Let’s say the Bears get Peyton Manning. Or Ryan Leaf. Or any quarterback you can name. Brett Favre. In case you haven’t noticed, it won’t be enough. This rebuilding job is going to take all the king’s horses and all the king’s men, starting on the defensive line.
Since nearly all the plans of the Dave Wannstedt era have fallen off the wall and splattered before our very eyes, starting over must begin where it does for every team–the defensive front. In Green Bay, Favre was just another strong-armed kid until the Packers signed Reggie White.
You can’t win without a quarterback; you don’t even have a chance to win without strength up front on defense. The Bears got rid of Richard Dent, Steve McMichael and Trace Armstrong and replaced them with John Thierry, Carl Simpson and Chris Zorich and Alonzo Spellman. It didn’t work.
Now they must start over.
It is reminiscent of 20 years ago, when coach Jack Pardee left the Bears for Washington with these parting words by way of explanation: “Who’s going to rush the passer?”
It was a question that took about five years to answer, after the Bears drafted Dan Hampton and Al Harris, signed McMichael, then drafted Dent.
Free agency supposedly speeds up the process, but not automatically. The Redskins thought Sean Gilbert was the answer in a trade but he’s sitting out for more money. Conveniently, defensive tackles lead this year’s crop of free agents. Minnesota’s John Randle, San Francisco’s Dana Stubblefield, Arizona’s Eric Swann, Oakland’s Chester McGlockton and Gilbert are scheduled to be free come February.
They won’t come free, and freedom is a relative condition anyway in the NFL system. Randle has a “transition” tag on him, meaning the Vikings only have to offer him the average salary of the top 10 tackles in the league to keep him another year.
Stubblefield leads the league with 12 1/2 sacks and would love to match the six-year, $26 million deal just signed by his 49er sidekick, Bryant Young. It will be difficult, not to mention unfair, for the 49ers to keep both.
The Bears will try to keep their own best defensive tackle, Jim Flanigan, also a free agent. But Flanigan won’t be enough, not in a division with Randle, Green Bay’s Gilbert Brown, Tampa Bay’s Warren Sapp and Detroit’s Luther Elliss anchoring the inside.
Randle wasn’t enough in Minnesota after Henry Thomas, Chris Doleman and Roy Barker left. Now the Vikings are contending because Fernando Smith and Derrick Alexander have stepped up.
White wasn’t enough in Green Bay until Brown helped turn the Packers into last year’s No. 1 defense. Asked last week why the Packers defense is improving, coach Mike Holmgren said: “Since the bye, we got Gilbert back. He’s only one man . . . actually he’s two stuck together . . . but he makes a difference.”
The 49ers have the No. 1 defense this year even though injuries have hobbled Young. He’s due back this week, which means the 49ers have a good chance to run the table.
Dallas is trying to hang in with the No. 2 defense until Leon Lett becomes eligible to return from drug suspension Dec. 8. How the Cowboys have survived without retired Charles Haley and Lett is yet another tribute to cornerback Deion Sanders.
Denver acquired Neil Smith and Keith Traylor from Kansas City and hired former Minnesota and Detroit defensive line coach John Teerlinck as the league’s first pass-rush coach.
Pittsburgh lost its top sacker, linebacker Chad Brown, but filled in quickly in their 3-4 scheme with Greg Lloyd, Earl Holmes, Jason Gildon and a 275-pound inside linebacker of exceptional skills, Levon Kirkland.
The Raiders thought they could contend, not so much because they signed quarterback Jeff George, but because they added rookie Darrell Russell to a front of McGlockton, Russell Maryland, Anthony Smith and Lance Johnstone. That Oakland is 30th on defense indicates problems peculiar to Raiderland.
A strong defensive front doesn’t guarantee success. But a weak one guarantees failure. The Bears earned another dubious distinction last week: They are the only team in the league to have given up at least 20 points every single game.
