Bears' personnel changes shouldn't end with QB
Replacing Rex Grossman with Brian Griese should be just the beginning of a shake-up on a Bears team that badly needs a kick start -- or a kick in the rear -- to get going.
Coach Lovie Smith shouldn't limit his tinkering to the quarterback position.
While backup Adrian Peterson hasn't demonstrated that he deserves to supplant Cedric Benson as the featured running back, Benson certainly hasn't proven he deserves to have the job all to himself. Benson doesn't have a run longer than 13 yards on 59 carries and is averaging just 3.2 yards per carry with 2 costly fumbles.
Peterson has also lost a fumble but is averaging 4.3 yards on 15 attempts.
Giving the job to Peterson outright would be an overreaction, but a 50-50 share at the position makes sense until Benson starts running like a fifth overall draft pick and stops fumbling. This decision already may have been made considering Benson didn't touch the ball after his fumble at the end of the third quarter Sunday night.
At wide receiver, it appears to be time to start looking for a replacement for 34-year-old Muhsin Muhammad, who has 4 catches for 36 yards.
How much less productive could first-year player Mike Hass possibly be? He has been inactive for three games, but considering Muhammad's lack of impact, it's not much of gamble to give the former Biletnikoff Award winner a chance.
And what about Mark Bradley, who has the best combination of size and speed among all the wide receivers? He doesn't have a catch yet and has played just a handful of snaps.
The Bears thought enough of Bradley to draft him in the second round in 2005 and make him a starter in his rookie season. Giving him a few more plays at Muhammad's expense doesn't seem like it would worsen a passing offense that ranks 29th in yards per game and is tied for 29th in average gain per play.
The offensive line play has been just as disappointing as the rest of the unit, but there's not a lot that can be done to improve an aging and so-far-disappointing group.
There isn't a lot of can't-miss talent in the pipeline because the Bears have almost completely ignored the offensive line over the past five drafts. Not once in five years have the Bears drafted an offensive lineman in the first three rounds, a total of 16 picks. And in the first five rounds since 2003, the Bears are 1-for-32 when it comes to picking offensive linemen.
In 2004 and 2005, the Bears didn't draft any offensive linemen. In 2003, they used a seventh-round pick on guard Bryan Anderson, who never came close to playing. In 2006, they didn't address the offensive line until the sixth round, when they took Tyler Reed, who is in his second season on the practice squad.
This year, they took guard-center Josh Beekman in the fourth round, and in the seventh round they drafted tackle Aaron Brant, who was cut before the season began.
Beekman is the only offensive lineman on the active roster who was selected in the last five drafts, and the other offensive linemen on the active roster who were drafted by the Bears are starting center Olin Kreutz, a third-round pick in 1998, and guard Terrence Metcalf, a third-round pick in 2002.
The well isn't completely dry, but it's dangerously low.