The Road To '09: Chicago Bears

In my continuing series on the NFL offseason, I make my final stop in the NFC North in Chicago. Here are five questions the Bears need to answer and some draft hopefuls for a city gone crazy over the addition of QB Jay Cutler.

Click HERE to read about the Detroit Lions.

Click HERE to read about the Green Bay Packers.

Click HERE to read about the Minnesota Vikings.

The Road to ’09: Chicago Bears

1. Does Jay Cutler make the Bears a playoff team?

No, because the addition of Cuter was made for one reason — to give the Bears a better football player at the quarterback position. He’s an upgrade over Kyle Orton, and whenever you can get better at a position — especially quarterback — you pull the trigger and make an offer to get the deal done.

In saying that, we have to at least acknowledge that the Bears are a better football team with Cutler under center. He can make the throws Orton can’t — and that’s why he is replacing him.

Does that mean Cutler will come to Chicago and throw for 4,500 yards? No, because for starters, the Bears and offensive coordinator Ron Turner don’t run a pass-happy offense. They run the ball first and throw the ball second. Second, we don’t know how good he’ll be in Chicago. He was a Pro Bowler in Denver, but he still has a losing record as a starter (17-20), and we’ll have to wait until September to see if he can lead the Bears to a winning record in ’09.

Just as I wrote Wednesday when I discussed the progression of another young quarterback in Aaron Rodgers, talking numbers is one thing, but talking about winning football games is another. Cutler was brought to Chicago for two first-round picks (and a third), and now he has to produce — because the entire city will be watching. So let’s hold off on playoff talk and Super Bowl dreams until we see him win some games at Soldier Field.

I still believe, as I wrote last week when the deal went down, that this is a great move by the Bears — a move that’s still carrying a certain buzz around this city. The Bears finally have a quarterback, but they still need a lot more before we start talking about January.

2. Who is Cutler going to throw to?

The Bears have a major issue at the wide receiver position. Here’s a rundown of who the Bears have as their top three targets going into the ’09 season:

Devin Hester: 51 receptions, 665 yards, 3TDs

Rashied Davis: 35-445-2TD

Earl Bennett: 0-0-0

Hester is a kick-returner-turned-receiver who didn’t run routes well enough in college to start for the University of Miami. But the Bears have paid him like a No. 1 receiver, and I think we all know the ramifications of that. Yes, I would agree that Hester improved over the course of the 2008 season, but that’s a discussion better saved for your team’s No. 3 receiver, not your No. 1, who now is expected to make Cutler look like the correct move in Chicago.

Davis is a former Arena League guy who is best suited as a No. 3, or even a No. 4 on most rosters. He has a tendency to drop passes and he’s 5-foot-9. Sounds like a slot receiver to me.

And Bennett — a third-round pick from the 2008 draft — saw action in 10 games and never caught a pass.

You think Cutler would like to have another guy on the roster who can go get the football? The Bears could use their second round pick on a wide receiver, but then again, you’re getting an unproven rookie — and we all know how that can go. Look to free agency? Most of the bigger names have already been signed, but I do like former Ram Tory Holt. He’s proven, and although he’s 32 years old, looking at the list I just presented, he’s a major upgrade.

The Bears, however, do have two pass-catching TEs in Greg Olsen and Desmond Clark, plus Matt Forte out of the backfield. But with an arm like Cutler’s, they need wide receivers who can stretch the field outside the numbers and work the intermediate game as well.

You should be concerned if you’re a Bears fan.

3. Do the Bears have enough talent on the O-Line?

Tackle was a question mark this offseason and was the position I expected the club to use for its first-round pick before the Cutler trade.

Instead, the Bears went out and signed former Rams Pro Bowler Orlando Pace. Now, before we start talking about having a dominant left tackle in Chicago, realize that this is not the same player who was as dominant at the position as I saw during my career. Pace is older, his skills have slipped and he has battled injuries the past couple of seasons — injuries that forced him to miss a lot of playing time. However, considering the Bears lost former starter John St. Clair to the Browns via free agency, he’s still a player they hope to count on.

Pace isn’t the same tackle from 2000, but he can still play and will start.

