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Speak Up: Martz Amazed By How Good Cutler Is

20th April 2010 by under Speak Up     

New offensive coordinator Mike Martz commented about Jay Cutler before he signed on to coach him and now that he has seen him up  close and personnel he is pretty amazed.

Here’s what Martz had to say about the Bears QB:

“He’s better than I thought, I’ve got to smile because he’s just been remarkable. He really has. He’s so intelligent that he can intimidate you. He really can. He is extremely bright, one of the smartest people I’ve been around. Very humble though. He really loves this game, has a great passion for what he does.”

“We started with him and how he holds his hands under center to how he steps, his stance underneath the center, just like he’s a high school quarterback, we go back and re-train all the basic fundamentals how we see it with him. He’s bought into everything that we do. He’s been a dream for me. I couldn’t ask for a better situation.”

all quotes from chicagotribune.com

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Speak Up: Julius Peppers Believes The Bears Defense Can Be The Best In The NFL

13th April 2010 by under Speak Up     

The Bears big free agent prize, defensive end Julius Peppers talked today about how good this defense can be and other stuff.

Here’s what he had to say:

“I think we could be the best unit in the league. Last year wasn’t as good because they had injuries, any time you have injuries on a team, that is going to kill you, especially to your best players. I see the potential. They already have guys in place here. I am just another piece to it and hopefully I can bring to the table what I have been bringing my whole career and we can be as dominant as they were in the past.”

Peppers on Alex Brown’s release: “I was excited to play with him, those things come up on the business side and us as players, we don’t really have control over that. It’s just one of those things. It’s unfortunate. At the end of the day, he landed on his feet. I was excited to see him sign with the Saints.”

Peppers on other issues:”Right now it doesn’t really matter to me, I’ve said it and I mean it, it doesn’t really matter which side I play. I would prefer to switch sides during the game according to the game plan. When you limit yourself to one side, it limits your effectiveness. I try to preach to the young guys just coming into the league, ‘Don’t limit yourself to one side.’ When you get tagged as a right end or a left end, it limits you. You need to be able to play both.”

“I’ve been working out with the team. I’ve seen all the guys. I like what I see, hopefully, the addition of me will inspire some guys, make them play better. I know what Tommie is going through. I’ve gone through the same thing sometimes when people criticize me for not playing up to my potential. That’s not something that I am worried about because I know Tommie. I’ve known Tommie since he was a teenager and I know what type of guy he is. I know he is going to come back. The rest of the guys are welcoming me, everybody is excited, just as I am, so I am looking forward to good things and surprising a lot of people.”

“I really don’t put a number on sacks because statistics are really indicators and it doesn’t really tell the true story all the time, it gives you indications, I always just say 10 is a good year, 15 is a great year. Winning the Super Bowl, winning the division, those things are at the top of my list and individual things will come with that if we accomplish the team goals.”

all quotes from chicagosuntimes.com

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Speak Up: Brown Says Goodbye To Chicago

1st April 2010 by under Speak Up     

Alex Brown was a big part of the Chicago Bears defense for eight years, I’m sure he didn’t want to leave in what he considers his prime. Brown had a lot to say about his departure from Chicago, here’s what he said:

“I enjoyed my time and I appreciate the Bears for giving me the opportunity to play, the city of Chicago, there wasn’t a better place to spend eight years of football. I got to see a lot of highs and lows and had a lot of fun with all of it.”

“I believe I can play four or five more years, I mean good years, shoot, over the last four, five years I have been so close to having the magical number everyone looks for as far as sacks (10). As far as what I have been doing, I’m in my prime still.”“The streak, you gotta go to work, you get paid to do your job as best you can. I don’t think I was doing anything special or out of the ordinary. If you’re healthy, you go out and play.”

“I would love to play at Soldier Field again, I would love to come back and play. To be on the opposite side of the field and see all my friends, that would be pretty weird, but I am sure we would have fun with it.

“But that first day (last Thursday) when they told me, it was tough. I had spent so much time there. I understand it is a business, but that doesn’t make it not tough. My teammates, they understand it’s a business. If we play long enough, it’s going to happen to everybody. I’m not going to sit here and throw anyone under the bus and say they said this isn’t the right thing for the Bears do to. Maybe there are some different opinions, but that’s OK. We’re all going to be fine.”

“Mark played very well last year and he can be that good and better this year, moving, that is one of the thing Izzy has needed to figure out, where he is going to play and now he’s gotten a boost of confidence from the coaching staff so he can focus on that. I’m really flattered people have been saying stuff about the team missing me. We changed players like crazy over the last eight years. The Bears will move on.”

“I’m ready to go, I’m a three-down defensive end. I still think I’m the best overall defensive end in the league.

“For eight years, I’ve done exactly what is right. They drafted a defensive end every year and they brought in Wale (Ogunleye). I just went out and played football. I’m still going to do that.”

all quotes from chicagotribune.com

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Speak Up: Brian Urlacher On The Departure Of Alex Brown

1st April 2010 by under Speak Up     

After the Bears officially cut ties with the veteran defensive end Thursday, Urlacher was one of the first to speak about Brown’s release.

