Up To Speed- Chicago Bears

LAST SEASON
I watched every game the 1985 Super Bowl Shuffle Bears played. I also watched every game the 2006 Super Bowl Stumble Bears played, (and I would say about 98% of the games in between). The 85 Bears are considered probably one of the 3 best NFL teams of all time, and having seen them, I feel comfortable saying that at one point in the season, the 2006 Bears were just as good as that team was.

Unfortunately, that point in the season was not the point it needed to be for the Bears to win their first Super Bowl in 22 years. Early in the season, the Bears looked like the best team in the league. In weeks 1 and 2 they won by a combined score of 60-7. They nipped the Vikings in week 3, and then destroyed the Seahawks and Bills by a combined 77-13 in weeks 4 and 5. For the first month of the season, the 2006 Bears were much better than the 85 version was in the first month of their season, and just as good as that team was at the end of that season, when they were unbeatable.

That was as good as it got for the Bears though. After that start, they were still good, but had obvious flaws. Chief among them was play of QB Rex Grossman, who finally stayed healthy for a full season, but also threw 20 interceptions. The defense lost DT Tommie Harris to a season ending injury, and was never the same. A team that gave up 30 points combined in its first 5 games gave up more than 20 points in its last 4 regular season games, and 2 of its 3 postseason games.

Still, for all their flaws, and despite the disappointment some felt in a team that at one point looked like a champion, the Bears did reach the Super Bowl.

OFFSEASON
And the fact they were the NFC's Super Bowl representative last year almost certainly fortells disaster for this year. In this decade, the NFC seems to spit out a different team every year to go to the big game, that team gets clobbered, and the next season they wallow in mediocrity.

The Bears' offseason hasn't done anything to give me any faith that they won't suffer a similar fate. Other than the Broncos' tragic offseason, it could be argued that no team has had a worse 2007 so far than the Bears. I say this because:

- LB Lance Briggs is the bearded lady in this year's Drew Rosenhaus contract renegotiation circus. Briggs put up numbers virtually identical to Brian Urlacher's last year, and while he may not be the freakish athlete Urlacher is, he probably isn't as replacable as the Bears hope he is given that it looks like he's prepared to sit out the season.

- DT Tank Johnson was released after getting stopped on suspicion of DUI in Arizona shortly after being released from prison for having a Branch Davidian type arsenal of unlicensed weapons in his home.

- Defensive coordinator Ron Rivera left to be a linebacker coach in San Diego, and has been replaced by Bob Babich, who is a first time pro coordinator.

- 1210 yard back Thomas Jones was traded to the Jets, leaving the so-far disappointing and weird Cedric Benson as the Bears feature back.

- General lack of faith in Grossman, best illustrated by Tommie Harris' lustful comments to the media about Donovan McNabb.

- And, most recently, super weird baby mama drama for Urlacher, involving threatening text messages purportedly sent by him to one of the mothers of one his children.

So there are plenty of reasons for concern. There have been a couple of seemingly positive developments though. The first is the signing of first round TE Greg Olsen, who the Bears hope can help Rex stop making retarded decisions, presumably thru mental telepathy.

The Bears also plan to involve Devin Hester, who was absolutely blasphemous as a kick returner last year (5 regular season TDs, one Super Bowl TD) in the offense. If he gets hurt while doing this, this will go down as one of the stupidest decisions ever made.

Finally, and most importantly, the Bears still play in the NFC North, which is still absolutely terrible. This guarantees the Bears another playoff berth. Another Super Bowl? It certainly can happen, if the defense is back to its early 06 form. That may depend on how the Lance Briggs situation plays out. Now you're up to speed on the Bears.