<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><span style="font-size:14pt;line-height:100%">Chicago Bears</span>For a few glorious minutes, it all played out so magically. Devin Hester took the opening kickoff 92 yards for the quickest score in Super Bowl history, Peyton Manning hung a third-down pass that was picked off by Chris Harris, and it all seemed to be slipping away for the favored Indianapolis Colts.As the rain came down relentlessly at Dolphin Stadium, every sign pointed to a certain team, from a certain town, winning its first championship since the days it was coached by a man named Ditka.Da Bears.Less than seven weeks later, Chicago does hold a certain distinction among NFL franchises, but "Super Bowl champion" isn't it. Instead, the Bears are atop Bring On The Weekend's "Most Miserable Offseason" rankings, also known as the MMOs, narrowly edging another 2006 title contender that began stumbling and bumbling as soon as its dreams were dashed.For the purposes of this Flailing Five, we define the "offseason" as the period beginning immediately after each team's final game of the '06 campaign and continuing through the present, meaning there's still time to make reparations.So take heart, Bears fans -- general manager Jerry Angelo is a shrewd talent evaluator, and the draft is a little more than a month away. That, and Adam Archuleta is coming to town. And Tank Johnson might be out of jail in time for training camp!Since its 29-17 defeat to Indy, Chicago has treated its fans to an unremitting slew of bad news. And Rex Grossman isn't even on the list.First, coach Lovie Smith, perhaps in response to his own shaky contract status, booted presumed heir apparent Ron Rivera -- probably the NFL's best defensive coordinator the past two seasons, and a coach revered by most of his players. Smith replaced him with linebackers coach Bob Babich. Then the negotiations with Smith turned ugly, with Smith's agent saying he expected his client to coach out his contract in 2007 because the team's offer was so underwhelming.Giving Smith, the league's lowest-paid head coach in '06, a hefty raise should have been a no-brainer. Instead, the McCaskey family made itself look even cheaper than usual before finally stepping up and doing the right thing.That contract dispute, however, was downright chummy compared to the one playing out between the team and All-Pro outside linebacker Lance Briggs. By placing the franchise tag on Briggs (and guaranteeing him a $7.2 million salary for '07 if he accepts their tender), the Bears kept him from signing with another team -- but they managed to unleash his inner monster of the midway.Briggs has taken public shots at the organization, vowed never again to play for the Bears and seemingly attempted to become such a distraction that he'll force a trade. Angelo answered by essentially saying, "You will eat what we feed you, and you will like it."Logic says that Briggs will realize that these are the terms of the CBA and eventually come around, but his agent is Drew Rosenhaus, and something tells me this won't end pretty.Meanwhile, halfback Thomas Jones -- probably the team's most popular and productive offensive player in '06 -- was traded to the Jets for a favorable swap of second-round picks. Cedric Benson, perhaps the team's least popular player, inherits Jones' job.And Johnson, the team's starting defensive tackle, is adjusting to life in Cook County Jail, where he's about to complete the first week of his fourth-month sentence for violating probation on gun charges.Why do I smell a Saturday Night Live skit?<span style="font-size:14pt;line-height:100%">San Diego Chargers</span>A few weeks after its unconscionable home defeat to the Patriots in the AFC divisional playoff round, San Diego was still favored to win Super Bowl XLII by most Las Vegas bookmakers, with bettors apparently reasoning that any team with LaDainian Tomlinson, Shawne Merriman and so many other talented players couldn't possibly screw it up twice.Having studied the team's behavior for the past two months, I beg to differ.Beginning with Tomlinson's ungainly postgame rant about Bill Belichick, the Chargers have acted like a franchise coming apart at the laces. First, coach Marty Schottenheimer, despite another playoff disaster that had his DNA all over it, was coming back; then, after losing both of their coordinators (Cam Cameron and Wade Phillips) to head coaching jobs elsewhere, the Chargers fired him and revealed their lack of foresight for all the world to see.Team president Dean Spanos was so ticked off that, in the press release announcing Schottenheimer's dismissal, he twice referred to the "dysfunctional" relationship between his ex-coach and A.J. Smith, the team's prickly general manager. That was promising, until Spanos, uh, punished Smith by letting the GM puff out his chest and do whatever he wanted, including hire a compliant coach (Norv Turner, he of