Gosselin: Bears not much better than Lions

[ChicagoBreakingSports]

By Brad Biggs

It's impossible to play games on paper, especially in mid-June, but when it comes to producing NFL rankings, that is another thing.

Rick Gosselin of the Dallas Morning News, a respected draft guru who is also credited with producing the annual league-wide special teams rankings, has offered up his first ranking of the year. Let's just say that Gosselin doesn't put a lot of stock in the 30-something shopping spree by the Bears, who poured an abundance of resources into defensive end Julius Peppers, running back Chester Taylor and tight end Brandon Manumaleuna, all on the wrong side of 30.

Gosselin ranks the Bears 22nd, one spot ahead of where he had them in his final poll for 2009. If his forecast holds true, there ought to be significant changes come January at Halas Hall. From the sounds of things, Gosselin doesn't believe quarterback Jay Cutler is ready to take the next step with new offensive coordinator Mike Martz:

"The Bears made the biggest splash in free agency, signing Pro Bowl defensive end Julius Peppers," Gosselin wrote. "But it will go for naught if QB Jay Cutler doesn't reduce his turnovers (a league-high 26 interceptions). The Bears hired Mike Martz as offensive coordinator to straighten Cutler out."

The NFC North ranks highly for Gosselin, though. He pegs the Green Bay Packers fourth and the Minnesota Vikings sixth. The Detroit Lions are 24th, just two spots behind the Bears after they were so bad last season that they claimed the second pick in the draft.

There has been talk about how difficult the Bears' schedule is this season as they play the NFC East and AFC East. The Bears have games vs. six of the teams in Gosselin's top 13: Dallas (No. 2), Green Bay (4), Minnesota (6), N.Y. Jets (10), New England (11) and the N.Y. Giants (13).

The beautiful thing is it will all be decided on the field beginning in September.



More...

 

[Capt. Serious]

Yeah....no.

 

[Anytime23]

Well i will say that its quite possible. Its going to come down to two things that will make or break our season.
1)OL
2)Tommie Harris

I have no doubt in my mind that Cutler will put up big #s and throw some INTs but if this OL can play decently, this offense can thrive because we do have some talent.

Tommie late last season played well and when he played well, it looked like Mark Anderson was regaining his 06 form. Its all about Tommie on defense. I think our D will be better regardless with Lack back and having Harris at SS. I believe Bowman will be better and hope Tillman will be healthy.

I think the Lions have a lot more questions than we do. Their OL is worse than ours as far as pass protection goes and Stafford threw more INTs(20) than TDs(around 14 i think). Their historically bad secondary still needs to prove itself, as well as their LBs. Im sure their DL will be much improved though.

 

[DaleDoback]

(First thing I thought of when I saw this topic...) I could care less what Kate Gosselin has to say......I think Jon was in the right leaving her ass. Can you imagine how loose her undercarriage is after 8 kids? Does she even watch football?

Who the hell is Rick Gosselin? I have been a big draft guru for almost 20 years and have no clue who this man is.......either I am not as big into it as I thought.....or this article is just Brad Briggs trying to piss us all off....

 

[Anytime23]

(First thing I thought of when I saw this topic...) I could care less what Kate Gosselin has to say......I think Jon was in the right leaving her ass. Can you imagine how loose her undercarriage is after 8 kids? Does she even watch football?

Who the hell is Rick Gosselin? I have been a big draft guru for almost 20 years and have no clue who this man is.......either I am not as big into it as I thought.....or this article is just Brad Briggs trying to piss us all off....

Like mentioned, the ONLY thing Gosselin is known for outside of the state of Texas is his end of season Special Teams rankings. He's the only person that i know of that provides a complete ranking of STs and its a pretty good article. I wish he would make a weekly ranking.

 

[Jamfan]

I stopped reading after finding out that the DALLAS MORNING NEWS writer has the DALLAS COWBOYS 2nd.

 

[CODE_BLUE56]

dallas cowboys are atleast a top 10 team in the NFL tho

but still this guy doesnt know squat

 

[Anytime23]

Every year the boys are overrated.

 

[CODE_BLUE56]

thats a load of crap

we have had a winning record for the last three years

actually last 4 i think

 

[Anytime23]

And yet they still overrate you guys. Youre always being talked about as superbowl contestants. I didnt say you guys arent good but youre not that good to be ranked #2.

 

[CODE_BLUE56]

i never said we were #2 lol

 

[Anytime23]

I didnt say you did. Im saying that your team is overrated every pre-season. Is there really an argument to that?

 

[CODE_BLUE56]

i dont think last season or in 07 we were

 

[regoob2]

I agree with him. We're not that much better. The Lions are not the same team they were 2 years ago.

 

[Anytime23]

I agree with him. We're not that much better. The Lions are not the same team they were 2 years ago.

I wouldnt say we're leaps and bounds better but until they can win more than 2 games a season, they still suck.

 

[Lefty]

We'll be talking about this on the show tonight, so we want to hear from all of you jaded Bears fans, especially when we give our opinions on the subject.

 

[Rush]

We aren't much better.

However we ARE better and that is all that matters. Neither teams have made the playoffs in the last 3 seasons. I group us into the same category.

 

[JJ-28]

What I love about these guys that make up these list is they are never anywhere near the team to see how they are really doing. They just put together their list based on what they think each team will do. In other words total BS. There hasn't even been a full pad workout by any team and already they have all the winner and losers picked out. Two and mainly two reason why everyone is ranking us so low is we didn't go after a big name OG or WR so they don't think anything will change.

 

[Anytime23]

What I love about these guys that make up these list is they are never anywhere near the team to see how they are really doing. They just put together their list based on what they think each team will do. In other words total BS. There hasn't even been a full pad workout by any team and already they have all the winner and losers picked out. Two and mainly two reason why everyone is ranking us so low is we didn't go after a big name OG or WR so they don't think anything will change.

Good seeing you JJ. Havent you heard? If you dont have a 1,300 yard WR who gets double digit TDs, you cant win in todays NFL.

 

[CODE_BLUE56]

^guess the Steelers didnt get that memo