FanHouse BrandonMcgowan

Because the NFL season never ends, we present our 2009 Offseason Roadmaps for front offices to navigate through the summer.

The Bears surprised everyone by being a respectable football team in 2008. Most expected them to completely unravel, winning maybe three of four games. Instead, they took down the Colts in Indianapolis to kick off a winning season.

Along the way, though, they blew several key games and ended up severely disappointing their own fans by not winning a very winnable division -- not to mention one additional win would have garnered a wild card.

Brandon McGowan had beaten out Ricky Manning, Jr. as the Bears nickel back last season, and held onto the job tight this preseason. That's why the Bears cut Manning -- who promptly signed with the winning-challenged Rams.

Now, McGowan's season is lost to ankle surgery, stemming from an injury that was suffered during the fourth quarter of Sunday's loss in Carolina.

Danieal Manning will step in for McGowan when it comes to nickel duties. You know, the Manning with a female-sounding first name who is still better than only-tough-in-Denny's-Ricky?

One juicy nugget from the Tribune article linked above? Speculative mention of John Lynch, who is currently unemployed. It mentions that Lynch did excel under Lovie Smith's current scheme in Tampa Bay. I guess it couldn't hurt to try, however, last time the Bears went for the safety-no-one-else-wanted-who-excelled-previously-in-Lovie's-scheme, it was Adam Archuleta. We all know how that turned out.

Good thing Lynch, like pretty much everyone else, has more talent than Archuleta.