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Remember the story of the little boy that saved his town by putting his finger in the hole in the dike. Dave Wannstedt is probably counting his fingers right now. Everytime that he solves one problem, two more seem to pop up. The Bears fell to 7-9 after successive seasons at 9-7. They had reason to be optimistic coming into the season. The offense in 1995 had improved to become one of the league’s best. The talk around was if they could improve their defense they would be able to play with the big boys in the league. To that end they signed Brian Cox to a large contract. The Bears thought they were set. Wannstedt even said the pieces were in place. The problem was that no one told Wannstedt that the pieces were made of porcelain. Whether injuries were the reason or the excuse for the Bears record remains to be seen, but one thing is certain they didn’t have the personnel to overcome them. The team has a number of questions facing it in the off-season. They have 11 starters who are free agents. Do you re-sign all of them? Some of them? None of them? The Bears seem to be in that netherworld of teams that aren’t bad, but aren’t going to enter the Green Bay’s, the Dallas’, or the 49er’s little club. The offensive line is probably the strength of the team but it has two free agents, Jerry Fontenot and Todd Burger. Burger is a restricted free agent and is expected back. Fontenot is another matter. The Bears may decide that he will be too expensive to keep and they have a good looking lineman in Chris Villarrial who filled in when Burger was injured. A classic salary cap quandary, keep the experience and depth or save the money to use elsewhere. The Bears at one time had the top four runners on it’s depth chart all injured. When healthy they make for a good group running attack. While none of them may grace the halls of Canton Ohio, they collectively are capable of giving you a solid ground game. Raymont Harris and Antonio Carter were the starters at the end of the year and they are both restricted free agents. They will both probably be back. Rashaan Salaam may be the best runner of the group, but he also has fumbling on his resume. Robert Green is the best receiver and was missed in the third down offense when hurt. Carter is a good lead blocker and receiver. Harris who used to call himself the ultra-back is a good runner and receiver, but is not a breakaway threat. Wide receiver is the only area of the team not affected by free agency this year. Curtis Conway is starting to get his name mentioned along with the best in the league. He became the first Bear receiver to get a 1000 yards, two years in a row. Michael Timpson however was a mixed bag. He dropped a lot of passes and always on what would have been big plays. Some players seem to have the knack for the big play, he has the knack for stopping a drive. Despite this he did have a much better second half and finished with 62 catches for 802 yards. Rookie Bobby Engram started to come on in the second half of the year and finished with 33 catches for 389 yards and 6 TD’s. The fourth receiver on the team caught 4 passes, enough said. Tight-end was the most injury riddled unit on the team. Not one of them stayed healthy the whole year. They came into the season looking to throw more to the tight-end after possession receiver Jeff Graham signed with the Jets. They ended up with 40 catches and one touchdown between four tight-ends. None of their tight-ends when healthy would resemble a complete tight-end, all have limitations. Quarterback Eric Kramer started the first day in training camp injured. He finished the season injured, four games into the regular season. The Bears’ hope for reaching the playoffs were crushed along with his vertebra. It’s not known if he can come back completely from his neck injury. Even if he does the Bears are convinced that a quarterback of the future had better be brought in now. Kramer is a free agent and the Bears will try to sign him, if they do, it will be at a bargain price and loaded with incentives. The Bears finally solved the problem of who should be the cornerback on the other side of the field of Woolford, when they drafted Walt Harris. He had a good year and will get better. Now the problem is who should play on the other side of Harris, as Woolford is a free agent. They may decide that he is too old (31) and would ask for too much money. They have no one on the team that could replace him and if he goes they will sign another free agent to replace him. Free safety Mark Carrier is probably gone unless he signs cheaply. Marty Carter again led the team in tackles and is solid. Two of the three starting linebackers are free agents. The other is Brian Cox who is coming off a shattered thumb and has a bulging disk in his back. Believe it or not the Bears are not worried about him. They have made up their mind that back-up middle linebacker Barry Minter will be moved to the outside and either Joe Cain will be resigned or third year man Sean Harris will start. In 1995 the defensive line was considered the worst part of the team, they put zero pressure on the quarterback and they weren’t that good against the run either. Whatever strides the defense made it was because of the improvement of the line. While they still cry out for a dominating lineman of the Reggie White or Bruce Smith variety, they do a good job against the run and get some pressure on the quarterback especially Spellman and Flanagan. Again, however two of the four starters are free agents. Al Fontenot might be gone, he’s a good player but if someone offers him a large contract the Bears will go on without him. Flanagan had another good year and is a restricted free agent who the Bears can’t possibly do without, when he was injured during the season the defense crumbled. He also tore his Achilles tendon in the last game and they hope he will be recovered by training camp.
DRAFT OUTLOOK: If they make the deal for Mirer, look for them to pick a tight-end with their second pick.One or all of the top three tight-ends ( Jones,LaFleur,Gonzalez) could be there, and they would doubtless grab one up. If they don’t make a deal for Mirer, they will probably trade down and take Druckenmiller and again take one of the tight-ends in the second round. If they trade up, they’ll take either Peter Boulware or Darrell Russell. My money would be on Russell. If they didn’t use it to trade up their second pick will go for one of the tight-ends and they’ll wait a few rounds to take a quarterback. In the middle or lower rounds they will probably take a safety, a corner, an offensive tackle and wide receiver and linebacker. The order will be based on the best athlete available at the time, as these picks will be to improve depth.
TRADES AND FREE AGENTS:
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