Kyle Orton takes Rex Grossman’s job

Well it finally happened. Rex Grossman will no longer be Lovie Smith’s quarterback. The team supported him all they could and gave him a top defense to help him. Grossman had the chance to be Trent Dilfer, someone who was fortunately placed on a great team and just let everyone else do the heavy lifting. Grossman took too many chances and threw too many stupid interceptions during his tenure as starting QB in Chicago. If he just managed the team and let Robbie Gould score the points just as Matt Stover did for the Ravens in Super Bowl XXXV, he might have a ring. Instead he had his ups and downs and pissed off most of Chicago.

Muhsin Muhammad seemed to call Rex out when he said that Chicago is “where receivers go to die.” Grossman was the starting QB for 30 of 52 games from 2005-2007 when Muhammad was part of the team. If Orton has improved with accuracy, he could be what Chicago needs. The defense is getting old and the window is closing if it is not already closed for another championship run. Greg Olsen is improving, and there is optimism about Devin Hester at WR.

Preseason is that time for optimism where all people talk about are players like Olsen and Hester, but realistically, the Bears should struggle again on offense. There is no legitimate RB or WR on the team. Bernard Berrian and Muhammad are gone, and Marty Booker and Brandon Lloyd are sorry replacements. Devin Hester is interesting, but he needs work and will not be a true number one receiver this year. It was a huge mistake to keep Cedric Benson over Thomas Jones, but NFL teams always keep the player drafted more recently in the 1st round over a proven player. Benson is now gone, and mostly rookies and career backups compete for the job. Matt Forte looks like he will be the starter, but the RBs will probably share carries. Kevin Jones is the only former starter, but he played like a backup in Detroit. The Bears have the wrong Adrian Peterson and Garrett Wolfe is too small to carry the load. It should be a down year with the Bears finishing below .500 again.