Bleacher Bums Forum

Peppers on his last leg?  I really have to disagree there.

Yeah, maybe Peppers was injured last year - there was talk of a foot injury.  But his numbers last year were very consistent with the year before in tackles and sacks.

Teams have to game plan him which gives opportunities to everyone else on defense.  Bears have a nice DE rotation that gives him breaks during the game which could end up pro-longing his career and overall  effectiveness.

Peppers on his last leg?  I really have to disagree there.

Lets just agree to disagree there. He isn't a spring chicken either.

would be nice if McClellan and Wooton can play more and give Peppers more plays off.
I'd still like to see Izzy retire a Bear.

They better do something pretty quick with both Roach and Urlacher gone.  I can see a Bear team having to score 45 or more to win. 

Don't worry.  Our resident genius said the Bears shouldn't focus on defense.  It's all good!!!

Rob Demovsky, USA TODAY Sports12:23p.m. EDT March 21, 2013

Packers coach Mike McCarthy says Adrian Peterson and the playoff loss to the Niners were the team's "two black eyes"
McCarthy says anybody who watches film will decide to run the read-option against the Packers if they have the right QB
The Packers could see a heavy dose of the read-option with the 49ers, Redskins and Eagles on the schedule

PHOENIX — Mike McCarthy didn't need to wait until the Green Bay Packers completed their crash course on defending the read option or give defensive coordinator Dom Capers time to finish his offseason analysis to know what his team must do better this season.

Even before both tasks were completed within the last two weeks, it was obvious.

Just roll any tape from the last month of the season, when Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson rushed for 409 yards in two games against the Packers and San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick used the read-option offense to pile up 181 yards rushing as the Packers got eliminated in the NFC divisional playoff round for the second straight season.

"Adrian Peterson and the San Francisco game were our two black eyes," McCarthy said Wednesday during the NFC coaches breakfast on the final day of the NFL annual meetings. "And that's where we've got to be better. Those are big games. We've got to play better defense in big games."

And with that, Capers received his orders for this season.

It included, but was not limited to, a trip to College Station, Texas two weeks ago, when Capers and his staff spent the day with the coaches at Texas A&M to pick their brains about the read-option that is expected to become more prevalent in the NFL this season. Aggies coach Kevin Sumlin, who has the multi-dimensional, Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Johnny Manziel, led the one-day session.

"I think it's a great changeup and a great opportunity for our defensive staff to do that," McCarthy said. "Kevin Sumlin and his staff are very gracious and there's a ton of feedback going back and forth. Kevin was in the room the whole time giving an offensive perspective. Our defensive staff was in the room with their defensive staff. It was a conversation that was very, very helpful, and I'm sure there will be some things we take away from that visit."

There's a good chance the Packers will have to put some of what they learned to the test this season. Their schedule includes the 49ers, Washington Redskins and Philadelphia Eagles — all teams that will use the read-option to one degree or another.

********And just a few tables away from where McCarthy was speaking, first-year Chicago Bears coach Marc Trestman said, "The read-option will be part of our package."***************************

"I'm not a crystal ball, but I know we're going to see it early and often," McCarthy said. "If I was playing against us, I'd make sure that if we had that kind of quarterback that you would test the Green Bay Packers. Everybody's going to watch (our) last game. Let's not be naïve to that."

Demovsky writes for the Green Bay Press-Gazette, a Gannett property.

Agreed.  After a few teams lose their star QB running it, it will be history.  Either that or they will only run it with a back up or non-QB.

From the Pioneer Press

It's always easy for paranoid Minnesotans to blame the weather when top free agents sign with warm-weather teams instead of our frozen-tundra favorites.  In the case of free agent wide receiver Mike Wallace, that was exactly the case.  The Miami Dolphins' new deep threat told the Miami Herald that the Vikings actually offered him the most money, but instead he chose a team that has not won a playoff game since 2000.

"The (Vikings) had come to the point where they were telling him, 'You don't have to live here, just be here during the season,' " Wallace's father, Mike Jr., said in an interview with the Herald's Adam H. Beasley. "He wanted to get out of that snow and cold weather."

Wallace, who suffers from asthma, played four seasons in occasionally frigid Pittsburgh. So it was an easy decision to take his talents and maladies to South Beach.  His five-year deal with Miami was worth $60 million. His father did not reveal how much more the Vikings were offering.

--------------------------

Rip it up. Shred it. Scrap the whole thing or start again from a position of strength.  I'm talking here about the flawed deal state legislators and the governor were bamboozled into making to help build a new Vikings stadium. Since there's really no contract or written agreement to this public fleecing, I'm strongly suggesting an extreme makeover.  This already was corporate welfare at its worst. Then news broke this month that confirms that Minneapolis and state taxpayers will be getting hosed for more than the $498 million in public contributions to the estimated $975 million stadium project.  It turns out that the $35 million projected in annual revenues from state-approved electronic charitable gambling actually yielded about $1.7 million last year. Now, this was the projection that would take care of the state's $348 million contribution.  Given that bars and restaurants are not exactly embracing the e-pull-tab and e-bingo devices because they are not being used as sold, I have no doubt they're going to eventually tap into the general fund or come up with another scheme to shake down the taxpayer for more money.  And who came up with this grossly inflated projection? Why, the state gambling control board, after consulting with -- guess who? -- the gambling industry, a consultation Dayton admitted recently he did not know about.  With all due respect, that's like a farmer asking a fox to go into the henhouse and let him know if plenty of chickens are inside.  "Plenty for sure," the fox mumbles as it comes out, spitting feathers from its mouth.