On the right side, last season’s first-round pick, Chris Williams, is expected to start. Williams missed almost all of the 2008 training camp with a back injury (which infuriated this city) and saw little playing time over the course of the season. But the Bears saw enough in him to use a first-round pick on the former Vandy star.

I still think Olin Kreutz can play at a high enough level at the center position in his 12^th season. Kreutz plays like an offensive lineman should. He’s smart, and he is as nasty as they come on the football field. There isn’t a safety in the league who wants to blitz the A gap when Kreutz is snapping the ball.

At guard, the Bears could look to the draft to fill the spot opposite starter Roberto Garza. This line might be considered a patchwork replica of the better units in the league, but Bears fans hope that it can hold together for an entire season.

It isn’t the best offensive line around, and to protect Cutler, Pace will have to show us he can hold up for 16 weeks, and Williams will have to prove he can play and dominate at this level.

I’m not sold on this offensive line, but this is what we’ll see in Chicago this fall.

4. Who’s going to play free safety?

The Bears did not re-sign former starter and defensive captain Mike Brown this offseason, and now have a glaring hole at the position.

The club went out and signed former Saint Josh Bullocks to a one-year deal at a bargain price in hopes he can step in and play the middle of the field — plus come off the hash and make plays on the ball in their Tampa 2 defensive scheme. But  Bullocks wasn’t re-signed in New Orleans for a reason, and he was eventually benched last season. Can he fill the spot vacated by Brown? The other option: Craig Steltz. The former LSU star is a good special teams player, but I don’t see him as a starter at this point in his young career.

Danieal Manning is an option, but I see him more as a nickel corner. He struggles with tackling in the open field and is better suited to play man coverage against a slot receiver. But he could get a look if Bullocks and Steltz don’t show the coaching staff enough in training camp.

Kevin Payne finished last season with four INTs from the strong safety position, but he’s limited in his ability to get from the middle of the field to the sidelines. He’s more suited to play in the box and produce against the run game.

I see this -- among other things — as a major issue facing the Bears defense going into the ’09 season. But the secondary in a Tampa 2 scheme is just as important as the defensive line (where the Bears also need upgrades). If Bullocks shows that he can make plays from the free safety spot, I think the Bears can make some progress as a unit. But they’re still a long way from the defense that went to Super Bowl XLI.

5. Can the Bears dominate the return game again?

One of the reasons the Bears have been successful in previous seasons under Lovie Smith is their ability to create turnovers on defense and score on special teams.

Last season, we saw the effects of turning Devin Hester into a full-time wide receiver. I’ve always believed the theory that the best kick returners produce because they’re allowed to run freely with the football in their hands — and let their legs make plays for them.

With Hester, the Bears took away some of his playmaking ability by moving him to WR. Instead of a creative kick returner, we saw a player who was programmed, told to run routes a certain way, and became robotic on the field. I understand how this can happen — as offensive players run to spots on the field, count the steps in their routes and break those routes as they are told to by the playbook. Returning kicks is just the opposite.

Instead of running a 15-yard dig route, returners have the entire field to work with, and that’s when Hester is at his best. But last season, his explosive nature disappeared and he looked like exactly what the Bears didn’t want — a wide receiver trying to return kicks.

Danieal Manning eventually replaced Hester returning kickoffs and was impressive at times, but nothing like we were used to seeing with Hester, who used to be feared by every coverage unit in the NFL.

I don’t know if Hester will ever transition back into the mode that allowed him to become one of the better return men we’ve ever seen, but the Bears need him to. Scoring on special teams, or setting up an offense given the lack of weapons on the outside that the Bears have, is crucial to the success of this team.

DRAFT POSSIBILITES

Since the Bears traded away their first-round pick (No. 18) to Denver for Cutler, we have to look at their second-round pick. WR could be an option if they don’t land a player like Tory Holt, but I could see them addressing both the offensive and defensive lines.

PICK NO. 49

1. Brian Robiske, WR, Ohio State

2. Duke Robinson, OG, Oklahoma

3. Lawrence Sidbury, Jr., DE, Richmond

Next: Cincinnati Bengals

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