Slezak: Bear market taking on new meaning

[UOK]

BY CAROL SLEZAK Sun-Times Columnist

Flash back to late December, when general manager Jerry Angelo addressed the state of the Bears and said it was all about the quarterback.

''We have to get that position right,'' he said. ''... Guys, it starts with the quarterback. It's all about the quarterback. You don't win because of wide receivers. You don't win because of running backs. You win because of the quarterback. We've got to get the quarterback position stabilized.''

What has happened since then? Absolutely nothing. Presented with the opportunity to pursue a few proven quarterbacks this offseason, Angelo has taken a pass. Kurt Warner, Matt Cassel, Jay Cutler -- none is good enough for the Bears. Or, to be more precise, the Bears have been unwilling to take a gamble on their big contracts. Angelo is suddenly 100 percent behind Kyle Orton, the same guy he criticized in December.

''Given the players that potentially could be out there, we thought that Kyle was as good or better, given our situation,'' he told chicagobears.com last week. ''To bring in somebody to compete to start to me was ... hurting Kyle's progress.''

No matter what you think about Orton, this is a rather curious case of backtracking -- until you consider the words of Angelo's friend Pat Kirwan on Sirius NFL Radio, that is.

''If you're a real Bear fan, you know that this is not exactly the most generous-spending team in the history of football,'' Kirwan said. ''So [Angelo] has got restrictions and restraints, and he's not going to [say], 'Hey, I'm trying to sign this guy, but my owners won't let me.' You think he's going to say that? No. So he is a little bit bound to his draft picks, where you've got to exhaust every opportunity to make that guy work before you surrender and try something else. I just want to get that framework up there before we start killing Jerry.''
Lovie has 1980s mind-set

Suddenly, Angelo's inactivity starts to make a little sense. Angelo and Kirwan declined to comment about Kirwan's statement last week. That's not the same thing as a denial. Maybe the McCaskey family actually is having some cash-flow problems. Goodness knows the recession has hit everyone hard. In any event, the Bears went into this free-agency period about $30 million below the salary cap and have only two signings: career backup offensive lineman Frank Omiyale and running back Kevin Jones.

Compounding the Bears' frugality is the fact that head coach Lovie Smith thinks the team is just fine as it is. Smith thinks the addition of assistant head coach/defensive line coach Rod Marinelli will put the team over the top, because defense is all that matters to Smith.

We've come to expect that kind of thinking from Smith, whose philosophy is stuck in the 1980s. Who needs T.J. Houshmandzadeh, Nate Washington or even Terrell Owens when you still believe, as Smith does, a passing attack should be secondary to your running game? Who needs to consider making a bold move for a proven quarterback when you still believe a quarterback's primary duty is to master the art of the handoff?
Preparing for 2010?

Under Smith, the Bears wouldn't know what to do with Cutler or Cassel behind center. Under Smith, their mind-set simply doesn't encompass a strong downfield-passing attack. It's tough to criticize offensive coordinator Ron Turner for the Bears' offensive woes because his hands are tied. Smith thinks Devin Hester is a legitimate No. 1 wide receiver, which tells us everything we need to know about the offense.

Despite the Bears' reluctance to spend, the NFL still has a salary cap, and it has been set at $127 million for the upcoming season. The Bears must spend at least the $111 million minimum in 2009. After that, all bets are off because as it stands now, there will be no cap in 2010, which means teams can spend as much -- or as little -- as they want. Uh-oh. Maybe the Bears already are preparing for 2010. Given Kirwan's comments, you have to wonder.

In the meantime, there still is the matter of 2009, and the Bears still have too many holes to fill by relying exclusively on the draft. Where to start? Secondary help? A pass rusher? No, it appears likely that Angelo will use the Bears' top pick to address their need at wide receiver. Wouldn't it have made more sense to use free agency to fill the receiver void? That way, the Bears could have obtained a proven No. 1 receiver, which would have helped Orton, who appears to be the quarterback of the present, if not the future. And that way Angelo, whose draft-day track record on offense isn't so hot, could have focused on what he does best.

