Playoff run likely in '08 if these six step up

Q. What is your off-season blueprint for returning the Bears to a playoff team?

A. There are five or six guys who have to accept the responsibility to come back here and play at somewhere approaching a Pro Bowl level: Jamar Williams, Josh Beekman, Cedric Benson, Kyle Orton, Danieal Manning and Greg Olsen.

If you're trying to make a team advance, you have to set lofty expectations for some key players in your system. First of all, if you don't provide assistance to an offense with a strong running game, there isn't a blueprint that can solve your problem. So Page 1 of the blueprint is get your running game solved.

Q. Is Jamar Williams especially important because nobody believes Briggs will be back?

A. Yeah, I think he's important. When you watch the tape of the Green Bay game, maybe he got himself out of position a play or two, but the majority of the snaps that he was on the field, he was active, and he fundamentally and technically played the position properly.

So it's important, but I think it's equally important for Danieal Manning to not blame any of his problems on youth, on position changes, on whatever the teams wants to use as an excuse on him not being the player that he has the athleticism to be.

That means that he's got to take the individual responsibility of improving in the off-season physically and mentally. He's got to spend a lot more individual time studying football, studying tape, studying offenses, studying formations and influences. He needs to study more.

So there are cases where guys can upgrade their play immeasurably just by the efforts they put in in the off-season.

Q. Why, if Beekman is potentially a starter, can't he get on the field for at least a couple series?

A. They invested a lot in Terry Metcalf, and he's a guy who should have developed to the point where, when you have to make the change from Ruben Brown, there shouldn't have been a drop-off, and in some instances there should be an improvement in play. But there wasn't. Maybe that's an inability to identify a lack of talent. Then you have a guy like John St. Clair, who's played every position on the offensive line. Beekman's waiting in the wings, but St. Clair is the guy that in the political correctness of rosters, he's the guy who gets the next shot.

Q. Why, after six years in the system, was Terrence Metcalf not able to get the job done?

A. You can play at a practice level and look fundamentally sound at that speed and under those conditions. But when it's for real at game time it's different, and regardless of how physically strong a player looks in the weight room or the practice field, mentally they can't overcome the hurdle when it comes to game-time performance.

Whether it's a defensive back out of position, a linebacker overpursuing or an offensive lineman not being able to hear the play called in the huddle, listen to the snap count, get to the line of scrimmage, see which one of 10 defenses they're going to face, compute their assignments to the guys they're working next to on both sides. Sometimes the processing of all that information within a 20-second span doesn't come quickly enough. Or you're not 100 percent sure that you're doing exactly the right thing so sometimes it creates some hesitancy, and you can't have that.

Q. In the 2008 season opener, who will be starting for the Bears at quarterback?

A. Kyle Orton

Q. At running back?

A. Cedric Benson

Q. Left guard?

A. Josh Beekman

Q. Both wide receiver spots?

A. Muhsin Muhammad and undetermined.

Q. Weak-side linebacker?

A. Jamar Williams.

Q. Strong safety?

A. In my fantasy world, I would go with Mike Brown, but Mike has to understand that there's a business negotiation that he's going to have to accept as an injury-prone veteran. He is the guy who can be here if he wants to be, but if he has unfair expectations financially then you're going to have to go in a different direction, and Kevin Payne is a guy who's going to have to get some consideration.

Q. Free safety?

A. Danieal Manning.

Q. Offensive right tackle?

A. John Tait.

Q. It sounds like you agree with the plan to move Tait to the right side and bring in a stud left tackle through the draft or free agency?

A. There are draftable guys out there whom I would be willing to invest in whom I would hope would be considered Day One starters. Those guys are out there. It needs to be investigated, though, which of those guys might fall to the Bears at their draft position.