Chicago Bears Don't Need No. 1 WR to Win Now—Well Maybe...

Now that the Bears have acquired Jay Cutler, most fans and experts say that the next step is to get a No. 1 WR.  What if the Bears already have this receiver on the roster. 

Don't worry this isn't an article that claims that Earl Bennett is the second coming of Jerry Rice.  My thoughts stem from a different angle that has been used on two different teams over the past ten years.

The KC Chiefs and SD Chargers both had successful offenses with their number one receiver as a big fast TE.  I believe that Greg Olsen can accomplish this same role for the Bears.

Let me first list the receivers as I see them right now.  Hester at WR, Olsen and Clark at TE, Forte at RB and the other WR is probably Davis or Bennett (it doesn't really matter for this article).

For any Bear fan that watched all the games closely last year, particularly during the time that Brandon Lloyd was injured, we got to see the following four players on the field for the majority of the game: Hester, Olsen, Clark, and Forte.  Olsen spent a lot of this time lined up in a split out position. 

Kyle Orton completed 58.5 percent of his passes last year with 23 percent going to Forte.  If you pull out all the attempts to Forte, Orton barely completed 50 percent of his passes to everyone else.  Now some of these were dropped balls but most of them were inaccurate passes. 

Jay Cutler, on the other hand completed 62.3 percent of his passes almost exclusively to WRs and TEs.  Cutler is unquestionably more accurate than Orton.  Cutler also completed 112 more passes for over 1,500 more yards. 

Even if we figure less attempts for Cutler with the Bears, there is still the potential for 1,000 more yards than what Orton threw for last year.  Additionally, Cutler is more likely to throw to WRs and TEs as opposed to Forte. 

Cutler is not known for every fourth pass getting dumped to the RB.  That leaves 1,000 to 1,200 yards that needs to go somewhere.  Both Olsen and Clark have the ability to get open.  Olsen, at 6'5" has shown the ability to manhandle cornerbacks and out jump them when necessary.  E

ven if we take half of those yards and feed them to Olsen, he comes out with 1,100 yards receiving.  Throw a couple hundred yards Hester's way (easy enough to do since I saw five passes that Orton missed Hester on that were all 60+ yard TDs). 

That gives Olsen, your top receiver 1,100 yards, Hester 800-900 yards, Clark the same 300-500 he gets every year and Forte only 200+ yards and a lighter work load to keep him fresh. 

The other WRs would probably pick up some yards here or there but I think those stats would be wonderful considering what we have been dealing with for the last 40 years.  

And all this without a true No. 1 WR.