The Chicago Bears: A Look Ahead at Training Camp

After a less than satisfying season, the Chicago Bears are preparing to head into training camp with the hopes that some of the acquisitions that they made during the offseason pan out and help lead them into the playoffs. The coaching staff is already raving about free agent acquisition Julius Peppers as well as Chester Taylor and we haven’t even started training camp yet. That says something about the talent that they have brought in.

Having Peppers as a pass rushing threat this year will most certainly help the Bears out. The Bears have lacked a pure pass rushing threat (on the outside) for several seasons and adding a proven veteran pass rusher like Peppers will work wonders for the defense. It may also help reignite former Pro Bowl defensive tackle Tommie Harris who has struggled with injuries and personal problems that have hurt him on the football field. If Harris can get back to the way he was before this team could be dangerous on defense.

The offense may be a bit of a different story. The Bears are heading into the 2010 season with a new offensive coordinator and he (Mike Martz) has a new system that is going to emphasize the passing game much more than the Bears are used to. This has a direct effect on every single member of that offense from the quarterback all the way down to the center. Obviously the quarterback is going to have to throw the ball more, the tight ends are going to have to block more, the running backs are going to have to catch more passes and the line is going to have to hold their blocks a little longer. Can it be done?

If you were looking at last year’s team the answer would be no. There would be failures at several positions and they wouldn’t be able to sustain their blocks long enough to allow Cutler to pass the ball. But many of the same players on the offensive line will be back and playing once again so what will be different?

The scheme will be different of course and the Bears, despite the fact that the scheme may be more complicated on paper, could take well to it. In a typical Martz scheme, offensive linemen are asked to hold their blocks longer to help the quarterback have time to throw the ball. If pass blocking is going to be the name of the game (or what the offense does a majority of the time) then this group should be pretty well adept at doing that.

So as the Bears head into training camp fans are hoping and praying that they don’t have to go through a repeat of what this team has given them since going to the Super Bowl just three years ago. Things, on their face, appear much better than they did a year ago and as long as the players can pick up the new system (on offense) and perform well then this should be a much better team this year.

If they can’t pick it up and don’t play well this season then there will be wholesale changes on this team come the end of the season including the firing of head coach Lovie Smith as well as possible changes in the front office. Let’s just hope, as Bears fans, that they can turn things around and get back on track again.