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I am actually in the extreme minority in that I actually enjoy the NFL training camp and preseason process as currently set-up, with one caveat…this fourth pre-season game is completely useless. No way any coach with a pulse wants to risk injury to anyone of value this close to opening weekend, and they also are not going to put anything on tape of interest in terms of scheme. So, in particular, out of the four preseason games, this is the one that is pretty much useless.

At any rate, a few items of note as “please God don’t let my team take injuries” weekend approaches:

—Brett Favre is getting his eyes checked. Insert standard that’s-what-happens-as-you-age joke here. Except, well, it kinda does.

—Jay Cutler having difficulty getting in a comfort zone. That’s what happens when you fear that each time you drop back you are going to die.

—The 49ers have gone easy on Frank Gore this pre-season. Makes sense, he’s got an injury history, and his back-ups are ever on the edge of quitting their gig to seek G-d.

—Darelle Revis still holding out of the Jets circus. Vincent Jackson prepared to go to the mats in San Diego. But one flying under the national radar too much is Logan Mankins’ holdout of New England. Beast of a guard, the Pats really do need him.

With an able assist from Peter King, enabler for hype, we got this from King’s MMQB yesterday as he quotes the Bears’ new offensive coordinator:

“I never let hearsay and gossip determine what I think of a player, and I haven’t with Jay,” he said after the Bears’ Saturday practice. “What I’ve seen in him so far is he has no flaws. None. He’s got no ego. I’m sure I’ve not met anyone as intelligent as him at quarterback. He’s been a great leader. He can make all the throws. His recognition of the defense at the snap of the ball is freaky, incredible. He sees things the way Kurt used to see them. He came to me with a completely open mind about this offense, and every day when I come to work, he’s ready to learn. It tickles me. He’s bought in so completely.”

Well great. All is fixed with Cutler. On to the winning!

Oh, and Chicago is the latest city to be a rumored destination in-theory-maybe-just-ask-him for Terrell Owens. Where he would join a wide receiver group that Martz claims is the best on the team.

The dead zone for NFL news is upon us all.

Ravens QB Coach Hue Jackson is the Raiders’ new offensive coordinator.

Jackson interviewed with the team for an unspecified capacity last week, which apparently was the offensive coordinator position. He also interviewed with the Bears for their vacant offensive coordinator position.

The Bears are still looking for an OC, and can’t seem to find one through the numerous interviews they’ve had. Jackson presumably turned down the Bears for the Raiders, and unless Al Davis was promising him a ton of money, this doesn’t make much sense on the surface.

Would you rather work with Jay Cutler or JaMarcus Russell? Better yet, don’t answer that.

April 2, 2009. In a decade, people will look back on that date as one that changed the football fortunes of the city of Chicago. The Bears packed up last season’s starting quarterback, Kyle Orton, first round picks in 2009 and 2010 and a third rounder in 2009 and sent it all to Denver for Jay Cutler, a Pro Bowl quarterback who grew up a Bear fan in a small town in Indiana. The time to start grading that trade is nearly upon us.

OFFENSIVE OVERVIEW:

Cutler posted gaudy numbers last year as a Bronco en route to that Pro Bowl appearance, finishing third in the league in passing yards (4,526), second in pass attempts (616), and seventh in touchdown passes (25). However, he was on a team that often relied on his arm to outscore their opponents. Partially as a result of all those slings, but also due to his risk-taking style borne in his self-confidence and powerful arm, Cutler finished second in interceptions thrown with 18. Chicago figures to run a significantly more conservative offense than what Denver did last year, so Cutler will be asked to win fewer games on his own, hopefully cutting down his picks. The most important of all number Cutler can post this season is 16, as in starting every game to keep Caleb Hanie and Brett Basanez wearing ballcaps and headsets.

Matt Forte had a tremendous rookie season for the Bears. The second-rounder from Tulane finished third in the NFL with 1,715 yards from scrimmage on 379 touches (fantasy football freakout note!). With Cutler taking snaps, there figure be more holes for Forte, giving him a chance to improve his 3.9 yards-per-carry average. Now twenty months removed from tearing his ACL, Kevin Jones is healthy and should lift some of the rushing burden from Forte’s shoulders. Forte had 316 of the team’s 407 carries by running backs (77.6 percent), but the team would like to get that down to around 60-65 percent of the workload with the bulk of the remainder going to Jones.

