Well, I didn’t really have any time this weekend to write up a thorough breakdown of the Bears heading into this 2012 season but before calling it a night I figured I’d fire off a quick synopsis so that I can brag about how smart I am at the end of the season without being accused of cheating by doing it in week 3.
First, on Friday, I got lucky and someone in my office was selling Bears tickets. In a heated competition I was able to get an email response off fastest and landed the tix. So, I will be attending my first ever regular season game in the new Soldier Field. Pretty excited about it. It’s weird because I’ve been to see the Bears at Lambeau, Giants Stadium and Pro Player Stadium since it was built, yet aside from a couple preseason games I’ve never been to the one just down the street from me. I’m extra glad to be watching the Colts game since the Bears will probably win, the Colts are something of a local rival and I have a lot of friends who are Colts fans, I want a tiny payback for the Super Bowl loss and I get to see Andrew Luck.
Enough of that, now to the team breakdown.
Offense
This is the most excited I’ve been about an offense in a long time. Typically I need to grasp at straws to find positive news about the Bears offense. Any time I’m pumped about a player or a performance it’s usually “by Bears standards”, finally I feel like we could have a elite NFL offense.
It all starts with Jay Cutler. Martz is gone and Jay will get the reigns. Mike Tice is the coordinator but in reality it looks like this is Cutler’s offense. Cutler is smart and the way Martz took away his ability to audible or improvise was essentially taking away one of his strengths. Cutler will be slinging the ball out to Marshall and Jeffery a ton and you can be sure that anytime he sees 1-on-1 coverage on the outside that’s where he’s going, this is a very good thing.
The WRs are maybe the best they’ve ever been in Chicago. Marshall will be a super star this year so long as he’s on the field all season long. Cutler will see to it. Jeffery was a guy I oscillated back and forth on in the draft. Originally I was really high on him because of my love for size out of a WR, then the reports about him being fat and slow cooled me considerably. Then the combine rolled around and he looked great. When the Bears landed him in the 2nd round I was pretty fired up but I was prepared to be disappointed. This preseason he looked outstanding. His catch radius is amazing and he’s been a very hard worker. He’s not running away from guys, but he is so big and uses his size well so he’s always open anyways. He dominates DBs. Between Marshall and Jeffery, Cutler will never lack for good matchups. An under rated quality from these guys is their superior run blocking, if Forte or Bush get to the second level these guys could turn that into a TD.
Aside from Marshall and Jeffery, the Bears have role players and depth to be happy about. Hester is still there doing what he does. Tice seems to have downplayed the whole WR1 talk and will use him as the gadget that he should be. If teams double the big guys, Hester should be able to get into space and chew up LBs. Though it’s possible he’ll struggle to get reps with Earl Bennett being so consistent in the slot. Cutler obviously likes him a lot and Bennett could be Mr 3rd down. Personally I think Jay will go to Marshall in those situations and Bennett’s status as security blanket is in doubt. But, a possession guy in the slot is a great complement. Sanzenbacher is something of a Bennett clone, albeit with worse hands. Both guys just know how to find those holes on 3rd down.
At the TE position I’m a lot less excited. The Bears kept 4 of them on the roster which makes me think they are pretty iffy too. I was high on Kellen Davis because of his amazing physical gifts and the occasional highlight reel play. The Bears were too and decided to anoint him starter this offseason and not pursue anyone in free agency. This preseason however he’s been extremely underwhelming. Davis should be the perfect all-around TE, with prototypical size-speed and above average blocking skills and hands, but he can’t seem to put it together. Not sure if it’s route running or awareness that he’s missing, but it’s something. Maybe the attention on the outside will open things up for him.
Behind him they have Spaeth, an older guy who’s basically the blocking specialist. I figured they’d dump him but I guess the issues on the OL forced them to keep him, he’ll probably get a lot of snaps and should help the running game but he’s not a dominant blocker. If we’re keeping a blocking TE I want a better one than him. Next in line is Kyle Adams. A fan favorite who everyone gets excited about in the preseason against the 2s and 3s. In reality he’s probably a waste of a roster spot. He’s a subpar blocker and not enough of an athlete to be a major threat in the passing game. He’s always in the right place and catches well, but I don’t think he’s worth the roster spot.
