It was a tough pill to swallow when the Bears lost in Houston to miss out on the playoffs, especially when Oakland upset Tampa Bay and Philadelphia absolutely destroyed Dallas, meaning that they would have made the playoffs and had another rematch at the Roller Dome.
However, it was not all bad in 2008 as the Bears went 9-7 and were in the fight for the playoffs all season long. They averaged 23.4 points a game, up nearly a field goal per game from 2007 and found a RB for the next 10 years in Matt Forte.
Devin Hester took major strides as a receiver, showing that he can be a regular contributor on offense and not just a trick play guy. Unfortunately, it was not all good, either.
The defense unfortunately had a habit of giving up 80-plus yard drives and gave up more than 21 points a game for the second year in a row and Kyle Orton never was able to return to form after injuring his ankle midway through the season.
The Bears receivers also had a terrible habit of disappearing from games or dropping crucial, catchable balls. So what moves should be made in the offseason to get the Monsters of the Midway back to form?
There will be coaching changes for next year. The Bears released their secondary and linebackers coaches and the defensive line coach is headed for LSU to do the same thing.
But Babich, so far at least, is going to be retained as the Defensive Coordinator. Maybe Rod Marinelli will get the D-line working well enough to make Babich's Blitzing Cover-Two look good. The D-line was one of the most disappointing aspects of the 2008 Bears. They just disappeared too many times.
However, new talent shouldn't be needed. Tommie Harris can still excel at DT, Alex Brown is one of the most under appreciated DE's in the league and Adewale Ogunleye has shown that he can be an NFL sack master, not to mention Mark Anderson. If he can figure out how to play the run, he can be more of a regular contributor and get back to his rookie form.
As far as needs are concerned, the first has to be a true #1 WR, somebody for Orton or whomever winds up with the job to turn to as a regular go to guy. The WR staff currently is full of #2's on down, but no #1's. This position would be an excellent one to take care of in the first round of the draft.
Other needs include a true Free Safety and a Right Tackle. Some might throw QB into that mix and it certainly wouldn't be a bad idea to grab one in either free agency or the draft, but Orton showed enough early in the season to be a short to mid term solution while either Hannie or another QB is groomed.
If the Bears play their cards right, they can get back on top of the NFL.
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