This Forbes article savages the McCaskeys for failing to capitalize on the huge money-making opportunities that the Bears have to offer.

The Chicago Bears are the NFL’s most neglected brand and the best opportunity in football.

Well you don’t say. Up in the cheap seats we have known that for years, and it all is due to the McKaskeys running the team into the ground.

In a league run by dynamic owners like Jerry Jones in Dallas, Daniel Snyder in Washington and Robert Kraft in New England, the Bears are financial flatliners. In this year’s FORBES NFL valuations the Bears rank ninth, worth $1.07 billion, the lowest-ranked big market team, and are behind even the small-fry Baltimore Ravens. On the field they’ve recently been just as mediocre, compiling a 111–129 record since 1995. No NFL team has done less with more.

Glad to hear that Forbes, too, has forgotten about the 1985 Bears and gone with recent history. Damn that was 25 years ago – let’s get with the times!

The problem begins and ends with the ownership. The team is controlled by 87-year-old Virginia McCaskey, the daughter of Halas. The face of the franchise is her son, Michael, who never aspired to be the head of an NFL team (his brother, George, will take over next year). The day-to-day operations are led by Ted Phillips, an accountant.

OUCH. That is a punch in the gut but an accurate summary. I too, am an accountant, but I am not trying to select players and run an NFL franchise.

If the Bears have been good at anything, it’s at keeping payroll down. Since forbes began tracking team values in 1998, the Bears have never made the NFL’s top ten for paying talent. This parsimony affects the entire league when it comes to shared revenues like sponsorships and merchandise.

Telling it like it is. And then don’t forget about the players that we DO spend a lot of money on… they tend to flop. There are SO many of them I don’t want to run through them here, too depressing. With an accountant and the McCaskeys behind the controls, our drafts suck, and then we don’t invest in payroll like a top market should.

The article ends with the hope that once the McCaskeys have to split up their stakes, someone will swoop in and run the team right, and then the value should increase by $800M or so (over the long term) commensurate with the Bears’ rightful place in the NFL.

A dream here, for sure. Fire Everybody includes the McCaskeys and all their cronies.

Cross posted at LITGM.

Can you imagine writing a sentence like the title of this post? I read it and almost soaked my computer screen with this throwback Pepsi, which I am very much enjoying. You don’t say? Great concern?

It comes from the great mind of none other than grinning skull Dan Pompei at the Chicago Tribune. I took the time to read the mailbag today and would like to offer what the real answers to these mailbag questions should be after I show Dan’s stupid answers.

Mailbag question #1:

Will Julius Peppers turn into this year’s Albert Haynesworth? They were both considered to be the best free agents on the market and were taken early. Haynesworth had a below average performance last year and I’m worried that Peppers might fall down the same path.

Pompei’s reply:
I don’t think there is any way possible we will be sitting here one year from now or several years from now thinking about Peppers has been a bust and a problem child, which is how Haynesworth is perceived. There is a chance we will say Peppers was overpaid. Maybe it’s a good chance. But the Bears knew they were going to have to pay a lot to get a pass rusher. All of the big name pass rushers who changed teams in the offseason were overpaid. That’s free agency. Haynesworth had a history of being difficult before he signed with the Redskins. Peppers had no such history, though the one knock on him is he doesn’t play with consistent intensity. So far, Peppers has looked outstanding in camp. Bears tackles haven’t been able to block him, and I tend to believe opponents aren’t going to be able to block him either. I think he’s going to have a big year if he stays healthy.

How I would answer since I really don’t have any team access to worry about:
Julius Peppers is getting one third of the total gate of the team this year so he better perform – in relative worth, there is NO WAY possible that he is worth that sort of coin, even if he does get 15 sacks. He has shown in the past to be a lazy fuck so we will have to watch that. Also we need to keep him off the juice as he has been convicted of using ‘roids. He isn’t Haynesworth, but then again, who is?

Mailbag question #2:

Should there be great concern if Jay Cutler goes down? How are the current back-ups looking and should a veteran QB be in the mix?

Pompei’s reply:
Yes, there should be great concern if Cutler goes down. No team in the NFL is equipped to replace a starting quarterback with Cutler’s ability. The Bears would be a drastically different offense with Caleb Hanie — or anyone else — running the show. Hanie probably is as good an option to replace Cutler as anyone, though. He’s had a decent camp, though he always looks a little average in comparison to Cutler. The bottom line is if Cutler is injured, the Bears will be in trouble no matter who their backup is.

