Top Ten Reasons To Get Excited About the Bears

BY DANNY SHERIDAN

Even with both baseball teams in pennant races, I really miss football. With training camps underway, I’m counting down the days until the Bears open their season Sept. 7. Despite what you may think, it was pretty easy coming up with the top ten reasons to be excited about the Bears this year. Notice though how the quarterback and wide receivers positions were left off this list. If I had an 11, the opportunity to read Tribune Bears beat writer David Haugh everyday for the next six months would have grabbed that spot.

10. No more Cedric Benson or Adam Archuleta

Why again did the Bears trade Thomas Jones and Chris Harris? At least we’ll no longer have to watch Benson fall down at the first bit of contact, or Archuleta miss tackle after tackle by being too slow and out of position. Benson was a bust on the field and cancer in the locker room. Archuleta is proof that combine workouts are way overrated.

9. Tight Ends

Now if someone can just get them the ball. ESPN had the Bears tandem of Desmond Clark and Greg Olsen only ninth in their overall tight end rankings, but that’s primarily due to the uncertainty at the quarterback position. Clark has posted back to back solid seasons, while this could be a breakout year for Olsen. It’d be nice to see Ron Turner run more plays with both of them on the field, which could open things up for a weak group of wide receivers.

8. Schedule

The Bears play only five teams that made the playoffs last season. Tampa Bay, Tennessee, and now Green Bay (without Favre) are beatable, leaving only Jacksonville and Indianapolis. Luckily, they play the Colts opening night, meaning Peyton Manning might not be 100% yet after his recent knee surgery. In the division, Minnesota has a great defensive line, great offensive line, and great running back, but not much else. Detroit still has no defense, while there are a lot of questions right now in Packerland. Plus, there are games against Atlanta, St. Louis, Carolina, and Houston, all very winnable.

7. The rookies

After the draft, every team thinks they made out great, so we won’t know for quite a while whether Chris Williams and Matt Forte are any good. The Bears desperately needed a tackle, so Williams was the obvious choice. Forte seems like one of those guys who could end up being really good or really bad. With the passing game a huge question mark, the Bears have to be able to run the football a lot better than last season’s league low 3.1 ypc. Don’t sleep on Marcus Harrison or Craig Steltz either. Both could wind up being two more Jerry Angelo second day steals.


6. It’s about time for football, any football

This has nothing to do with the Bears. Here’s a top ten list within a top ten list (this may be a first) on why football is better than baseball.

10. A pulled hamstring sidelines a baseball player for a month, while football players play through much worse.

9. Statistics are only a part of the NFL

8. 16 games is a lot better than 162

7. Football has a real draft

6. Baseball players make too much money

5. Officials can actually move

4. Alex Rodriguez doesn’t have to worry about getting sacked

3. NFL players show passion

2. You can play in the rain

1. Monday Night Football

5. Mike Brown is back (for now)

It was the right call to give Brown one last chance. I realize he’s played only 21 games the last four years, but when healthy, he’s one of the top safeties in the league. Certainly, it’s a big “if”, considering Brown’s recent history, but none of his injuries have been the same, which is good. Brown’s more valuable to the defense than even Urlacher, but he’s got to stay on the field.  

4. No Brett Favre (we think)

Unless of course he does a complete 180 and stays in Green Bay, or Ted Thompson is stupid enough to trade him to Minnesota. Yeah, I know the Bears have beaten Favre in six of their last eight meetings, but look at it logically. With Favre under center, the Packers are clearly the class of the NFC North, and possibly the entire NFC. Put Aaron Rodgers under center and the division becomes wide open.  

3. Low expectations

Flashback to September 2005, when Sports Illustrated had the Bears ranked 32nd out of 32 teams to start the year. For some stupid reason, I predicted 11 wins, just to be different. Low and behold, even with Kyle Orton calling the shots, and no Devin Hester, I was right. From the people I’ve talked to, I’m hearing on average anywhere between six to eight wins this year. Maybe the media’s gloomy predictions (Bears are 25th in ESPN’s current power rankings) will turn into a rallying cry.

2. A dominating defense

When everyone is healthy of course. Mike Brown, Nathan Vasher, Tommie Harris, Lance Briggs, Brian Urlacher, and Dusty Dvoracek all either missed significant amounts of time or played at considerably less than 100% last year. Remember how dominating this defense was for three quarters in the opener versus the Chargers? That’s a glimpse of how good this unit could be if they can avoid injuries. Urlacher and Briggs are two of the best at their positions, while Vasher and Tillman might be one of the top five cornerback tandems. The line has only one real star in Harris, but a bunch of good players. They still know how to force turnovers, something that will be needed to help a bad offense. Fantasy owners, this is a top three defense, trust me.

1. Devin Hester

No explanation necessary here. Funny how far 40 million dollars can go to healing a sore hamstring. And as a bonus, reports are Hester could take part in close to 50% of the offensive snaps this year.