The Bears only have five picks in this year’s draft. That still may not stop them from being the most successful team at the annual conference.

Three short months ago, the Bears were eight points away from an NFC title and a trip to the Super Bowl. With such a near-perfect season comes one important question: What went wrong?

Lovie Smith and Jerry Angelo's answer is symbolized by their first round pick at No. 29 overall. The Bears allowed a league-worst 56 sacks in 2010, six sacks more than the second-place Cardinals and Panthers. Among the results were a concussion and MCL sprain to quarterback Jay Cutler, the latter coming in the NFC title game. Therefore, to protect Cutler and the Bears' offensive production, the team made T Gabe Carimi (Wisconsin) their first round selection. Carimi can play either tackle position and was expected to go a few picks earlier on most draft boards. He has been described as a "mauler" and a "safe pick" who can be a formidable role player for a good team.

In the second round, the Bears went after another hole: Defensive tackle. Julius Peppers single-handedly provided the Bears' pass rush in 2010 with limited noise coming from the inside of the line. At No. 53, the Bears stole Stephen Paea (Oregon State), a defensive tackle with the potential of that of a first round pick. Paea was an All-American and the Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Year in 2010. He was offered a spot at this past winter's Senior Bowl, but a torn meniscus in his first practice for the game left him out of the event. With teams fearing his health in the first round, Paea fell into the Bears’ hands in the late second round. If Paea's meniscus heals, he may be one of the top five defensive linemen in this draft. If not, he'll be a worthy gamble.

The Bears also drafted SS Chris Conte (California) with the 93th pick. The Bears play their best football when their threat of interceptions is at full swing. Conte can evolve into a crucial piece of depth for the defensive-oriented Bears.

Even with two picks left, the Bears front office should sleep well. The NFC runner-ups may have all ready done enough to improve that title.

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-- JEFFREY EISENBAND
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Here is what two mock drafts have pegged for the Bears in the first round:

The Blue Bird Herd
Jonathan Baldwin – WR – Pittsburgh: The Bears already have some quickness and speed at receiver in Knox and Hester, but they lack a big, physical, go-to target and Baldwin could be that guy. The former Pitt Panther has drawn plenty of criticism surrounding character questions and off-field activity. On the field though, he possesses a combination of size and speed that scouts drool over. His hands and route running are inconsistent, and he’ll have the occasional mental lapse, but the skill set and athleticism make him extremely hard to resist at the end of the first round.

For its complete three-round mock draft, click here..

Fantasy Phenoms
Nate Solder OL Colorado: The Bears can use help in protecting Jay Cutler and the run game, and Solder is the best of the rest of the lineman in this class. Solder is huge at 6-8, 319 lbs and could be viewed as a steal here. He has many tools that can turn him into an elite left tackle in this league. A Solder on the Field in Chicago ... it's almost too perfect.

For the full mock draft of the first round, click here..

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Dear Chicago Bears,

First, congratulations on a very good 2010 season. I don’t think many fans expected this kind of season from this team. I know I sure didn’t. If someone had told me at the start of the 2010 season that you guys would go 11-5 and be a game away from the Super Bowl, I would told them they needed to be drug tested ASAP. All of us fans should be happy with the outcome of the season.

And yet we’re not.

It’s almost inevitable that, as a sports fan, the last thing that happens in the season is what sticks with you. That’s too bad and frankly not fair to a team like yours that played hard all season and accomplished a lot. But that’s the reality. This week in particular feels a lot like the week after Super Bowl XLI, not only disappointing but frustrating because it seems like you were so close to winning.

The Cutler thing has of course gotten a lot of attention, even though it is ridiculous to question the toughness of anyone who has played behind this offensive line for two straight years. I don’t think for a second he quit on the Bears, because I’ve seen him throw his body into harm’s way to get first downs or buy extra time in the most dangerous passing pocket in the NFL. The idea that he wanted to quit because he was playing poorly is also idiotic. After all, this is the same quarterback who kept throwing early and often to DeAngelo Hall this year, and said he’d do it again. He doesn’t exactly shrink from adversity.

What the Cutler situation does raise, however, is whether you guys have the QB you need. I honestly don’t know. What I do know, however, is that when you give up two first-round picks for a player, there really shouldn’t be any question about that question. At this point, it’s hard not to think keeping Kyle Orton and the picks would have been the smarter move.

That highlights what the most difficult part of this season will be: that Jerry Angelo will likely keep his job for the foreseeable future. It’s not that Angelo is a terrible general manager. He finds value in the late rounds. But those early rounds, when he’s supposed to be drafting franchise players, he instead looks like he’s getting played. I know he’s not going to lose his job, but what about getting him some help? Like a co-GM who drafts in rounds one and two, and then lets Angelo go nuts and draft all the small school players he wants after that? And maybe a free agency GM who knows better than to spend a lot on backup running backs who can’t crack 3-yards-per-carry when their teams don’t have anyone who knows how to play offensive tackle.

It also looks like we’ll be looking at Lovie for a few more years, which most of us don’t love. The man’s not a bad coach. Truth be told, he’s probably a better coach than Da Coach. But he does those things that make you want to hang yourself by your zubaz strings. Calling timeouts just as his team is busting open a big play. Throwing the challenge flag when he shouldn’t. Keeping it in his pants when he should whip it out. And, of course, not realizing that Todd Collins was the reincarnation of Jonathan Quinn. So why not get him some help too? Maybe an challenge specialist and a timeout specialist who can take care of those details so that Lovie focus on thinking about whatever it is he thinks about when he stares blankly at the field?

