02 April, 2009

Bears?

So my beloved Chicago Bears are taking a page from the neighboring Cubs and dumping fan favorites and great "team" guys in return for unproven punk-ass babies. If you haven't heard, the Bears just traded Kyle Orton (21-12 career record), 2009 1st & 3rd Rd draft picks and a 2010 1st Rd draft pick for Jay Cutler from the Broncos.
So, here they are now with 2 years without a 1st Rd pick and they get rid of team favorite Kyle Orton who has won 21 of the 33 games he's started. This sucks. Jay Cutler is a punk and has proven it over the past 2-3 weeks. His new head coach hurts his feelings and he tucks his dick between his legs and becomes unreachable to his own team. Owner, head coach, GM, even his own agent couldn't get a hold of him. I mean, who does he think he is? The guy had good numbers last year, but his team also blew a 3 game lead in their division to miss the playoffs! He's never won a playoff game or really done anything substantial in the league.
Kyle Orton, although unspectacular, has 64% of the games he has started. That's a pretty solid win percentage in the NFL. He was forced into action as a rookie when the always reliable Rex Grossman broke his ankle in the preseason. He played ok, about what you'd expect from a rookie with no experience. Then good 'ol Rex comes back and plays like shit all season while Orton holds a clipboard wondering why is that guy plaing? But he's good about it and takes it all in stride. Finally, he gets a chance to "compete" for the starting spot (the stubborn Bears finally had enough of Grossman) and easily wins the competition. He earned the respect of all of his teammates and everyone loves him. He goes out and has a near pro-bowl caliber 1st half of the season when he breaks his ankle on a chump play against the Lions. He missed a couple games and just wasn't the same when he came back for the final couple games. Still, the Bears only missed the playoffs by 1 game! He put up numbers the Bears' offense hadn't seen since McMahon was in town, and all with cast-offs as receivers.
Obviously, I think this was a bad move for the Bears and judging from Bears message boards I'm reading I'm alone on this one. Why Orton was never respected, by upper management I might add, is beyond me. I say this because the proverbial Bear himself, Brian Urlacher, had this to say in the middle of answering questios about Cutler; ""But I will say this: I think Kyle Orton is a good quarterback. He's a great teammate. I hope he does really well in Denver." He went on to say, "I guess the Bears felt like we needed another quarterback, so they made a move," Urlacher said. "They gave up a lot. Cutler must be pretty good... I guess we got better as a team," Doesn't sound like Urlacher is too thrilled with the trade.
Quarterback was waaaay down the list of things the Bears needed to compete. WR was priority #1, OL help, DL and DB were all on the list too. Now, they have to wait until the 2nd Rd to find some kind of receiver. They desperately need to get younger and healthy on defense and this trade does neither.
Look, being a Bears fan I hope this works out and Cutler is the savior everyone on talk radio thinks he can be. For some reason, I just don't see it happening. My prediction...Orton starts in Denver, finally has some quality receivers to throw the ball to and becomes a pro-bowl QB. Cutler gets hurt behind the Bears' aging offensive line, they re-sign Grossman and the cycle continues in the Windy City. Good times!

BYE!!

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