The Draft Aftermath

It is ridiculous to evaluate or grade an NFL team's draft success the week after the draft (doesn't stop ESPN though) but the Bears not addressing offense save for a fullback and guard late on the second day is disappointing to say the least.

For a team that hasn't had an offensive unit ranked higher than 28th out of 32 teams for the past 4 consecutive years that shows an awful lot of confidence in the players they have. It would help if you could tee off on the Bears front office for a bunch of terrible personnel moves but I don't think that is a fair assessment. They've done a fantastic job getting a lot of quality defensive players in the draft especially with mid to late round picks. I think the real problem is hubris.

Outside of finally realizing that a veteran QB that could compete (if given the opportunity) for the starting job and provide some depth was probably a pretty good idea to have on the roster, the Bears haven't done anything to improve their offense. Without signing any free agents (they courted Randel-El, Az Hakim, and Reche Caldwell this past offseason but signed none) and spending their first six picks on defense the Bears seem to think they can compete for a Super Bowl by standing pat and expecting Grossman to play more games than Kyle Orton did last year and have Mark Bradley return from an ACL injury and continue to improve. These are huge question marks and (as much as I like both Grossman and Bradley) no reason to assume that they are going to pan out. This reminds me of a certain northside baseball team that didn't address starting pitching in the offseason thinking that a couple injured arms and another injury prone starter were good enough to go into season with and compete. We all see how well that is going.

In sports there is no stasis. You're either getting better or getting worse. Let's hope that when we reflect on this draft and offseason period in a few years that the Bears were right.

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