I gave it away when I did my post on the defense, but it's not like there were really any surprises. The Bears will have 4 special teams only players on the team this year.
The first of the specialists is the man who has worn the uniform for more games than any other Bears player in team history, oh, and he's the son in law of THE Tommy John. Enough useless trivia though, it's Patrick Mannelly. Mannelly has not only played in more games than any other Bear in history, he's flown under the radar more than any other Bears player in history. When you're a longsnapper, that's a very good thing. Your job is to get the ball to the punter or holder, block, and then run down the field to tackle whoever caught the ball, although there's a good chance that by that time he's been tackled already. The only reason Bears fans know him now is because he's been on the team for so long. Eventually if you're there long enough you'll get noticed. Mannelly's only gaffe that I can remember was when he snapped the ball to the QB on a punt years ago that made it a fake. This wound up being a failure of a play. Other than that, he's been as solid as can be.
The second of the specialists that will be on the team is Adam Podlesh. He wasn't great last year, but he really wasn't bad either. He was solid. He had 34 punts inside the 20 last season, which was the best of his career. After Brad Maynard, I think Bears fans were a little bit spoiled as far as having punters with an inhuman ability to pin the ball inside the 20. However, I think we all forgot about how much stronger Podlesh's leg is than Maynard's (and Podlesh's leg isn't really anything surprisingly strong, just a solid leg).
The third of the special teams guys is Devin Hester. Hester, in his career, has probably been the greatest return specialist ever. He has more kick returns for touchdowns than any other player in the history of the game. On punts he has 12 career return touchdowns (2 more than anyone else in history) on kickoffs he has 5 career touchdowns (only 3 to go to be tied for the all time leader). Sure, he's 30 years old now, but he's got low mileage on his body. Sure, he spent several years as a wide receiver, but now he's not doing that anymore. He even admitted early on during his return portion of his career that his legs would get tired when he was receiving and returning. Now that won't be an issue. He should create plenty of more chances for touchdown returns. He hasn't broken one yet in the preseason, but at the same time he's already looked much faster and much more intense with each return than he did last season. Expect to see him put together one more big season this year.
The last of the special teams guys is Robbie Gould. It's hard for me to believe that he's already going into his 8th season. I still remember him being a rookie whose leg strength was a big worry for me. Well, he worked on that early and it hasn't been a problem since. He kicked a 58 yard field goal last season if anyone still had any doubt. I honestly believe that he's the best kicker in the league. He's constantly near the very top in field goal percentage (6th all time). The biggest thing to me though is that he does this in Chicago weather. Cold, windy, and just not conductive to a good passing game, much less a kicking game where the ball goes even higher and spends even more time in the air. However, he always seems to be able to put it right though. Of the kickers above him, 2 of them kick or kicked mainly in domes, and the rest of them either kicked in good weather, or at least weather that isn't extremely windy. Gould has always played in Chicago, one of the toughest places to kick. Considering that he's still quite young in kicker years, I don't think there's any doubt he'll be back next season.
Now for the oopses. These are guys that I will add to the roster because I came up a bit short with my past two articles.
The first person I will add to the roster is Tony Fiammetta. I didn't have a fullback on the roster before, now that I have 5 men to add to the roster, that means that he'll be the first of the group. I was tempted to put Harvey Unga in there, but he's really more of a huge tailback. Fiammetta is more of a true fullback, a true player at a position that is unfortunately near its death.
Next up will be Trent Edwards. He's another smart backup that will be nice to have there. He has all of the physical characteristics of a good quarterback, but he just hasn't been able to put it together. His skill level just isn't there. However, as a backup he wouldn't be bad. Once he learns the offense I can see him being someone that I'm more comfortable with than Josh McCown.
So there it is now. We have a 53 man roster that I've put together. Just remember, I don't have any more access to information than anyone reading this. I put this together by watching the games and paying attention to articles based on what players and coaches were saying about certain guys, paying very little to no attention to the reporter's own opinion. I feel like this is the roster that the Bears will wind up with, and I feel that it's the roster that gives them the best chance to win.
QB - Cutler, McCown, Edwards
RB - Forte, Bush, Ford
FB - Fiammetta
WR - Marshall, Jeffery, Wilson, Bennett, Anderson, Weems
TE - Bennett, Adams, Maneri
OL - Bushrod, Slauson, Kreutz, Long, Mills, Britton, Brown, Scott
CB - Tillman, Jennings, Bowman, McManis, Frey
S - Conte, Wright, Steltz, Hardin, Nelson
LB - Briggs, Bostic, Williams, Anderson, Costanzo, Greene
DL - Peppers, Wootton, McClellin, Melton, Paea, Collins, Minter, Washington, Tupou
ST - Hester, Gould, Podlesh, Mannelly
No comments:
Post a Comment