The Chicago Tribune’s Vaughn McClure had this to say this afternoon:

“The Bears announced that they have waived/injured nose tackle Dusty Dvoracek and waived punted Richmond McGee, long snapper J.J. Milan and receiver John Broussard.

Dvoracek, who had the ACL in his right knee repaired Friday, suffered his fourth-consecutive season-ending injury. His recovery is 7 to 10 months, and the 26-year-old Dvoracek should find a new team at some point.

The Bears needed to shave their roster from 80 to 75 by Tuesday and are down to the 75 limit following Monday’s roster moves. The team has to shave the roster to 53 by Saturday then can establish an eight-man practice squad the next day.”

Good Luck Dusty:

I wish Dusty the best of luck wherever he lands next season. He has a lot of potential and just has to stay healthy to show what he can do. He’s only 26 years old, so that isn’t bad. It’s a shame they have to let Dusty go, but I wish him the best wherever he goes next. Maybe, he’ll turn into former Bear Marc Colombo. Remember Colombo? He was a high draft pick by the Bears and was injured his whole time with the Bears, but then landed a gig with the Cowboys and has stuck with them as he continues to be a solid offensive lineman.

Jay Cutler looked solid against his former team the Denver Broncos last night. We all knew he would get booed by the Denver fans, but Cutler lead the Bears down the field on a 98 yard scoring drive.

Cutler was 15 of 21 for 144 yards, one touchdown and a 106.1 passer rating. He connected with tight ends Greg Olsen and Dez Clark and running back Matt Forte on the 98 yard drive, which ended in a Matt Forte receiving touchdown.

Matt Forte had this to say about last nights game:

“I think we’re ready as a whole team, everybody looks good out there. If we had to play Green Bay tomorrow, I think we’d be well-prepared to go out there and play.”

Players who helped themselves last night:

NT, Anthony Adams: He looked like the solid player he was last year and made some nice tackles for losses all night.

NT, Matt Toeania: Looks like he belongs on this team.

RB, Adrian Peterson: Many thought his only chance of making the team were through special teams, but he showed last night that he could be a solid running back as well as a special teams stud.

WR, Johnny Knox: Made a huge 43 yard grab from Caleb Hanie in the 2nd half.

WR, Rashied Davis: Made clear that he is a special teams player as well as a receiver, which means he will probably stick around this season.

Players who hurt themselves last night:

CB, Trumaine McBride: With Charles Tillman and Zackary Bowman trying to play this thursday and Nathan Vasher and Corey Graham providing solid depth, Trumaine showed why he isn’t good enough to be a starter in this league. He missed a couple open field tackles.

WR’s Devin Aromashodu and Brandon Rideau: Both players have been on practice squads basically their entire NFL careers. We all know Devin Hester and Earl Bennett are locks, but the Bears have rookies Juaquin Iglesias and Johnny Knox destined to be on the team, so that’s four receivers. Then you have Rashied Davis, D.A. “The other Devin” and Brandon Rideau. I think the Bears will keep six receivers, but who will it be Rideau and D.A. or Rideau and Davis or even D.A. and Davis. The Bears have to cut the roster down to 53 players by Saturday, but can put eight players on the practice squad. So, only time will tell for the receiver situation to sort out.

Don’t worry Jay Cutler I think between your running backs, tight ends and wide receivers you’ll be just fine.

all quotes from chicagobears.com

Devin Hester looked like the old Devin Hester last night with his 54 punt return last night against the Broncos.

I’m sure the Bears announcer was saying his favorite line “Devin Hester you are ridiculous.”

This is what Hester said about his return last night:

“I saw more things [that] you normally don’t see as far as just in the huddle, we got a little rowdy, a couple players got into some altercations with some fights on the field, and he was the guy who was like, ‘Hey, chill out, let’s get down and put these points on the board and worry about that later.’ You see a quarterback [taking control of the situation] like that, you know you got a good leader going forward, I got a little rhythm; I never score in preseason games. I did that on purpose.”

I hope Devin Hester does what he did last night all season, but he has to continue to do what he does best run up the field, don’t dance around and wind up losing yards.

Anyway, Devin Hester will never be the number one receiver the Bears coaches are saying he will be, but if he goes back to returning punts for touchdowns and contributing on offense with Jay Cutler under center he will be very valuable.

