Being Tougher Than Tough and Other Points of View

Bears

• • Mark Potash at the Chicago Sun-Times quotes linebackers coach Reggie Herring on Jon Bostic:
    

    “Right now, his ability to play any position and be effective — to me, he’s more valuable than any guy I got. He’s the only guy right now that I feel comfortable that can line up at every position and know what to do and be effective.”

    I also thought this nugget from Potash was interesting:

    “One particularly intriguing Herring project is Christian Jones, an undrafted rookie from Florida State who signed with the Bears in part because of Herring, who played linebacker with Jones’ father, Willie Jones Sr., at Florida State in 1978.

    “‘He has a great body you want to develop,’ Herring said of the 6-3, 240-pound Jones. ‘He’s a great kid. We’re excited about him being here. He’s raw. There is a process. But we are very pleased with where he is.’”

    Given the log jam at linebacker, Jones is starting to sound like a practice squad candidate. But that’s assuming the Bears believe that no one will try to put him on their roster if they release him.

  • Brad Biggs at the Chicago Tribune quotes linebacker Lance Briggs:
    

    “You know what? I really enjoy watching my teammates make plays. I always have been that way. That’s just the way I am. A lot of guys are, ‘I want to make the play,’ but I genuinely get excited to watch my teammates make plays.”

  • Also from Biggs, it was nice to read an uncharacteristically positive quote from former middle linebacker Brian Urlacher:
    

    “‘I am sure another year under the staff (has [Briggs] more comfortable) and I am sure he knows what they could possibly have there,’ Urlacher said. ‘They could be really good this year.'”

  • Dan Wiederer at the Chicago Tribune quotes defensive line coach Paul Pasqualoni on the two rookies, Ego Ferguson and Will Sutton:

“‘I hope they’re leaning on each other,’ Pasqualoni said. ‘Because this is too hard to try to do all by yourself. I hope they’re leaning on each other and I hope they’re leaning on the older guys as well.'”

• The guys at chicagofootball.com review the action from Monday (they had yesterday off). The thoughts of Kevin Fishbain on the defensive line were interesting. The unit will be critical to the Bears success. He’s particularly impressed with Trevor Scott, calling him the Bears fourth best defensive end. I’m not too surprised. We’ll see if it translates into performances in the preseason games.
• More love for Jimmy Clausen from John Mullin at csnchicago.com the Sports Talk Live guests (below):
• Shame on you all for not Tweeting enough.

Elsewhere

• People in Buffalo aren’t too thrilled with Bon Jovi‘s bid to buy the team. He’s being backed by a group from Toronto and many if not most fans believe that’s where the team will eventually head if his group wins the bid to buy the team. From Mike Florio at profootballtalk.com:
  

  “‘It’s the Buffalo Bills, and they will do everything they can to make that work there,’ consultant to the Toronto group recently told the Buffalo News.

  “Which doesn’t make it any better.

  “‘They will do everything they can to make that work there’ possibly means, ‘They’ll dog paddle in Buffalo, saying all the right until the lease allows them to load up the Mayflowers and declare, ‘Well, we did everything possible to make it work there. Bye.'”

• Darin Gantt, also at profootballtalk.com, on the Browns’ quarterback competition:
  

  “The Browns are pretty clearly trying to send a message to Johnny Manziel to settle down and get to work.

  “But sometimes in sending that message, they might be going overboard the other direction.

  “Browns left tackle Joe Thomas was praising Manziel’s competition for the starting job, saying Brian Hoyer was ‘a lot like Tom Brady.’

  “Well, they both play football, they both wear silly hats, and they both have three Super Bowl rings. OK, so they both play football.”

One Final Thought

Steve Rosenbloom at the Chicago Tribune on the Bears need to be a tougher team this year:

“I believe [Lamarr] Houston is a particularly sensitive case when it comes to discipline. Houston and Willie Young, another new defensive lineman. They came from perhaps the two dumbest organizations in the NFL — the Raiders and Lions, respectively — so it’s likely neither has learned what tough really is. The Raiders act like they earn bonuses for stupid play, while the Lions under Jim Schwartz were unanimous winners in the Village Idiots race.

“But guess what: It’s a lot tougher to display discipline than lash out with fists. So the Bears fights or scuffles or skirmishes fail the tough-guy test.”

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