Dolphins Trade Brandon Marshall To Bears

The Chicago Bears finally have an elite wide-receiver. Jay Cutler should be happy, because it is a player that he knows very well. The Miami Dolphins traded WR Brandon Marshall to the Chicago Bears for two 3rd-round draft picks. Even though he is coming off his best season with the Dolphins (81 receptions for 1,215 yards with six touchdowns), the price went down for Marshall's services. The Dolphins gave the Denver Broncos two 2nd-round picks in 2010.

Cutler and Marshall put up some impressive numbers together in Denver. The last three seasons that they were in Denver, Marshall eclipsed 100 receptions each year. The Bears have lacked a prototypical wide-receiver for many years. The last receiver that put up consistent numbers was Bernard Berrian. I'm not saying that Devin Hester and Johnny Knox are bad receivers, but neither of them are a #1 receiving option on a championship contending team.


The Bears still need help on the offensive line and they look to add a few pieces in the upcoming NFL Draft. They should have a chance to add depth to a line has given up a lot of sacks over the past two seasons. They have other needs, but using the draft to pick up a few young offensive linemen is in their best interest.

Marshall is under contract through the 2014 season and has a contract around $9 million dollars per season. This signing could end all of the Mario Williams rumors that have been floating around. Williams is projected to receive a contract that averages at least $15 million per season. A pass rush combo of Julius Peppers and Williams would rival the Giants for the best pass rush in the NFL. Even if they aren't able to sign Williams, the Bears took a step in the right direction by trading with Marshall.

How To Fix The Chicago Bears

At the beginning of the year, I predicted that the Bears would win the NFC North and the Bears would finish 11-5. I was way off and many experts are left with pie on their face. What went wrong with the Bears? How could this team possibly have trouble scoring points? What happened to Matt Forte? Is Jay Cutler a turnover machine the next Jim McMahon? Does Lance Briggs love McRibs? I answer these important questions.

When the Bears traded for Jay Cutler, it was the greatest day in Chicago since Michael Jordan was wearing the number #23. You didn't hear anyone thinking that this was a mistake. You heard things like "Chicago has never had a great quarterback" and "Chicago is a lock to win the NFC North." You didn't hear things like, "Chicago still haven't had a great quarterback" and "Chicago looks just awful out there." The Bears paid a great price for Cutler and they don't have a #1 pick for the next couple years to help replenish their aging roster.

Why has Jay Cutler looked so bad this year? It's easy, he has no one to throw it to. It seemed like he was getting a groove with TE Greg Olson, but defenses made note and stopped that from happening. Cutler had to try and make things happen out there with receivers that can't get open. It's as simple as that. Cutler was so used to Brandon Marshall, who could get open in a gaggle of geese, to these receivers that couldn't get open against Verne Troyer. If the Bears can get a few veteran receivers or maybe even Brandon Marshall, Cutler will go back to his "golden boy" status.

I know it's not as simple as I'm describing it. The Bears are clealy one-dimensional right now. Cutler has to face seven dropping back in coverage because Matt Forte went from stud rookie to old sophomore in a matter of one off-season. Forte hasn't really had that one great game to help us forget how mediocre he has been this season. I don't want to blame him completely, because the offensive line hasn't given him much to run through. It's a clear collapse of the entire offense, it's a hard thing to watch.

I can't fully blame the offense, because the Bears defense have looked just as pedestrian as the offense this season. You can point to the season-ending injury of Brian Urlacher as a possbile blame for their insufficient play. There's talk that if the Bears keep Lovie Smith as the head coach, they could strip his defensive play-calling, since he has done for the past few seasons. If you had Urlacher this season, it still wouldn't helped the pass coverage much. You could see this team start to decline defensively last year, but if you need another excuse for the Bears, the offense has left them with horrible defensive field position.

Here is how you would fix the Chicago Bears. It starts with the head coach. The Bears offense had one good season under Lovie Smith, they went to the Super Bowl that year. They had a reckless quarterback, Rex Grossman, and a stout defense. They still have a reckless quarterback, but not the defense or offensive production to match. You hire a big name ex-coach like Bill Cowher or Mike Shanahan to fix everything and give them full control of personnel. You have to get rid of Lovie Smith and offensive coordinator, Ron Turner, as well.

The next step, since you don't have first-round picks for the next few years, you have to trade a couple pieces to get younger and more athletic. You would have to trade a player like Brian Urlacher for a young left tackle or a high first round pick. You can fix your receiving corps by signing a veteran receiver and using a 2nd-round pick on a possession receiver. You can also get steals in the late rounds to help your secondary. These are steps that need to happen for the Bears to rebuild in a hurry. You have to build your team around Jay Cutler, Matt Forte, and Lance Briggs, those are immovable pieces that you can use as building blocks.

