The Chicago Bears' 2008 Season Preview

The 2008 Chicago Bears...Where do I begin?

Head Coach Lovie Smith tossed a coin on day one of training camp to decide who would begin the preseason as the No. 1 quarterback.

First-round draft pick Chris Williams is out for half the season after having back surgery days after ending a minor holdout.

Muhsin Muhammad was quoted on Monday as saying that Chicago was, "Where wide receivers go to die." To prove his point, entering camp, Devin Hester has the “deepest knowledge” of the Bears' offense at wideout.

You’re probably asking yourself if I have anything good to say about Da Bears heading into the 2008 season. I do, shockingly. But every one of them is prefaced with a big IF:

IF...Mike Brown stays healthy, he’ll team up with Nathan Vasher and Charles "Peanut" Tillman to form a solid secondary in a significantly weaker passing division than a year ago.

IF...Brian Urlacher is healthy, and the coaches can find a full-time weak-side linebacker, the Bears will have a solid linebacking corps.

IF...Tommie Harris can run more than 15 plays a week, the defensive line could be as good as there is in football.

However, after all the IFs and negatives, the real meat of the conversation is the schedule. The Bears have a few things to look forward to this season, as well as a few weeks they might want to lose their plane tickets on Friday.

I see no chance of the Bears beating Indianapolis in their gorgeous new stadium. None.

However, in Week Two, a game that I’ll be attending in North Carolina, the Bears win the lottery by facing the Panthers without Steve Smith, who owned the Bears famously in the playoffs in 2005.

The Buccaneers are always intriguing, as are the Eagles, because both have health concerns with key players (Cadillac Williams and Donovan McNabb).

I won’t hate on Detroit (they do that to themselves).

Week Six in Atlanta should be interesting. Matt Ryan against a pretty good defense should provide in interesting matchup.

The Bears then get a chance to take photos of the back of Adrian Pederson’s jersey before taking their bye in Week Eight.

Coming off the bye against Detroit at home is an early Christmas present (Hester... don’t...).

Tennessee’s Vince Young, if he’s completed puberty, will own the Bears before the first look at the post-Favre Packers.

Will this be the Aaron Rodgers Owns the Bears Era?

Down the stretch, there are more teams with issues.

The Rams don’t have Steven Jackson in camp yet.

The Jaguars don’t have a lot of depth behind David Garrard at quarterback.

The Saints are intriguing, solely to see if Reggie Bush is going to become the next Marshall Faulk or the next Peter Warrick.

Then the Packers come to Chicago and Happy New Years!

The Bears are in Houston on December 28.

I predict 7-9 season for the Bears. And a new controversy next spring

–zero quarterbacks on the roster. Or is that what we have now?