the 59-83-1 career record) who has proven he should remain an offensive coordinator.As if to show the world they're cleansing themselves of January's postseason disappointment, the Chargers also changed their uniform design, which is sure to make everyone forget about Marlon McCree's fumbled interception. They also lost linebacker Donnie Edwards -- another guy whose relationship with Smith was dysfunctional (beginning to notice a common theme?) -- to the Chiefs via free agency.To their credit, the Chargers surprisingly re-signed free-agent left guard Kris Dielman and managed to hire Rivera -- the man they should have pegged as Schottenheimer's successor -- as the linebackers coach after the Bears decided not to offer him a new contract. This is sort of like getting slide-guitar god Derek Trucks as a sideman in your touring band.Wait, Eric Clapton just did that.<span style="font-size:14pt;line-height:100%">Tennessee Titans</span>It is said that football is the ultimate team sport, but in this case, Pacman Jones is a one-man wrecking crew. You have to be a complete catastrophe to upstage the Cincinnati Bengals, but Jones has been so conspicuously trouble-prone, from his "Make It Rain" fiasco at a Las Vegas strip club on NBA All-Star weekend to the disclosure of the two 2006 arrests of which Jones neglected to inform his employers, that he has done the near-impossible.Now Jones, who has been involved in at least 10 off-the-field incidents since the Titans chose him in the first round of the '05 draft, is probably done in Tennessee: Roger Goodell is fixing to make an example out of him, and Titans coach Jeff Fisher is likely lining up behind the new commissioner.However this shakes out, Pacman needs to become Packman and get out of Nashville before he takes down an entire franchise.And that's a bummer for Titans fans, because Jones is as talented as he is reckless. Well, almost.Meanwhile, rather than building on the momentum of Vince Young's sparkling rookie season and a promising 8-8 finish, Tennessee parted with its top two receivers (Drew Bennett and Bobby Wade) via free agency and lost out in its attempts to sign replacements Donte' Stallworth and Kevin Curtis. Tennessee also lost halfback Travis Henry to the Broncos before finally having some success in free agency, including the signing of former Indy starter Nick Harper.Why, you ask, did the Titans so aggressively pursue another cornerback? Gee, I wonder.<span style="font-size:14pt;line-height:100%">Cleveland Browns</span>Before you go telling me how active the Browns have been since the '06 season ended -- Cleveland's signings include halfback Jamal Lewis, offensive linemen Eric Steinbach and Seth McKinney and defensive linemen Robaire Smith and Shaun Smith -- let's remember how deficient its roster was in the first place and how messed up the organization is in general.So pardon me for not getting all excited about guys like Steinbach, for whom the Browns overpaid (reportedly seven years, $49.5 million, with $17 million in guaranteed money), when this is a team that still doesn't have a quarterback. Unless, of course, you believe Charlie Frye is the second coming of Bernie Kosar because he hails from Willard, Ohio, as the Browns' brass seemingly does.The good news for Cleveland fans is that the team owns the No. 3 overall pick in the draft. The bad news is that the Browns own the No. 3 overall pick.In other words, when your recent (post-expansion) record of first-round selections includes such winners as Tim Couch, Courtney Brown, Gerard Warren, William Green, Kellen Winslow and Braylon Edwards, you can't be all that surprised if the paying customers are a tad skeptical of your latest golden boy, however promising he seems on paper.The Browns don't merely make bad decisions; they also have bad luck. Center LeCharles Bentley, last year's marquee free-agent signee, tore his left patellar tendon on the first drill of training camp last July and will now miss his second consecutive season; general manager Phil Savage recently speculated that Bentley "may never play again." A report surfaced earlier this month speculating that a similar fate could befall Winslow, who is coming off of microfracture knee surgery (he denies that his career is in jeopardy) and is still paying for that regrettable motorcycle accident that wiped out most of his rookie season.This team has issues.