This is a position that has carried a lot of disappointment, and a glimmer of hope.  The hope comes in the form of Hester and Berrian's potential, but that is still a dream.  There are answers in the draft and free agency, but I feel that what we really need is for our players to step up on the team.  Let's look at our current players beginning with the starters, and then going to the back ups, and finally to free agency and the draft.  At the end I will give an opinion of what we should do.

Current Players

On the disappointment end we have high end talents like Muhsin Muhammad who has not been playing near his full potential.  Part of this may be due to his age, and part due to the inconsistent QB situation, but he hasn't been delivering.  More than anything he really hasn't been a factor in the games outside of the first few when Griese started and he seemed to be revitalized.  He came up big against Detroit, Philadelphia, and Minnesota.  Even with those games, he really wasn't consistent this year, and this appears to have come in stark contrast to our 06 campaign when he was always helping us move the chains.  His numbers dropped a bit this year from 60 receptions in 06 to 40 this season and from 863 yards to 570 this year.  TD's were also down from 5 to 3.  His numbers have dropped some and he seems to have lost that "clutch-ness" from the 2006 campaign.  In another disappointment, I thought that Berrian was going to be Robin to Grossman Batman after the 06 Super Bowl campaign.  While he didn't become super dominant and break out as a star receiver he did make improvements.  He went from 51 receptions to 71 and from 775 yards to 951.  His TD's dropped from 6 to 5, but I don't think that is much to complain about.  I am happy with Berrian's continued growth, but he still left much to be desired.  He also has had issues with disappearing during games and dropping passes.  Moose has dropped a lot of passes as well, but his decline has been more pronounced than Berrian.  Berrian improved statistically this year, but still wasn't getting the job done consistently.

Looking at our bench we can see some players who underachieved

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Rex returning or free agent be damned, if you ask Kyle Orton who the starter will be for the Bears next year and he has your answer.  Himself.

I appreciate the confidence and if in camp Orton beats out whoever it is the Bears feel fit to bring, then good on ya.

This article gives a brief run down on where all the teams the Bears are fighting for a playoff spot are:

This article gives a brief run down on where all the teams the Bears are fighting for a playoff spot are:

There was some talk coming out of Chicago that the Bears would have to sign another punter after Dirk Johnson, a replacement for Brad Maynard, was also hurt during this past week's game.  Robbie Gould filled in and finished the game.

It was the first game Maynard had missed in 161 games.

Maynard says he will absolutely be ready to start, in game 3 versus the Dallas Cowboys.

The only real position battle that looks to be up in the air for the Bears training camp if you accept that Mark Anderson is a lock instead of Alex Brown is that of who will replace Tank Johnson.

It looks like 2nd year man Dusty Dvoracek will get first crack.

He will be competing with free agent pickup Anthony Adams and Antonio Garay.

You want to know where the Bears will be when they try to become the first ever 6-peat Super Bowl champs?

The answer is Dallas.

ESPN has just listed their power rankings and low and behold they have already given things over to their new golden teams.  The Saints and the Ravens despite having worse records are listed in front of the Bears who come in at #4.

FOX keeps it a little bit more rounded, having only the Ravens in front as the Bears are listed at number 3.

CBS also has us at #3.