Five Reasons Why the Bears Had the Best Off-Season in the NFL

I know the Bears didn’t have a pick in the first two rounds of the NFL Draft.  I know they didn’t go out and get a reliable veteran receiver.  And I also know they did not find a way to greatly upgrade the Offensive Line.  In spite of this, I’m positive the Bears had without a doubt the best Off-Season in the NFL, and here’s the five reasons to prove it.

#5 – The O-Factor
Orlando Pace excited several fans (myself included) when he was brought into Chi-Town from the hapless Rams.  However, Pace just never worked out for the Bears.  Maybe part of his problem was due to being lined up beside Free Agent bust Frank Omiyale, or maybe he’s just too old.  He got beat, constantly, and put way too much pressure on Cutler and Forte. Omiyale won’t be back at the same position, and thankfully, Chris Williams will be moving back to LT, the position he played before the Bears changed it.  The offensive line in general should be much better, and it’ll have to be better w/ Martz’s system.

#4 – Chester Taylor
Taylor played on arguably the best team in the regular season last season, and arguably behind the best power back in the NFL.  So why is he reason #5 on this list?  Because now that he’s with us, he can tell us blocking schemes, past audible selections (which granted, may or may not have any bearing on the 2010 Vikings packages) and tendencies in the Vikings offense.  It may not seem like a lot, but when you’re trying to take out a divisional foe, every little bit helps.

#3 – The Draft
Yeah, yeah, no picks until #75.  Look, anyone who has followed GM Jerry Angelo’s drafting process knows two things: He gets all his talent in the mid-to-late rounds, and he cannot draft early.  So, instead of adding to the list of first round busts drafted by the Bears organization, we spent it paying off the last of our debt to the Denver Tebo…err...Broncos for Jay Cutler.  Can you name a QB from this draft not named Bradford with the tools Cutler has?  Negative. 

Our 2^nd round pick went to the late Gaines Adams.  May he RIP, and we just not discuss the 2^nd round of the 2010 NFL Draft after that.

Our first actual picks of the draft is where the intrigue lies.  Major Wright was a solid pick, and a pick of need, for the Bears.  On top of his abilities to strip the ball and play solid coverage defense, he is a vocal leader.  He won’t be a vocal leader this year of course, but a couple years down the road, we could be seeing Mike Brown (in his prime) all over again.

The 4^th round pick was a huge risk/reward pick.  The Bears stayed close to home with the pick of Northwestern DE Corey Wootton.  Had Wootton not been injured at the end of the 2008 season, you would have seen him off the board in Day 1, but a knee injury in the 2008 Alamo Bowl has set him back.  He isn’t a project as much as a risk; he could be a starter by week 8 or a guy that struggles to make the rotation.  Several teams opt to draft a risk/reward player in the 4^th round or later, but at least the Bears took a guy who has proven in the past he can get the job done.

#2 – Coaching Overhaul
In some people’s eyes, the wrong guy got the axe.  Lovie’s rear has been firmly positioned on the Hot Seat for the better part of two years now, but it was OC Ron Turner who was handed his papers.  But before we say the wrong guy left, let’s look at the Bears offensive numbers under Turner:

Turner has had two separate stints as Bears OC.  The first coming from 1993-1996, and the second coming from 2005-2009.  According to http://www.Pro-Football-Reference.com, the Bears offensive ranks in terms of yards were 28, 23, 9, 21, 29, 15, 27, 26, and 23 (not-so respectively).  That’s a mean average of having the 22^nd best offense over 9 years.  The year Chicago went to the Super Bowl, the Bears had the 15^th best offense in the NFL.  Still think Turner wasn’t the guy to go?  By the way, the year the Bears had the 9^th ranked offense under Turner, they finished 9-7 and missed the playoffs.

So Turner’s out and Mike Martz is in.  We don’t know much about what Martz plans on doing with his strong-armed QB and plethora of turf-burning receivers, but we know it’s going to be exciting to watch (after the signing of Martz, I said Cutler would be the first QB in NFL history to have 50 TDs and 50 INTs in a season…and that would be before the bye week.) 

Other than Martz, Rod Marinelli was promoted from D-Line coach to DC, a move that was pretty well expected from the masses.  Marinelli does have a fire to him that we’ve not seen in a while, but we’ll wait to see how it translates to this team.

#1 – Acquisitions
On Monday Morning’s episode of “The Herd”, Colin Cowherd said that he bases a team’s offseason success off the team’s top two draft picks and best free agent acquisition.  In several cases, I’m sure that’s true, but in the Bears case, that logic may need some tweaking.  How about the top draft pick, the top two free agent signings and the top trade?  We all know about Major Wright, and we’ve touched on Chester Taylor and the knowledge and leadership he can bring, but don’t forget…Julius Peppers is going to be coming off the edge this season.  Peppers immediately makes a pass-rush go from slightly below average to above average. On top of those moves, the Bears recently traded for Ex-Bear Chris Harris, giving up Jamar Williams in the process.  Harris will be reunited to a team that looks far different than the one he was traded away from three years ago.  He is a leader in the secondary now, and the Bears will need him to show up on Sundays.

To recap, the Bears needed a better O-line, and accomplished it.  They needed more out of the run game, and have made the strides to do that.  The Bears needed to get healthy, and finally have.  And most importantly, the Bears needed to improve their defensive secondary, and got a new crop of safeties that definitely upgraded their unit. 

Long story short, the Bears added three guys that will start on the defensive side of the ball at some point this season in Peppers, Harris and rookie Major Wright.  Shuffling around the O-Line (and losing Orlando Pace) will help out tremendously, and adding Taylor to the backfield allows Forte to rest more and reliable hands out of the backfield.

Several teams have improved over the last three months, but none as much as the Monsters of the Midway, your Chicago Bears.