Needs More Ditka

The Chicago Bears missed out on the playoffs last year. This is a fact. A sad one for Bears fans, but a fact nonetheless.

Lovie Smith is on the hot seat. Jerry Angelo can’t get a seat at any restaurant. Needless to say, the Bears need to have a winning season.

That won’t be easy though. The Bears lose several key components, components that might not have been obvious to the casual viewer, but key to the knowledgeable Bears fan. How they replace these players will define how their season goes.

Let’s take a look at what the Bears need to address this off season

Wide Receivers
The Bears have always had trouble at wide receiver, and this year they are trying to pass off Devin Hester, who is not a wide receiver, as their number one option out wide. The Bears should abandon that tall tale quickly, as there is no way that Devin Hester is the number one wide receiver on any SEC or Big 12 football team, much less an NFL team.

In a wide receiver heavy draft, the Bears would be foolish not to pick a wideout in the first round. Their seventeenth pick could bear (no pun intended) plenty of fruit.

Michael Crabtree will be long gone, as he is by far the best wide receiver in this draft. But factor in the depth of this draft at the position and the bust potential of any one player and it would be foolish for the Bears to trade up to get Crabtree.

Jeremy Maclin on the other hand, might, that’s just might, fall to the Bears at number 18. If Maclin runs a weak 40 yard dash time, there will be many question marks surrounding the Missouri speedster. The Jets could snag him up right before the Bears at pick 17, but if Maclin falls to 18, the Bears must take him- no excuses.

Maclin might go in the top ten though, so the Bears should not count on him falling. The Bears will have at least two of five possible first round wide receivers on the board when they draft. Including Maclin and Crabtree, the other three are Percy Harvin, Darrius Heyward-Bey and Hakeem Nicks.

To find the best option for the Bears, we have to use the process of elimination. This would make a great reality show.

First elimination- Percy Harvin.
Harvin is raw talent wrapped in potential. He possesses elite speed and strength. Probably the best athlete in the draft. That said, Harvin played both wide receiver and running back at Florida, another man on the Bears would have done something similar at another Florida school. Percy Harvin is the second coming of Devin Hester. If you can find one of those in the third round, feel free to draft way, but replacing Hester with a Hester clone seems counterproductive, no?

Second elimination- Hakeem Nicks
Perhaps we’re being a bit nitpicky, but Nicks played one great game in college and boosted himself from a first day fringe pick to the first round. He has all the great receiver tools, but lacks the speed. And while that does not mean that he cannot be a solid NFL wide receiver, it does mean that he is not the surest bet out there right now. He also played in a weak conference with a great receiver core. Put the two together and the result is the Bears looking elsewhere with their pick.

The winner? Darrius Heyward-Bey.
Heyward-Bey has elite speed, he could be the fastest person in the draft, regardless of position. His size isn’t as elite, but it very NFL caliber. The only knock someone can find on him is that he might lack NFL toughness. That’s a knock we should be willing to live with after seeing his plays at Maryland. As of now, Maclin and Heyward Bey are 1 and 1A when it comes to wide receivers that could fall to the Bears. If Maclin is gone, they must take Heyward Bey.

I would mute the video and lay down a towel for the drool when you think about Heyward Bey wearing 88 for the Bears: