posted May 5, 2008 at 19:33 in NFL Articles

Well here we are, our first boat incident of the 2008-09 season starring Captain Cedric Benson, the incumbent Chicago running-back who has tallied 1,529 total rushing yards…in three online betting seasons. If you’re one of the fools that falls for Benson in fantasy football drafts, then you know exactly how frustrating watching him fumble and bumble his way to a two-yard gain was.

And his latest brush with the law isn’t only concerning to his fantasy football backers, it’s essential to pegging how the Bears will do in the 2008-09 season. Is there any hope for the Bears online football betting faithful? Well let’s put it this way – they drafted Matt Forte out of Tulane in the second-round. The rap on Forte is that, despite his name, he can’t stay healthy. That rumbling sound you hear isn’t Forte hitting the pads, nor is it Benson hitting a case of Coors Light. It’s the Bears betting bandwagon unloading in a swift hurry.

The Bears were at least smart enough to draft Chris Williams at offensive-tackle with the fourteenth overall pick, adding a strong athlete to an offensive line that couldn’t block an empty wheel barrow with no driver. Is Williams going to be the fix-it-all solution to Chicago’s woes? Not even close.

We’re talking about a team whose best quarterback last year, Brian Griese (yes, he’s still alive), had a 75.6 quarterback rating. All three active quarterbacks totaled 17 touchdowns, compared to 21 interceptions. So instead of finding a passer in free-agency, or in the draft, they just threw their hands up in the air and just gave the ball back to Rex Grossman. That’s taking two steps back without taking a step forward, but then tripping over yourself and falling down the stairs.

To make matters infinitely worse, the Bears let Bernard Berrian walk to the Vikings through free-agency. I repeat: they let him walk to a division rival. Now they are stuck with Brandon Lloyd, Marcus Monk, Earl Bennett and Marty Booker. At the very least, the Bears fans can dust off their Marty Booker jerseys. Bennett and Monk both have the ability to climb the ladder, but the learning curve at wide-receiver is immense and there’s a reason that teams balked at Bennett in the third and Monk dropped to the seventh.

This kind of “progress” coming from a team that had 210.1 receiving yards per game, ranking them 15th in the league. Not only did they not improve at quarterback, they lost their best weapon in Berrian and let him go to a division rival.

Green Bay is a bit of an unknown element, while Detroit is surely to rebound from a completely morbid second-half last season. Minnesota is undoubtedly the NFC North favorite in our NFL futures. That leaves Chicago, with a pissed off Brian Urlacher, a proven misery at quarterback, no proven scoring threats in any of the important offensive positions, and the supposed future of the franchise sinking this ship deep in to the oblivion of NFL obscurity.

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