Here’s what Urlacher had to say:

“That sucks, man, God, that sucks. I’m sad. Alex has been one of my best friends on the team since he’s been here. You won’t find a guy more adored by his teammates than Alex Brown.”

“We live in the same area and when you go to the grocery store, people talk about the type of guy he is, how he talks to everyone. I know it’s a business, but I can’t imagine not playing with him and Adewale (Ogunleye).”

Urlacher, drafted by the Bears in 2000, said he immediately established a friendship with Brown after Brown was drafted in ’02.

“He’s such an outgoing person,” Urlacher said. “We bonded right away. It helped that he played well right away, too. He’s been our most consistent defender the last six or seven years, with staying on the field and all his starts in a row.

“Off the field, we’ve had some good times. … That’s all I will say.”

“He went out of his way to do things for his teammates.”

“Wherever he gets the most money, I want to see him do the best for him and his family. I’m sure he’ll wind up with a contender. It’s going to be strange going up against him if we see him this season.”

all quotes from chicagotribune.com

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Speak Up: Head Coach Lovie Smith Talks About The Team

24th March 2010 by under Speak Up     

Lovie Smith spoke about many different subjects about the Bears team. He first talked about adding a veteran QB to backup Jay Cutler.

Here’s what he had to say:

“It wouldn’t be a bad thing if we end up with a veteran, and that has nothing to do with Caleb Hanie.”

“We think Caleb is a heck of a football player. But, when you do go with two quarterbacks, it is a little scary each week. You never know.”

Smith said a veteran could be a sounding board for Cutler and likened that player to a second coach.

“Probably more so than any other position, you can have even an older veteran around because unless there’s an injury, it’s not like he’s going to be physically beat up every day.”

Other random things that Lovie Smith talked about are:

-Devin Hester will be a full-time receiver and also handle punt returns. So no kickoff returns for him.

-Brian Urlacher is healthy and said on two occasions that the middle linebacker is still “the face of the franchise.”

-He expects “pretty much 100 percent” of his players to attend the start of the voluntary off-season conditioning program on Monday.

-He hasn’t committed Julius Peppers to one side.

-He would like to “lock” Israel Idonije into defensive end more than tackle and “see how good he can be” (on the outside).

-He fully engaged tight end Greg Olsen when the team was looking to add an offensive coordinator and before they added tight end Brandon Manumaleuna.

-Smith reinforced that the Bears will not become a pass-heavy team. “We’re in Chicago. It’s not going to change. We’ll continue to run the football. We just want to be able to pass the football, too.”

-Nick Roach will, at this point, get the initial looks at strongside linebacker, ahead of Hunter Hillenmeyer and Jamar Williams.

-He was on board with the team’s decision to vote yes for the new overtime rule modification. “We voted for the rule, so that’s what I liked. That’s it.”

-Smith said the club felt it was time to give cornerback Nathan Vasher a chance at a fresh start. “You want to be fair with the veterans.”

-He said Adewale Ogunleye is officially done with the Bears and he is not returning this season to Chicago.

all quotes from chicagosuntimes.com

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Speak Up: Head Coach Lovie Smith Talks About The Team

24th March 2010 by under Speak Up     

Lovie Smith spoke about many different subjects about the Bears team. He first talked about adding a veteran QB to backup Jay Cutler.

Here’s what he had to say:

“It wouldn’t be a bad thing if we end up with a veteran, and that has nothing to do with Caleb Hanie.”

“We think Caleb is a heck of a football player. But, when you do go with two quarterbacks, it is a little scary each week. You never know.”

Smith said a veteran could be a sounding board for Cutler and likened that player to a second coach.

“Probably more so than any other position, you can have even an older veteran around because unless there’s an injury, it’s not like he’s going to be physically beat up every day.”

Other random things that Lovie Smith talked about are:

-Devin Hester will be a full-time receiver and also handle punt returns. So no kickoff returns for him.

-Brian Urlacher is healthy and said on two occasions that the middle linebacker is still “the face of the franchise.”

-He expects “pretty much 100 percent” of his players to attend the start of the voluntary off-season conditioning program on Monday.

-He hasn’t committed Julius Peppers to one side.

-He would like to “lock” Israel Idonije into defensive end more than tackle and “see how good he can be” (on the outside).

-He fully engaged tight end Greg Olsen when the team was looking to add an offensive coordinator and before they added tight end Brandon Manumaleuna.

-Smith reinforced that the Bears will not become a pass-heavy team. “We’re in Chicago. It’s not going to change. We’ll continue to run the football. We just want to be able to pass the football, too.”

-Nick Roach will, at this point, get the initial looks at strongside linebacker, ahead of Hunter Hillenmeyer and Jamar Williams.

-He was on board with the team’s decision to vote yes for the new overtime rule modification. “We voted for the rule, so that’s what I liked. That’s it.”

-Smith said the club felt it was time to give cornerback Nathan Vasher a chance at a fresh start. “You want to be fair with the veterans.”

