Chicago Bears update

It is going to be a tough road for the Bears the rest of this season.

In the last two weeks, the Bears fell to the St. Louis Rams and the lowly Detroit Lions.

With those two losses the Bears are now solidly positioned at the bottom of the NFC North Division, with quite a few tough games in front of them.

While many might think that the bright spots this year for the Bears have been few and far between, I have to disagree.

In what might be termed, in my opinion, as a rebuilding year, many of the Bears younger players are beginning to show that they were worth the time and effort that the Bears spent developing these players.

Anthony Thomas has shown that he has overcome his sophomore slump and is returning to his rookie year form. He has had a handful of 100-yard plus rushing games this season and might have had more had he not had that injury a few games ago.

Thomas should have many years left in him and could be a very productive runner for the Bears. The Bears made a good move by sticking with Thomas and he will only get better.

Kordell Stewart was not the savior that everyone had hoped he would be, but then again, the coaching staff of the Bears doesn't know how to properly utilize Stewart's talents.

With the right system, and perhaps another coaching staff (which looks more likely with the way things are going this season), Stewart has the potential of being a good, solid quarterback.

The Bears, and the fans, should not give up on Stewart. Used correctly, look for him to become an outstanding player in Chicago.

As for the defense, the Bears linebackers are some of the best in the league. And when you talk about the Bears linebackers, you begin and end the discussion with Brian Urlacher.

Everyone knows how good he is, and even though he hasn't had the same numbers that he has had in the past few seasons, he is still making an impact because teams are still moving their plays away from him.

In addition, the abilities of the other linebackers around him have improved, so he doesn't have to make every play by himself like he had to in the past.

Urlacher is still a top-notch performer, it's just that now he has some help from players like Lance Briggs and Warrick Holdman. Both players have made strong contributions to the Bears this season.

Given a little more time, this Bear's linebacker Corp should be one of best in the league.

The loss of Marty Booker for a few games has hurt the Bears passing game, but not as seriously as one might have thought that it would.

Justin Gage has made some outstanding plays as a receiver thus far this year and the Bear's other receivers are coming along at a good pace.

In addition, dropping Marcus Robinson off the roster was a good move, as he wasn't really that productive and his removal helped open doors for other receivers to come in and contribute.

So how many more games will the Bears win this year?

Good question. Here's the schedule: St. Louis, Minnesota, Green Bay, Kansas City, Denver, Arizona and Washington.

The Bears should beat Arizona fairly easily, and they have a chance to possibly beat Minnesota, Denver and Washington.

However, the Green Bay game looks tough, and unless something drastic happens to Kansas City in the next few weeks, the Chiefs will be even tougher. The Bears probably will lose both of those games.

The future looks bright for the Chicago though, but some changes need to be made in order to get them back to the winning ways of two years ago.

A change in the coaching staff is necessary and, most likely, inevitable. Also, the Bears General Manager, Jerry Angelo, might need to be replaced by someone else as well.

As far as player changes go, look for the Bears to add more depth to the secondary and also take a look at the defensive line. Maybe all that's needed is more development in those areas, but one thing is for sure, the Bears are just a few degrees away from greatness.

One final thing that should be mentioned is the new look of Soldier Field, which is great, in my opinion. I really get upset with the critics who say that it isn't visually pleasing.

The comments made by the announcers during the Green Bay-Chicago Monday Night Football game were disturbing to me and, I am a sure, to other fans who consider Soldier Field sort of a "holy" place in the NFL.

The updates and changes made to Soldier Field were great, and have made the facility a world-class venue, which will be a great place to play football for years to come.