<span style="font-size:14pt;line-height:100%">Minnesota Vikings</span>When a local columnist, in this case Tom Powers of the St. Paul Pioneer Press, publishes a non-satirical piece headlined "Conspiracy Theory: Vikings Purposely Self-Destructing," you know it has been a rough offseason.Whether or not owner Zygi Wilf is actually trying to weaken his franchise so that it will be easier to move the team is beside the point; the fact that enough Minnesotans are talking about it to warrant a column means that there are serious questions about the team's ability to compete under the reign of Wilf and second-year coach Brad Childress.Right now the Vikings' quarterbacks are Tarvaris Jackson and Brooks Bollinger, which indicates that either a) Childress is a genius who is a step ahead of the rest of us; Brady Quinn is on the way; or c) the conspiracy theorists have a point.It gets better: The Vikings just shelled out $15 million over five years to acquire ex-Titans wide receiver Wade, prompting two NFL executives to call Pioneer Press beat writer Sean Jensen to mock Minnesota for spending too much on a mediocre player. Similar charges have been made concerning the Vikings' acquisition of former Giants backup tight end Visanthe Shiancoe, who got $7 million in guaranteed cash.If Minnesota really wants to beef up its passing game, perhaps Wilf should pick up the phone and call Al Davis. I hear that for the right price, Randy Moss is available.</div>
In the titans part of the article he criticizes them for letting go of Bobby Wade while in the Vikings article he criticizes the vikings for picking up Bobby Wade. Make up your mind... The vikings offseason has not been nearly as bad as this guy makes it out to be. Jeff Fisher said great things about Bobby Wade and how important it was that the Titans retain him. Visanthe Shiancoe isn't great but he is a get the job done type player and will likely be a backup, although we did overpay for him. The point is teams must build through the draft. Most beat writers know that but just want to criticize teams for the sake of being critical.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (PurplePeopleEaters @ Mar 23 2007, 06:23 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>In the titans part of the article he criticizes them for letting go of Bobby Wade while in the Vikings article he criticizes the vikings for picking up Bobby Wade. Make up your mind... The vikings offseason has not been nearly as bad as this guy makes it out to be. Jeff Fisher said great things about Bobby Wade and how important it was that the Titans retain him. Visanthe Shiancoe isn't great but he is a get the job done type player and will likely be a backup, although we did overpay for him. The point is teams must build through the draft. Most beat writers know that but just want to criticize teams for the sake of being critical.</div>He was more critisizing them for dollars paid, I think.And this was an SI article, not a beat writer.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (PurplePeopleEaters @ Mar 23 2007, 05:23 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>In the titans part of the article he criticizes them for letting go of Bobby Wade while in the Vikings article he criticizes the vikings for picking up Bobby Wade. Make up your mind... The vikings offseason has not been nearly as bad as this guy makes it out to be. Jeff Fisher said great things about Bobby Wade and how important it was that the Titans retain him. Visanthe Shiancoe isn't great but he is a get the job done type player and will likely be a backup, although we did overpay for him. The point is teams must build through the draft. Most beat writers know that but just want to criticize teams for the sake of being critical.</div>Normally, building through the draft implies a strategy of not overpaying for mediocre at best players. If I was writing this, I'd have probably listed Buffalo as another team going in a poor direction as they've so far lost Fletcher-Baker, Clements, and McGahee and their only significant addition is an vastly overpaid guard in Derrick Dockery and a couple of Third Round Picks.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (AdropOFvenom @ Mar 23 2007, 12:35 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (PurplePeopleEaters @ Mar 23 2007, 05:23 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>In the titans part of the article he criticizes them for letting go of Bobby Wade while in the Vikings article he criticizes the vikings for picking up Bobby Wade. Make up your mind... The vikings offseason has not been nearly as bad as this guy makes it out to be. Jeff Fisher said great things about Bobby Wade and how important it was that the Titans retain him. Visanthe Shiancoe isn't great but he is a get the job done type player and will likely be a backup, although we did overpay for him. The point is teams must build through the draft. Most beat writers know that but just want to criticize teams for the sake of being critical.</div>Normally, building through the draft implies a strategy of not overpaying for mediocre at best players. If I was writing this, I'd have probably listed Buffalo as another team going in a poor direction as they've so far lost Fletcher-Baker, Clements, and McGahee and their only significant addition is an vastly overpaid guard in Derrick Dockery and a couple of Third Round Picks.</div>You're not going to get anything for cheap in this market. :thumbsup:
