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My evaluations through 7 games:
Offense:
QB: Obviously our QB of the future is in place. His contract clearly indicates that was the case. Since the Bears gave up the farm for this guy, there was no doubt this was going to get done, be it this year or this offseason. Either way, the Bears have a strong armed, aggressive, mobile enough QB for the future. On top of that, he's just a baby. I believe Cutler is only 26 years old, which means the likelihood the remains the Bears Franchise QB for the next near decade is pretty high. But behind him is still a question mark. If we are a playoff caliber team, I believe we need to act like one, which to me means we need to stop looking for guys we can groom to become Franchise QB's like Caleb Hanie and instead, spend some money on a quality veteran backup in case Cutler breaks his leg and we lose him for a season or so. A guy like a Jeff Garcia comes to mind, even though he's getting up there in years, but you understand the type of player I would want to see in that role.
RB: What a quandry. What exactly do we have in Matt Forte? I'm not ready to compare the guy to Anthony Thomas just because they are big backs who have both had solid rookie seasons followed by sophomore slumps. That would fit far too many RB's into that category and the history of the position is that after a Sophomore slump kind of season, RB's can go one of two directions. They can either get back on track because they get their head back on their shoulders properly or because their Offense reverts back to its old form...or...it turns out they suck and the first season was a fluke. Anthony Thomas was nothing more than a quality big back who was a solid #2 that could chew up some carries away from your starter and keep him healthy. Sort of like a middle relief guy in the majors or your 5th starter whose primary role is just to give your top 4 pitchers one extra day of rest and hopefully get enough run support for a W every now and then. An inning chewer. I'm not ready to lump Forte into that category just yet, but I will say that I have my concerns. The positive is that Forte has great hands, has demonstrated the ability to have enough wiggle to draw arm tackles and enough power to run through them, and gets downhill in a hurry. The bad news is that a lot of those qualities have disappeared this year. In fairness to him, the OL is simply not opening up holes and is getting him drilled in the backfield far too often for my liking, and Cutler is simply more interested in going downfield with the ball than dumping to a RB 2 yards downfield. But Forte deserves some blame, too. He's not breaking those arm tackles this year and he's not running with the same aggressiveness and purpose he did last season. We're not even half way through the season. On the backup front, we have AP and Kevin Jones. AP, who is a great special teams guy, most of the time, and a hot and cold backup caliber RB. He's hot and cold for a backup, not for a starter. When he gets some spot duty carries, AP can break off some nice runs, but when he's the full time guy due to injury, he seems to disappear into mediocrity. In other words, he's not the answer as a #2 back. Jones, on the other hand, was supposed to remerge this season with an explosive quality we hadn't seen from him since College. Never materialized, even before the injury. Jones was a big back who just slammed into piles. Nothing more. I would like to see the Bears add a veteran running back at this position, too. An Edgerrin James type back would've been nice here and I think that a guy like Willis McGahee could fit that mold next season if the Ravens part ways with the skilled, but diminished back. But we need two quality RB's in this day and age. As for the Leperchaun, Garrett Wolfe, I think you have to keep him on this team. He's proven to be a monster in special teams due to his very impressive speed and his surprising ability to tackle guys that look double his size. He also adds a different dimension to the team as a scatback type player. Again, another position I would fill with something on the market.
FB: As for McKie, he's a serviceable FB. If you find something better, fine. If you don't, also fine. A big 260 lbs. blocking FB is more my cup of tea since we have a guys who can catch out of the backfield that can catch, such as Olsen and Forte. Let's move toward a big meathead who can roll a 250 lbs. MLB in a one on one and move him out of a hole with regularity. I'm not seeing that from McKie.
WR: I think we have three serviceable receivers, all of which are young, and all of which still have plenty of upside. Hester has made impressive strides with improved route running, far less drops, the occasional big play, and just seems to have a better feel for the game. I don't feel we've seen him max out yet, plus he's just building his rapport with Cutler. Cutler has simply missed Hester on 3 or 4 TD's this season where Hester had 3-5 steps on the CB behind him and Cutler's known it. He's also underthrown Hester a couple times, not seeming to be able to gauge his speed yet and realizing some of those balls need to be delivered much sooner or thrown with a much lower trajectory since Hester will create the separation necessary to eliminate the need to drop that ball over a defender. I think that all comes with reps and time and I feel that Hester is on the road to becoming a legit top flight deep threat in this league, just like Steve Smith. Before you laugh at that, know that Smith has been a 1,200 yard receiver with about 8 TD's over the past 5 years he's played. I think Hester can be that type of guy, especially since he only needs 3-4 catches to break a 50+ for a TD to pad his stats. Beyond Hester, I think Johnny Knox is quickly becoming the #2 receiver on this team. Knox has shown exceptional hands, gamebreaking speed, quality route running, and an understanding of the game that far surpasses your typical rookie NFL WR. Bennett is also developing at a rapid pace, going from roster afterthought to quality possession receiver with an overstated, but still existent built in rapport with Cutler. We still have Juaquin Iglesias, but still seems a year or two away from being a significant contributor. Aromashadu and Davis are upgradeable. If we can get our hands on a big time playmaker, including Brandon Marshall, we would have to consider it if Cutler feels he can keep that guy under control to some degree. Load up his contract with "ifs" and "buts" just in case. Not that we would go there, but remember that TO is likely to be on the market and Braylon Edwards could be a really good fit for what we are looking for. I think the WR position is one player away from being a quality deep NFL unit.
TE: The Bears still possess a very dynamic TE group between Olsen, who has proven to be more of a receiving threat than anything who can't seem to beat a double team, Clark, who is the wily veteran who may be expendable next season, and Kellen Davis, who is the reason Clark may be expendable since he is the youngest, the most versatile, and possibly the best all around TE on the roster. The Bears seem set here no matter what they decide to do at the position.
OL: Massive issues here. I really don't see these items being fixed in a season. Starting at OT and working our way inside, we have Orlando Pace, who is clearly about 8 steps slower than his former HOF self. Losing all of that weight may have helped him to get a little quicker, but if that's the case, I hate to see how slow he was out of his stance before losing the weight. Pace simply cannot handle speed rushers off of the edge, which clearly makes him a liability at LT. I'll be surprised if Chris Williams isn't over there next season. At RT, the Bears have Chris Williams. Williams is essentially a first year OT who is playing something other than LT for the first time in a long time. Despite that fact, he is probably the most consistent and overall best OL on the Bears front unit right now. While he has the occasional slip up, Williams has really held his own and I think he may have earned the right to move back to the left side next year. I doubt Pace will want to play RT and since Schaeffer was brought in to play that position and is a dominant run blocker, I think its quite possible that move is made next season. If that happens, we need to add some depth on the OL via the Draft. Inside at Guard, I'm still a huge Beekman fan. I think he's the future at one of the Guard or Center positions and has got to be on the field at this point considering how bad our OL play has been. Omiyale should be battling Garza for the other Guard spot and neither should be considered the long term solution there based on what we've seen so far. Omiyale better improve or that free agent signing is about to look like a monster bust. Kruetz is a shell of his former self and he's getting worse every season. I think he'll play out his contract and then the Bears will use the 1 year signings to retain him until a suitable replacement can be found at Center or at Guard so we can move Beekman inside. Either way, that's it for this guy. Enjoy the HOF. The bottom line is that we need depth and another starter on the OL would be awesome. I'd like to see the Bears make a play for the best OL on the board, regardless of position unless its a LT, which I doubt it will be.
