Each day,  I will highlight one storyline leading into camp.

Overall Team Health…

Based on what I am hearing,  the team is healthy heading into camp.  That is something that has not been the case in the past. Even Tommy Harris is ready to roll.  The key to any team is healthy players,  and the Bears are no exception. 

If you look back at last season,  there was always injury problems and that was a contributing factor to the 7-9 record. 

Lovie Smith understands that football is a grind and doesn’t need to prove a lot in July.  However,  there is a need for contact and live action.  His teams are normally ready to roll.

So let’s keep our fingers crossed for good health.

Sophomore Slumps Suck

Especially when these carry over for the next two seasons or so. Anderson has not been close to the player he was as a rookie. And yet, the Bears continue to have high expectations for Anderson’s play. But expectations and performance are two different things, and Anderson certainly has a lot to prove. Lovie and the gang let Alex Brown and Adewale Ogunleye go because of the continued faith in Anderson’s talents (and Julius Peppers didn’t exactly hurt). But in years’ past, the Bears would play Mark Anderson with the idea he would find the talent again. So far, not so good…

The Verdict

Am I the only person that understands why Anderson was such a stud his rookie year? Hello, meet Tommy Harris. Harris would force offenses to block him with a guard and tackle thus freeing up Anderson, a gifted athlete by all indications, to rush the passer. Most tight ends and running backs are unable to hold Anderson up. However, when a tackle gets his paws on Anderson, its over. So Anderson, along with the Bears defense, will go the way of Tommy Harris. So Anderson will either be the stud we’ve been waiting for or another in a long line of crappy Bears defensive ends. Hello Carl “The Truth” Reeves.

To give the Cliff Note version of it, he feels that Martz will be a failure as the offensive coordinator because the roster is not built around his strengths as a coach. He feels that Martz’s failures will cost Lovie Smith his job. Hate to tell you, but Lovie should have been canned last season.

My Thoughts

Ron Turner was a horrible coach. He ran the same five plays that never worked and showed little imagination with a QB as talented as Jay Cutler. While I appreciate Young’s research and points in the article, Martz is Bill Walsh compared to Turner. This will be an upgrade based on replacing Turner. But, a point should be made about Martz’s inability to keep a job. Teams seem to run his rear end out of town. That is not a good sign.

I really hope that Martz comes into Chicago with things to improve and wants to make the Chicago Bears an offensive force. He has a QB that can do it, but question marks remain about the offensive line and running game. Chester Taylor will help a digressing Matt Forte, but that still may not be enough. Plus, questions still remain in the receiving core and with tight end Greg Olsen. The line will be helped by Brandon Manumaleuna, but teams are killing the Bears up the middle.

In closing, football season cannot start soon enough…

Clown College of Coaches on Defense

The Bears answers for the coaching problem has been to rotate all people on deck to see if one can call a defense. Between Bob Babich, Lovie Smith, and Rod Marinelli, the Bears have employed and rotated three people with track record of failure. Babich was a disaster three years ago. The Cover Two really was performed at a high level last season under Smith and Marinelli’s defense linemen didn’t show much and an awesome run in Detroit the previous season…so now he gets to job.

Meanwhile, Smith replaces the whole offensive coaching staff (minus a few hold-overs) and refuses to say that the defense needs work. He even takes it a step further by pretty much telling the fans that we don’t know what we’re talking about and he has all the answers.

As you can tell by the tone of my articles that I really do not like Lovie Smith. I think he is a failure as a coach and needs to be replaced. His defensive decisions (supposedly his strength) really seem to be quite puzzling. And considering he was hired as a defensive minded coach, it  is even more of a problem.

The feedback from Jay Cutler and other Bears was quite positive. “Mike (Martz) does a great job of mixing things up and keeping the defense off balance, putting guys in match-ups where they can win.” Cutler said. “It’s exciting. It’s changing. It’s always different.”

It should be noted that Cutler was picked off twice Friday by Brian Urlacher and Zach Bowman, but he also completed some passes to several players including Greg Olsen. I mention this because it has been reported that the Bears were shopping Olsen in the off-season and Martz has not liked tight ends that do not block well in his past positions.

Much has been made about issues of a working relationship between Martz and Cutler. According the coach Lovie Smith, the relationship is solid. “What I hope to see is exactly how it’s been from Day 1,” Smith said. “They have mutual respect for each other. Of course being in the middle, I knew both of the guys, knew that it would be a good fit.”

I know two things for sure. Jay Cutler is a talented quarterback and Mike Martz is a talented coach. If both can work together, this will be an exciting offense. Both guys have bad reputations, so the opportunity for both to prove critics wrong may be strong motivation. Look, going from Ron Turner to Mike Martz is like going from a ham sandwich to a filet mignon. This will only help the Bear’s offense.

Your thoughts please!!!

With the recent success of the Chicago Blackhawks (By the way, guess who’s going on Sunday?), the Hawks have decided to make former players a big part of their rebirth. Bobby Hull seems to be at every home game. My dad (who is a longer time Bears fan than most) feels that the Chicago Bears have not treated its alumni as well (the 1985 Bears don’t count because to this day every member of that team is still on a pedestal).

With this being said, it  can lead to Sayers being bitter about his former team. Many people that know Sayers indicate that he is a bitter man to begin with, so this adds fuel to the fire. Sayers took a shot at this years’ team and decided to give his opinion on the team at a charity event in Nebraska. To paraphrase, he said Lovie Smith better step up efforts this season or he should be out.  He also indicated Brian Urlacher will have trouble returning to form after a season-ending wrist injury. He also did throw in how he is a huge Bears fan and lives and dies with the team.

