Mid-Season Reflections

It's been a surprisingly rough 8 weeks for Da Beloved, and there are changes to be made and work to be done if this team is going to return to its successful ways of the past 2 seasons. All of the assumptions and 'conventional wisdom' about this team coming into 2007 need to be discarded, and top to bottom this organization needs a cold, hard look to determine EXACTLY what is wrong, why its wrong, and how can it be fixed. I'm mainly looking ahead to the off-season here, cause wholesale changes are nearly impossible to pull off in the regular season.

I will start with special teams, simply because this is where the Bears are strongest & need the least work. Of the Bears 3 coorindators, Dave Toub has done the best job thus far in 2007. We have great specialists (Ayanbadejo, Hester, Mannelly, Gould, and Maynard) and Toub has done a good job keeping these guys sharp and keeping coverage & blocking units playing hard. We've done a good job blocking kicks and blocking for Hester. The one area where I would like to see some improvement is in the philosophy on countering these short kickoffs we are getting. Teams are kicking these short, high kicks to neutralize Hester, and its working. While the good field position is typically a gift for the offense, ours has failed to capitalize on most of these opportunities, and I think Toub should try & find some creative ways to make opponents pay on special teams for kicking away from Hester.

Offense is our area of greatest concern, and the biggest problem, by a mile, is the offensive line. Benson has received alot of criticism, some justified, but when I watch him play, he runs hard and hits the hold with authority when its there. The problem is, its rarely there. This o-line aged alot in the last offseason, and its showing. These guys are not getting off the snap quickly enough, and they aren't a strong enough unit to outmuscle the big tough D-tackles we've faced. This unit needs an overhaul, and this should be Jerry Angelo's top priority this off-season. John Tait and Olin Kreutz are the only starters who should be penciled in as starters for 2008. Ruben Brown and Fred Miller are just too old & slow to play at the level we need them to, and Roberto Garza is the definition of mediocre. We need at least 1 new, young, talent at both guard and tackle. I would like to see both a guard and tackle drafted on the first day, and a top-notch free agent brough in at 1 of the positions. The line we have now was built through free agency, but that can only work for so long. It's high time we start devoting valuable first day picks to bolstering this important area.

The receiver position also needs an overhaul. Davis stinks, Muhammad is overpaid & overrated, Bradley is a talent but is still unseasoned, Hester is raw, and Berrian is nothing more than an occasional deep threat who fits in well as a #2. We need a first day pick devoted to this position, but not a project like Bradley...someone who has proven in college that they can play the position at a consistently high level.

Tight ends I'm ok with. QBs...I think we stick with Griese, keep Orton, and draft a college QB in the middle rounds. Griese is the best veteran/journeyman you can find, and Orton has the talent to be a good starting QB a la Hasslebeck, Bulger, etc. As much as fans scream for a top flight #1 draft pick QB, until we get the running game & o-line straight, the best QB in the world isn't gonna win this team a Super Bowl. We would be best served allowing Griese to kep the position stable for the short term, try & develop Orton to take over, and draft a rookiw with potential to groom as the #3. This will not be the off-season to make a big splash in the QB market, so developing our own guys will be top priority.

Finally, onto the defense. I'll keep it simple here. We need Trumaine McBride to continue developing into a competent backup corner. We need Dusty D to stay healthy. We need Mike Brown to come back healthy, Kevin Payne to come back healthy, Archuleta cut, and a rookie to take his roster spot. We need our D ends to show up every week. And we need to re-sign Briggs. And leave D. Manning at free safety, where he has the talent to develop into a top 10 player at that position.