Hub Arkush at chicagofootball.com answers your questions:
“From @chwtom: What do you see as the biggest remaining holes on the team? Any options to fill those?
“There is no proven depth behind Matt Forte or Martellus Bennett and I don’t think Jordan Mills is a starting tackle in the NFL. On defense there are bodies everywhere, but I don’t see proven, qualified candidates for one of the starting safety jobs or the nickel spot, and we still have no idea of there’s a legitimate edge rushing spot on the roster.
“My concern in order is safety, right tackle, nickel corner, pass-rushing outside linebacker and of course quarterback.”
I wouldn’t stop at depth behind Forte and Bennett. I don’t see quality depth anywhere on this roster with the possible exception of pass rusher and offensive line. And pass rusher is a funny one because, as Arkush points out, there are so many bodies there that I almost have to assume more than a couple will work out as decent backups but have to wonder whether any will be decent starters.
At defensive end the Bears have Jarvis Jenkins, Ray McDonald and possibly Jeremiah Ratliff and… nobody. At corner they have Kyle Fuller, Alan Ball, Tim Jennings and… nobody. At safety they have Atrel Rolle and Ryan Mundy and a roll of the dice with draft pick Adrian Amos. And at wide receiver they have Alshon Jeffery, Eddie Royal, Kevin White and… nobody.
Hub’s opinion of the starters at safety and nickel is debatable. I don’t like all of the players but I don’t think that the Bears have any “holes” left per se. They have starters for every position. But assuming that they have the usual number of injuries, they’re going to run out of quality players pretty quickly. The Bears coaching staff is really going to have to earn their money if they are going to make something out of backups that have never shown that they can do anything. Unless the team is extremely lucky, we’re going to find out how capable they are of doing that fairly quickly.