tomey feels that Gilbert’s best potential is still ahead of him and he’s just beginning to scrape the surface of what he can do on the football field.

I think some of the points to look at here regarding Jarron Gilbert and Henry Melton is the the idea of getting a lot of speed and athleticism up front. The big fad right now in the NFL is the 3-4 because it’s the defense the Pittsburgh Steelers won the Super Bowl with. However what is consistently overlooked is the New York Giants won the Super Bowl title merely a year ago with the 4-3 defense in place. The Giants led the NFL in sacks with a 4-3 defensive scheme.

The point is and always will be to get the most pressure you can from your front four. This is always accomplished best with speed off the edge and athleticism up the middle. The song remains the same and you could argue that it has since the days of the Bears’ dominating pass rush utilizing the 46 scheme. It’s about getting to the quarterback plain and simple, giving him little no time to throw the ball, it doesn’t matter if it comes from the 3-4, 4-3, 4-4, 5-2, 46, flex-eagle look, ANYTHING that you want to throw out there. The song remains the same get to the quarterback on third down.

Adding speed like Gilbert to the middle of the defense and speed of the edge with someone like Henry Melton is geared specifically towards that idea. The Bears don’t need to switch to a 3-4, they just need to have more speed and with a front four of Israel Idonije, Marcus Harrison, Jarron Gilbert and Henry Melton that is a very fast and athletic front four geared to get to the QB on third down. Much the same way the New York Giants focus their defense so much on speed, the Bears are attempting to do the same things.

With Juaqin Iglesias the Bears wanted to get an established receiver. With Mark Bradley they looked at his ceiling and where he could go. Bradley was a defensive back and was moved around before he was the third best receiver on a team that had two other WRs drafted. Iglesias was THE man at Oklahoma, the established number one target and Angelo felt he really compliments what they are trying to do on offense. It’s not taking an expert to see why the Bears targeted these prospects based on what we saw and what the Bears lack on offense and defense.

Digesting the hype from the NFL Draft

Well after about 48 hours of diegesting the Bears 2009 NFL Draft I have come to a simple conclusion. I don’t care right now who they drafted and where and I won’t care until I see these players do something on the football field. I can read all the draft grades and evaluations in the world, it’s not much different than reading a lot of the pre-draft hype. What matters a lot though will be how these players look on the football field during the pre-season games. It’s then we’ll get the best idea of what each one of these players is REALLY capable of.

For now it’s all still names heights weights and 40-yard dash times on a piece of paper mixed in with college stats. We know that the players drafted were the best players in college football, but we also know that doesn’t mean it translates them into being the best in the NFL. For all the hype and excitement of Jarron Gilbert jumping out of a swimming pool onto the deck from the shallow end, it doesn’t mean he’ll be able to go toe to toe with Steve Hutchinson on Sundays.

For all the speed and athleticism and potential we have heard about regarding Henry Melton, it doesn’t mean he’ll have the NFL work ethic to become a contributor to this defense. For all great catches Juaqin Igelsias made at Oklahoma, it doesn’t mean he’ll be able to get separation and get open against NFL level DBs.

What this all means right now is that these are the players the Bears felt were the best available at the time. Right or wrong the Bears are stuck with these players for a while and hope for the best coming out this draft.

I can also say without question that of these draft picks on this roster not one of them will be a starter on the field against the Green Bay Packers on opening night. Juaqin Iglesias has the most potential to be an opening night starter given the lack of overall depth at the WR position, but given the giant learning curve receivers go through during the transition from college to the NFL I can say almost certainly he won’t be a starter.

The hope from my vantage point is that these players will play their best football during the pre-season. That is typically where most young players begin to stand out and show what they have in terms of NFL ability and promise. If given opportunities during the regular season I want to see them make the most of those chances much like Marcus Harrison did for the Bears last year. The hope lies with Gilbert, Iglesias and Melton that in three years they will be players that are likely to start or will already be starting.

For the rookies now it’s developing good work habits, study habits and knowing that their job is primarily to learn. There is enough talent ahead of them, that they should be able to apply themselves and develop well enough to become successful players in this league. I hope that they know that they do not carry the weight of the world on them, the expectations for them for right now are extremely low. There is no pressure to contribute on day one, the pressure is to just show that you belong on the 53-man roster.