The biggest question mark on the Bears’ offense goes to the wide receiver group. Devin Hester leads the group after catching 51 passes last year. He will provide a deep threat combined with the cannon arm of Cutler, but his route-running and hands are still unproven. Cutler’s college teammate, Earl Bennett, will start opposite Hester and looks like a fair bet to revisit his college success despite catching zero passes as a rookie. Cutler has kept an eye on Bennett in preseason action, targeting him four times in the first 20 minutes of their second preseason game, netting a pair of catches and a pass interference penalty, and three times in a long scoring drive in Denver, connecting twice.

Unlike their wide receiver counterparts, the Bears’ tight ends are a known commodity. Greg Olsen has been promoted to the starting lineup and Desmond Clark is slotted to the #2 spot. The two combined for 95 catches last season, gaining 941 yards and tallying six scores. With Cutler having looked Tony Scheffler’s way a lot in Denver last season, Olsen could easily improve on last year’s 54 grabs and threaten to merit a Pro Bowl bid (yes, even with Jason Witten and Tony Gonzalez in the NFC).

Perhaps just as important as Cutler is the other addition the Bears made on April 2nd. Orlando Pace was signed as a free agent (one of three veterans to join the Bears’ offensive line this offseason) and will protect Cutler’s blindside. One concern of Pace’s game that showed itself during the preseason is an inability to handle speed rushers. Pace pushes last season’s first-round pick (and another Cutler college teammate), Chris Williams, to the right tackle spot. Olin Kreutz, a six-time Pro Bowler, will man the middle of the line again and be flanked by Roberto Garza on the right and former Carolina Panther Frank Omiyale, another free agent acquisition, on the left. Omiyale pushes Josh Beekman into a backup role along with another free agent acquisition, Kevin Shaffer, who started all but one game the last three seasons in Cleveland.

DEFENSIVE OVERVIEW:

The players on other line have a lot of familiar faces, but the group is expected to lift their play by the presence of a new face who will not suit up. Rod Marinelli was hired as the defensive line coach and is expected to help this group perform much like the premier Buccaneer units Marinelli guided in the early part of the decade. Tommie Harris had offseason surgery and is being brought along slowly, but will be joined in the middle by Anthony Adams, Marcus Harrison, and Jarron Gilbert. Adewale Ogunleye, Mark Anderson, and Alex Brown must bring the heat from the outside after tallying only a dozen sacks collectively last season. Israel Idonije will swing both inside and out for support.

The linebacker unit features mainstays Brian Urlacher and Lance Briggs. Urlacher reportedly has clean bill of health for the first time in three years (no back or neck issues) and Briggs will simply continue stacking tackles like cordwood. Pisa Tinoisamoa, who led the Rams in tackles last season, as well as in each of the 2004-2006 seasons, signed as a free agent and is the strong side linebacker. Hunter Hillenmeyer (the fourth and last former collegiate Commodore on the roster), who lost his starting role to the newcomer after coming off hernia surgery, has slid into the backup middle linebacker spot.

The defensive backs are a mixed bag. Charles Tillman, the Bears’ best cover corner, is coming back from injury and may not to be ready for the start of the season. Nathan Vasher, whose play has slipped since signing a large contract extension, ended each of the last two seasons on injured reserve and has only played in 12 games during that time. Zackary Bowman, Trumaine McBride, or Corey Graham will start if Tillman cannot answer the opening bell. Bowman impressed the coaching staff in camp, but suffered an injury of his own and is just starting to come back. The group is so depleted, the team signed Rod Hood the day after he got cut by Cleveland. The safety position is in need of players to step up and grab roles with good play. Danieal Manning is slated to start at free safety and Kevin Payne at strong safety. Manning has decent cover skills and should see significant time at the nickel spot while Payne is a hitter who recorded 89 tackles while leading the squad with four interceptions last year. Backing them up are Josh Bullocks, Craig Steltz, and rookie Al Afalava. Deep coverage will be an issue with this group, underlining the need for a resurgent pass rush from the front four.

SPECIAL TEAMS OVERVIEW:

The special teams units have been very good at during Lovie Smith’s tenure. While not having a strong leg (0-for-2 from 50 yards or more in his career), Robbie Gould is very accurate, having connected on 26-of-29 field goals (89.7 percent) last season and 110-of-128 (85.9 percent) in his career. Brad Maynard is back for his ninth season with the Bears after allowing only 36 of his 96 punts to be returned last year. Danieal Manning led the NFL with a 29.7-yard average on kickoff returns, including an 83-yard return for a score against the Saints. Devin Hester returned 32 punts and 31 kickoffs last season, but will not see duty on kickoffs this year.

