CHICAGO BEARS PREVIEW

[BigMo]

Chicago Bears

Overview

Trouble starts at the top and GM Jerry Angelo is proof, he doesn’t know what he’s doing. His backstabbing scheming bought him a couple extra years of incompetent leadership by cutting Dick Jauron off at the knees. Granted, Dick was no menza candidate, but when Angelo’s trades and drafts the last 2 years failed to perform, he blamed it on Juaron and tossed him to the wolves. Angelo is the one who dismantled the oline and the secondary, who let the linebackers decline, and brought to Chicago the circus at quarterback.

Chicago has a lot of building to do, and Angelo is a road block.

Significant Coaching

Former linebackers coach, Lovie Smith, brought the cover two to the Rams as their def. co., and now brings his aggressive defensive style to the Bears. Lovie has a distinctively unique approach to defense which is worth mentioning, it will affect his success here. He is the ultimate speed guy. He had an opportunity at the Rams to draft a large number of players, and had the time to develop them. The result; no one would call the Rams defense overwhelming, in fact they only held one team to single digits last year, and none the year before. Lovie played schemes with only one lb, four linemen, and six secondary players..

Which leaves us with 2 questions:

1) Was Lovie’s defense really a success at the Rams? No one has ever been given more opportunity to succeed; no less than 17 players currently on the Rams defensive roster were brought in by Lovie. His approach has serious flaws, among them wearing down late in games, and an inability to control the game.

2) Will Lovie’s defense work with the Bears? Its one thing when you have years of drafting/trading for speed, it is another when you have a defense built for size, and you tell everyone to get on the weight program. He is currently starving the defense to lose pounds, and it looks like a square peg scenario. Low body fat means more muscle injuries, and its already happened, with 5 starters injured in the first week of camp.

Juaron’s coaching staff was released en mass. In comes Terry Shea as off. co., a guy with only 4 years of nfl experience, former Rutgers head coach, and recently qb coach at the Chiefs, where he did an outstanding job.
Def. co. Ron Rivera is new to the position, the former 5 year linebacker coach at Philly did little to distinguish himself there, and that is his only real NFL experience. The jury is out on him.
An incompetent front office and their top 3 coaches all new to their positions, trying to run a radical approach, not a mixture for success.

Offense

Quarterback

Rex Grossman will be a great qb. In fact, he’s pretty good right now. With 2 wins in 3 starts, and some accurate passing he finished strong ly, but then the offense changed. The new west coast styling is completely different than anything he’s ever done. Also, the wr corp is not adjusted to this offense either. It will result in a rocky start for Rex, wouldn’t surprise me to see a lot of ints and misreads. The kid has a very strong arm though so let’s not underestimate him.

RB

A-train just got demoted. Incoming new starter Thomas Jones, who’s on his 3rd team in as many years, did pretty well for the Bucs last year with 4.6ypr. It was a breakout year for him. So why did the Bucs dump him? Something’s not right.

In any case, both backs are coming from olines which were subpar, and in Thomas’s case a very poor line which didn’t fit his running style. Both backs should excel this year. To top it off the Bears were able to pry loose a top fb from the ‘skins in Bryan Johnson.

Wide Receivers

What a motley crew of under achievers. David Tyrell just never got it, and the former first rounder is now being billed as the go to guy. He has a ton of speed but terrible hands. Marty Booker is capable, coming off injuries, and has done well in the past.

Second year 5th rounder Justin Gage may wind up getting the starting call. He only had 17 catches ly, but av 19.9ypc., and had 2 tds. The kid is big, can jump, and flies downfield.

At tight end, Desmond Clark was a disappointment, but Justin Lyman wasn’t, and now with Clark nicked up, Lyman may start the season. However, this is a solid tandem, and Lovie likes the 2 te sets. A team strength here.

It should be noted the the recent past performance has not been fair to judge the wr corp, the qb and oline situation was so bad no talent could stand out.

Offensive Line
The misery of the last 2 years may be over. The Bears bring in big winner T John Tait from the Chiefs, and he’s one of the league best. They add on g Reuben Brown, 8 time pb, who is getting a bit aged, and is not running with the first unit right now, but that is more a sign of a major upgrade on this line. G Mike Gandy, is above average, who had to play at tackle last year due to line injuries, is probable to return inside. It depends a bit on how former bust 400lbs Aaron ‘the fattest one’ Gibson does. He was brought in ly in desperation and performed well, and he’s lost weight. The other prospect is 3rd year T Quosim Mitchel, who is getting top reviews in camp.

Rounding out the new crew is G Rex Tucker, who is excellent if he can return from 2 years of injuries. C Olin Kreutz is pro bowl material. So this line is not the one we saw last year, much deeper, very big improvement and now a force. Former number 1 bust Marc Columbo may never play again.

Defensive line

18 sacks. It’s a short story, that’s last years total. The dline for all its depth, proves it isn’t the number of bodies, it’s how good they are. You’d think they would make wholesale changes, but Lovie believes it is all about the coaching.
They do have some emerging talent, de Alex Brown in his 3rd year has been catching on, but not a fearsome rusher, de Mike Haynes, ly numero uno draft pick isn’t a bust…yet. They drafted number one this year with t Tammie Harris, and 2nd round with Terry Johnson, so the future could be bright, but for the moment this line is weak and inexperienced.

They have some depth with t Bryan Robinson and Alphonso Boone, but I’ll be surprised if this unit performs well early in the season.



Linebacker

Brian Urlacher will miss the start of the season with a hammy, and this unit was already was too thin. Lance Briggs was a solid surprise as a rookie 3rd rounder ly. He’s big, but can he move to the speed scheme? Joe Odem, another 2nd year guy, was a big find ly as a 6th rounder who got to start some. He has the speed mold Lovie looks for.

Marcus Reese will take Urlachers spot, this kid is fresh from nfl Europe. They need help there. Rookie 4th rounder Leon Joe has been having a good camp. This is just not a good unit right now. Even with Urlacher in, the other 2 spots look below average. Why did they dump 2 real players, Holdman, and the year before Colvin?

Secondary

62%. That is the opposing qb completion %, one of the highest in the league. Cb Jerry Azumah, pb return man but average cover talent has been injured and is lost for the year. R.W Mcquarters, well average takes his spot. At the other corner 2nd year 2nd rounder Charles Tillman is average but growing. S Mike Brown who played such a huge role in the great seasons, played poorly last year, and at the other safety, 5th rounder 3rd year guy Bobby Grey has been a pleasant surprise, but will never be top grade.

The secondary is a well below average unit with some decent hitting skills at the safeties, but poor overall coverage, and no defensive scheme is going to change the lack of good players here.

Special Teams

The loss of returner Azumah is a big problem, but not the only one. Normally reliable pk Paul Edinger missed some very big kicks ly, and is overall accuracy plummeted. Brad Maynard, one of the league top talents lost it last year. They need resurgence by their kickers or this unit will be scraping the bottom of the league.

Conclusion

Inexperienced coaches implementing a radical scheme, numerous early injuries, a very young qb with 3 starts learning a new system and a team which is having trouble finding one unit with proven strength. This could be a tough year for the Bears.

[BigMo]

Bears defense takes a major step forward, pick up DE Adewale Ogunleye from the Dolphins, the guy is so quick!!! Major sack artist just coming into his own.

they give up a 3rd rounder and Mary Booker, who despite his past 2 pb appearances, had very low ypc those years, he's a great possesion wr, but not a long baller.

Lovie gets his first true speed guy on defense, top shelf move by the Bears.

Miami has no running game, at least they realize the only way to score is make the wr corp happen.