The Bears were planning to go into camp with Devin Hester and Brandon Lloyd as their starting wide receivers. With a hold out by Hester, Marty Booker stepped in and ran with the first team.
The Bears lack experience at the wide receiver spot. Only Marty Booker has more than 3 years experience with meaningful playing time. What the Bears do have is a lot of speed and a ton of potential. Hester, Bradley and Lloyd all have high end speed. They also are carring two promising rookies.
The Bears current roster of wide receivers looks like this:
Devin Hester
Marty Booker
Brandon Lloyd
Rashied Davis
Mark Bradley
Earl Bennett
Marcus Monk
Mike Hass
Brandon Rideau
Hester, Booker, Lloyd and Bennett are probably locks at this point. Based on OTAs the Bears have probably seen enough good out of Monk to keep him. Rashied Davis was the Bears top performer during OTAs, I'd like to see them keep him. At least he is familiar with the play book. I don't know how many recievers the Bears are going to run with, so Hass and Rideau are either cuts or practice squad players. Mark Bradley is the X Factor. The Bears seemed intent on marking him a starter going into this year, but with his latest surgery the Bears don't know when he will be ready.
Let's take a look at the numbers of those with NFL experience:
(numbers after the jump)
Devin Hester
| Year | Tm | G | GS | Rec | Yds | Y/R | TD | Lng | Y/G |
| 2006 | CHI | 16 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2007 | CHI | 16 | 0 | 20 | 299 | 15.0 | 2 | 81 | 18.7 |
| Career | 32 | 0 | 20 | 299 | 15.0 | 2 | 81 | 9.3 |
Marty Booker
| Year | Tm | G | GS | Rec | Yds | Y/R | TD | Lng | Y/G |
| 1999 | CHI | 9 | 4 | 19 | 219 | 11.5 | 3 | 57 | 24.3 |
| 2000 | CHI | 15 | 7 | 47 | 490 | 10.4 | 2 | 41 | 32.7 |
| 2001 | CHI | 16 | 16 | 100 | 1071 | 10.7 | 8 | 66 | 66.9 |
| 2002 | CHI | 16 | 16 | 97 | 1189 | 12.3 | 6 | 54 | 74.3 |
| 2003 | CHI | 13 | 13 | 52 | 715 | 13.8 | 4 | 61 | 55.0 |
| 2004 | MIA | 15 | 15 | 50 | 638 | 12.8 | 1 | 45 | 42.5 |
| 2005 | MIA | 15 | 11 | 39 | 686 | 17.6 | 3 | 60 | 45.7 |
| 2006 | MIA | 14 | 13 | 55 | 747 | 13.6 | 6 | 52 | 53.4 |
| 2007 | MIA | 15 | 15 | 50 | 556 | 11.1 | 1 | 26 | 37.1 |
| Career | 128 | 110 | 509 | 6311 | 12.4 | 34 | 66 | 49.3 |
Brandon Lloyd
| Year | Tm | G | GS | Rec | Yds | Y/R | TD | Lng | Y/G |
| 2003 | SFO | 16 | 1 | 14 | 212 | 15.1 | 2 | 44 | 13.3 |
| 2004 | SFO | 13 | 13 | 43 | 565 | 13.1 | 6 | 52 | 43.5 |
| 2005 | SFO | 16 | 15 | 48 | 733 | 15.3 | 5 | 89 | 45.8 |
| 2006 | WAS | 15 | 12 | 23 | 365 | 15.9 | 0 | 52 | 24.3 |
| 2007 | WAS | 8 | 1 | 2 | 14 | 7.0 | 0 | 9 | 1.8 |
| Career | 68 | 42 | 130 | 1889 | 14.5 | 13 | 89 | 27.8 |
Rashied Davis
| Year | Tm | G | GS | Rec | Yds | Y/R | TD | Lng | Y/G |
| 2005 | CHI | 12 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2006 | CHI | 16 | 2 | 22 | 303 | 13.8 | 2 | 31 | 18.9 |
| 2007 | CHI | 16 | 1 | 17 | 165 | 9.7 | 0 | 36 | 10.3 |
| Career | 44 | 3 | 39 | 468 | 12.0 | 2 | 36 | 10.6 |
Mark Bradley
| Year | Tm | G | GS | Rec | Yds | Y/R | TD | Lng | Y/G |
| 2005 | CHI | 7 | 4 | 18 | 230 | 12.8 | 0 | 54 | 32.9 |
| 2006 | CHI | 10 | 0 | 14 | 282 | 20.1 | 3 | 75 | 28.2 |
| 2007 | CHI | 15 | 0 | 6 | 71 | 11.8 | 1 | 19 | 4.7 |
| Career | 32 | 4 | 38 | 583 | 15.3 | 4 | 75 | 18.2 |
Given our situation at QB and the unknown of how well the line and running backs could be, I think having Marty Booker in there would be a help to Grossman or Orton. Hester is one of the top three most dangerous guys in this league if not #1, so we need to get the ball in his hands as often as possible, but has he learned the position enough to give him starter reps?