2009 SCHEDULE:
at Green Bay
Pittsburgh
at Seattle
Detroit
bye
at Atlanta
at Cincinnati
Cleveland
Arizona
at San Francisco
Philadelphia
at Minnesota
St. Louis
Green Bay
at Baltimore
Minnesota
at Detroit

SCHEDULE ANALYSIS:

Panic attacks could be widespread by mid-September in the City of Broad Shoulders, as the Bears could very likely drop their opening two games. After that, the Bears have a couple of easier games to right the ship, followed by their bye. If Chicago can grab a road win in Atlanta, the Bears could be 5-2 heading into their home matchup with the defending NFC champions. That Arizona game starts a key stretch of four games, but if the Bears can win three of those games, including the first game against the Vikings, they will be sitting pretty coming into the homestretch. Green Bay and Baltimore should be the toughest tests of the final five, which should include a couple games where the Bears should be favored handily.

Optimistically, the Bears can win 12 games and the division title. Green Bay should be their strongest competition in the division with a healthy Ryan Grant to complement the blossoming Aaron Rodgers and a defense that has looked dominant thus far in the preseason. The other thing that helps with their two matchups against Minnesota is that the games are in Weeks 12 and 16. While it is not guaranteed to happen, Brett Favre’s tailspin last year started late in the season and a repeat of that would certainly aid the Bears’ postseason chase. This 12-4 scenario has the Bears at 10-2 NFC mark (a split with Green Bay and losses to Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and Baltimore). That sounds like a division title and postseason bye with the possibility of hosting the NFC title tilt.

There are, however, many things that have to go the Bears’ way to reach these heights. Cutler must mesh with his receiving corps (this has been beaten into the ground by the Chicago papers, going so far as to overanalyze the comments between Cutler and Hester regarding an interception in the pre-season game against the Bills and providing daily stats in 7-on-7 drills) or defenses won’t respect Forte. The veteran offensive line group, which features three new starters, must get on the same page and hold up through the full season. Tommie Harris must be healthy and a force as part of a resurgent defensive line that consistently gets pressure on opposing quarterbacks to lower the heat on the defensive backfield. Those defensive backs, particularly the safeties, have to avoid being torched on a regular basis. Chicago can probably withstand one of these not working out well and be in the postseason hunt (the most likely shortcoming is the defensive backs). If two or more of these keys are prolonged issues, Lovie Smith will have to go back to the drawing board after a third straight season of watching the playoffs after coaching in the Super Bowl (he will not get fired, as he is under contract for two more years after this coming season and the Bears are still cheap).

Jay Cutler looked pretty damn good steering the Bears in the first half of a 27-17 win (the comments following that article in the Denver Post are quite entertaining). The forumla was solid: wait out the emotion, make no mistakes, let the defense set a tone, and then one noteworthy drive was enough to put the game on ice. The Bears were up 17-3 at halftime, as Cutler went 15 of 21 for 144 yards and one touchdown (no picks) including leading the Bears on a 98-yard drive just before halftime.

Woody Paige on the scene for the Post:

In the three-ring circus of a game: Josh McDaniels’ Denver debut was a disappointing dud; Kyle was Ordinary Orton again, then cut the index finger on his business hand; and, in the unkindest cut of all, Jay Cutler produced a 98-yard touchdown drive before halftime and proved to some of the 73,519 people in the neighborhood, but not the one in the hoodie, why he shouldn’t have been traded….In the first halves of three games the Broncos have been outscored 55-16. They don’t have a fumble recovery or an interception yet. They have thrown five interceptions and fumbled three times. McDaniels even admitted that the Broncos “cannot play like that and beat a good football team.”

Then I have some outstanding news for Josh McDaniels, as Denver’s first game of the season is at Cincinnati, a team seldom mistaken for “good”. As for Denver’s pre-season, it, like the off-season, has been rather “uneven” (to be kind). Downright toxic to be more precise. That is a team that needs something good to happen to it. My hunch is that good thing wears stripes on their helmets.

