As we all know the Bears raised ticket prices this year. Per this article:
As expected, the Bears announced a hike in ticket prices in some areas of Soldier Field on Friday, marking the eighth time in the last nine years the franchise has raised prices in some form.
Being the guys way up in the cheap seats, Dan and I likely will only see our ticket prices go up by $2 / game, which isn’t even the price of 1/3 of a beer. Now we’d consider this money well spent, and then some, if it went to what they should have used the money for – to get rid of Lovie and Angelo and bring in some real talent, who in turn could have hired a first class offensive and defensive coordinator. Actually even though we own Fire Mike Martz.com really he might even be the best of the “Four Horsemen” on the mast head, because he actually has done something during the course of his career.
It is hard to muster up too much enthusiasm for this season coming up but at least we aren’t taking the brunt of the costs from the expensive seats; my anger would be geometrically higher paying for the Cadillac Club.
This year will be surreal stumbling in towards the lockout; in the end I can’t believe that the Bears will look back on keeping Lovie and Angelo for another year as a good idea.
Hey we probably just hired Angelo’s replacement for 2011. Ruskell from the Seahawks will be announced as new Dir. of Player Personnel. I don’t know how much grooming Angelo can give him, but it looks like he’s setting his buddy up for his job. Angelo retirement coming soon, but not soon enough. Thanks for the memories Angey!
Hey can anyone call Angey and tell him not to drag his feet on Peppers and/or Sharper. Make a deal and live with it! We can get one or both of these players and then focus on our other needs for the offseason. This would eliminate the need to draft or mix-n-match 2nd rate players on the defense to new positions. We could then get the O-line addressed and WR issues worked out. The WR position becomes our last need if we get these 2 defenders. The O-line is #2 on my list, because Martz is going to get the ball out quicker, roll the pocket (but not a lot), and Cutler will have a deeper drop than last year when we are going for the deeper balls(believe me the extra yd or two that will be added will make a huge sack/hurrie difference). DumbRon didn’t have that kind of football intelligence.
I don’t think Peppers is interested in the Bears. He’s stated many times about his desire to be an OLB in a 3-4 offense, and I don’t see Lovie switching away from 4-3 any time soon (even though his personnel is PERFECT for the formation. Lots of young, fast, aggressive LBs, a NT that can still take up 2 blockers, and fast, strong ends). Sharper is still signed with the Saints, and I don’t see the Bears making another big trade splash this off-season. Not while they seem to be grooming a pretty decent young secondary behind Al Afalava.
What I want to see is some movement on the lines, both offense and defense. Tommie clearly isn’t Tommie anymore, even though he’s still pretty decent. Wale isn’t Wale anymore, and Brown is probably at the peak of his career right now. We need a new DT and probably a DE to fill Wale’s spot. On the offensive side, probably only Williams is a good fit long term. Kreutz and Garza are clearly on the downsides of their careers (though Kreutz is a surefire HOFer). Schaffer, Beekman, and Omiyale are all subpar for their positions.
What the Bears need desperately is to draft a whole crapton load of lineman, as well as pick up as many linemen as they possibly can in free agency. At the very least, Marinelli and Tice should be able to pick out the wheat from the chafe and build something reasonable for next year.
I firmly believe that the Bears are pretty much set at every position except for the lines at this point. Jay Cutler will be better this year, the Bears have probably 3 good, young wideouts, Forte can’t be as bad as he was this year, and the TEs should improve. On the defensive side, the Bears have probably 5 or 6 starting LBs to fill 3 spots, and I’m pretty certain that any of them could, over a full season, make the Probowl. Manning is pretty much entrenched as Nickel back, and Peanut is as good as anybody outside of Revis and Nnamdi. The second CB spot can probably rotate between three pretty competent players in Vasher, Bowman, and Graham. Al Afalava has pretty much secured one of the Safety spots as one of the biggest rookie surprises of the season, and the other 3 guys are competent at worst at Safety.
Our only two weaknesses from a personnel standpoint, as far as I can tell, are the two lines, offensive and defensive. If those two areas can get right this offseason, this Bears team has a pretty good chance of being pretty darn good this year.
Of course, that can only happen if the coaching is good…