The last guy and maybe the only really interesting one is Evan Rodriguez. He’s tiny for a TE at 6’2"-230, but he’s a very good receiver. The Bears had hoped to make him a H-back but at least so far he’s completely overmatched as a blocker. The Bears dumped their only FB to keep 4 TEs and one of these guys will have to be able to play in the backfield and block from the wing. Rodriguez because of his height is the natural there, but he’s easily the worst blocker of the bunch. Calling him a project as an H-back is an understatement. That said, the trendy comparison for him has been Aaron Hernandez and he has that type of receiving ability. Whether he’ll split out that much and basically exist as a 6th WR remains to be seen, but that’s not the H-back they claimed to be drafting. He’s an interesting rookie to watch, but he probably won’t be a big factor this season.
The running game has gotten a lot of offseason pub. Forte’s hold-out and Bush’s signing were big moves. Forte was a beast before his injury last season and was better than I thought he could be. I like Forte’s skill set, but I never thought he had the burst he showed last year. We’ll see if that repeats this season in spite of the holdout. In the preseason the team didn’t have much success running the ball at all. I’m concerned about the running game, we’re still gonna struggle on short yardage and the blocking is pretty rough, but if the passing game does what I think it will they’ll have quite a bit of breathing room.
Adding Bush to spell Forte was very smart and this should be a really nice platoon between the 20s. We’ll see what happens in the red zones. People think Bush is the solution to the Bears goal line issues but I don’t remember the exact stat, but Bush was even worse on goal line carries than Forte last season. Still, Bush will add a lot of value to a powerful offense. Plus, bush did score 2 goal line TDs in the preseason so maybe I’ll be proven wrong. The Bears had selected Lorenzo Booker as the 3rd back, which I liked because of his scatback style, but he suffered a concussion and will be placed on the IR. The man he barely beat out, Armando Allen will get the nod. Allen and Booker are nearly identical, so I don’t see this as an issue.
This leads us to the Offensive Line. It sucks, pure and simple. There were stretches in the preseason when they played really soundly but I’m guessing that was against vanilla schemes. Against the blitz things got decidedly more hairy. We did get Carimi back which should do a lot to stabilize the right side along with Louis. He looked great in what little time he got, though with only 2 starts under his belt he’s far from a certainty. Louis is back at RG after bouncing all over the line last season and he needs to make a leap. He wasn’t a bright spot last season, but he was at least okay under perhaps the most absurd of circumstances. Maybe stability will pay off for him. Garza in the middle is average, he’s not good but he’s pretty steady and he’s the veteran that needs to make all the calls. Considering the number of complete whiffs last season at least some had to be on blown calls, so maybe he’s a bigger issue than the Bears and the media are letting on. We’ll see. The left side is where all the major issues are. Spencer was up and down last season but he did have a few good games early in the year. This preseason he’s been frigging awful. Rachal hasn’t been any better backing him up, I’m sort of hoping Edwin Williams finds his way into the lineup but that’s not really part of the plan. Webb won the starting LT job in camp by default because his only competition was the horrible Chris Williams. I’m still fuming that the Bears didn’t address this in the offseason. It’s make or break time for Webb, and it seems like it’s heading towards break.
All the good things I said about the offense could be undone by that line. Cutler needs to stay vertical to do anything with that passing game and the running backs could be on their own. Tice will certainly help them out far more than Martz did and with 4 TEs you can expect quite a but of help on the edges. Plus Jay’s ability to audible might save him from some blitzes. I think we’ll score a lot of points, but I have no illusions about how tenuous that could be with this group of blockers. Hopefully the right side firms up and the weapons are scary enough to keep teams from blitzing indiscriminately. We’ll find out later today I guess with their first test of Freeney and Mathis.
Originally I expected this to be short, and obviously I was wrong. Time for me to crash and I’ll have to get to the defense tomorrow night.
