FanHouse Chris Williams

After the Bears made the announcement of their franchise-shattering acquisition of Jay Cutler, they didn't rest. Within a few hours, they announced they had also agreed to terms with venerable left tackle Orlando Pace. I'll admit, I was overly excited about the two new Bears, as were all my Bears fans friends -- which is weird, usually at least one of us disagrees about player movement. Make no mistake about it, though. We aren't delusional. This team is far from complete and the die-hards know it.

With the team still a decent amount below the salary cap and several holes left to fill for 2009, here's what I think the Bears should do.

CHICAGO -- So the Summer Olympics must be coming in 2016. And a minefield of potholes soon will be magically filled. And the Cubs will win a World Series for the first time since, oh, your grandparents' grandparents were double-dating in Henry Ford's Model T. And those wicked, face-eating winters will be replaced by pleasant, sunny, balmy, gorgeous ... all right, I'm obviously overcome by shock.

Seven-time Pro Bowl tackle Orlando Pace was in Chicago Monday, meeting with the Bears' front office. The 33-year-old was released a few weeks ago by the St. Louis Rams, the only franchise he's ever played for. Injuries have limited Pace's immense ability the last few years. He hasn't played a full slate since 2005, though he did suit up 14 times last season.

The move would make sense for the Bears. They have a deficiency at this position. While there are four studly offensive tackles in the upcoming draft, it's very possible none of the four fall to the Bears. Signing Pace would give them an opportunity to sniff out a pass rusher or possession receiver in the first round.

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.

Some six months ago, former Boston College standout Gosder Cherilus was considered one of the best offensive tackles in the NFL draft. The Lions would eventually take him with the 17th overall pick, the fifth offensive lineman to go off the board after Jake Long (1st), Ryan Clady (12th), Chris Williams (14th) and Branden Albert (15th).

Detroit didn't waste anytime getting Cherilus on the field; he's played in all five games, starting three of them. I suppose there isn't much time to learn by watching when the quarterback gets sacked (not to be confused with sacked) every other time he drops back to pass. (Note to Jon Kitna: there are ways to avoid taking career-shortening hits: throw the ball way, handoffs, run out the back of the end zone unprovoked, etc.)

Given that the Lions are their usual awful selves, nobody is entitled to anything. This has usually been nothing more than lip service until William Clay Ford woke up long enough to can Matt Millen, the guy responsible for setting the organization back 40 years.

Now, Kitna has been IR-ed, and Cherilus, presumably a cornerstone of the offense going forward, has been benched. And, no, head coach Rod Marinelli really doesn't want to talk about it (before he inevitably does just that):

Chris Williams -- you know, the guy who had a herniated disc in his back but was drafted in the first round by the Bears anyway? -- suited up in full gear Wednesday for the first time since his surgery seven weeks ago.

''I have no timetable,'' he said. ''I'm just taking it a day at a time, waking up every morning and seeing how it feels. [I'm] trying to get back in the mix and show I can play.

''I've still got to prove myself, being a rookie. Most of the guys get to do that in preseason, and it'll be my turn soon.''

Therein lies the main issue. The Bears offensive line has been serviceable, which is better than it was expected to be heading into the season. The team as a whole hasn't been able to close games -- they should likely be 3-0 -- and you can pin that on Greg Olsen's fumbles, Rashied Davis' drops, and a ridiculous penalty by Charles Tillman; among other things. The line hasn't been great by any stretch, but they are getting by.

Do you really want to throw a rookie into the fire who never even saw preseason action?

Yesterday was a busy day at Halas Hall, but not on the field.

Chicago Bears first-round bust pick Chris Williams told reporters that he already had a tweaked back before the NFL draft.

''I had a herniated disc before I got here,'' Williams said. ''We knew that. Everyone knew that. It just was a thing where most people it doesn't affect. It wasn't affecting me, so if nothing is broke, you don't fix it. Then something happened in practice that second day, the disc started moving and that caused some problems.''