How I would answer:
If Cutler goes down, we are fucked, plain and simple. But we aren’t the only ones playing the one qb gambit – the Slack nor the Queens have any real depth at that position either.

Mailbag question #3:
Over the past many years, the one thing that drives Bears fans out of their freakin’ minds is the good old three yard pass play on third and four. Watching Mike Martz’s offense, will we still see that this year? Or will we see receivers actually, shockingly, go beyond the down marker on their routes?

Pompei’s reply:
We always did see receivers go beyond the down marker on third down. What we didn’t always see was the receivers getting open beyond the down marker. As a result some of the passes had to go to safer targets. Throwing a checkdown, or hoping you can complete a short pass and get yards after the catch on third and long can be a better alternative than throwing a risky pass that could be intercepted or chancing a sack. It’s called living for another day, and there is nothing wrong with it. But to answer your question, I think we’ll see less of that this year. With quarterbacks in this system being coached to throw to spots, they will be less dependent on waiting for receivers to get open. So they should let it rip and worry about the consequences later. It should result it more first downs. But it also could result in more interceptions.

How I would answer:
You better believe we saw that play, like ten million times with good old Ron Turner at the helm. Pompei was afraid to call that spade a spade for fear of losing his access, but I sure am not. The fact of the matter is that we NEVER saw the receivers going past the first down marker, and many times those five yard outs at the SIDELINES in third and ten were the only option for our poor qb’s who were busy getting smashed by d linemen and linebackers who knew all five of Ron’s plays.

Anyway, you get the drift, click over to read some of Dan’s stooopid answers to the mailbag.

As far as the pre-season, Dan rightly tells me to ignore the pre-season because it doesn’t matter. And while he is right, it is all we have so here we go…

There is a flutter about the backup QB issue, whether we should go out and find a veteran QB. Frankly I could care less. These Bears aren’t a great team and Cutler is one of their more talented players; if Cutler’s out, our season is almost guaranteed to go down the tubes so it doesn’t matter if it comes down to that. We already are just getting drunk in the cheap seats at that point.

So we only have 1 series with the first team offense, and it ends like most SUCCESSFUL Bears offensive drive ends, with a field goal. This team is red zone misery, always has been, although of course as a fan we want to see that change this year under Martz. I still will have a hard time believing that it will happen, until I see it with my own eyes.

Some of the journalists said it was a good idea to keep Cutler out of the line of fire with our shaky offensive line, and I guess that makes sense. I just don’t know how our offensive line is “magically” going to improve significantly through these first four meaningless exhibition games. Cutler better be prepared to be hit in the backfield all the time and have to scramble around because that’s what our offensive line tends to deliver.

I will open up the thread now to much smarter commenters…

Went to training camp last night, got to see the one aspect of camp I really wanted to see. Here’s what I noticed…

Tommie’s got his step back, but his instincts are somewhat behind. He looked really strong for most of the practice, but jumped offsides far too many times for my taste.

Pep is incredible. He terrorized both sides of the line in the 2v2 and 2v3 drills, and was easily the first person off the lines in position drills.

I saw really very little out of the rest of the guys that gave me any real hope. But Anderson wasn’t in practice last night, so I didn’t get a chance to see him.

On the offensive side, the left side of the line looked pretty good when they weren’t going against a Peppers/Harris combination in the 2v2 and 2v3 drills. Only Chris Williams had any success at slowing down Pep on that side of the line. The right side, OTOH, looked as porous as ever. This doesn’t look too good for a right-handed QB, as rolling to the left means you can’t set your feet and throw with power. About all you can do that way is dump-offs.

Robbie Gould looked in midseason form last night. He hit a couple from the 45 yard line (both of which would’ve been good from another 5 yards out), and had at least 3 natural touchbacks in the special teams drills.

