5 Things We'd Like to See from the Chicago Bears by Season's End

The Chicago Bears are a fractured team on every level possible, and it’s only going to get worse before it gets any better.

Chicago dropped its ninth game of the season Monday night, losing 31-15 to the New Orleans Saints and furthering the idea that changes must be made within the walls of Halas Hall.

Only hours later, Dan Bernstein of CBSChicago.com reported that head coach Marc Trestman is likely to lose his job come season’s end, and the future of general manager Phil Emery is still up in the air.

It is crazy to think how far this team has fallen in the past 12 months, a year since Jay Cutler signed his seven-year, $126.7 million contract extension only days after the 2013 season ended.

The Bears started the season with Super Bowl expectations. The widespread expectation now is for the team to clean house from top to bottom.

While it’s still too early to know if those kinds of wholesale changes will be made after the season, there are minor changes we would like to see before the season’s end. Let’s roll through some of them.

Shut Down Chris Conte...for Good

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Chris Conte’s injury issues have been widely discussed this season. From the two concussions to back, eye and shoulder injuries, the Bears starting free safety has failed to finish seven of 12 games this season.

This all comes after Conte battled multiple injuries last season and into the 2014 preseason.

Despite everything that has been learned from new concussion research and the NFL’s new dedication to protecting its players from concussions, Conte couldn’t care less about his future health. He said as much Monday night on the Bears pregame show on WBBM-AM 780, via Rich Campbell of the Chicago Tribune.

"I'd rather have the experience of playing in the NFL and die 10 to 15 years earlier than not play in the NFL and have a long life," Conte said. "I don't really look toward my life after football. I'll figure things out when I get there. As long as I outlive my parents."

Conte is going to be a free agent after the season, so he needs to give off the perception that fear of injury will not affect his ability to play football. While no one can tell Conte how to live his life, someone in his family or inside the Bears organization needs to step in and protect him from himself.

Kyle Long at Left Tackle

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Kyle Long has been stellar in his 30 games at right guard with the Chicago Bears, but it’s time for the Bears to see how Howie’s son looks at a new position.

Long’s future with the Bears is at left tackle. He’s the most athletic offensive lineman on the team, and he’s been the most dependable, too. Aside from the two losses to Green Bay, Long has graded out positively in every game, according to Pro Football Focus’ advanced metric (subscription required).

Moving Long to left tackle should not be seen as an indictment of Jermon Bushrod, who has done an admirable job in his two seasons in Chicago. But a 30-year-old Bushrod is not the left tackle of the future. Kick Long over a few spots to the left and see what happens in these final two games.

It’s not like the season can get any worse, right?

2 More Losses

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With the postseason out of the realm of possibility, the Bears must now hope to fall among the bottom 10 teams in the league. Losing the final two games of the season is the only way to ensure the Bears will be picking inside the top 10 when the NFL draft comes to Chicago for the first time in league history.

The Bears' next game is in Chicago against the playoff-hungry Detroit Lions, and that will be followed by a road matchup with a try-hard Minnesota Vikings team.

Finishing in the middle of the pack will get you nowhere fast in the NFL.

Protect Jay Cutler from Himself

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Given how poorly this season has gone (on top of the Aaron Kromer saga that's been playing out at Halas Hall), it's time for the Bears to rescue Jay Cutler from the dumpster fire that is their team.

Cutler has clearly been a large contributing factor to the Bears' sudden demise, but he's not going anywhere anytime soon despite leading the NFL in turnovers (24) through 14 games.

Cutler's entire 2015 salary of $15.5 million and $10 million of his 2016 salary become guaranteed in March 2015, according to Spotrac.com. Unless a team steps in and is willing to take Cutler's contract along with his propensity to turn over the ball, the Bears are stuck for at least one more season.

Sitting at 5-9 with two games left and no hope in sight, there's potential for this beauty of a season to get much uglier, which is why Cutler needs to be removed from the equation. His relationship with the organization and the city of Chicago needs to remain intact for next season.

This idea can be read here in more detail.

Continued Improvement on Special Teams

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At a time when every aspect of the depth chart appears to be failing miserably, special teams is the only unit that has shown progression throughout the course of the season.

Rookie Pat O'Donnell had a solid game Monday night against the Saints, punting the ball six times for an average of 49.8 yards per attempt.

Marc Mariani also had a strong outing, returning five kicks for 142 yards, an average of 28.4. This is a huge improvement over Chris Williams taking the ball out of the end zone from eight yards deep only to get tackled at the 15-yard line.

This final stat comes courtesy of Kevin Fishbain of ChicagoFootball.com. The Bears are No. 1 in the NFL in kickoff coverage, allowing an 18.2-yard average on 30 returns. The league average for returns is 32.

It would be nice to see these trends continue over the final two weeks of the season.