On the surface, the past 24 hours have been really bad for Bears fans. After months of excitement, the Bears lost a heart-breaking season opener to their hated division rivals, the Green Bay Packers. To make matters worse, strong-armed Jay Cutler threw four interceptions and defensive captain Brian Urlacher has already been lost for the season. That wasn't all that was bad. The offensive line couldn't run block, receivers appeared to have very little rapport with Cutler and that fake punt call -- teamed with a ridiculously bad challenge by Lovie Smith -- was an unmitigated debacle.
Tuesday afternoon, the Chicago Bears announced via press release they have agreed to a one-year contract with cornerback Roderick Hood. In and of itself, this isn't terribly huge news, considering Hood was recently cut from the Cleveland Browns. The issue at hand, though, is the overall health of the Bears' secondary.
While those truly following the Bears' every move this offseason know the defensive backfield is a much greater concern than wide receiver, the masses are left trying to figure out who newly acquired quarterback Jay Cutler will be throwing to (the sheep can now insert, "no one!" and feel good about themselves).
After all, the leading receivers -- in terms of catches -- last season were running back Matt Forte and tight end Greg Olsen. Devin Hester was the top wideout, with 51 catches and 665 yards. Rashied Davis caught 35 balls, but no other wide receiver in training camp caught a single NFL pass in 2008.
With Fantasy Football season ready to kick in high gear, FanHouse is here to preview each and every team -- one per day until we've done them all.
Meet the ... First Chicago Bears team with a franchise quarterback since face masks were invented. A message to non-Bears fans from Bears fans: Don't bring us down. If you want to make fun of us for being a bit overzealous about Jay Cutler, then maybe you should take a gander at the load of crap the Bears have been using at quarterback. From Cade McNown to Moses Moreno to Chad Hutchinson to Peter Tom Willis to ... whatever. You get the point. Let us also remember that having Cutler doesn't necessarily make everyone fantasy gold automatically. The tremors are more real than fantasy.
With the departure of Mike Brown from the Bears, a hole was left in the Windy City secondary. Adding Josh Bullocks via free agency and drafting Al Afalava in the sixth round of the draft don't appear to be answers. With the roster seemingly set for the 2009 season, the Bears will have to find a free safety starter in-house. They have many cornerbacks, so moving one to safety could work well.
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.
I've taken time to check out many message boards and comments sections across the internet. What I'm finding, for the most part, is that fans of teams other than the Bears think this is a terrible deal. Their "evidence," though, is usually incredibly flawed. Here are some of the reasons people think the deal is poor for the Bears, followed by my rebuttals.
The news that Orlando Pace paid a visit got most of the headlines, but the other free agent who visited the Chicago Bears on Monday, cornerback Ken Lucas, is the one who strikes me as exactly the type of player the Bears need to sign.
Like Pace, Lucas has some downsides: He's a veteran on the wrong side of 30 who was released by his former team in a salary-cap move. But I believe Lucas would be a better signing for the Bears because he's younger (he just turned 30 in January) and less prone to injury (he started all 16 games for the Panthers in each of the last two seasons).
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.
For the second straight season, it appears Nathan Vasher is not going to play in the majority his team's games. The pro bowl corner for the Chicago Bears missed almost all of the '07 season, and now he's expected to miss this season's final five games with a broken wrist and reaggravated thumb injury -- which was operated on earlier in the year.
The play-making corner has been under intense scrutiny this season from fans and media alike, who believe he's not getting the job done in coverage. That would be a serious problem, considering he's not much of a run-stuffer. My contention has been that he mostly gets beat due to the scheme. When you are being gashed on a quick slant in cover-two, that's hardly the corner's fault. If he tries to jump the route and the receiver is able to outside release, there is no help on the deep outside.
I will grant that he's struggled a lot more than Charles Tillman, and that Corey Graham has been a decent fill-in, so this injury likely doesn't hurt the Bears near as much as outsider fans might think.
On the surface, the past 24 hours have been really bad for Bears fans. After months of excitement, the Bears lost a heart-breaking season opener to their hated division rivals, the Green Bay Packers. To make matters worse, strong-armed Jay Cutler threw four interceptions and defensive captain Brian Urlacher has already been lost for the season. That wasn't all that was bad. The offensive line couldn't run block, receivers appeared to have very little rapport with Cutler and that fake punt call -- teamed with a ridiculously bad challenge by Lovie Smith -- was an unmitigated debacle. 
Tuesday afternoon, the 
While those truly following the Bears' every move this offseason know the defensive backfield is a much greater concern than wide receiver, the masses are left trying to figure out who newly acquired quarterback 
With Fantasy Football season ready to kick in high gear, FanHouse is here to preview each and every team -- one per day until we've done them all. 
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Because the NFL season never ends, we present our 
For the second straight season, it appears 
