Biggs: It appears Brown's days with Bears are over

makaur · Mon Jan 19, 2009 6:50 pm

Brown's salary isn't an issue. The fact that everytime someone farts in his general direction, he gets injured and goes on IR.

Rex Tucker was like that a few years ago. The only difference was someone didn't have to fart in his direction. All they had to do was act like they were going to rip one, and he'd fall to the ground like a little vagina.

G08 · Tue Jan 20, 2009 7:57 am

I just can't understand why the leader of your defense wouldn't want to be resigned. It's not like the guy is asking for $3-5 million a season. Hell, he negotiated down to 1/2 his salary for this season if he didn't meet playing incentives. Why can't we just do the same thing again?

And if they want Danieal Manning at FS so badly, why not pair him up with Mike Brown manning the SS spot? Oh, I know... because we like Kevin Payne's size and Craig Steltz's intangibles

. If ANYTHING, #30 can help line Manning up.

I'm confused. Letting him go if he wanted to return on the cheap is the stupidest thing this organization could do this side of giving Brian Urlacher $18 million to stop whining.

Fumblebuck · Tue Jan 20, 2009 9:32 am

If Brown wants to keep playing, I could see him landing with the Vikings. Word is that Darren Sharper is on the outs there.

IE · Tue Jan 20, 2009 10:27 am

The irony is that Mike Brown has more positive intangibles in his beat-up self than the entire rest of the safety crew combined... maybe the entire D.

JERRY! ... Draft a high-round safety and re-sign Mike Brown on the cheap to coach him up for a few years! If any oft-injured safety needs to be dumped, it's McGowan.

Oh - and DManning is a nickel/returner like UOK said ... let's face that reality, shall we?

gaba · Tue Jan 20, 2009 1:02 pm

IE wrote:The irony is that Mike Brown has more positive intangibles in his beat-up self than the entire rest of the safety crew combined... maybe the entire D.

That alone makes him worth a roster spot for as long as he wants one. I don't know that you can coach that, but it'd be worth it to keep him around and let the young'uns learn from him.

Otis Day · Tue Jan 20, 2009 4:15 pm

I am not sure the young'uns are smart enough to learn from anyone. manning hasn't learned anything, McGowan is not healthy long enough to learn and Payne hasn't learned a damn thing either, notice his tackling or lack thereof.

G08 · Tue Jan 20, 2009 6:37 pm

I think Manning's a bit over-hyped at Nickel. Yeah, he's blitzed and broken up a few passes, but how many times was he torched in coverage?

Halas85 · Tue Jan 20, 2009 10:58 pm

Fumblebuck wrote:If Brown wants to keep playing, I could see him landing with the Vikings. Word is that Darren Sharper is on the outs there.

Do we need a better reason to resign him than this?

G08 wrote:I think Manning's a bit over-hyped at Nickel. Yeah, he's blitzed and broken up a few passes, but how many times was he torched in coverage?

Our whole DB corps was torched in coverage. I don't know how much of this was scheme and how much was Manning blowing assignments, but the only time I recall him blatantly being burned in coverage was at safety. The dude's just not smart enough to be the defense's safety net in Cover 2, so I think nickel's a good spot for him. Of course, assuming no major changes in the secondary next season, he'll have to beat out Graham/Vasher and possibly even Bowman.

Pagan · Fri Jan 23, 2009 5:33 pm

Lets not forget that our D-Line had little to no pressure last year- which is going to make all of the DB's look worse. Thats got to be taken into account.

pagan

gaba · Fri Jan 23, 2009 5:36 pm

Pagan wrote:Lets not forget that our D-Line had little to no pressure last year- which is going to make all of the DB's look worse. Thats got to be taken into account.

pagan

I think it goes both ways, and although I have absolutely nothing solid to base it on, I get the feeling it's more of the latter... that being that the lack of decent coverage makes it harder to get to the quarterback. Sure, the other way seems more logical, but it's just not that hard to avoid pressure when you KNOW exactly where the open man is going to be.

Pagan · Fri Jan 23, 2009 5:47 pm

While thats true, and I dont want to sound like I'm defending our DB's- because I'm not,- but what is the ultimate deciding factor on how much time a QB has to throw? Pressure by the D-Line.

Watching the games last year QB's had all the time they needed. This is a result of the defense not getting to the QB fast enough. NFL D backs can only cover so long with the hands off rules.