On second thought, never mind. Nothing coming out of Halas Hall lately has made much sense.

[Halas85]

Presented with the opportunity to pursue a few proven quarterbacks this offseason, Angelo has taken a pass. Kurt Warner, Matt Cassel, Jay Cutler -- none is good enough for the Bears.

I quit reading at this point. If she continued the rest of the column considering this statement a fact, then she's been watching a very different offseason than I have.

Kurt Warner never wanted to leave Arizona and only made a half-assed attempt at flirting with another West Coast team just to make his Cardinals jealous enough to up the offer just a bit. He had no intention of playing with anyone else, announcing that he'd consider retirement before packing up and moving his family again. The fact that Angelo didn't pursue this guy, at least not publicly, is a sign of intelligence.

Matt Cassel ... ahh, Matt Cassel. The honorary franchise tag designate of a team that used the tag to inflate his potential on the trade market, even if in my opinion they never really got what they could have gotten for him. The one-hit wonder on a team that's innovative enough to create game plans that play to even their weakest players' strengths. A guy whose career highlight film before last season was a varsity highlight tape. I'll be fair -- he sure as hell surprised me last season, even with a great offensive line and some great receivers to throw to. But did I want Angelo to spare the players, draft picks and expense it would have taken to get him to Chicago? Not any more than I wanted them to do the same for Derick Anderson last season.

Jay Cutler ... are you fucking kidding me Carol? How can you say Angelo took a pass on a guy that wasn't even available?

And so these, Carol, are your three examples -- a guy who's on the record saying he'd rather retire than play elsewhere; another guy who's an expensive project (a.k.a., gamble) whose potential this coaching staff will coach right out of him; and a guy who was never even available in the first place? I hate to be the pig here, but I'm going to have to see your resume to at this point not assume you were hired as the token female meant to make the other morons look a bit smarter.

[gaba]

The Sun-Times doesn't do news. They just try to piss off their readers.

[DaDitka]

If you want to bash the Bears for their handling of quarterbacks this offseason the discussion should begin and end with Chris Simms.

It doesn’t matter if you like or dislike him, we know that Jerry does like him. He was out there with very few suitors and could be had on the cheap but there was no way they were going to bring in someone that Kyle could possibly view as a ‘threat’.

I really don’t get their thinking. Hell, just look at Minnesota, Tennessee, Miami etc. They have ‘anointed’ quarterbacks how were heavily invested in with high draft picks, yet they challenge them year after year with compotation. In all three cases, the anointed quarterback lost out and in all three cases the teams were much – much better off for it.

I don’t care if you think Simms would be the answer or not, that’s not the point. The point is that after ruining Rex Grossman by coddling him, they are now handling Kyle with the same kid gloves.

[gaba]

Compotation? Did they smother their quarterbacks in sugary fruit deserts?

[Boris13c]

If you want to bash the Bears for their handling of quarterbacks this offseason the discussion should begin and end with Chris Simms.

yeah, but Chris Simms was actually an available quarterback, which did not fit into Sleaze-sack's bitch-whine-and-moan formula ... I didn't want Simms as a Bear, but the fact he was an available alternative did make him eligible for any real discussion ... Sleaze-sack cannot handle real discussions

see, to be the true douche bag she is, she must compound her lack of sports knowledge with an extreme lack of reality ... in this, she is successful, and according to the Chicago Sun Times, this success makes her a prime speaker for all things regarding Chicago sports

and the newspaper industry is actually wondering why people are simply not paying attention to them any more

[gaba]

I think Sleaze-ak has officially taken Moron-etti's place. She could write an article entitles "Gaba is the smartest man alive and he has a huge c*ck" and I still wouldn't waste my time reading anything that brain-dead c*nt had to say.