As for the Chicago take, Rick Morrissey in the Tribune:

Besides the 17 points Cutler helped put on the board and the 98-yard drive he led, the good news was that he didn’t let his emotions get the best of him. That’s the real issue with the guy. He can put up big numbers in his sleep. If he can stop his temper and frustrations from seeping into his play — if he can reach a truce with himself — the Bears have the stud quarterback they tell us they have. The bigger emotional test is going to come when his teammates aren’t playing well, in games that actually matter. But for now, this is good enough.

That’s actually a pretty good handle on Cutler at this point.

It is still hard to fathom that a guy at his age and his position moved in the off-season, but there you have it. The Bears should benefit for the next 7 – 10 years.

One of the enjoyable things about the return of the NFL is giving Don Banks more to chew on in terms of on-field fodder for his columns at si.com, and he is off to good start again in 2009, with his latest, Preseason Week 2 observations well worth the read. The highlights:

—Just how deer-in-the-headlights Mark Sanchez looked against Baltimore last night. In Sanchez’s defense, that is how most quarterbacks look when playing in Baltimore…., Then again point to Banks with this:

All in all, it reminded me once again of two things: Sanchez started a mere 16 games at USC, and we would do well to remember the desultory track record of first-round quarterbacks who skip their senior seasons and enter the NFL early. Sanchez and Detroit’s Matthew Stafford (who also struggled in Week 2) might both still surprise us this season, but the sooner we let the Ryan and Flacco comparisons go, the better.

—Leon Washington continues to be for real. And under-appreciated still.

—Derek Anderson doing everything he can to hold off the guy the Browns want to win the qb job, Brady Quinn.

—A little on the pressure Kyle Orton is under that prompted Orton to hail his game where he did NOT throw three interceptions to start the game a step forward. Which it was, as he went 18 for 26, but Banks drops this note on the continuing issue:

But if I were a Denver fan, I’d be a little concerned that Orton has looked exactly like the dink-and-dunk passer he was in Chicago. Seven of his first 16 completions were either swing passes or receiver screens, and he threw just one deep ball all night, on a first-drive throwaway when he was under heavy pass rush. Orton did complete 16 of his first 19 passes, but so far I have yet to see any indication that the vertical threat that Denver head coach Josh McDaniels assured me his team still has with Orton is actually there.

While the NFL world is fired up over the Vick debut for Philly this upcoming weekend and more of Favre for Minny, I am intrigued by the Chicago at Denver tilt for the traditional dress rehearsal. Jay Cutler comes “home”…

It wasn’t cover-your-eyes bad on-the-field work like Kyle Orton’s debut in Denver was, but his after-the-game debut? Less than good, to hear some tell it. The issue? Cutler’s frank comments over Devin Hester’s alleged lack of effort in trying to break-up a poorly thrown Cutler pass that turned into an interception. David Haugh in the Chicago Tribune sets the table for the issue:

Lost in the aftermath of Jay Cutler having the audacity to imply Devin Hester didn’t do all he could to break up a poorly thrown interception Saturday night against the Bills was this: Cutler had a valid point.

Hester acknowledged he should have done more to increase the degree of difficulty for Bills cornerback Leodis McKelvin, even if Hester’s momentum was taking him the opposite direction. Hester agreed with Cutler that he could “learn from it,” as Cutler put it.

But it was one of those things probably better left unsaid at the podium by a new quarterback whom teammates still are getting to know, the kind of veiled criticism coach Lovie Smith surely would prefer come at a team meeting rather than a news conference. The explanation sounded more like an excuse. Off his back leg, Cutler made a terrible throw and floated the ball 40 yards downfield — and it would have been nice to hear him say that too. Forget fans and media; it would have been good for Bears players to see their new leader take sole responsibility for his mistake, even if Hester, in part, had erred too.

Had Cutler done that, few people around Chicago still would be discussing his interception now. He didn’t. Thus the Cutler-ification of the Bears continues. In the last week, Cutler has announced his intentions to help shape the 53-man roster and indirectly blamed one of his wide receivers for not preventing an interception on a pass that never should have been thrown.

All of this likely adding fuel to the Denver fire for those who were glad to let Cutler walk. At the very least, add this to the evidence pile that Jay Cutler still needs to do some growing up…

Quoth Jay Cutler:

“Oh yeah,” Cutler said. “I think they’re definitely going to ask me. If they don’t ask me, I’m going to tell them what I think because I’ve got to be the one throwing to them on game day, and I’ve got to trust them. But (offensive coordinator) Ron (Turner) and I have been on the same page since the start of training camp in what guys we wanted to see working in with me and what guys have stepped up and what direction we want to go with this group.”

