Fan in Chicago

Maybe it is time to remind ourselves that Vasquez was a FA in the market last year and signed a 4 year $23.5 million contract last year - considerably less than what Levitre commanded. If the Bills thought that Levitre was expensive, why on earth did they not sign Vasquez ???? This is one aspect that drives me insane. There is a always a thought on this board that xx is too expensive and we should save the money for yy player next year. Yet, we go year after year under the cap and shooting ourselves in the foot by being in an endless circle of creating and filling holes. http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap1000000150082/article/louis-vasquez-denver-broncos-agree-to-fouryear-deal

Good work, Dave. At the risk of regurgitating comments made elsewhere by others, I will add that the biggest transgression Whaley and Co. can do is to not bring another QB option to camp. A few ways we can go: - Draft one in Round 1: Problem is several teams above us need a QB. We cant afford to waste draft picks to move up. Also, if this FO's success at evaluating QBs puts us in a bind. This is the same team that selected EJ. If he turns out to be good, we wont need another high pick @ QB. But if he doesn't, how will we know that any QB we select is good ? - Draft one in Round 2 or lower: Unless we land a hidden gem like Kaepernick or Wilson, this is a useless move in the short run. We need to know in the next season (and no later) what we do or don't have. Drafting a lower order QB likely won't allow us to evaluate this talent adequately. - Trade or sign a cast-off: Likely QBs like Matt Schaub will come available. I think Schaub is not a world beater but is adequate and had a really down year. He is sort of like Alex Smith in that regard, which is not entirely a bad thing. I had wanted the FO to get Smith and draft a Qb last season. We can fix that now Of all the above choices, I am leaning towards the third. Get a game manager cast-off QB who can manage the game for us. If EJ fails in the first half of the season, bench him and let this QB handle the rest of the season, then draft a QB in 2015. We cannot let another season go by with no contingency plan at QB.

Fair enough. At risk sounding like a broken record - a lot was invested for and around him on the O. Yet he has under-performed. 4th down with the game on the line, most would choose Rodgers over Cutler as their QB. And until he starts winning against a good division rival, he will be fighting for a Wild Card spot always instead of being in control of the division. Depending on how much they are paying him (possibly a front end loaded $17 MM per year), the Bears have locked their own fate for the forseeable future

1-8 versus Packers. Thats all I have to say.

I was thinking that Bears extend McCown and draft a QB to be Trestman's guy for the future. Perhaps they don't foresee a good enough prospect at their pick position in the draft. As a side note, the Bears have a ton of UFAs this year. Only a few are going to be pricey (Melton, Jennings, Tillman) but I wonder how many cannot be retained due to the Cutler contract. Of this list, I would be interested in Wootton and maaayyybe D.J. Williams if healthy. http://www.windycitygridiron.com/2013/12/30/5257132/chicago-bears-2014-free-agents-jay-cutler-henry-melton-charles-tillman-tim-jennings-salary-cap

I will eat crow on this one. I predicted that the Bears will choose to not retain him. The contract terms are still pending but the fact that they kept him stuns me. He is 1-8 against Green Bay !! This is philosophically equivalent of the Pats* dominating the Bills for the past decade. If the hopes are to win the division, then this simply won't do. Anyway, I was wrong.

Top 5 salary - yes. No to top salary. However, if we do trade or otherwise not retain him, we better have a good replacement for him unlike what we did with Levitre.

Lori The Dean

Good job, Reed83. Hope they end the Toronto fiasco. I am taken aback that Whaley is taken aback. Is he serious about there being no questions regarding his competency as a #1 WR and his position on the team ? Maybe from the posts here, but I don't think there was anything in the presser to imply that he is returning. Agree. Also, I don't think any team can afford so many core STers without compromising on other key areas in O and D.

I disagree with getting him. He does remind me a tad of Bledsoe but with a poorer attitude. When Cutler went down, McCown ran the offense with not much loss in beat. That itself should indicate how Cutler has done less with a lot more at his disposal. Till 2 seasons back, there may hvae been valid reasons - OL, lack of targets etc but not since last year and definitely not this year. He has done fairly well this season but nothing to distinguish himself from McCown. The Bears D has been pretty bad this year and perhaps the Bears could have gone much farther with a half way decent D. Despite that, there is little evidence to say that Cutler was worth all that the Bears gave up for him in terms of draft picks and resources around him. I still think the Bears will make only a nominal effort to retain him. I do agree that we don't know what we have in EJ (quite a shame after a full season) but the Bills should look elsewhere to challenge/backup EJ.

He, like others, on the D dis not have quality and consistency on coaching. Thi year, past underachievers such as McK played much better than they ever have. We did not get a chance to ee what Pettine could so with AC. again, if he has a relatively good price tag, I say we try to keep him. Do we need to remember the days of Tim Anderson to understand a good value?

What is not stated here is that besides Carrington, we have been injury-free on the front 7. It is easy to point how his absence was not missed but one injury on the front 4 would have been a big problem. I havent seen enough of any backup to feel comfortable . AC is home grown, hard worker while not spectacular. I would favor signing him to a reasonable contract worthy of a good backup.

And he was having a heck of a day too - 3 catches for 70 yards.

Terrific.

Several times on this board, I have seen posters advocating drafting of players who are 'mean', 'nasty'. However, when a player (Suh, Spikes, Merriweather come to mind) has that uncontrollable streak in him, it hurts the team. There is a difference between players who play with intensity (Kiko, FredJackson) and those who are over-aggressive. We want a lot more of the former and none of the latter. By all previous experience, Woods is NOT one of these players, so don't get me wrong. My point is that when next time you see the Bills pass on a questionable player, let yesterday's incident remind you why that may have been the case.

I have a bet against a Bears fan that Cutler will not be retained. McCown has shown in his limited time that he can do no worse. That is enough to put doubt in the FO's mind. Do they want to invest $15mm-ish in Cutler when a cheaper option can do about same ? Bears need a lot of help on D and that will cost them. My guess is that Cutler is not retained and the Bears draft a QB then go all D the rest of the draft

No its not. He has a flaky attitude and that does not sit well with his team mates. A lot was invested in the offense including hiring of an offensive minded coach, 2 stud WRs, a good pass catching TE, versatile RB, picks on the OL, LT...... And yet a 30- something has been is demonstrating that he can run the show as well or better than an over-hyped, do-it-my-way guy like Cutler. I do not want him on my team. He reminds me a bit of Bledsoe but with a worse attitude.

Any updates on this ?

I voted ILB, WR and OG. Was tempted to do TE but decided that OG is more important overall right now.

That is actually comical in its idiocy. Even if the WRs thought it was a run, wouldn't they make an attempt to lure the CBs away from the center of the action ? This one play is probably symptomatic of the overall O in general. Looks way too sloppy and uncoordinated.

CBF is so polite that he can ignore John's bias against his own countrymen Rush and still say nice things about him

I saw the title and opened just cos I was hoping that it was Lori. Nevermind, carry on....

I am hoping you are referring to Fitz and not Levitre

The premise is that it will be a 'major' roster move. Cuttting TJ won't qualify.

I don't think it will be player who has trade value. Stevie has little trade value . I am not necessarily in favor of cutting anyone now. But benching Stevie should certainly be on the table. Much as we need to see if EJ shows anything positive in the remaining games, we also need to know how much Stevie's absence will hurt the Bills. Based on some games this season, my guess is that the fall off will be minimal.