By Jimmy Street/The Daily Journal
There were plenty of questions floating around when the Chicago Bears arrived at Olivet Nazarene University on July 23, but training camp was supposed to provide an opportunity for the franchise and its fans to get some answers.
The Bears have held 14 practices, lost one preseason game to the Kansas City Chiefs and watched their prized first-round draft pick, Chris Williams, suffer a herniated disc that could cost him his entire rookie season since they’ve arrived, yet not one of the initial questions has been answered.
If anything, the uncertainties have multiplied.
The Chicago coaching staff has spoken very highly of Matt Forte during the first two-plus weeks of camp, but Kevin Jones returned to the practice field on Saturday evening after missing the majority of camp because of his surgically repaired knee.
Now not only do the Bears not know how good Forte can be in his rookie campaign, but they don’t know exactly how soon the recovery process will come full circle for Jones, or if he can stay healthy after it does.
Yet with all of that being said, if both backs can be effective and stay healthy this year, the running game should be much improved from 2007.
But even if Forte is what the Bears think he can be and Jones reverts to the form that saw him rush for more than 1,000 yards in his rookie season, the offensive line still has some things to iron out if the running backs plan to fulfill the organization’s traditionally high hopes for the running game.
Without Williams at left tackle, there have been several hypothetical solutions tossed around in the past few days. The first scenario is that John Tait moves back to left tackle instead of remaining at his new home on the right side of the line. The second idea is that the Bears re-sign Fred Miller and plug him into the hole.
The earliest signs indicate that the Bears will not revert to either of the two previously mentioned notions, and if the line can hold up like it did in limited work on Thursday, the questions about the line will simply be answered with keeping John St. Clair with the first-team.
Yet even if the line is steady and can open up some running lanes for the backfield duo of Forte and Jones, and even if those two can run effectively, how good can Rex Grossman or Kyle Orton be?
Neither Grossman or Orton have stepped ahead of the other quarterback during the first two weeks of camp and neither looked especially sharp against Kansas City. In fact, the only quarterback that anyone spoke of highly after the preseason opener was third-string rookie Caleb Hanie.
If the offensive line can hold up, if the running backs can live up to expectations and if either Grossman or Orton can be the quarterback that the Bears think they can be, there is still another question that has to be answered — who is going to catch the ball when the quarterbacks throw it?
The Bears do not have a true No. 1 receiver and if Devin Hester is to fill that role, he didn’t get much of a chance to show how he will do it in the loss to the Chiefs. Marty Booker and Brandon Lloyd haven’t been overly impressive since they arrived in Chicago, while Mark Bradley hasn’t even looked as sharp as he usually does in camp.
Earl Bennett had a dropped pass during a crucial two-minute drill on Thursday, but bounced back with a great diving catch in the end zone during Saturday’s practice. Mike Hass has been the only real consistent so far, and he probably won’t even make the 53-man roster.
The bottom line is that there were plenty of questions about Chicago’s offense when camp began and there still have not been any answers.
If the Bears hope to improve on last year’s 7-9 record, the answers need to start showing up fairly soon — the opening night matchup with Indianapolis is only four weeks away.
