Incomplete pass

Oh, Bears.

Jeremy Bates, the 33-year old rising star who was the quarterbacks coach for Jay Cutler in Denver and last season the offensive coordinator for the USC Trojans, has opted not to take over the Bears offensive play calling, reportedly because the chance to join Slippery Pete Carroll's staff in Seattle provides more stability than signing on to a likely one-and-done regime in Chicago.

That was the guy I wanted. He was also the guy that our franchise QB wanted. And if we'd have gotten rid of Lovie Smith for, say, Bill Cowher, we would have had him (although, in fairness, Cowher may have opted to bring in one of his own guys like a Chan Gailey).

But I was also interested in Tom Clements, the Green Bay Packer's quarterbacks coach who has worked wonders with Aaron Rodgers and worked with Favre before that.

Well, the Packers, who have Clements under contract, denied the Bears' request to allow them to speak with him, reportedly because they didn't want him calling plays for an NFC North rival. Now I don't feel bad for taking so much glee in their fall to the Cardinals.

It's looking more and more like Martz. And maybe I'm crazy, but he's the last guy I want. Well, not the LAST. That would be Mike Tice, who's reportedly being considered for some kind of position on the staff (please say it's offensive line coach, at best).

The one guy who's still out there that I really like is Bill Musgrave, quarterbacks coach from the Atlanta Falcons. The guy has done wonders with Matt Ryan and Matt Schaub (while at University of Virginia). Musgrave also has been an offensive coordinator in this league, and he's well generally well regarded.

One other name being tossed around that I find intriguing is Jedd Fisch, currently the offensive coordinator for the Minnesota Golden Gophers, who coached wide receivers when Cutler was in Denver. But there are rumors that Shanahan might come calling on him. And I never liked anyone named Jedd.

Now what?

I predict Lovie and Jerry Angelo stay put, but they replace Ron Turner and relieve Lovie of the D-Coordinator duties.

The free agent market is tougher to predict. No idea what's going to happen with the collective bargaining agreement. But players I predict will not be with the Bears next season include Nathan Vasher, Adrian Peterson, Orlando Pace, Rashied Davis. I think Olin Kreutz stays. Tougher to predict, in my mind are the fates of Adewale Ogunleye, Danieal Manning, Mark Anderson, Pisa Tinoisamoa, Jamar Williams, Josh Bullocks, and punter Brad Maynard. We could lose all those guys. Probably won't lose 'em all, but probably will lose a few.

In my mind top FA targets are a quality offensive lineman and a ball hawking free safety. In my dreams they're Logan Mankins from the Patriots and Oshiomogho Atogwe from the Rams. I think those two guys would immediately make a HUGE impact on this team.

The end is (thankfully) near

One more game to go until that staggering, lumbering beast that is the Chicago Bears 2009 season is finally put out of its misery. After the year began on such a high note with the trade for Jay Cutler (which I would still make every time), to be where we are now, as an organization, is particularly disappointing. There was an article in the papers yesterday in which Alex Brown said that people just don't understand how devastating the loss of Brain Urlacher was to this team and he basically blamed the wasted year on that injury.

I put some credence into that, but I also believe you can't ever use injuries as an excuse. Injuries are part of the game and they happen to everyone. But I believe that Urlacher definitely helped to give that defense a personality and toughness that they seem to lack without him.

Other than Briggs, I don't think there are people on our defense that really instill fear in anyone. Urlacher, whatever you want to say about him losing a step or being overrated, brought the fear. He also brought an maybe held people more accountable than the other defensive leaders did. With Mike Brown run out of town and Urlacher suddenly out of the picture, there was definitely a lack of leadership and an identity crisis that went down on that side of the ball.

So you had a defense in the midst of an identity crisis. On the other side of the ball you had an offense equally confused about who they were supposed to be. You had three new starters on the offensive line. You had a new hotshot quarterback but not a single receiver with any meaningful experience in the league. You had Matt Forte regress and become not much of a factor. You claim you get off the bus running—you've always been that team—but suddenly you can't run. You want to throw but you're not set up to be a throwing team. You're built to run, except you just bought Orlando Pace who can't run block anymore, you have Chris Williams who you drafted to play left tackle playing right tackle, and you're new starting left guard, Frank Omiygale, has never played guard.

There were some good things about the win against Minnesota last week. Chris Williams looked like he can maybe be a left tackle in this league. Cutler reminded us why we like him. Devin Aromashodu looks like he may be a real receiver. On defense I think Zack Bowman continues to improve. Craig Steltz looked pretty good I thought. Tommie Harris had his best game of the year.

But we've still got more questions than answers at this point. And without picks in the first two rounds of the draft and the uncertainty of the salary cap situation looming, there aren't a lot of moves the Bears are going to be able to make to improve in the near term.