Chicago Bears: 5 Things They Must Fix for Next Season

To say that the Chicago Bears season has completely fallen apart would be the understatement of the year.

The Bears, who once looked like a lock for a wild-card spot in the NFC at 7-3, are now on the outside looking in as they stand at 7-7 after a four-game losing streak.

However, it's no secret that the downfall of the Bears this season has been the injuries.

When you lose your starting quarterback and top running back—who is arguably one of the best backs in the league—it's going to leave a mark.

In the Bears case it has not only left a mark, but rather a divot the size of the Grand Canyon.

First they lost quarterback Jay Cutler to a broken finger on his throwing hand that he sustained in the Week 11 win against the San Diego Chargers—which incidentally was the last win the Bears have had.

Two weeks later Matt Forte—the Bears biggest offensive threat—went down with a knee injury against the Kansas City Chiefs and that's when the Bears realized that they might have a problem on their hands.

However, that problem was even bigger than they could have imagined.

Without Cutler and Forte in the lineup for the last three weeks the Bears have put up a total of 27 points, and seven of those points were scored by the defense.

So 20 points actually scored by the offense in three games—I'm pretty sure that's not good.

Backup quarterback Caleb Hanie simply hasn't gotten it done, and it seems as if every other facet of the Bears offense has collapsed as well.

Running back Marion Barber has filled in adequately at running back for Matt Forte, but his blunders against the Broncos were unforgivable and probably sealed the Bears chances for a playoff spot.

The offensive line seems to be regressing back to where they started—which is bad, in case you were wondering—and the receiving corps is basically non-existent.

Sadly, even the once stout defense has looked shoddy recently, and injuries are starting to mount up on that side of the ball as well.

As the Packers get ready to pound the Bears into oblivion and officially end their season on Christmas day, it is time to look at what they need to do heading into next season.

Here is a look at five things that must be addressed in order for the Bears to improve next year.

Backup Quarterback

I think it's obvious that the Caleb Hanie experiment is coming to an end.

Hanie just hasn't proven himself worthy of being a legitimate quarterback in this league, or in just about any other league for that matter.

After showing some promise in last year's NFC championship game it appears that it was all smoke and mirrors.

It would be shocking if Hanie were in a Bears uniform next fall, which means that the Bears must go out and find themselves a solid backup quarterback—it seems like this has been a recurring theme with the Bears for the last, well actually forever.

Josh McCown certainly isn't the answer and rookie Nathan Enderle is unproven.

Donovan McNabb doesn't look like such a bad option to many Bears fans now—however the Bears opted to go with what they had, and that didn't turn out so well.

Time to get to work on finding a capable backup for Cutler.

Offensive Line

When the Bears lost rookie offensive tackle Gabe Carimi in Week 2 against the Saints it was definitely a big blow.

Carimi was the Bears first round pick and was brought in with hopes that he would start immediately and help to stabilize the shaky offensive line.

Well he did start immediately at right tackle—however it was only for a game and a half before going down for the season with a knee injury.

As if that wasn't enough, left guard Chris Williams was lost for the season after breaking his wrist in Week 10 against the Lions.

Since that time the Bears have had to mix and match to figure out what combination would work best, which caused them to go through some rough patches.

Eventually the Bears settled in with Lance Louis—who has always played guard—at right tackle in place of Carimi with backup center Chris Spencer taking over for Louis at right guard.

On the other side Edwin Williams took over for Chris Williams at left guard.

So the Bears have been playing without arguably their two best offensive lineman for the last half of the season, which certainly makes it tough.

Going into next year Garza should be back at center and hopefully Carimi and Williams will be back at full strength, but where they will play is another question.

Should Williams move back to is original position of tackle?

Should Carimi switch from right to left tackle?

Will Lance Louis be back at his natural guard position?

Do the Bears need to acquire yet another offensive lineman?

Mike Tice will once again have his hands full.

Wide Receiver

The Bears need some serious help at wide receiver and it's time to address the situation.

Let's be clear on something once and for all—Devin Hester is not a No. 1 receiver and may not even be a No. 2.  He needs to spend most of his time returning kicks while rotating into the receiving rotation, but he's not a starter.

Johnny Knox is still young and has potential, but he was having a down year prior to going down with a back injury last week against Seattle and needs to improve going into next year.

Earl Bennett is by far the best receiver of the current group and for some reason they have failed to get him the ball recently, which has played a big part in why the Bears have lost four straight games.  He should have a big year next season with the return of Cutler.

I honestly don't have anything remotely positive to say about Roy Williams, and I don't really think the Bears do either—thanks for nothing Roy and good luck wherever you go, but it won't be Chicago.

Aside from that, the only other receiver on the roster is rookie Dane Sanzenbacher now that Sam Hurd has bigger things to worry about, and so it is obvious that the Bears are going to need to make some moves in the offseason.

I think it's fair to say that at this point that they need a legit No. 1 receiver—and they have for several years.

If they can somehow find a way to land a big-play receiver to go along with Bennett and Knox, Cutler's numbers will improve greatly.

Offensive Coordinator

All indications are that Mike Martz won't be back as offensive coordinator for the Bears next season, and I suspect that's probably okay with most Bears fans.

Martz has been heavily criticized during his time in Chicago for being pass happy and not playing to the strengths of his offense as well as his quarterbacks.

Rumors have emerged lately about Martz taking a head coaching job at the college level and that's probably where he'll go.

A guy like Martz needs to be in charge and this will certainly give him the opportunity to do that.

His offense may actually be better suited for the college game and we may soon get the chance to find out.

What this means for the Bears is that they will again be searching for an offensive coordinator, which has not always been a position that they have filled well.

However, this hire will be critical as the Bears will already have several question marks on offense and they certainly don't need the coordinator to be one of them.

Depth in the Secondary

The Bears secondary has played fairly well this season, but the injuries, particularly at safety, have started to mount as of late and have exposed the lack of depth in this area.

Cornerbacks Charles Tillman and Tim Jennings have been pretty solid all year—although they both have had some tough games—and they have also remained healthy for the most part.

However, Tillman is 30 and has been around for a while so it's hard to say how many good years he has left.

Playing behind them are Corey Graham and Zack Bowman who are both fairly capable backups, but probably not starting material.

The safety position has been a revolving door for the Bears for the past few years and this year they seemed to finally find some consistency with Major Wright and rookie Chris Conte—and then they both went down with injuries, leaving the Bears scrambling for other options.

Craig Steltz has been a nice surprise filling in for Major Wright at strong safety, but at free safety it's a different story.

When Conte went down the Bears had to go back to Brandon Meriweather, who had already had a shot earlier in the season and lost his starting position.

Meriweather probably won't be back next year so the Bears will yet again have a need for help at the safety position.