John Clayton wrote an article today after visiting Bears camp and I'm assuming he didn't dictate the story because his mouth is definitely full of bear globes. Joking aside, as one sided as the article kind of was, I'm basically with Clayton here. A lot of people are down on the bears, saying with a tougher schedule they're going to be much worse, some even bold enough to predict that Chicago misses the playoffs. I really don't agree, I still think Chicago is #1 in the NFC, albeit with Dallas and New Orleans close behind. Here are a few reasons why:
1. Cedric Benson - I have only my viewing experience and my review of stats, but personally I think Thomas Jones is very overrated. The guy averaged about 4.1 per carry his last three years in Chicago, and has a number of sub 4 seasons for his career. Don't get me wrong, he's a "nice" back, and I think he'll be great in NY as a platoon guy. However, Ced Benson is the real deal. Skeptics will point out he too only averaged 4.1 last year, fair point. Numbers aside though, I just think Benson has much better potential than Jones as a feature back, he has a better combo of speed and power and more potential to break long runs than jones did. Benson won't even turn 25 until the end of the year, it was the right move to dump Jones and begin the Benson era. With an improved passing attack (I'll address this below) I see Benson as more like a 4.5 YPC guy, who could be due for a breakout year somewhere between 1300-1700 yards and a number of touchdowns.
2. The Bears Defense - It just really didn't get much worse over the course of the offseason. The bears wisely re-signed vasher and got Briggs to sign his one year tender. Even if they take a slight dip they'll be a top 10 defense in the NFL, and I think what losses they've had may be offset by experience gained.
3. The Passing attack - Look, first of all the Bears passing game couldn't get any worse, it's virtually impossible. Watching Rex Grossman play Quarter Back last year I felt some strange mix (as a non bears fan) of horrified, thoroughly amused, and sorry for Rex. This year, I don't think it's going to be the same story. I'm basing this mostly off of Clayton's article, but I think the difference is the number of weapons. All of a sudden the Bears have two above average recieving Tight Ends, Clark and Olsen. In addition they have an improved recieving corps, as Berrian is starting to break out and should only improve, and then you add Devin Hester to the mix who is sure to draw attention, and have the ability to turn a short dump off into a big gain. Thirdly, the running game should be as good or better as I stated earlier. Lastly, it just seems impossible that Rex won't improve, he really has nowhere to go but up. If he just learns to pick his spots with the deep ball to berrian, and then effectively dump off to backs, tight ends, and hester - his completion percentage and rating should really improve. I'm going to throw out a bold prediction: Rex Grossman will be a better Quarterback than Tony Romo in 2007.
As strange as it sounds to say, I'm really looking forward to watching the Bears offense in action, especially to see how Greg Olsen, Garret Wolfe, and Devin Hester fit in. Could the Bears be back in the Super Bowl next season? I'd bet on it.
No comments:
Post a Comment