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just a quote from the full article:

http://blogs.chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/huddleup/2009/01/angelo-supports-orton-but-still-keeping-bears-qb-options-open.html

Angelo supports Orton, but still keeping Bears QB options open

By Vaughn McClure

Bears general manager Jerry Angelo was on The Score’s "Mully and Hanley Show" Friday morning discussing the team as he prepares for free agency and the NFL Draft....Angelo promised the team would be ``fine’’ at the wide receiver position and will target offensive line help through free agency or the draft. He wants to develop a two-back system to help Matt Forte, but it’s unclear if Kevin Jones or Garrett Wolfe falls into those plans.’’

Did anyone hear this interview? The way it is written, it doesn't sound like JA is thinking of the WR position at all. Like he's happy with what we have. Is he thinking Earl Bennett and Hester are our starters next year?

smoke screen !

He's probably lying. He will upgrade the position through draft or FAcy.

You have to believe that it is a smoke screen. We can not expect to compete at WR with the same inept core. We have to upgrade at that position.

From the same article, JA spoke on the QB situation:

But whether Angelo will pursue a top free-agent quarterback or a rookie capable of developing behind Orton remains the unknown.

``I can’t sit here and say definitively what we’re going to do,’’ he said. ``I know right now what we have and I feel good about that. I feel good about Kyle. I feel good about Caleb Hanie. And I want to make sure everybody understands that. But I want to make sure we look at every option that we potentially have to make sure we’re the best going forward at that position in the off-season.’’

I would like to see what we have in Caleb. He played very well in the pre-season and took command of games in the 4th quarter ala Brett Farve with his mobility.

Granted he was playing against second units, so I would give him a chance against the first for a few series and see how he does.

After reading that a second time, my take is a little different. Angelo is saying we WILL be fine at WR which doesn't necessarily mean he's OK with the present state of things. He continues to say "we will continue to go out and look at that position."

I think he's just following Lovie's MO: We get off the bus/plan/your mom running the ball. It would be totally hypocritical of him to talk about how we need to upgrade the WR when we could just pound the ball.

However, he did say we needed to upgrade QB...so maybe J.A. is a bit CRAZY.

Caleb Hanie looked very impressive during the preseason even though it was against scrubs. I'd like to see what he could do against 1st string defenses.

^^ Not me. I've had 30 years of seeing/wondering what a 2nd or 3rd string Bears QB can do against 1st string defenses. In 30 years they've done nothing. Call me Pavlov's Dog, but enough of that. I'm willing to sit in pain until we go out and get a premier QB and see what he does against 1st string defenses. Until then, give KO every rep possible in hopes he learns and can be consistently as good as he was before the injury.

emperorjones wrote:^^ Not me. I've had 30 years of seeing/wondering what a 2nd or 3rd string Bears QB can do against 1st string defenses. In 30 years they've done nothing. Call me Pavlov's Dog, but enough of that. I'm willing to sit in pain until we go out and get a premier QB and see what he does against 1st string defenses. Until then, give KO every rep possible in hopes he learns and can be consistently as good as he was before the injury.

Ahh, Moses Moreno, Jonathan Quinn, Craig Krenzel, Will Furrer....it goes on and on and on.

SportsWorld wrote:Caleb Hanie looked very impressive during the preseason even though it was against scrubs. I'd like to see what he could do against 1st string defenses.

Hanie looked awesome in pre-season, we should keep him for QB depth as long as we can.

The way I read the article was JA saying that we WOULD be fine at WR. It doesn't say 'we ARE fine at WR'. So as far as I'm concerned he has a plan to go get some help. There is absolutely no way that a GM of a football team can look at the WR's the Bears have and say they don't need help.

Hanie is a guy I think the Bears like but are going to wait on to see him develop. Why not with a 3rd string QB. I think it's about time they went out and got a guy that they actually see with some potential and just have him sit the bench for a few years to see if he can eventually do something. They have nothing to lose by doing this. As long as they don't put all their chips into one basket with him.

As far as O-Line, that's about as obvious of a statement as you'll find. But at least it sounds like he'll try.

I could see Angelo going after another RB in Rounds 3 or 4 and I'd be fine with that. The Bears need a lot of help or Forte is going to be dead after his third year in the league.

I have a feeling the Bears are going to trade out of the first round to add some more picks this year.

Chewie wrote:

emperorjones wrote:^^ Not me. I've had 30 years of seeing/wondering what a 2nd or 3rd string Bears QB can do against 1st string defenses. In 30 years they've done nothing. Call me Pavlov's Dog, but enough of that. I'm willing to sit in pain until we go out and get a premier QB and see what he does against 1st string defenses. Until then, give KO every rep possible in hopes he learns and can be consistently as good as he was before the injury.

