Tuesday Morning Rant: The Chicago Bears are not very good

There's no other way to say it.  The 2011 Chicago Bears simply aren't very good.  They have some talented players on both sides of the ball.  A few Pro Bowlers and a few could be Pro Bowlers, but the overall talent level on the team isn't very good.  Not near the level of depth of the Green Bay Packers and not near the level of the Detroit Lions.  The Lions survived the pathetic general management of Matt Millen for years, and in two off seasons they have built a better team than Jerry Angelo has in his tenure.

Some of Angelo's decisions I agreed with at the time, but hindsight being what it is paints a different picture.  Years of bad drafting.  Michael Okwo.  Michael Haynes.  Roe Williams.  Mark Bradley.  Jarron Gilbert.  Years of poor personnel decisions.  Letting Tony Parrish walk.  Trading Thomas Jones.  Signing Adam Archuleta.  Trading Chris Harris.  Signing Orlando Pace.  Letting Danieal Manning go.  Forgetting to check a box.  Not locking up Matt Forte.  Failing to surround the franchise quarterback with any good offensive linemen or wide receivers. Signing the stubborn Mike Martz to run the offense.

Jerry Angelo must go.  Mike Martz must go.  And while I'm giving my pink slip recommendations, Frank Omiyale should be cut.  If I was running the team, I would have cut him immediately after the game.  Thanks for your service, but find another way back to Chicago.

Angelo drafts defensive linemen and safeties more than any other position, yet the Bears start three free agent acquisitions on the defensive line, and the 1st DT and 1st DE off the bench weren't Angelo draft picks either.  Think about that for a second.  That alone is an indictment on his drafting prowess.  Pathetic.  At safety he had to reacquire one of the starters after trading him away and the other was brought in as a free agent.  That is a joke too.  The defense is aging, and there's no one waiting in the wings.  No talent on the bench ready to step in and step up. 

JA also like to drafts linebackers.  But where is the depth at that position?  The flirtation with OLB Pisa Tinoisamoa shouldn't happen.  The Bears shouldn't be looking on the street for linebacker help at this point, they should have hungry young talent stockpiled waiting to play.  They should have better depth all over the roster, not the collection of fringe NFL players they currently have.  Five undrafted rookie free agents made this team, what kind of talent did they have to beat out?  I'll answer that one for you; Talent that wasn't very good. 

I don't see any diamonds in the rough when I look over the Bears roster.  In fact I only see a handful of players that could start for either the undefeated Packers or undefeated Lions.  Both are simply better teams from top to bottom.  It's going to be a long road toward relevance for the Chicago Bears.