Urlacher, who also has a big chip on his shoulder said that he is sick of everyone taking shots at the Bears including a former member of the team and pointed out that Sayers has not won anything ever in his career.

OK, here is my two cents. On one hand, Sayers played the game at the highest level and was considered by many people to be the best of all time. He has the right to voice his opinion on the team and didn’t say anything that all of us aren’t thinking. Urlacher needs to be a little less sensitive. However, maybe Urlacher should be commended for acting like a leader and defending his teammates and coach.

In the end, both guys are certainly entitled to speak their collective minds but perhaps these are things that need to be discussed outside the media. It makes Sayers look like a hater and Urlacher look like a jerk. The best thing is that both just drop it and make up.

Lets start with some good thoughts…

Cutler really did not have an established wide receiver until Devin Aromishodu began seeing considerable playing time. Aromishodu proved he could get open and make nice catches. While other guys had moments, none really established much for the team. Going into this season, the Bears brought in a top offensive coordinator in Mike Martz who has said on numerous occasions that he loves his group of wide receivers. Martz has always been a straight shooter, so as an optimistic guy, I really want to believe him. Lets hope the Bears shore up the offensive line, because Cutler could have a great year if Martz is correct.

Now with the bad thoughts…

Who in the h…e….double hockey sticks is going to block for Cutler?  The Bears offensive line reminded me of CTU on this year’s 24. Unless things improve, Cutler will enjoy the taste of bad Soldier Field sod. As much as I am drinking the Mike Martz Kool Aid, I am not sure if I agree with his assessment of the wide receivers.

I am done now…anyone else have any thoughts???

The Bears have done a terrible job of evaluating talent across on the NFL level both within the organization and through free agency. That is why they fired Bobby DePaul  (who’s title was Director of Pro Personnel). Since the Bears appeared in the Super Bowl, many questionable pro personnel moves have been made by the organization. This includes losing Bernard Berrian, trading Chris Harris, releasing Cedric Benson, trading Thomas Jones, signing Orlando Pace and Frank Omiyale on the offensive line and trading for Gaines Adams (OK, I understand it was a tragedy that he died but to be honest, he wasn’t showing much as a player). Plus, how could anyone honestly believe that the Bears secondary was any good going into last season. One of the most important things an individual can do is scout the organization from the top. Mr. DePaul did not seem to do much of that.

Greg Gabriel’s job was the scout college talent. He also was let go immediately after this year’s draft. With the exception of Johnny Knox from last season, there were few contributors from that draft class. Now granted they traded the first pick for Jay Cutler, but the Bears failed to get much talent. Now, in the Bear’s defense, it can take some players a few years to develop. But as it stands, last year’s draft was poor. This year’s draft was supposedly orchestrated by Gabriel before his departure. Jury is still out…

To solve all of the organization’s issues, they hired one person to do the job of DePaul and Gabriel. Tim Ruskell was an old running mate of Jerry Angelo’s from Tampa and now rejoins his pal in Chicago. Ruskell comes from Seattle with mixed reviews. He did win in Seattle and his previous stop of Atlanta, but there were some moves he made that Seattle could not forgive, including the loss of Steve Hutchinson to the Minnesota Vikings. I think the Bears needed a new perspective, and hopefully Ruskell can bring this to the table. However, I have a real difficult time letting Angelo off the hook for several of the fires burning at Halas Hall.

As a lifelong fan, I am heartbroken that the Bears went from a Super Bowl team to a mediocre product so quickly. To not even make the playoffs and invent ways to lose is pathetic. Changes needed to be made, but I am not sure these went high enough. When does the buck stop with the General Manager or team president? Jerry Angelo and Ted Phillips were both given free passes by the organization. Lovie Smith was protected by his overinflated contract. The press conference the Bears held after the season was beyond a joke and any reasonable person would have found the three stooges sitting on the stage as being condescending jerks. All I know is that Lovie had the brains to take over the defense last season and prove little value as the coach. Plus, his famous time out, challenge loss, additional time out loss series against the Packers was perhaps the dumbest thing ever done in Chicago football history. The Chicago Bears are lucky to have some of the best and most loyal fans in sports, but the attitude from the off season was ‘we know what we’re doing and you can go screw yourself if you disagree’.  OK, so some redemption on their part was made possible by a strong free agent class and getting back Chris Harris from the Panthers. But until we see this team in action, the Halas Hall crew have a lot to prove.

Your thoughts please!!!

After three weeks, rookie running back Matt Forte leads all NFL running backs in carries with 73 touches. Forte has carried the load for Chicago early in the season, which should cause teams to bring more men into the box opening up the passing game. Forte’s 304 rushing yards ranks him fourth in the league, and he ranks second in yards from scrimmage behind Frank Gore with 405 total yards. And Lovie Smith says his work load isn’t going to decrease anytime soon, “He’s young right now with a lot of energy. Whenever Matt isn’t on the field, it isn’t really good for us.”

First round draft pick Chris Williams returned to practice for the first time Wednesday since his surgery. Williams put the pads on and everything, but was limited to individual and conditioning drills. No time table is set for Williams return, and Run Turner believes it will take a while for the rookie to get into full team practice as he had no training camp or pre-season.

In other news around the division, the Detroit Lions have finally let go of general manager Matt Millen. During Millen’s tenure with the Lions, the team finished has more loses than any other team.