Brad Biggs at the Chicago Tribune answers your questions:
How in the world are the Bears going to create needed pass rush with the players they have and a non-top draft pick? That’s even if they take a defensive end in the first round. — @kunistodd
Fair question and one that can lead us down a number of alleys because there are many layers to this.
The timing of the NFL offseason — free agency comes before the draft — and the fact the Bears have regularly taken big swings in free agency for a long time have obscured the reality that the draft should be the biggest part of the offseason. Smart teams find ways to get better in free agency, and sometimes that means investing in their own players to prevent them from eventually departing as free agents. That’s one way of saying when the Bears get around to signing right tackle Darnell Wright to an extension — and I’m not sure when that will happen — you should consider that expenditure in a different light.
I thought the Bears had really good synergy between the front office and coaching staff last year in terms of draft and development and finding free agents who were good fits for the scheme. If we can agree on that, then general manager Ryan Poles, coach Ben Johnson and defensive coordinator Dennis Allen probably have earned some benefit of the doubt. Now, it will be more challenging this time as they had the 10th pick and three second-round picks a year ago, but no NFL team will take the field in Week 1 with the depth chart it has right now. There’s opportunity for the Bears to get better, and this is considered a deep draft for edge rushers.
Bears fans are going to have to adjust their attitudes when it comes to the desire to immediately fill holes on the teams’ roster. They aren’t in the position to just throw money at their problems anymore. And, without rehashing articles dating back to time immemorial, I’ll just say that’s a good thing because it almost never works and I’ll leave it at that.
The Bears are at a critical point where they are in balance. They can fall way and continue to build on their performance last year and get better. Or they can fall back to below average and pick in the top ten again next year.
If they can do the former then they, and their fans, are going to have to get used to their new reality. They are going to have to look to teams like the Packers and Steelers. These are just two of the organizations that, though they don’t make the playoffs and win the Super Bowl every year, have consistently competed at a high level for a very long time. They don’t ever have high, top ten picks. They don’t have the cap space of the cash to sign big name free agent. But they maximize their resources by drafting wherever they land and developing their players from there.
My advice to Bears fans is to hope that there are always questions, other than quarterback, going into training camp for years to come. If that is the case, it will mean that the front office and the coaching staff have managed to develop talent the ay that good teams do more often than not.