Touchdown Mike Brown: C-ya

It's sad to see Mike Brown go. He was a great player for the Bears—a leader, a play maker, and always a fan favorite. He had a knack for the big play, as evidenced by his Chicago Bears franchise record seven defensive touchdowns. He always played full speed, hard, all-out, aggressive. Mike Brown was everything you want in a football player.

When he was healthy.

That was always the only knock on Brown. He got hurt and he missed large portions of multiple seasons, starting only 36 of 80 games since 2003. 

Maybe it was his style of play that led to his injuries—maybe he played with the kind of reckless abandon that left himself open. He was always flying around full bore, looking for a collision. He was a missile. 

Or maybe it was just rotten luck. Bad things happening to a good guy. You see it all the time.

I know that Kansas City is fortunate to have Mike Brown. I also know that a lot of people around town in Chicago would have liked to have seen the Bears keep Brown on the roster, especially with the uncertainty the team seems to have at safety.

I don't know if the Bears are better off without Brown or not, especially now that we have Jay Cutler and seem like we're potentially built to win it all now. An experienced guy back there lining up the defense counts for something. Chemistry counts for something too. 

Jerry Angelo has indicated Craig Steltz is expected to be the opening day starter at free safety with Kevin Payne at strong safety. I feel good about Payne, and while I think Steltz can play in this league I wish Steltz had better range at FS. We got hurt over the top with the deep ball last year with Brown and Payne. I think the combo of Payne and Steltz does have more top-end speed, but neither player has elite speed. 

With Steltz, Payne, Danieal Manning (who they have playing the nickelback but has started at safety),  Josh Bullocks, Al Afalava , Glenn Earl and Corey Grahm all in the mix at safety, it was tough to keep a roster spot for a 31 year-old  (strictly) strong safety who has only started less than 50 percent of the games the last five seasons. 

It's too bad, because there should be a place for a guy like Mike Brown on your team, but with the situation the Bears have at safety I can see why Angelo had to cut him.

We wish Mike Brown the best.

I love it

Well Bears fans, since we last spok the Bears have added former St. Louis Rams LB Pisa Tinoisomoa and former Lions TE Michael Gaines to the roster, and they've signed all of their 2009 NFL Draft picks, the first team in the league to achieve that distinction this off season.

I love what I'm seeing out of Halas Hall. The trade for QB Jay Cutler is the centerpiece, but their have been a flurry of solid moves in addition to that masterstroke. 

The offensive line has the potential to be as good as it's been in recent memory. They've invested heavily in the defensive line and added the best D-line coach in the game. They've given themselves some good options at safety through free agency and the draft. Adding an extremely active and productive Tinoisamoa to the linebacking corps should make that unit about as good as it gets.  And while they haven't gone out and signed that marquee receiver (yet?) they've thrown enough bodies at it that Cutler ought to be able to find something to work with there. 

I'm not as worried about WR as everyone else is and here's why:

It's not a stretch to say Hester can improve to 1,000 yards this season. Someone else in the Earl Bennett, Juaquin Iglesias, Johnny Knox, Derek Kinder, Brandon Rideau group has to step up to be a legitimate number two, and the fight is on between the rest of them and Rashied Davis to fill the number three spot. I don't think that's going to be the worst group of receivers in the NFL. I think it will be a better group of receivers than we've had around here definitely since Berrian left. 

With the other weapons we have on offense–Matt Forte, Greg Olsen, Desmond Clark ... Garrett Wolfe?— and Jay Cutler, that could work out alright.