Hopefully I can say all season that Devin Hester is very good player. Good luck this season Devin, keep up the good work.

all quotes from espn.com

Before Bears DT Dusty Dvoracek was officially ruled out for the season with a torn ACL, Matt Toeaina was a player likely to be out of a job. But somehow the third year pro from the University of Oregon has stuck around again. In two seasons with the Bears Toeania has played in four games, recording six tackles.

The Bears have veteran Anthony Adams and up and coming star Marcus Harrison at the top of the depth chart at nose tackle. Look for Toeania to get a lot of work because the Bears like to rotate players around during games to keep them fresh.

Personally I like Matt Toeaina, I’m glad he finally has a shot to contribute for this team, it’s a shame Dusty keeps getting injured because he is a hard worker, but it looks like he won’t be returning next season and if Toeaina takes advantage of this opportunity he could be a big part of the rotation at nose tackle next season.

Matt Toeaina had this to say about Dusty’s injury and his opportunity to play:

“I hate to see this happen to Dusty again, but I’ve definitely got to take advantage of the opportunity, I’ve got to go out there and just have fun and prove to the coaches that I am capable of contributing to this team.”

“It’s definitely tough, the main thing is trying to stay patient and positive at the same time because everybody has their time and when your [number] is called you’ve definitely got to take advantage of it. My opportunities have been limited, but like they say, ‘You can’t count your reps; you’ve got to make your reps count.”

So What?

Look for Matt Toeaina to be a solid contributor on the defense this season and if not the Bears might look for someone else to fill his role.

all quotes from chicagobears.com

The Bears have always had very good tight ends, but this year they are stacked at the position.

Of course Jay Cutlers favorite weapon Greg Olsen will be the starter and veteran Dez Clark will be used a lot as the number two.

Second year pro Kellen Davis looks to be the projected third string quarterback. The Bears veteran blocking tight end Michael Gaines in free agency this off-season.

Will the Bears keep four tight ends? Probably.

Why do I say this? Well Greg Olsen lines up as a wide receiver more than he does a tight end and Michael Gaines has been used at full back during the pre-season.

Greg Olsen is entering his third season with the Bears and he has slowly been getting better by the season. This year he has high expectations because of his new quarterback under center.

Dez Clark is Dez Clark, a solid 11 year veteran, who still has lots of juice left in him. Look for him to provide some nice goal line catches.

Kellen Davis is a 6-7 kid, who played both tight end and defensive end in college. Look for him to fill the role of John Gilmore of two years ago, which was goal line situations and lots of blocking situations.

Michael Gaines is a veteran, who can be a fullback or tight end because of his blocking skills. Look for him to be used sparingly throughout the season.

Overall the Bears have very good tight ends and Jay Cutler will definitely give all these guys some good looks this season.

I give the Bears tight ends an A grade.

The Chicago Tribune’s Vaughn McClure reported this last night:

“Bears nose tackle Dusty Dvoracek is scheduled to undergo an MRI Sunday to determine the severity of a right knee injury, Dvoracek left the field early during the Bears’ 17-3 exhibition win over the Giants Saturday night. He exited the locker room after the game with ice wrapped around the knee. Hours later, he said he would be”fine.”

This morning Chicago Sun-Times writer Brad Biggs reported this:

“Based on his past, it cannot come as a surprise to the Bears that Dusty Dvoracek will miss the 2009 season after tearing the ACL in his right knee Saturday night against the New York Giants.”

My take on the Dusty’s situation:

He is a hardworking player, who has been hit hard with injuries. He hasn’t finished a season yet for the Bears. He missed his rookie season, 2006, after he had foot surgery. He played one game in 2007, until he went down for the season with a torn ACL in his right knee. Last season, 2008, he played 12 games and performed very well until he suffered torn biceps. This seasons injury maybe a career ending injury, because he has torn his ACL in his right knee twice.

The former third round pick is on his last year of his contract. I don’t know if the Bears will want an injury prone player like Dusty on the team, you can’t count on him. This could turn into another Mike Brown situation. It’s a shame this happens to such a good player, who never gives less than a 100% effort.

Whats Next?

