Bears Down

It's getting crazy now. We've seen the Detroit Lions go from 0-16 to seemingly unbeatable. That took a complete reboot from the general manager on down the line. There are only a few players from that tragic team that are still in the program, and they were kept because they were top-notch players.

The Bears keep the mediocrity alive by performing just well enough to give us a little hope. Since 1985, this has always ended with disappointment. This year, with a 2 and 3 start, I don't expect anything different. Even if, like last year, they win the majority of their upcoming games, I will not be convinced that they are a solid, elite team.

They won the first game of the season with a fairly balanced attack. Unfortunately, they lost some key players to injury, and if that's all it takes to throw the team into disarray, then we might have a good starting team, but not a solid, elite team in general.

We don't have backup offensive or defensive line guys. We don't have solid backups for the secondary. We don't have #1 receivers and I'm not sure any of the current receivers are even solid backup guys. Even worse, Angelo has hired guys like Roy Williams, Mushin Muhammad, and an old Marty Booker (not to mention Adam Archuleta and Orlando Pace well past their useful years).

So, Angelo lucks into a premier quarterback. First move after that should have been to protect him. That means keeping the two veterans worth anything on the O-line (Garza and Kreutz) and back-filling with new, young talent. Hire guys that won't need to start this year so you can develop them.

I heard this reiterated almost exactly this morning on the Mully and Hanley show (670 AM) by Michael Lombardi. In fact, he pointed out all of the flaws in the system as it stands (bad safety play, no pass rush, no receivers, no QB protection, old schemes) but made the most sense talking about the organization. He started out by talking about the humble beginning of Jim Schwartz, new Lions coach. He mentioned that the way the Lions built up from scratch is similar to how the Patriots and Steelers were built. No one person is bigger than the organization and everyone is pulling in the same direction.

This is very far from the case in Chicago. Matt Forte wants a new contract and very much deserves it. He might be the most important offensive player in the entire NFL when you consider how bad the Bears offense would be without him. Doesn't seem to matter that he had a great year last year and his rookie year, or that he tried to play through an injury in the interim year. The Bears won't pay him, even though they apparently have cap money left.

Lance Briggs is getting older but, despite having gone head to head with Angelo over contract issues in the past, wants to re-work his deal as well. Just like last time, he let it be known that he's not happy here. I can't imagine Jay Cutler is super excited to be in a system that does very little to support his strengths or protect his spine, although we haven't really heard any griping from him at all. He's more than just physically tough, it seems.

Basically, the list of players I'd keep in a complete overhaul has shrunk since last year. Jay Cutler stays for sure. Robbie Gould, Matt Forte, Lance Briggs, Brian Urlacher, Charles Tillman, and Dave Toub stay, but mostly for sentimental reasons. Beyond that - from the GM on down - I'm ready for the new regime. I'm tired of good one year, bad the next, mediocre the year after that. I would like some consistency one way or the other.

Like the Lions.