Darth Celtic wrote:the bears have very good depth at DT and OLB. If johnson and briggs are both gone, we will be ok. Don't forget we upgraded the safety postion with AA and brown being back as well. Our third round pick was a good DT last year, but didn't play because of a foot issue. I actaully think our defense will be much better this year.
Not to mention the offense got big weapons added and more experience from last year.
Now, the lions again got better on offense. But.....The QB is the same, and he's getting to the age where he's getting worse, not better.
The OLine is nearly the same.
And on defense, who will cover the wr's? Did I miss the lions improving there secondary? Didn't they trade away a probowler there?
I'll break this down. First, to start I don't think the Bears will have enough of a drop off in performance from their defense to keep them out of the playoffs, but I really think the Saints could be the team to contend with out of the NFC this year.
Second even after adding a target like Olsen at TE, and moving your CB Hester to play split duty at WR, I still don't think Grossman can ever perform at a high enough level, you guys could use any other QB and probably win the Superbowl, but I think Grossman is too prone to making mistakes and it will cost you guys again this year because your defense will be more productive at scoring than your offense is truely capable of. Sorry to say it but its true.
I'll combine the third and fourth points. Yes we do still have the same QB from last year, and we all realize he's aging but I think the most any of us expect out of Kitna is maybe another good 2 years. None of us think he is great, but he can get the job done, looking at most of his mistakes last year, he was trying to force the ball into areas to help us win games when he really had no one to throw to other than Williams. The addition of CJ will help greatly. Also our biggest concern is our secondary and how they will stop any of our opponents with a deep attack. Trading away Bly seems like it would hurt this team, but he didn't want to be here any longer so it benefits the locker room with him gone. Otherwise our defense might not be as bad as everyone thinks if they can stay healthy. Redding was the only player on the DL that played all year, if we can play 1st string players instead of 3rd string the Lions really might turn some heads. Either way though Chicago is still going to be the team to go through this year in the NFC North by the looks of things, but only time will tell.
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