Bears Blitz

Published by Bryan Dietzler on July 12, 2011
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Chicago Bears

The lack of an offseason has certainly put each and every team behind the curve in getting ready for the 2011 NFL season.  Typically, the offseason is used for player movement, team improvement, conditioning of players prior to the start of the season and the development of rookies.  This offseason has not been a typical one thanks to the lockout, and so, when the lockout is lifted and football returns, teams have a lot of work to do in order to get ready for the new season.

The Bears, like any team, have a lot to do in order to prepare for the upcoming season.  After being on the verge of going to the Super Bowl last season, one would think that the Bears don’t really have much left to get back towards the top next season.  To the contrary, there are plenty of things that Chicago needs to do in order to ensure that they will not only have the same success as they did last season, but also get over that “hump” and get to the Super Bowl.

The following is a list of those things that the Bears have to do in order to get ready for the upcoming season and just how critical those items are to success in 2011.

Sign Their Rookies

As soon as the lockout is over, the Bears brass is going to want to get things together and start signing their rookies.  Every team in the league is going to do whatever it takes to get those guys signed as fast as possible because the sooner those rookies can get into camp, the sooner they can become a productive part of their team.  The Bears have done a good job at getting their rookies into camp early but this offseason is going to present quite a challenge to the team.  Can they get those new and vital players into camp on time in order for them to have an effective and productive season?

Get in Shape

If you have been watching any Bears news, you should have seen that the Bears offensive players have been getting together for workouts at times, but that doesn’t mean that they are in shape for the season.  These workouts may have helped them with their timing and helped them build some camaraderie, but that’s probably about all that they did.

It can be assured that the workouts helped, but the players will still come into camp out of shape and in need of some conditioning.  If they fail to get that conditioning, the risk of injuries will increase, and the team will not have as much success as it did last season.

Learn the System

With all of the time that coaches have had this offseason, you can bet that they have come up with some new wrinkles for the new season.  They will want to get their guys learning these new things as soon as possible.  Normally new things like this are installed during the offseason workouts, but since these haven’t happened, the coaching staff is going to have to try to cram these into training camp, however long that is.

Some of these new wrinkles may be complex and may take some time to implement and understand.  The coaching staff is going to have to do all it can to make sure that it gets these new things into their system and that the players learn them as quickly as possible.

Sign Some Undrafted Free Agents

Every team in the league has their eye on some of those players that didn’t get drafted in the 2011 NFL Draft, and the Bears are sure to be on the lookout for a few of them.  As soon as the “ball drops” and those players can be signed, all 32 teams are going to be working hard to get those players signed and ready to go for training camp.  Chicago has to be aggressive in getting those undrafted players into camp when the time comes. 

Sign Those Free Agents

The Bears are sure to want to bring back some of their free agent players this offseason, so when the time comes, they need to be ready to re-sign those free agents.  Some of those players include defensive tackle Anthony Adams, center Olin Kreutz and outside linebacker Nick Roach.

Without having some of these free agents in place for next year, the Bears will suffer.

So as can be seen, there are several things that the Bears have to do in order to get ready for the season following a shortened offseason.  Those teams that can work through the post lockout period well will win a lot of games in 2011 while the others will be left in the dust.

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