Awesomeness.

Pat Bowlen: It was all Jay Cutler’s fault

Josh McDaniels: I have no regrets

Chicago Bears: Thanks for the franchise quarterback! Seriously! Thanks!

I would presume, a day of abject happiness for Bears fans as the news sinks in that they have been unexpectedly aggressive in addressing their quarterback woes. They didn’t just meet the moment, they took the moment out for a nice dinner and then went back home with the moment and had sex with the moment like a 19-year-old on Viagra. No bitching aobut the price to be paid, no equivocating about the cumulative value of draft picks, just a lead pipe certainty that when 25-year-old quarterbacks with Jay Cutler’s skill set come available (which, actually, is never), you don’t miss the opporutnity.

—Greg Couch in the Chicago Sun Times with some Chicago flavor:

I got all sorts of e-mail like that the last two days after writing a brief column saying Bears fans need to demand that Angelo make the big deal and finally bring a star quarterback to town. The truth is, the fans already had been making that demand. The Bears heard you. Now they need some receivers, a better offensive line and a defense. Sure, that’s a lot. But they have just changed the face of the franchise, just started building around a chance-taking, Pro Bowl star quarterback. Finally.

By the way, that was Couch’s last column for the Sun Times after 12 years with the paper. He is headed to AOL’s Fanhouse area, yet another sign in an endless sea of signs that newspapers are dying.

—Rick Telander in the Sun-Times:

Well, knock me over with a Kyle Orton neckbeard hair. I didn’t bother paying attention to the Jay Cutler Sweepstakes because I knew the Bears would never seriously pursue the disgruntled Denver quarterback, never offer the Broncos enough to get him and of course never actually acquire him. But they did. Excuse me while I climb back into my chair and pour myself a dose of settle-down powders. This is quite simply the biggest trade in Bears history, and it’s enough to make an entire city faint.

Opening day in three days with the White Sox a few years removed from a World Series title and the Cubs coming off back to back division titles, the Bulls in the playoff chase, the Blackhawks sitting 5th in the Western Conference with the playoffs almost here, and now this. Heady days for fans of Chicago sports teams.

As for Denver, well, denouement. With a bullet.

Dave Krieger in the Denver Post, Welcome back to mediocrity:

The past five Super Bowl champion quarterbacks are Ben Roethlisberger, Eli Manning, Peyton Manning, Ben Roethlisberger and Tom Brady. Franchise quarterbacks all. A Super Bowl has been won twice in recent years by mediocre quarterbacks — Brad Johnson and Trent Dilfer — but they played with two of the best defenses in NFL history. The Broncos will not be accused of that anytime soon.

The only important question now is whether Josh McDaniels understands this. If he does, he will do what he has to do — including using some of those new draft picks — to move up in the first round of the draft and take Southern Cal’s Mark Sanchez, the one quarterback in the draft who fits the apparently stringent requirements of his offense. If he doesn’t, if he uses those extra draft picks to shore up a defense that badly needs it, he will consign the Broncos to the world the Bears inhabited for a generation, a world the Broncos inhabited for most of their first 23 years.

—Mark Kiszla goes the hard-ass approach, with No player bigger than team:

“In Denver, where the Broncos are loved like family, and a blockbuster NFL trade can be as painful as a divorce, there is only one way to score this deal: Quarterback Jay Cutler lost. The Broncos and everybody who loves them won. The local NFL franchise is better off not knowing the identity of its starting quarterback than being stuck with one who did not want to be here. The Broncos are bigger in Colorado than any one man, even if he is a 25-year-old quarterback with Pro Bowl credentials and the chutzpah to arm-wrestle the legend of John Elway. After fewer than 100 days on the job, new Broncos coach Josh McDaniels not only has made it clear there is a new sheriff in town, he has locked up the ghost of Mike Shanahan and thrown away the keys once thought essential to the team’s success.”

Well, there is that. No question that every single Denver Bronco player left knows where they stand vis a vis their new coach. That would be somewhere well below him. Now, and this is the fascinating part of this experiment, it is all on Josh McDaniels. There is no quesiton McDaniels is the man, and all that comes with. It will be fun (for all non-Broncos fans anyway) to watch this unfold over the next few years. This is something very new for the NFL, this kind of deal involving this quality of player at that particular position. Not really any precendent for how this will unwind. Strange days.

Oddly enough, both Chicago and Denver may eventually end up being “winners” in this.