Poor Offensive Line Play Threatening Bears' Postseason and Beyond

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If Lovie Smith and Jerry Angelo aren't careful, Jay Cutler could be demanding a trade by the end of this season.

Sure, the Bears have just paid their new quarterback handsomely with a generous contract extension, and unlike Pat Bowlen and Josh McDaniels, Smith and Angelo haven't said so much as a word about trading him for someone else.

But the truth is that if Cutler continues to get bulldozed by opposing defenders at the rate he has been this season, he might just ask the Bears to show him to the door so he doesn't have to spend his glory years eating and breathing through tubes in Cook County Hospital's Intensive Care Unit.

The ineptitude of the Bears offensive line is shocking and downright dangerous considering that this franchise has placed all of its eggs in Cutler's basket.

Protecting the most important player on the team should have been a priority in the draft, yet the Bears didn't take a single offensive linemen until drafting tight end gone guard Lance Louis in the seventh round.

Angelo even traded away the 49th overall pick despite the availability of solid prospects like Max Unger and Phil Loadholt (both of whom have started and played well as rookies), and passed on any number of solid interior line prospects in the third round when they instead took a shot on pool-jumping defensive lineman Jarron Gilbert.

When asked if the pounding Cutler was taking was a concern, Lovie Smith answered saying that "you need big, strong, tough guys playing quarterback for you."

Apparently these same gridiron virtues are no longer required for Chicago Bears offensive linemen. Since Smith and Angelo rolled into town, the Bears have been unable or unwilling to develop any players who can block with the consistency and mean streak necessary to help win championships.

It's no secret folks. When you refuse to draft big, strong, tough players in the meat of several consecutive drafts and instead choose to start washed up veterans and journeymen who couldn't cut it on other teams, you lose football games and your skilled position players end up getting leveled and ultimately injured with painful regularity.

You can't expect any better production when that's how your organization does business. Garbage in, garbage out.

While Cutler's numbers haven't been stellar this year, I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt because I saw what he did in Denver with solid protection and an offensive system suited to his skills.

Watching the Bears' offense get turned away four times in the red zone by the pitiful Cleveland defense was bad, but praying for Jay Cutler to get up after being repeatedly laid out was much worse.

The Bears' offensive line simply cannot protect Cutler, and if their play doesn't improve soon, missing the playoffs this year could end up being a minor setback relative to a possible season/career-ending injury to their star quarterback.

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