Going into the the offseason I had high hopes for the Bears to improve the team in order to bring a title back to Chicago. However, I was also scared that their might be no season because of the lockout that occured this year. Luckely it was resolved and there was a 2011 season.
Going into the offseason there were some major weakness within the team that needed to be addressed. Most importantly a weak offensive line and lack of a big name wide receiver. It was obvious that something needed to be done in order to be a contender this season.
Offseason Moves that were done
1. The NFL Draft
The 2011 draft was very exciting to me because this was the first time in 2 years that Chicago actually had a first round pick due to the deal that gave us quarterback Jay Cutler from Denver. I was also happy to see that the pick was not wasted and we drafted one of the top offensive line prospects Gabe Carimi from Wisconsin. The rest of the draft seemed to be rather wasteful in my opinion. Among other notable picks we selected defensive tackle Stephen Paea and safety Chris Conte. Overall I feel like the bears did a decent job with the draft, but failed to improve the need for a good wide receiver.
2. Free Agency
As a after effect of the lockout the free agency period was shortened to just a couple of weeks. Knowing this I was hoping that the Bears GM Jerry Angelo would take full advantage of this and sign some big name free-agents in order to improve the team. This was not the case, instead it seemed like we just picked up scraps dropped from other teams. For example the signing of Roy Williams, Marion Barber, and Chris Spencer. I was hoping that they would look into adding wide receiver Santonio Holmes or Offensive lineman Harvey Dahl. Among the big name free-agent we signed none of them. However, there was one move that made me happy and that was us trading away Greg Olsen in order to improve blacking with bigger tight- ends. We also let long time offensive lineman Olin Kruetz go which at the time made me worried. As a result of this going into the season made me rather nervous because it seemed like not all the issues were fixed.