So he withheld information to get drafted higher? The nerve of this guy! Oh wait, Bears GM Jerry Angelo said that he knew about it when he drafted Williams in the first round.

''There is a lot of history of players that had this condition that he had at the combine that have played with it,'' Angelo said. ''We were basing it off of the play time. We were basing it off of no symptoms for a period of three or more years. We were comfortable with that. I did use the term wear and tear. There were concerns. But you know what, you could say that for a lot of players at a lot of positions.''

While the offensive line might not represent a direct draft day decision for your roster, few areas of knowledge can offer a competitive advantage in fantasy football like having a good grasp of the various units of trench soldiers around the league. Over the course of a couple weeks, I'll break down every NFL team's offensive lines into five tiers: the crème de la crème, the highly competent, the serviceable, the grim, and the bunk.

It's important to note that the "grim" group is not the worst of the bunch, but rather just the 2 stars out of 5 where you give an extra star because you are friends with the production assistant. To paraphrase the words of a wise old sage, this group offensive lines is "like a slot machine, they pay off once in a while but then they'll rob you clean." If you really have faith in a skill player on one of these teams, go ahead and pull the trigger. This does not necessarily imply impending doom for all those involved, but tread gently down this path for these units are not very good.

The Chicago Bears: All you Matt Forte missionaries might want to rethink your calling. The Bears line is awful. The front office invested in first round manbeast, Chris Williams, to shore up the line with a strong left tackle, but he just went under the knife for a herniated disc in his back. If he can play, which will be half a season at best, the Bears cannot help but improve from last season. If not, things look pretty much the exact same: the worst run blocking in the NFL. Center Olin Kreutz, despite his age, remains a top player at his position. The rest of the spots would be equally well served with a roll of fiberglass insulation.

2007 Sacks Allowed: 43

2007 Yards Per Carry: 3.1

Training camps are underway, the NFL season is a month off, and to get you ready for 2008, FanHouse previews all 32 teams, "heat index" style. We'll rate each club in 10 categories on a scale of 1 to 10, high score wins.

Quarterback: It's an open competition between Rex Grossman and Kyle Orton. Cue the laugh track. I'll try to be positive. In 2006, Grossman led the team to a 13-3 record and an NFC Championship to boot. He led the NFL in 100+ QB rating games (yes, I know he led in games below 40 and also had a zero rating once ... remember I was being positive), and threw for over 3000 yards with 23 TD passes for a running-and-defense team. Orton went 10-5 as a starter in the previous season with atrocious numbers (seriously, he didn't even throw for 2,000 yards or ten TDs in 15 games). Look for Grossman to start, unless the Bears want to completely take away the threat of Devin Hester. And they can't do that. Heat Index: 2

Chris Williams was drafted 14th overall by the Bears. They knew there were back issues, and as a matter of fact, many teams were scared off by these back issues. When the Bears took Williams, here's who was left on the board that could have helped them: Brandon Albert (yes, hurt now ... but he wasn't at the time and his injury happened in practice for KC ... the Bears draft him and a whole different set of circumstances enters the equation), Gosder Cherilus, Joe Flacco, Jeff Otah, Sam Baker, Felix Jones, Rashard Mendenhall, Chris Johnson ... okay, you get the point.

Low and behold, Williams hasn't really done much but jog in practice thus far, and he had surgery tonight.

What an abomination. Things surely can't get worse, can they?

To respond, the Bears could sign former Bears right tackle Fred Miller off the scrap heap, a desperate move, and subsequently return John Tait to the left side.

Oh, please God, no. I don't think I've ever seen a worse football player than the '07 version of Fred Miller in my thirty years on this Earth. That's not hyperbole. He's that bad. I actually tried to come up with a nickname like "the human penalty" or some creative spin on calling him a sieve or something the like. The problem is that nothing really does justice to how atrocious he is. When one of the worst O-Lines in football can't use you, something is wrong.