If the Bears want to make a change, just do it. Don't go in the Washington Redskins route and start stripping the head coach of duties. You need to rip the band-aid off in one motion, don't make it slow and painful. The Bears have a good quarterback and that isn't something that Chicago fans are used to. A complete change in philosophy needs to happen and it starts with the head coach and trading Brian Urlacher and move this team in a new direction. Sometimes it's better this way, even if you know that it will hurt.

Is Jay Cutler To Blame For Chicago's Loss?

The Chicago Bears lost to the Green Bay Packers tonight in a pretty ugly game. Aaron Rodgers out-played Jay Cutler and the Green Bay secondary made Cutler look terrible. Was it Jay Cutler's fault that the Bears lost tonight or is there a bigger picture? I look at the big picture and I lay the blame on someone else.

If you look at Jay Cutler's line for the game tonight against Green Bay, it looks like either Jeff George or Rex Grossman were under center. He threw for 277 yards, completed less than half of his passes, and threw four interceptions. He did throw one touchdown tonight, but the night was plagued by Cutler throwing ball after ball to one of Green Bay's defenders. He should have thrown more than four picks, since there was a period in the first-half that Cutler threw five straight passes that should have been picked off.

I watched the game from coin toss to post-game show and I don't blame Jay Cutler for the 21-15 loss tonight. The pair of balls that were intercepted could be blamed on him, but he's dealing with receivers that quit on routes and aren't very good at running them. His top non-tight end receivers are Devin Hester, Earl Bennett, and Johnny Knox, not exactly establish receivers. Hester runs sloppy routes and still lacks the ability to beat double-teams when the safety is in front of him. Earl Bennett looked decent, but he's still catching up to the speed of the NFL. Finally you have Johnny Knox, he's fast, but that's about it. He looks completely lost out there, although he did show a flash of brilliance when he beat Charles Woodson on a play. If you run that play ten times, I doubt Knox will beat Woodson, on that exact play, more than once. If Cutler had an elite receiver, or even a veteran possession receiver, he could have a good year with the bears, but this team lacks that piece. The tight ends didn't help Cutler out either. Greg Olson and Desmond Clark both dropped balls and didn't do a good job of getting open.

Matt Forte caught over 60 balls last year and there wasn't many balls thrown in his direction today. The one that I remember was actually intercepted by a defensive tackle, Johnny Jolly. Forte did carry the ball 25 times for 55 yards, but that's only 2.2 yards per attempt, not up to par with his ability. He is a good running back, but you need to pass him the ball on the flat and let him work against cornerbacks and outside-linebackers more. It will open up the deep ball, which Cutler loves to throw. Forte wasn't used properly against the Green Bay Packers.

Patrick Mannelly didn't help the Bears out with his fake-punt audible in the 2nd-half. The Bears were up at that point and he thought he caught the Packers ill-prepared and sent a direct snap to Garrett Wolfe. He wasn't ready for it and barely gained four yards on a 4th and 11 attempt. That kind of play isn't going to win games when you just giveaway great field position so late in the game.

After saying all of that, I lay the blame of this loss on Offensive coordinator Ron Turner and General Manager Jerry Angelo. Clearly this team needs an actual wide receiver. Devin Hester would be a great slot receiver on a team, but he has yet to show the ability to be a solid #1. If they went out and signed a veteran wide receiver like Torry Holt or Marvin Harrison, maybe Jay Cutler wouldn't have to guess where his receivers would be. A precise route-running wide-receiver can make play quarterback pretty easy. Brandon Marshall, Eddie Royal, and especially Brandon Stokely are great route-runners and you have seen what he can do with those kind of receivers. Ron Turner's blame would lay on his lack of screen passes to Forte. I know Kyle Orton passed so many balls to him last year because he had to dump the ball off, but he did a great job after the catch. If would bring the defenses in and make them defend against it. The safeties and linebackers would play in and you could utilize the speed of your receivers and run a streak or deep post pattern with a higher percentage of success.

I thought the Bears would be good this season and it's only the first game. Brian Urlacher and Pina Tinoisamoa were out for a good portion of the game, but if they played as sloppy as they did tonight, it could be a long season.

This may be a horrible end to this story, but can someone please tell me what the Bears' obsession with players from Vanderbilt is? They have five players on the team and the last time I checked, the Commodores weren't exactly a perennial BCS Bowl team.