I think it's both. Too many blown assignments, but certainly not enough pressure.

pagan

Sun Jan 25, 2009 12:47 pm

Personally I think Graham and Peanut are the only two worth keeping. I have made it known that I would like to see them try Graham at FS...but they are two guys you can build a secondary around.

gaba · Sun Jan 25, 2009 3:33 pm

Pagan wrote:While thats true, and I dont want to sound like I'm defending our DB's- because I'm not,- but what is the ultimate deciding factor on how much time a QB has to throw? Pressure by the D-Line.

Watching the games last year QB's had all the time they needed. This is a result of the defense not getting to the QB fast enough. NFL D backs can only cover so long with the hands off rules.

I think it's both. Too many blown assignments, but certainly not enough pressure.

pagan

Not trying to put all the blame on one or the other but... if the coverage is as poor as it has been, the QB doesn't need as much time to throw.

Pagan · Mon Jan 26, 2009 1:31 pm

Not trying to put all the blame on one or the other but... if the coverage is as poor as it has been, the QB doesn't need as much time to throw.

I agree with you gaba- and thank you for proving my point. There were many games where the QB had all the time in the world to throw- crazy amounts of time. Which means the secondary didnt blow coverages right away. The QB's may or may not have "needed" as much time to throw- but they certainly had it. = Lack of pressure.

pagan

G08 · Mon Jan 26, 2009 3:09 pm

On both sides of the ball, it all starts up front.

Pressure bursts pipes boys. Stop that pressure and it's amazing how much more open those WRs become.

gaba · Mon Jan 26, 2009 8:36 pm

Don't get me wrong here guys. I'm not saying the line is without fault, just that I think the safety is a far greater need than DE. We've got 2 pretty good ones and a couple decent back-ups. If the Bears don't re-sign Mike Brown, we don't have ONE decent safety.

Halas85 · Tue Jan 27, 2009 12:25 am

I have to agree with Grossman on this one. A great defensive line is more likely to positively affect pass coverage, not so much vice versa. How often have you ever heard of a DB making lineman great? But a defensive line that can put pressure on the quarterback can make a whole corps of DBs look like Pro Bowlers, with INT stats to match. Pressure on the quarterback can make everything else fall apart. Hell, look at what the Giants D-Line did to Tom Brady in last year's Super Bowl.

gaba · Tue Jan 27, 2009 2:09 am

I don't think any defensive line in the history of defensive lines could make this pack of nobodies look good.

Halas85 · Wed Jan 28, 2009 12:38 am

gaba wrote:I don't think any defensive line in the history of defensive lines could make this pack of nobodies look good.

I disagree. Recall all the times this season you could seemingly count five-Mississippi before the opposing quarterback completed a big third-down conversion. I don't think the guy was standing back there trying to decide which open guy to throw to, or waiting to see if an open guy could get more open. The DBs, I believe, were holding their own most of the time. It seemed the big or easy passes they were giving up were because of two things: no pressure on the quarterback or playing too far off the line (coaching). Sure, you can point to the Tillman error in Minnesota or Manning's blown coverage in Texas as examples of sheer suckiness, and you would be correct in that assessment. But while these stand ominously tall in our memories, they were still isolated incidents. What wasn't an isolated incident in '08 was seeing an opposing quarterback stand like a statue in the pocket while our D-line played pattycake with O-linemen.

Wed Jan 28, 2009 8:13 am

Our DB's are getting an unfair rap because of the poor play of our OL? Tillman IMO is still one of the more underrated CB's in the NFL. Graham is a young hard hitting, fly-to-the-ball corner who has all kinds of potential. If they would leave him alone, D Manning could becaome the kind of nickle this defense needs to succeed. I don't know what Vasher's deal is, but he's good as gone anyway. At safety, Payne has talent, and you have to remember that he played mostly RB in college, so he's still learning the position, although I think he's a SS.

We don't have a true FS on this team...we have some nickle backs and a shit ton of strong safeties...

We need to either buy a pass rusher somwhere, or draft one, because Ogun has not lived up to his billing. Brown is solid, but is never going to put up double digit sacks. Izzy is playing out of position at DT, and we know Anderson has talent, Hot Rod just has to find it.

IMO, our top 2 offseason priorities should be DE ans FS. This is not to say we ignore the age at RT, the need to add another QB and bring in a decent FA WR.