I skipped the team drills so I could get a decent spot for the autograph session. I heard a LOT of cheering and WOWing from the crowd over there, not really sure what happened. But I chose the wrong side of the isle this time. Only Dan LeFevour and Rashied Davis even came over to my side, and I could only get Davis’s Hancock. The other side got basically all of the tier-2 players (Manning, Devins, Steltz, Olsen, etc). BTW, it generally doesn’t matter what you call the guys, as they don’t seem to hear most of it. Just don’t insult them, and call them by their name. As far as who you get, it’s pretty much luck of the draw. I didn’t see Pep or Urlacher or any of our Stars come down that isle. Bit disappointing. And I can’t get back up there again this preseason. Oh well. My football is at least mostly clean, so I can try again next year…

Although Julius may have not let himself go as badly as I was theorizing (lets hope so), Albert Haynesworth really did an awesome number on himself. He was the only Redskin not to attend the off season conditioning camps. Now, Haynesworth is really, really paying the price. Uh-oh, there is a new sherriff in town, Mike Shanahan.

In this SUPER funny clown show, Shanahan is making him pass a simple conditioning test before letting him practice with the team. I will remind everyone that Haynesworth is the owner of the most expensive contract in all of the NFL – and is now sitting the bench.

And I knew this would ultimately happen – everyone is trying the test and passing it, from little girls to old men. I haven’t tried it yet but have absoluetly no doubt that I would pass the test on the first try.

I absolutely love this clown show, and like Shanny even more now than I used to.

Steve Czaban says it best in his great post on the subject:

Because to me, this is a huge – albeit spectacularly funny – waste of time. Think about it. You have a player who is hated in the locker-room, ridiculed by fans, grossly out of shape, with a horseshit attitude, and is now way behind in learning the new scheme.

You gonna trust him on a big 3rd and 7 against the Dallas Cowboys on the road?

He’ll take two half-assed steps into a gap, lose his balance, fall down, and allow Marion Barber to go 74 yards up the middle for a TD.

No thanks. Let’s cut the strings to this parade float, and pretend it never, ever, ever happened.

Or, maybe there’s a fairy tale finish somewhere here, where Al passes the test, and works his way back into the starting lineup playing the hated 3-4 scheme. Team-mates accept him back, fans begrudgingly do as well, and it’s all just one big silly summer misunderstanding.

Sure.

I will continue to monitor and laugh uncontrollably at this situation and at Fatass Haynesworth until he finally passes. Like I always say when I am at a Bear game, no matter now cold or crappy the weather is, or how bad the parking and traffic are – at least we aren’t at Fed Ex.

Per Forbes, here are the most valuable NFL franchises:

1. Dallas $1.650B
2. Redskins $1.55B (boy this one seems hard to believe but what do I know)
3. Patriots $1.36B
4. NY Giants $1.18B
5. NY Jets $1.17B
6. Houston $1.15B
7. Eagles $1.12B
8. Tampa Bay $1.085B
9. Chicago Bears $1.082B
10. Denver $1.081B

While the Bears are a valuable franchise, all the ones ranked ahead of us in value are also ahead of us in Dan’s pre-season odds, with the exception of the hapless Tampa Bay Bucs at 100-1.

Tebow signed a contract yesterday per this at ESPN. Here is the money:

Tebow might not be ready to make a big impact as a rookie because he faces a big adjustment as he morphs from combination college quarterback to prototypical pro passer. Still, many consider him the best college player ever and he’s creating the kind of buzz in the Rockies that John Elway did back in 1983.

I had to laugh out loud at that part – I don’t think the author of the article, Bill Williamson, knows just exactly what type of buzz that the first round draft pick Tebow has created in Denver.

For the fans, at least the ones I have talked to, here is the BUZZ – it is an unmitigated disaster. Everyone knows that Tebow will wash out rather quickly when faced with the speed and ferocity of the NFL caliber players.

Denver now has not one, not two, but THREE journeymen qb’s on their roster – Neckbeard, which they just signed to a one year $2.6m deal, Tebow and Brady Quinn. Ouch. My my how some of the mighty franchises have fallen.

In fact, I feel better about this Bears team’s makeup than I’ve felt about any Bears team in recent memory. In hindsight, the 2006 NFC champion Bears were better on paper than this team is today. But this team has the potential to be better than that team. The reason is this team has two potential difference-makers in Jay Cutler and Julius Peppers who weren’t around in 2006, and another, Devin Hester, who is in a different role. Cutler, Peppers and maybe even Hester have the abilities to take over games in ways their predecessors in 2006 did not. Whether or not they will is another issue.