Learn from the veterans ahead of you who have been around for more than four years. Listen, to they have to give you in the way of advice and no that you are not expected to be a starter on day one. If they do happen to become a starter on day one, that’s pure gravy. But their presence represents the future of the Chicago Bears franchise, and does not represent a chance to win the Lombardi trophy.

Speed to burn: Bears Draft Pick Johnny Knox

One of the three draft picks the Bears used on wide receivers today went to a player from a small school with one of the fastest 40-yard dash times at the combine. Abiliene Christian’s Johnny Knox was the Bears’ fifth round draft choice and Bears fans should not be asking why.

Knox is mixture of good size at 6-foot 198-pounds and has shown some pretty good ball skills to go with that speed. He was one of the top performers at the combine that I noticed while scouting it in my live blog earlier this year. He is a very smooth athlete who shows some great athletic promise with an ability to go up and get the ball at it’s highest point and he has excellent body control.

His only downside would be he’s not as strong as you’d like in a receiver. He won’t break a lot of tackles or make a lot of yards after contact because of his small hips and legs.

Overall though he was very productive at a small school. With 118 career catches to go with 2,227 yards and an 18.9 yards per catch average and lastly 30 touchdowns you can see he easily dominated a low level of competition. He may be a bit of a project but he gives the Bears another option in stretch the field.

Reminds me a bit of a young Bernard Berrian a player with a lot of athletic prowess who needs some polish. If he gets that polish and develops he could make an impacct sooner, rather than later.

Bears target Henry Melton, pull the trigger on the Longhorn

Henry Melton can be questioned by some people as being a reach early in the fourth round of the NFL draft today. But rest at ease Bears fans, Jerry Angelo and his crew did their homework on him as a prospect. He was one of the players on the Private Workout list we were the first blog or media outlet to provide and we did a prospect preview on him based on the Bears’ interest in him.

Melton is a classic 4-3 DE prospect with his size and speed of the edge. He is strong enough to hold things down at the point of attack in the run game, and he’s got enough of a burst to get to the QB. He is the type of player that would immensely benefit from learning under the veterans the Bears do have on the roster currently. Not to mention the plus of learning the techniques he’ll get from Rod Marinelli. Melton is a project, but with proper grooming and learning from Marinelli he could be an impact player. He has tremendous upside and he will easily learn good workout and technique habits from the new D-Line coach.

Melton is very new to the position having only played it for two years for the Texas Longhorns. Everyone spoke about him being a prototype DE coming out of high school, where he was a running back, but he never worked out. From there they flipped him to DE where he is now a draft pick for the Chicago Bears.

Juaqin Iglesias good value at 99th overall

Earlier this week I was a bit hard on Iglesias in my prospect preview of him. However I was hard on him for being talked about as a prospect at 49th overall, in the second round. I had no problems with him being selected at the 99th slot in the draft which is where he landed.

Iglesias has value for the 99th overall selection, he could have been a small reach at 49 and a player who could have been scooped up in the second round. Some experts had him pegged with second round value, but the safest place to take him was in the third round and beyond. The Bears looked like they knew what they saw in Iglesias snatching him up in the back end of the third round.

The loss of Bernard Berrian in free agency brings the Bears a solid possession receiver who will get get yards and hopefully continue to move the chains. He’s not going to go deep and make big plays, he’s not going to run away from people. But he should be a third down option who keeps the chains moving in important games late in the season. Decent size, good hands and the ability to seperate and mak plays in the soft spots of zones is what the Bears needed at WR and Iglesias brings good value for that at the 99th overall spot.

Bears Draft Jarron Gilbert D-Lineman at 68th overall

The Chicago Bears select, Jerron Gilbert defensive lineman from San Jose State. Gilbert of YouTube fame for jumping out of the swimming pool and on to the deck. He is one of those athletic freak type of players 6-foot-5 288-pounds 4.86 40-yard dash, just long and lanky and pretty strong.

Gilbert’s role on defense won’t be all that dissimilar to Israel Idonije’s role a stick your hand in the dirt player for rushing downs, and then flip him inside on pass rushing downs. You have to seriously question what this pick means to the D-Line rotation. The staff has always been high on Idonije, they were very happy with Marcus Harrison last year and then there’s the multi-million-dollar man Tommie Harris he of the arthritic knee.

Gibert’s senior season was impressive against lighter competition than a BCS level school. He had 9.5 sacks and 22 tackles-for-a-loss which is pretty impressive anyway you slice it.

For one of the comprehensive scouting reports on the web click here