Then he gives his playoff predictions.  That’s where the love gets a little bit much.  He picks the Vikings and Packers to both win Wild Card games, then the Packers to win their divisional round game while the Bears down the Vikings in theirs.  Then he has the dream matchup that we would all love to see, a Bears-Packers NFC Championship.  Who wins that?  The Bears of course.  Eventually whatever paint he was huffing must have run out, since he finally has the Bears choking in the Super Bowl to the Patriots.

While it seems like I’m hating on my beloved Bears a little bit, King’s predictions are a little over the top.  Cutler definitely makes this team better, but I think he might be blinding some analysts to the fact that our offensive line is average at best, our defensive line is a huge question mark, and our secondary has more holes than a slice of swiss cheese.  All that being said, the NFL is a crazy league with a lot of unpredictable runs by teams.  The Bears definitely have the talent on both sides of the ball to play deep into the playoffs.  Only time will tell if King was crazy or prophetic, but either way its good to see “experts” think the Bears are a legitimate contender this season.

I have a feeling that this season will be a wild ride one way or another, so hang on to your hats Bears fans.

h/t: Adam

I may not like how Jay Cutler babied his way out of Denver, but by Labor Day, the football world will have forgotten, and by Thanksgiving, the most popular baby name in Chicagoland will be Jay. (Unless it’s Jerry, as in Angelo, the man who stuck his neck out and made this deal.) Cutler’s a big-time player, and I suspect we’ll find out over the next few years if he has nerves of steel and can win the big game.

Now, there’s two things we don’t know about Cutler and this offense. There’s not a great receiver in the house and no promise of one on the way (Angelo should have guaranteed Torry Holt more money to get him to come to the Windy City). So Cutler’s going to have to make do with the Devin Hesters and Rashied Davises, apparently. (Not that there’s anything wrong with Hester. But he should be a third receiver, using his speed to game-break.)

Two: How good of a leader can Cutler be, coming in with the knock that he chafes on some teammates. It’ll be interesting to see if he meshes well with Brian Urlacher; I don’t take for granted that he will. Because of the Cutler factor and because I don’t love the defense the way I did two or three years ago, I didn’t want to leap the Bears over so many other teams. But then I went back and looked at their 2008 numbers. The bedrock stats for a good defense, I’ve always thought, are opponents yards per rush, turnovers forced and opponents’ yards per pass. The yards per rush, 3.4, was excellent, third-best in the league. Turnovers forced, 32, was very good, second in the league. And yards per pass play by foes, 6.20, was eighth in the league. All good. If Cutler can lead an offense that puts up 400 points, only a point and a fraction more than a year ago, the Bears should win 12.

Sounds good to me.  12 wins?  I’ll take that any day.  I’m not sure that an aging defense like the Bears deserves the kind of respect he is giving them, regardless of those very decent stats from 2008.  I do agree that Cutler will be head and shoulders above the somewhat lukewarm expectations that many seem to have for him.  If the Bears can shore up the secondary somehow, this prediction may look very good come December.