Dancing With(out) the Stars: The Chicago Bears' Offense in 2009

Terrell Owens—Buffalo.

Fred Taylor—New England.

Matt Cassell—Kansas City.

Correll Buckhalter, LaMont Jordan and JJ Arrington—Denver.

Derrick Ward—Tampa Bay.

Laveraneus Coles—Cincinnati.

TJ Housmandzadeh—Seattle.

Frank Omiyale—Chicago.

Frank Omiyale? Frank Omiyale?

Yes, it's the NFL offseason, which means it's that time of year that Chicago Bears' fans annually watch top-notch talent enter the free agent market, many of whom could help the Bears contend for a division title.

And those talented players, annually, end up somewhere else.

The Bears, "led" by absentee General Manager Jerry Angelo, have come up with another winner this year, bringing in a backup offensive tackle to solve the team's inept passing game.

At the outset of the offseason, Angelo publicly said at his end-of-season press conference that the Bears needed to address the quarterback position.

"I believe in Kyle (Orton)," Angelo said on December 30. "But until Kyle puts a good year together, we can't say for sure."

The same Angelo, on March 4th, was quoted as saying the following on www.chicagobears.com: "Given the players that potentially could be out there, we thought that Kyle was as good or better given our situation. To bring in somebody to compete to start to me was running up and down the starting line and really was hurting Kyle’s progress."

So, Orton isn't the guy, but you're not going to take a shot at finding the right guy somewhere else because you might stunt the development of the wrong guy?

Solid, JerBear. Nice. But at least you were quoted as saying you were going to think about improving the Bears.

How about at wide receiver? The Bears had one of the worst passing games in recent memory last year. There were plenty of free agents that could have helped the Bears offense. Here's what Angelo had to say about one receiver specifically in the same interview from March 4:

"A lot of teams would have liked to have had Houshmandzadeh. But he’s going to be 32 in ’09 and the price that you’re paying for that receiver we felt was very high. You have to look at economics when you look at players. Who doesn’t want Houshmandzadeh? But you have to look at the economics: What are the implications to the cap going forward and what does that prevent us from doing in other areas within our team and/or in free agency?"

Houshmandzadeh had 92 catches last year and 904 yards as a 31-year old. He signed a five-year, $40 million contract with Seattle on March 3.

At almost the same age (31), the Bears signed Marty Booker last last March to a two-year deal worth $3.5 million. So apparently age is only a concern to Angelo if the individual in question can still play.

And regarding the concerns about what $4 million a year would mean against the Bears' salary cap?

As of February 26, the Bears were over $29 million under the cap going into 2009 in the second largest market in the country with a football team (sorry, LA). It looks to me like the Bears would have been bankrupt if they were only $25 million under the cap when the season started.

Heaven forbid they were competitive.

So we now stare down the barrel of another NFL Draft with the Bears beginning the spin machine regarding all of the moves they could, and should, have made but didn't in free agency.