Building the Bears: Looking at some personnel issues

SAN FRANCISCO–I covered some of the personnel issues facing the Bears this morning in the print and online edition of the paper, specifically looking at the help that has been brought in via the draft over the last five years.

The Bears are one of only 10 franchises to not draft a Pro Bowl position player since 2005.

That list:

Cincinnati

Pittsburgh

Jacksonville

Kansas City

Oakland

Washington

Bears

Detroit

Arizona

St. Louis

Only three of those teams–Cincinnati, Pittsburgh and Arizona–have records above .500 at this point, although I am not sure if there is a direct parallel. After all, the Steelers have won two of the last four Super Bowls, and they’ve done so with a bevy of talent on both sides of the ball. Certainly some of the other teams on this list have become perennial losers–the Chiefs, Raiders, Redskins, Lions and Rams all have serious roster issues. The Bears, I think it’s fair to say, fall somewhere in between.

The interesting thing is general manager Jerry Angelo could add a Pro Bowl player to his list over the last five years this season. Cedric Benson could make the AFC Pro Bowl team if his second half in Cincinnati mirrors the first half. Let’s look at the starters from the last five drafts and significant contributors:

2005

Starters: None.

Significant contributors: None

2006

Starters: WR Devin Hester, FS Danieal Manning

Significant contributors: DE Mark Anderson

2007

Starters: TE Greg Olsen, LG Josh Beekman

Significant contributors: S Kevin Payne

2008

Starters: RT Chris Williams, RB Matt Forte, WR Earl Bennett, DT Marcus Harrison, CB Zack Bowman

Significant contributors: TE Kellen Davis