The Hunger is Back!

All right, here’s the truth: The Bears drafted hunger, and it's going to show with their success in the 2008-09 season. The Bears are a running team and will most likely never have an aerial assault, so the Bears beefing up their weak offensive line and adding a proven, talented running back in the back field should be no surprise.

Former Illinois running back, Rashard Mendenhall, and former Virginia guard, Branden Albert, are the two players that every Chicago reporter and columnist talked about on the days preceding and proceeding the draft.

The Tribune’s Steve Rosenbloom said, “First round, right position, wrong player. Second round, right position, wrong player.”
The infamously pessimistic Sun-Times columnist, Jay Mariotti, said, “Wake up, Bears: Target Mendenhall, not OT. Forget safe play at tackle; local kid's the back to make offense go.”

That’s a good game plan: draft Mendenhall (when the Bears are all ready paying through the roof with Benson) and let him try to break four, five, or six tackles because there isn’t going to be any blocking. Why do you think Adrian Peterson had such an amazing year? Yes, he is a one-in-a-million talent, but he wouldn’t have mounted up the ridiculous rookie numbers with out one of the NFL’s best offensive lines in Minnesota, which is headed by All-Pro center Matt Birk. And Albert is a good offensive lineman and will emerge in a couple of season as a top offensive guard, but the Bears had a hole the size of Keith Traylor on the left side and they filled it with a true left side tackle in Vanderbilt’s Chris Williams. Sorry, but the game is won and lost in the trenches, and that is what the Bears addressed in Williams and in Arkansas defensive tackle Marcus Harrison.

In the second round, the Bears drafted Tulane running back Matt Forte who will push Benson to the maximum of his game or push him right out of Chicago, and in today’s NFL, a running back duo provides a change of pace and boosts the offensive energy.

As for the critics who cry about the Bears not drafting a quarterback, shhh, please, just shhh. Where is this great savior of a quarterback that is going to move the Bears offense? Tell me, where? Is it Louisville’s Brian Brohm? Or Michigan’s Chad Henne? Or how bout USC’s John David Booty? Give me a break. These guys might develop into decent quarterbacks down the road, but they are not going to fix the offensive woes of the Bears. Even if the Bears could have traded up to draft Boston College’s Matt Ryan, it wouldn’t have helped because they don’t have the other pieces in place. But, they do, however, have the pieces in place to be a ground and pound team with stellar defense that brought them a birth in the Super Bowl a couple of seasons ago.

As Sun-Times reporter, Brad Biggs titled one of his pieces, “A weekend to pass on passers.”

And look at the other players that Bears General Manager drafted: Vanderbilt possession receiver Earl Bennett, who will start at the slot position; LSU safety Craig Steltz, who will take over the starting job around week five due to his run support and ability to blitz off the corner; and Nebraska corner back Zack Bowman, who dropped in the draft because of knee injuries, but if he can stay healthy, he will be a huge support in the secondary, possibly at the nickel position.

The Bears later picks were decent and all fill a whole, including Michigan State tight end Kellen Davis, who the Bears will turn into a beast of a blocker. And forget all the commentary about character. These players will perform with a hunger and swagger that is motivated by their draft-day drop. If you look at it, every single one of the players the Bears drafted have something to prove, and they will do just that: prove the doubters wrong. The Bears drafted hunger.

All in all, the Bears draft day was bland, but absolutely necessary because they filled key positions with talented players that will help the Bears improve from a 7-9 record last year. Overall, Bears draft grade is a solid B+.