Defense:
DE - Ogunleye's ship appears to have sailed. At best, he's looking at a weak, incentive laden deal from the Bears for one year, which most likely will be topped by another team willing to overpay for a marginal, but capable aging pass rusher. Alex Brown on the other side is one of my favorite Bears. I feel he is possibly the most underrated player on this team. When Brown isn't in the backfield wreaking havoc, he's using those long arms to hurry the QB or to drag down ball carriers all over the field. Gaines Adams appears to be the next in line for the starting job opposite Brown, especially considering his 2nd Round price tag and the Bears investment in Rod Marinelli. I'm not quite sure what we have in Adams, but whatever it is, the Bears believe our starting DE's for 2010 are already on this roster. Mark Anderson has still not developed into much more than what we have come to recognize him as. I wonder if the man wouldn't be better suited for a 3-4 OLB role to try and revive his career. Tough transition, but its better than what he's doing now. Obviously with or without Anderson in 2010, the Bears will at least need one, if not two DE's. I think a situational pass rusher type could be a good fit for them in free agency.
DT - The Bears players at this position is a roster full of rotation guys. Starting with Tommie Harris, formerly the most talented DT on the team and probably in the League compared to other 1 gap DT's. Harris is done. He's tossed around the field like a rag doll way too often. His explosion and power are gone. He's now a decent DT, at best, which makes him incredibly overpaid. His attitude makes him not worth the effort to retain. He gone. Behind him, I believe it starts with Marcus Harrison. I believe Harrison is our best DT, which isn't saying much. Harrison is too inconsistent still to be considered anything more than an average DT in this league. I've been a big fan of Harrison's, but so far, he is yet to produce anything of note. Anthony Adams is another rotation guy and may wind up next to Harrison as the starting DT in 2010. He's good for a big play once a game, but is often in the middle of things when DT's are being blown all over the field and holes are left right up the gut. Henry Melton and Jarron Gilbert are both going to be lumped into this group. I know we still have Idonije, and we'll get to him, but as a solid DT prospect, these two have got to come in ready to pass up Israel. Both are about 275+, are freakishly explosive and powerful athletes, and are going to have a full season under Rod Marinelli. One of the two has got to emerge in 2010 as a major contributor either inside or outside. Back to Idonije. This guy is a special teams monster. He's a total freak of nature himself and uses that freakish ability to block a lot of kicks and make a lot of downfield Special Teams tackles. He has to be retained. Toeina is ready to roll out. We could definitely use some fresh blood inside here.
LB - The future of this position seems locked up with Urlacher back anchoring the inside, Briggs as one of the NFL's best LB's on one side, and Pisa (should they resign him on the cheap given the injuries) on the other side. Injuries decimated this crew and while that's horrible, what it has done is give us the ability to see what we have behind them and develop depth and youth. Behind these three are Nick Roach, who can play inside or outside (if he learns better play calling), Hunter Hillenmeyer (clearly better suited inside), and Jamar Williams, who is a very good special teams ace. Overall, our LB depth does not strike me as a major concern, although a touch of depth wouldn't hurt.
CB - My oh my. Charles Tillman is a tremendous Cover 2 player. He's usually in the right position, forces as many turnovers as anyone else in the league, is a decent blitzer and a solid open field tackler. He's also big enough to run with the big boys. On the other side is where we have our quandry. Is Bowman our CB? He's been inconsistent, although it is his first year as a starter. Outstanding athlete though. Vasher is probably restructuring or getting the axe. Too much money for a Nickel/Dime back. That leaves Corey Graham and D.J. Moore. I would like to see Moore develop, but Graham is a guy who we pretty much already know what we're getting.
S - Danieal Manning's play is improving a bit and Afalava appears to have the SS position locked up. If the Bucks have a shot at a premier Safety, I would consider bringing him in. Manning has great range and athleticism, but is often out of position in coverage, which can lead to huge gainers. Afalava is a big hitting rookie SS, who hasn't played timid in run support, but lacks coverage skill. I don't see a huge improvement over Payne with him, but I guess enough people do. Payne should be invited back as a backup SS, a natural postion for him. Josh Bullocks, Craig Steltz do little for me. Bullock is overpaid and Steltz is under appreciated.
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