Well Marcus Harrison and Anthony Adams will continue splitting reps at nose tackle, while Matt Toeaina steps into the rotation.

quotes from the chicagosuntimes.com and chicagotribune.com

Many people believe if Bears quarterback Jay Cutler goes down with an injury than the Bears are in serious trouble. Knock on wood that Jay doesn’t.

I’m here to tell you the Bears have a very good backup quarterback. His name is Caleb Hanie. The Bears signed him as an undrafted free agent last season and spent all season behind Grossman and Orton as the third string quarterback.

Sports Illustrated ranked all 32 backup quarterbacks recently and Jeff Garcia is number one and Caleb Hanie is #32. Don Banks of Sports Illustrated says this about Hanie:

“With no veterans like Kyle Orton, Rex Grossman or Brian Griese around to fall back on, Bears fans everywhere will hold their breath this season and wish nothing but perfect health to Jay Cutler.”

I truly believe Caleb Hanie will shock a lot of people if he gets to play at all this season, hopefully not for injury reasons.

The Bears have never had two quarterbacks who are so athletic in Cutler and Hanie.

Trust me NFL fans you will know Caleb Hanies’ name sooner or later. Hanie is ranked last because he has never thrown  a pass in his short NFL career.

Bears players Brian Urlacher, Lance Briggs and Adewale Ogunleye spoke up about Brett Favre’s return to the NFC North with the Minnesota Vikings, here’s what they said:

Urlacher: “What will he bring to the division? The same thing he did last time, it doesn’t matter [that he's getting older]. He’s still Brett Favre. I don’t think it’s going to be that big of a change. Better running game, obviously, than he had in the past. Other than that, he’s the same guy, he’s a great competitor; he likes to compete, man. He’s going to go out there and give it his best every Sunday; you know that. He’s won a bunch of games, thrown a lot of touchdown passes and broken a bunch of records.”

Briggs: “I hope he’s going to change his mind when he’s going to throw the ball away [and] throws it into coverage, the bottom line is, Brett Favre’s a great quarterback.”

Ogunleye: “I really thought he probably was going to come back anyway, so I’m glad the saga’s over, now I guess everybody can rest , we know Brett Favre. We’ve played him a lot. He’s a hell of a competitor, a [future] Hall of Famer, and anytime you get to play against a guy like that, we’ll be up for it. We play him two times this year, so I’m excited. But I’m really just trying to focus on what we need to do to get better.”

all quotes from chicagobears.com

Former Bears starting quarterback and first round pick Rex Grossman fumbled and threw an interception in his debut with the Texans against the Chiefs.

He did have to deal with a wet playing field for most of the game, because of the bad weather.

Rex injured his hamstring and will miss up to five weeks. He is listed behind Dan Orlovosky and Matt Schaub in Houston, I don’t know if he’ll ever get another shot in this league. I truly believe if he is in the right system, he can shine, but the Bears were not the right offense for him and I don’t know if people can look past his career there.

I wish him the best because I was big fan of his when he was with the Bears.

Good luck Rex, it seems like you need it.

Should the Bears be worried after one preseason game? Maybe, I sure am.

Jay Cutler threw six of his ten pass attempts to Devin Hester and threw one interception, but got lucky that he didn’t throw two. Cutler was without starters Matt Forte and Greg Olsen, who sat out to rest.

Anyway, backup QB Caleb Hanie looked solid and lead the offense down the field for a score or two. Hanie connected with third string FB Will Ta’ufo’ou on a second quarter touchdown.

What we don’t understand is that the Bears are running basic plays, they don’t want to go out there and do everything they would in a regular game, but Cutler stunk it up and it was very disappointing.

The pass defense didn’t look so hot either. They allowed Trent Edwards to complete 10 of 10 passes with an offense without Terrell Owens.

I hope the Bears come out strong next week against the Giants because I don’t like to see all of these expectations to be crumbled in one game.

Dez Clark had this to say about the game:

“It wasn’t as bad as I initially thought it would be, we just have to get some of the smaller details down. My expectations were that we were going to play a better game, but it’s the first game, everybody is trying to feel each other out. I don’t think we are that far off, it may have looked like it, but we’re really not.”

all quotes from espn.com

We shouldn’t be worried about the first preseason game, but we should want them to come out strong against the Giants next week.

The Bears take on the Giants next Saturday at 8 ET.