Huh? You are comparing this team to the 2006 Bears? They are COMPLETELY different teams, one of which (2006) was built primarily around defense while the 2010 model has invested quite a lot on the offensive side (sadly not at offensive line, though). Also, I know that Pompei’s memory is about as short as that fish in “Finding Nemo” but the Bears had OTHER guys who could dominate a game back in 2006, such as Hester as a kickoff returner when he drove field position (unlike today) and Urlacher especially if you remember that Cardinals game.

Of course, “unrealized potential” could be the subtitle for the Bears highlight film from many of their 89 seasons. And it could be for this team too. What should prevent that, at least in theory, is this staff of assistants. It’s easily the best coach Lovie Smith has had, and one of the best in team history.

What I love most about Pompei is his consistency. Last year he was giving fawning interviews with our despised Ron Turner, repeating every word he said as if he was talking to Bill Walsh or a Hall-of-Fame coach, instead of the worse-than-useless dope that was Ron. Pompei even DEFENDED Ron against all those “haters” out there, people like this blog or pretty much every Bear fan I ever encountered who didn’t have anything good to say about Ron (although some hated Lovie even more than Ron). Now he is fawning over the new core of assistants, which likely is an improvement but come on the combo of Turner and whomever was calling our terrible defensive schemes most of the time is the lowest bar in the NFL outside of maybe the Redskins and the Raiders.

Dan is sending me the pre-season tickets and I will head on up because Saturday night games are quite pleasant I am sure I will see the usual crop of people that will never make the team and a lot of backup QB’s.

I can see a 9-7 season, playoff miss.

The offense looks to be this team’s strength this year. We’ve got two legitimate RB1s that have all the tools to succeed in a passing-oriented offense. While Martz tends to run passing offenses, they tend to be screens to set up bombs. Or bombs to set up screens. Forte works best in space, and Taylor is experienced enough and technically sound enough to work in pretty much any system we put him in.

Our TE situation is kinda a clusterf$%k right now. We’ve got two legitimate pass-catching TEs in Olsen and Clark. We’ve got two legitimate blocking TEs in Brandon and Davis. I know that the Martz offense likes having blocking TEs more than pass-catching TEs. I see Olsen and Clark being converted more into slot possession receivers under this offense. Which would kinda suck, as Earl Bennett looks most comfortable in that role, and has much better speed and toughness than Olsen at the very least.

I might be in the minority here, but I’m optimistic about our WR core. I see us as having 4 different WR2s with basically 4 different skill sets. I don’t see how any secondary core can easily plan for our WRs when we can pretty much swap them out at will and play matchups however we want. At least one of them could pass into legit WR1 territory. My best guess is DevA.

As far as QB, Cutler really wasn’t that bad last year IMO. I can attribute at least 10 of his picks directly to our putrid offensive line last year. And he was remarkably better in those last 2 games when idiot Turner decided to actually play Williams in his natural position of LT. Remember, Cutler was sacked 35 times last season, tied for 7th most on the list. And only Aaron Rogers had more TDs with more sacks than Cutler last year. Yes, he’s a Favre-ian gunslinger type, and he’s going to toss his picks during the season. But as long as the line can protect him and he can work with his WRs efficiently, I see a pretty decent passing team for this season.

And that brings me to the real question mark on this offense. The line. It was putrid last year. And there’s been zero big roster changes for this year. We got Mike Tice, a supposed line guru. But we’ve heard that before (Marinelli) and it didn’t help us. It will be nice having Williams in his natural position where he can actually play based on instinct rather than thought. Kreutz and Garza are locked into their positions, and have traditionally been pretty good there. It’s at LG and RT that I’m worried. I know they’re hyping Omiyale at RT right now, but he’s been a disappointment in other games, and I kinda liked what Schaffer did there at the end of last season. At LG, there’s really nobody right now filling that spot. This will be a work in progress this season.

If you would have told me at the end of last season that our defense would have Peppers and Harris guarding the front and back, I would’ve told you that we had a top 5 NFL defense. That was before they unreasonably cut Brown and Vasher and didn’t renew Wale. I’ll start with the good.