-He said Adewale Ogunleye is officially done with the Bears and he is not returning this season to Chicago.

all quotes from chicagosuntimes.com

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Speak Up: Lovie Smith On Safety Position and Tommie Harris

26th February 2010 by under Speak Up     

Lovie Smith spoke up about Bears defensive tackle Tommie Harris and the free safety position which is basically in chaos right now.

Head coach Lovie Smith said this to the media about Tommie Harris:

“That’s how it was, some ups and downs, but after having a chance to really dissect the video, which we’ve been doing, Tommie had a lot of flash plays, a lot of special plays. I’ll say five more sacks where he just didn’t wrap the guy up. He can still be an impact player. He’ll be an impact player. And our defense is counting on him to do that.”

“When you go through some injuries, sometimes you say, ‘Well, maybe a guy can’t do it anymore, he can still do it, and he needs to do it this year. … We need Tommie to play the way he’s capable of playing every snap.”

Also, he had this to say about the safety position:

“We need to improve our safety position, period, haven’t been pleased with the production we’ve gotten. I think we had one interception from the safety position. That was one of the reasons why I feel like our takeaways were down this year. We need to bring in or just get more competition and just improvement in general.”

“When you look to improve it, you look at all areas, we do have some draft picks. Hopefully, maybe we will be able to use one a little bit earlier. But right now there is free agency and there are some possibilities there also. Keeping all of our options open.”

Thoughts:

Will see what the Bears do to improve the defensive line via free agency/draft and the same goes for the safety position. The combine has started, so they better start doing the homework.

all quotes from chicagotribune.com

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Defensive: Anthony Adams and Israel Idonije Give There Thoughts On Coach Smith’s Return

5th January 2010 by under Speak Up     

88972059JD008_IL_ARIZONA_CABears players like Hunter Hillenmeyer, Brian Urlacher and Adewale Ogunleye (Who might not be back next season) all spoke up over the past few days about head coach Lovie Smith. It’s clear they wanted him back and they thought it would be a big mistake if he was let go. The players respect him a lot.

Defensive linemen Anthony Adams and Israel Idonije spoke up about Lovie Smith returning to the Bears to coach the 2010 season.

Adams: “It’s a sigh of relief, he’s a good guy and a good coach. And we all believe in him. We just have to do a better job in doing our part. I feel like I owe him so much. For whatever reason, it just hasn’t been happening for us. Even if he wasn’t going to be here, he just wanted to make it as normal as possible,’ you don’t want people freaking out. That’s what would have been happening.”

Idonije: “To lose a great coach like coach Smith would have been a tragedy, as a team we have to fix some things. We will fix those things and get better. I don’t think our head coach was a part of the problem.”

All quotes from chicagotribune.com

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Speak Up: Urlacher Defends Coach Lovie Smith

5th January 2010 by under Speak Up     

0621Bears middle linebacker Brian Urlacher has a good relationship with head coach Lovie Smith and he doesn’t want him to go anywhere, here’s what he had to say about Smith possibly being fired:

“We didn’t have a lot to be happy about, but it wasn’t somber. It wasn’t like it was our last meeting with Coach Smith or anything like that. I didn’t get that feeling.

“(The season) sucked, but two wins in a row was the best we could do with our situation.”

“I’m 1 million percent behind Coach Smith, what happened the last couple of years is not on him. There are not a lot of coaches that could have taken the team we had in 2006 to the Super Bowl. He did it. And then the year before, with a rookie quarterback ( Kyle Orton), he took us to the playoffs.

“It’s not his fault we’ve struggled. We’ve always been prepared to play. We practice hard every day. We just haven’t performed well. That’s all there is to it.”

“I don’t think he should be the fall guy for how lousy we played the last three seasons, I would be shocked if he’s not here. It would be a huge blindside if he were to get canned.”

all quotes from chicagotribune.com

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Speak Up: Urlacher Defends Coach Lovie Smith

5th January 2010 by under Speak Up     

0621Bears middle linebacker Brian Urlacher has a good relationship with head coach Lovie Smith and he doesn’t want him to go anywhere, here’s what he had to say about Smith possibly being fired:

“We didn’t have a lot to be happy about, but it wasn’t somber. It wasn’t like it was our last meeting with Coach Smith or anything like that. I didn’t get that feeling.

“(The season) sucked, but two wins in a row was the best we could do with our situation.”

“I’m 1 million percent behind Coach Smith, what happened the last couple of years is not on him. There are not a lot of coaches that could have taken the team we had in 2006 to the Super Bowl. He did it. And then the year before, with a rookie quarterback ( Kyle Orton), he took us to the playoffs.

“It’s not his fault we’ve struggled. We’ve always been prepared to play. We practice hard every day. We just haven’t performed well. That’s all there is to it.”

“I don’t think he should be the fall guy for how lousy we played the last three seasons, I would be shocked if he’s not here. It would be a huge blindside if he were to get canned.”

all quotes from chicagotribune.com

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