Ahh, Moses Moreno, Jonathan Quinn, Craig Krenzel, Will Furrer....it goes on and on and on.

Caleb displayed much more skill and ability than any of the 2nd string QBs mentioned.

Orton was unable to move the offense in pre-season on many occasions, and Caleb came in amd rallied the team to victories. Caleb displayed poise and a strong command of the offense and created opportunities with his ability to run when nothing was a available.


I am not saying just hand the team over to him, but give a chance to prove what he can do. If he comes in does well, we could possibly groom him, and if not just keep him as aback-up. KO did not perform well in the second half of the season, granted he may not have been fully healed from injuries. He made poor decisions and was unable to get the ball down field accurately all season. We has the least amount of completions , I believe , from 30 yards and beyond. Some were from drops and most were from poor timing on the routes by Orton as a result of under and/or over throwing the receivers.

KO is solid, but we should see what we have in Caleb first, before just declaring Orton the starter without competition from a intriguing prospect within.

Balance-a-Bull wrote:Caleb displayed much more skill and ability than any of the 2nd string QBs mentioned.

Orton was unable to move the offense in pre-season on many occasions, and Caleb came in amd rallied the team to victories. Caleb displayed poise and a strong command of the offense and created opportunities with his ability to run when nothing was a available.


I am not saying just hand the team over to him, but give a chance to prove what he can do. If he comes in does well, we could possibly groom him, and if not just keep him as aback-up. KO did not perform well in the second half of the season, granted he may not have been fully healed from injuries. He made poor decisions and was unable to get the ball down field accurately all season. We has the least amount of completions , I believe , from 30 yards and beyond. Some were from drops and most were from poor timing on the routes by Orton as a result of under and/or over throwing the receivers.

KO is solid, but we should see what we have in Caleb first, before just declaring Orton the starter without competition from a intriguing prospect within.

"Grooming" him is where I think a lot of people get worried. Only because in the past "grooming" a QB meant handing him the starting job. I agree with what you're saying but every Bears fan has a right or reason to be concerned when they hear how much the management loves a QB, especially one that was an undrafted free agent. I got to see him play in the preseason and he looked pretty good, however, if he's anything other than a 3rd string QB the next year or maybe two then there might be an issue. As long as Angelo doesn't consider him the second coming then I'm fine with his comments.

Caleb displayed much more skill and ability than any of the 2nd string QBs mentioned.

I think Caleb is ready for a statue already. He was good against 2nd string players in vanilla schemes in one preseason. I mean it doesn't get to be much more of a lock than that.

Balance-a-Bull wrote:

Chewie wrote:

emperorjones wrote:^^ Not me. I've had 30 years of seeing/wondering what a 2nd or 3rd string Bears QB can do against 1st string defenses. In 30 years they've done nothing. Call me Pavlov's Dog, but enough of that. I'm willing to sit in pain until we go out and get a premier QB and see what he does against 1st string defenses. Until then, give KO every rep possible in hopes he learns and can be consistently as good as he was before the injury.

Ahh, Moses Moreno, Jonathan Quinn, Craig Krenzel, Will Furrer....it goes on and on and on.

Caleb displayed much more skill and ability than any of the 2nd string QBs mentioned.

Orton was unable to move the offense in pre-season on many occasions, and Caleb came in amd rallied the team to victories. Caleb displayed poise and a strong command of the offense and created opportunities with his ability to run when nothing was a available.


I am not saying just hand the team over to him, but give a chance to prove what he can do. If he comes in does well, we could possibly groom him, and if not just keep him as aback-up. KO did not perform well in the second half of the season, granted he may not have been fully healed from injuries. He made poor decisions and was unable to get the ball down field accurately all season. We has the least amount of completions , I believe , from 30 yards and beyond. Some were from drops and most were from poor timing on the routes by Orton as a result of under and/or over throwing the receivers.

KO is solid, but we should see what we have in Caleb first, before just declaring Orton the starter without competition from a intriguing prospect within.

Like Doug says.. having a few good snaps in the preseason does not warrant full leadership of a team.

We do not need to anoint Caleb as the savior just yet, but he performed better than Orton and Grossman in the preseason, so he does deserve a chance against first unit players.

Just a few series or so.

Grossman and Orton did nothing against the first string players during pre-season, and Caleb came in made good things happen. so at the very least we can see what Caleb can or can do before we erect his statue.