Our LB core is IMO the strongest in the NFL. One through six, this core can start on virtually any team in the NFL, and we’ve got 3 of them in backup and special teams positions. Call me an optimist, but I see Urlacher playing out the season. He’s only really had two injuries in his career, and the first time he came back with a VENGEANCE. Briggs is the perfect player for his position in this defense. Fast, strong, big, and instinctive. Love watching this guy fly around the field. On the other side, we’ve got a young gun with a chip on his shoulder, and a veteran looking to prove he’s still got something left in the tank. I really don’t care who wins that battle, but I’d like to see both players on the field at some point. Hillenmeyer is a backup to all three positions. He’s competent at all 3, but unspectacular.

In the secondary, we’ve got IMO a tier 1 CB playing CB2, which I think is a mistake. Peanut has proven over many seasons that he can cover pretty much anybody, and has shut down some of the best WR talents that he has faced, culminating in that very impressive showing against Calvin Johnson in the first game last year. For those that don’t remember, Megatron went OFF against the Bears in the first half, playing mostly against anybody not named Peanut. Second half? Nada. I think two catches for like 20 yards or something like that. Bowman is good, but IMO still raw, and he needs another season working the CB2 position before he gets promoted. This is where Nathan Vasher could’ve made an impact. The guy had one incredible season, and has been injured pretty much since. I think this year he’ll break out again with a team that’s willing to give him a second chance. I just wish it was with the Bears.

Down deep, we’ve got a talented veteran returning to his original team as the most veteran player at his position. Great. Now find somebody to start aside him. I was VERY impressed with Afalava last year, and I’m surprised there’s no talk of him taking one of the Safety spots this year. I was similarly UNimpressed with the other guys we had. Oh yeah. Danieal Manning is not a Safety. He’s a nickel back. He’s been impressive at that position, and I don’t want this team to tamper with a good thing.

In the trenches, we’ve got one of the top 5 DEs in the NFL. Shame we couldn’t build a line around him. I’m not buying the Tommie Harris hype again. We’ve bought into the hype every season since 2006, and I’m getting sick of it. IMO, this is his absolute last chance to prove he’s a top flight DT. Otherwise, we start looking in another direction. Similarly with Anderson, though he’s had ZERO excuse for his drop in play. That was ATROCIOUS. Massive sack machine in his first season, a ghost since then. Letting go of Alex Brown was a mistake that this team will regret in the first game of the season. He wasn’t a spectacular player. But he was solid, knew his role, and could make the little plays that prevent big plays from breaking. Anderson has some big shoes to fill there. At the other DT position, I’ve got no idea who’s starting there. If Brown were still around, I’d say that Israel Idonije would be the best fit in there. He’s more of a DT anyway. But since Brown left, they put Izzy in a tussle for the starting DE spot, and I think that’s a shame and a waste of a good player.

No worries about the Special Teams here. Toub always gets good things out of his players. Johnny Flyer is a special kind of player, and I can easily see him breaking a few BIG runs this season. Bennett is capable on the PR team. I just wish this idiot coaching staff hadn’t ruined the best returner the NFL has ever seen by trying to convert him into a pass-catching WR. BTW, this is the last season Hester has to prove himself as a legitimate WR2, or IMO get rid of the guy.

Based on the matchups, I’ve got us at 9-7, basically losing out to the NFC East, splitting our division except Detroit, and losing to the Patriots.

At the Bears website I found this quote by Carl’s hero Rod Marinelli:

I didn’t know him as a person. But we played him twice a year when I was in Tampa and our offensive coaches would sweat bullets all week. All I can tell you is what I’ve seen here. Mr X is extremely talented and competitive. What I’ve seen is a great work ethic. Not a good work ethic, but a great one. And he’s got a real thirst for knowledge, which is about as good a compliment as you can give

I had to laugh out loud when I read this one. I won’t tell you who Rod is talking about but will put the answer in the comments.

So, faithful readers, it is prediction time. Give me your best shot on what the Bears record will be this year. With our new Mike Martz e=mc2 offense (tm Tyler) we should score more points than last year. But anyone who replaces Ron Turner SHOULD do better. Hell, I know I could do better. So Martz in a goofy way should thank Turner for sucking so badly making it a breeze for Martz to “succeed”. Of course this is relative to RON, not to the rest of the league. Which is setting the bar pretty damned low, but the Bears are used to that.

Our defense looks to suck out loud. ‘Nuff said about that. If Mark Anderson doesn’t come through we are really toast.

