By Jim Coffman
Why is it that so many people who are paid to write about and talk about sports in this town can’t figure out that Jerry Angelo knows what he’s doing?
Angelo took over a franchise that was lost in the wilderness a half-dozen years ago. The Bears had followed the disastrous Dave Wannstedt regime with the Dick Jauron fiasco (Jauron, who was hired before Angelo arrived, lucked into a divisional championship and a first-round playoff bye early in Angelo’s tenure but then his team choked away a home playoff game against the Eagles and went downhill from there). At the end of Jauron’s tenure – marked most ridiculously by the employment of the most out-of-his-element offensive coordinator (John Shoop) in the NFL in the last quarter century – Angelo hired Lovie Smith. Meanwhile, he was bringing in all sorts of talent – particularly impressing with his ability to find great players in the middle of the draft and with his willingness to go get the players he most wanted early in free agency. The Bears returned to the playoffs in 2004-05 and went to the Super Bowl in 2006. They did so without a big-time quarterback.
They had a bad year last year. They need upgrades, on offense in particular. And Angelo has made some moves. They aren’t great moves (other than re-signing Lance Briggs for what everyone seems to agree is a bargain price), but they are solid. There are clearly more moves to come. The most important thing about the Bears defense is the health of the primary guys up the middle (Tommie Harris and Brian Urlacher) and they showed signs late last season that they were finally returning to full speed. On offense, the Bears need to get the running game going behind a running back who isn’t currently on the roster. I’m confident they will draft at least one player who will fill the bill. Even more importantly, either Rex Grossman or Kyle Orton need to step up and show they can lead a team to post-season success. They both showed both during shorts stretches of last season and in longer stretches in previous seasons that there is reason to believe they could do that. The Bears will also probably draft a guy who will become their quarterback of the future.
The off-season move that has apparently upset the most people is the loss of Bernard Berrian. Berrian’s departure, along with that of well over-the-hill Muhsin Muhammad, leaves the Bears without either of their starting receivers from last year.
So what. Were the Bear receivers so good that there shouldn’t have been a complete overhaul in that area? These were the receivers who were at or near the top of the league in passes dropped all season, the receivers who failed to consistently create distance between themselves and defensive backs. And who were the Bears receivers who clearly showed the most promise last year? They were Greg Olsen and Devin Hester (oh by the way I don’t want to see Hester starting at wideout – he is way to valuable as a return man and he can do plenty of damage as the third receiver who comes in during obvious passing downs. He also can’t block to save his life.)
The Vikings obviously overpaid Berrian. If there is ever going to be even a slight slowing of the thing that drives most sports fans the most nuts – player salaries that grow by leaps and bounds each year no matter what – more general managers have to do what Jerry Angelo did and let guys like that go (and like the Patriots let top cornerbacks Asante Samuel and Randall Gay go this off-season).
But this move is also justified by what goes on on the field. The main thing Berrian gave the Bears was breakaway speed. He had the ability to hit the home run or at least stretch out defenses. Well, Hester can do that. Otherwise the Bears need guys like Olsen who can run good routes (a Marty Booker strength). And maybe, just maybe, Brandon Lloyd will finally decide to find himself this fall.
I’m not entirely optimistic. How can the Bears not have done anything to bolster the offensive line? Again, though, it is still early in the off-season. Many more moves await.
In other news:
* Patrick Lalime gave up six goals on 19 shots for the Blackhawks on Sunday as the team suffered a crushing 6-5 overtime loss to Edmonton. It was noted in this space about a month-and-a-half ago that the the Hawks weren’t quite good enough to make the playoffs in the loaded Western Conference. We stand by that assessment.
* You could not possibly make up the myriad ways the Bulls have self-destructed this season. There was a great breakdown of all that is wrong with the squad written by K.C. Johnson in Sunday’s Trib. It began with the latest incident, one that involved Aaron Gray – Aaron Gray! – the scrub second-round seven-footer who caught on with the Bulls by the grace of God at the beginning of the season (they didn’t have anyone with center size and any kind of real promise so they held onto the former Pitt standout). Gray, who showed a tiny bit of promise early in the year but they tapered off, apparently popped off to coach Jim Boylan after he returned to the bench after a typically ineffective run of playing time last week. The bottom line here is that if Gray feels as though he can disrespect the coach, everyone feels that way.
But that wasn’t the worst of it. Let’s set another special scene: Boylan is apparently watching the Duke-North Carolina contest on Saturday evening and up there in the crowd . . . that’s a familiar face. It’s backup point guard Chris Duhon. Tough night for Duhon because not only did his beloved Dookies blow a late lead and lose to the Tar Heels, but also he hadn’t received permission to attend the college contest. And when he then missed a Sunday morning shoot-around with the Bulls, he was fined and suspended for last night’s game at Detroit. And that game turned into the second straight loss in which a Bulls team that used to take pride in its defense allowed more than 114 points.
How much longer ’til this season ends?
* A very nice outing for Mr. Ryan Dempster on Sunday, allowing a run on a hit in four innings of awfully good work for the Cubs. Always remember, Dempster was once a very good starter for very good Florida Marlins rotations. If he is ready to rock, the Cubs have to be feeling very good about the first four spots in their starting rotation. Yeah, yeah, I had a little (Cubbie) blue Kool-Aid with my breakfast this morning but Carlos Zambrano and Ted Lilly should at the very least repeat their strong 2007 performances, shouldn’t they? And all Rich Hill has done the last two seasons is continue to develop into one of the top young lefthanded starters in the National League. This is practically a Fearsome Foursome already.
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Jim Coffman brings you the city’s best sports roundup every Monday. He does so out of love.
Posted on March 10, 2008