In terms of grooming him, we do not just hand him the job, but give him an opportunity to earn the right to be groomed in open and fair competition for the job.

JA is a good judge of defensive talent, but on offense he has proved not be as adept. So JA may not realize what he have Caleb. JA also drafted Orton and may feel compelled to give him more opportunities than an undrafted player, although he may show more promise. It may call in to question his ability to draft and evaluate talent on the offensive side of the ball.

If we bring in a vet to compete against Orton, what would it hurt to just let Caleb compete for the starting job along with them. We pretty much know what we have Kyle "the manager" Orton, so with Caleb's mobile skill set, let's just what have without giving him anything.

Balance-a-Bull wrote:We do not need to anoint Caleb as the savior just yet, but he performed better than Orton and Grossman in the preseason, so he does deserve a chance against first unit players.

Just a few series or so.

Grossman and Orton did nothing against the first string players during pre-season, and Caleb came in made good things happen. so at the very least we can see what Caleb can or can do before we erect his statue.

In terms of grooming him, we do not just hand him the job, but give him an opportunity to earn the right to be groomed in open and fair competition for the job.

JA is a good judge of defensive talent, but on offense he has proved not be as adept. So JA may not realize what he have Caleb. JA also drafted Orton and may feel compelled to give him more opportunities than an undrafted player, although he may show more promise. It may call in to question his ability to draft and evaluate talent on the offensive side of the ball.

If we bring in a vet to compete against Orton, what would it hurt to just let Caleb compete for the starting job along with them. We pretty much know what we have Kyle "the manager" Orton, so with Caleb's mobile skill set, let's just what have without giving him anything.

There will be no competition for the starting job . Its essentially is Ortons to play himself out of it just like Rex did to a degree .

Coming in against roster cuts in the preseason really doesnt earn you anything in terms of competing for a starting spot .You have to wait for a opportunity you just dont come into a team in football that low and just get handed the chance. First and second rd picks YES but lower picks have quite a hill to climb barring injuries .

Brandon Rideau led the league in td's in the preseason and our WR corps sucked but did we see him ?

Hanie right now should be trying to claim that backup spot as he has a greater chance at the starting job longterm if he can take that spot over a newcomer.

chitownsports4ever wrote:

Balance-a-Bull wrote:We do not need to anoint Caleb as the savior just yet, but he performed better than Orton and Grossman in the preseason, so he does deserve a chance against first unit players.

Just a few series or so.

Grossman and Orton did nothing against the first string players during pre-season, and Caleb came in made good things happen. so at the very least we can see what Caleb can or can do before we erect his statue.

In terms of grooming him, we do not just hand him the job, but give him an opportunity to earn the right to be groomed in open and fair competition for the job.

JA is a good judge of defensive talent, but on offense he has proved not be as adept. So JA may not realize what he have Caleb. JA also drafted Orton and may feel compelled to give him more opportunities than an undrafted player, although he may show more promise. It may call in to question his ability to draft and evaluate talent on the offensive side of the ball.

If we bring in a vet to compete against Orton, what would it hurt to just let Caleb compete for the starting job along with them. We pretty much know what we have Kyle "the manager" Orton, so with Caleb's mobile skill set, let's just what have without giving him anything.

There will be no competition for the starting job . Its essentially is Ortons to play himself out of it just like Rex did to a degree .

Coming in against roster cuts in the preseason really doesnt earn you anything in terms of competing for a starting spot .You have to wait for a opportunity you just dont come into a team in football that low and just get handed the chance. First and second rd picks YES but lower picks have quite a hill to climb barring injuries .

Brandon Rideau led the league in td's in the preseason and our WR corps sucked but did we see him ?

Hanie right now should be trying to claim that backup spot as he has a greater chance at the starting job longterm if he can take that spot over a newcomer.

Angelo stated in the article that he wants competition for the starting QB job and will not just hand it over to Orton.

Orton did not sew up the starting job with his less than stellar second of the season. Judging by his second half performance , Orton just ensured that their will be competition. He was not able to effectively lead the team in crucial moments.

He is ok as a manager until we find someone better, although he had his share of miscues in the second half to question that the label as a manager ie... someone that dos not make many mistakes.until we find someone better.

If someone on the team (regardless of whether they were drafted or not) is better, then you play them. You play your best players.

The objective is to win and if somebody undrafted is better than someone you drafted, then swallow your pride, and play them.

I am not saying that Caleb is better than Orton, but play him to find out.

What if Hanie performs better than the the old vet and Orton, should he play or wait?