I have a few predictions – Julius Peppers gets hurt in training camp and the Bears go 7-9 – again. I will also say that they will probably give Martz the head coaching job when they run Lovie out of town after this season.

And I also predict that the Bears Drum Line will still suck.

Lets hear your predictions in the comments.
.

NFL
Super Bowl XLIV
Event Date: Feb. 6, 2011
Team / Current
Indianapolis 13/2
Dallas 8/1
New Orleans 8/1
San Diego 17/2
New England 9/1
Green Bay 19/2
N.Y. Jets 10/1
Minnesota 11/1
Baltimore 14/1
N.Y. Giants 15/1
Pittsburgh 20/1
Atlanta 20/1
Tennessee 22/1
Cincinnati 26/1
Miami 28/1
Washington 28/1
Philadelphia 28/1
Houston 30/1
Chicago 30/1
San Francisco 40/1
Arizona 50/1
Jacksonville 50/1
Denver 55/1
Carolina 60/1
Seattle 60/1
Cleveland 80/1
Detroit 80/1
Kansas City 100/1
Oakland 100/1
Tampa Bay 100/1
Buffalo 120/1
St. Louis 150/1
From what I am hearing the Packers are going to be the team to beat in the Central. I see Detroit way down there at 80/1, but I think they will finally be a little bit respectable. Suh will probably win at least one game for them himself.

Cleveland, KC, Oakland, Tampa, Buffalo, St. Louis – always the same names on the bottom of the list. Their fans must be more despondent then us. Denver at 55-1 – I guess Tebow didn’t bring enough Jesus to Denver to impress the oddsmakers. I can’t believe how that franchise is imploding. I am betting that their insane rabid fans will blow up eventually and go nuts, instead of the slow drain of the Redskins franchise, whos fans quietly just go away.

The Colts are still the favorite, although Ron Turner is poisoning their waters now. That would truly SUCK if Ron got a Super Bowl ring. I have to start rooting against the Colts with all of my power.

While we wait through the summer to see the new and improved (hopefully) 2010 Bears, Dan keeps getting emails from the Washington Redskins inviting him to come and purchase season tickets. My how that franchise has fallen; from being one of the most valuable and emulated NFL franchises into a laughingstock, with a terrible reputation for their expensive new stadium. They are begging Dan to come and visit and become a season ticket holder. Bears’ management, while awful in recent years, should look upon the Redskins as a cautionary tale of their future if they don’t get this franchise moving in the right direction.

I like the part in this advertisement about the “punter proof” HD videoboards, too.

- Fan relations (18.5%)
- Bang for the buck (22.5%)
- Players (17.4)
- Coaching (3.4%)
- Title Track (5.7%)
- Ownership (10.3%)
- Affordability (12.6%)
- Stadium Experience (9.6%)

The Bears are a cornerstone franchise of the NFL. By all rights, if properly run, they should be near the top of the NFL teams. BUT… according to ESPN Magazine, here is the company we keep in terms of those franchises ranked LOWER than our beloved Bears (we are at #86, remember this includes all franchises not just the NFL):

1. Cincinnati Bengals (#90) – really, this is a dismal franchise
2. Kansas City Chiefs (#95) – these guys haven’t won a playoff game in a century
3. Tampa Bay Buccaneers (#99) – this is what happens when you win a Super Bowl and raise expectations and then demolish the team
4. Buffalo Bills (#101) – as if missing winning the Super Bowl all those times and being in upstate New York wasn’t enough of a burden
5. Washington Redskins (#105) – of all the teams on this list the ‘Skins may have a claim to be even more brutal to the fans and the fans’ expectations than the Bears, relative to their history
6. Cleveland Browns (#108) – a disastrous 2009 must have played into this
7. Detroit Lions (#109) – as if being in Detroit wasn’t enough, a pitiful win total adds to the frustration
8. St. Louis Rams (#114) – another franchise running itself into the ground
9. Oakland Raiders (#115) – see our posts on their striving for excellence

So there they are. Out of the NFL franchises, this is the company we keep.

As veteran Bear fans we can guess what the reviewers thought of the coaches, the owners, championships, and the like. Our expectations are not close to being met, and this is why we are hanging out with the crappy teams listed above.

THIS IS NOT ACCEPTABLE. DEMAND MORE FROM THE BEARS.