I know this seems like bitching. It is. But you’re the Chicago Bears, founding NFL franchise, Monsters of the Midway, the Super Bowl Shufflers. It’s hard for us fans to look at the Steelers and wonder why you haven’t had that kind of success. After all, those guys have to live in Pittsburgh! It’s also hard to look at the Packers and not think they’ll be dominating this division for a long time, all because they found a franchise QB using one measly late-first-round pick.

We’ve also been down this road with you before, a few bad seasons that get salvaged by a good-but- not-great season before the cycle repeats itself like some kind of crop rotation. So please, use this offseason wisely. Think offensive line. Think wide receivers. Think about what it’s going to take to beat the Packers, not just in 2011, but until Aaron Rodgers completes his last key third-down conversion. Make what was a memorable, fun, exciting 2010 season a stepping stone to something greater, and not an anomaly.

-- BRANDON TRISSLER
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The Bears’ season is over, and the most pressing offseason issue facing the organization is not Jay Cutler’s health (which will be fine). Rather, it is the playing surface at their stadium. Before next September, the Bears need to trade the grass at Soldier Field for far more reliable field turf.

This season the grass of Soldier Field has come under a myriad of criticism from both Bears players and opponents, and deservedly so.

“We probably have one of the worst fields in the league at this point,” Bears quarterback Jay Cutler said to ProFootballTalk.com.

Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher, Packers wide receiver Greg Jennings, and almost every opposing player who has played on Soldier Field are just some of those who have voiced complaints.

The most perplexing part is that Soldier Field general manager Tim Lefebvre has offered to install synthetic turf, but the majority of Bears players have said no, according to CBS Chicago.

Regardless of how that majority feels, the field needs to be improved. As someone who has seen the grass of Soldier Field in person twice this season, I can says that is worse than what you find at a local park, and that neither team benefits from this poor surface.

In Sunday’s game, Packers running back James Starks slipped on the opening kickoff, Bears cornerback Tim Jennings slipped on a first down catch by Packers receiver Jordy Nelson, and numerous other players on both teams lost their footing over the course of the game.

The reoccurring trend of slipping on routes, coverage, returns, and attempted tackles robs the fans of seeing the best football possible, but it is allowed to keep happening under the guise of “home field advantage.”

The most serious reason for why Soldier Field needs a change is safety. The grass, the way it is taken care of now, is just waiting for a player to make an awkward cut and tear his ACL.

If the organization will not make the change, then Roger Goodell needs to intervene and mandate it. For a team that plays in an open-air stadium in the city with arguably the worst weather in the country, having a poorly maintained grass field is a recipe for a disaster.

And who knows -- maybe Cutler doesn’t hurt his knee if he is playing on turf.

-- RYAN HOLMES
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Jay Cutler had an opportunity never to buy another drink in Chicago as long as he lives, but after today's game, he'll be hard-pressed to ever receive Bears fans' respect even if he were even to lead them to future Super Bowls. There's one cardinal sin in Bears and Packers football, and that's to sit it out. It's a disgrace to all of the blood and sweat that's been spilled over nine decades of Packers and Bears football.

Cutler very well could have injured his knee, and none of us know the full extent right now. But it sure looked as if he'd already quit on his team and Chicago when he was the first man into the locker room before the half.

Aaron Rodgers faced a Bears defense turned malicious in the second half, and that bloodied and battered him more than once. But he was still standing in the end, clutching the George S. Halas trophy inside of Soldier Field, an atrocity to all Bears fans. You'd have been hard pressed to find Cutler, who spent more time huddling alone than even trying to get into the sideline action to encourage his determined teammates.

Once the Bears confirmed that Todd Collins would be manning the controls in the second half, the game appeared over. Green Bay's defense allowed Collins to do what you'd expect of a journeyman quarterback: nothing. And while the Bears defense did more than their fair part to contain the NFL's hottest player in Aaron Rodgers, they were done in by the offense's inability to keep them off the field and change field position.

Give the Bears defenders and a third-string quarterback Caleb Hanie credit: they never quit, and they kept coming and coming, trying to turn the game around with a big play. Brian Urlacher raised his game to epic Bears levels because he knows what it means to play the Packers with a chance to go to the Super Bowl.

When this game's written up and over-analyzed, who'd have thought that it was a tackle by Aaron Rodgers -- rather than a pass -- that probably ensured the victory. Rodgers tripped up Urlacher on what seemed destined to become a pick six that would make it 14-7 and put the Bears within reach of another big turnover or Devin Hester TD return. As it was, Green Bay's special teams played the much-favored Bears special teams to a standstill. The Bears could hardly get out of the shadow of their own goal line, and the offense could never allow their own defense to corral the Packers deep in their own.

Give equal credit to third-stringer Hanie, as well as Matt Forte. They played hard and to the end. Hanie threw a pick-six for a touchdown and another to end it, but Bears fans can't -- and won't -- hold it against him. It's the starter who'll get run around town on a rail. Cutler's not going anywhere because he signed a huge extension, but it sure would have been great to see the "franchise" quarterback lead the Bears to victory -- or even defeat -- in one of their biggest games ever.

The only place Cutler seemed willing to go was the comfort of his own locker, earning the future enmity of decades of proud Bears fans, willing to forgive losses but incapable of excusing a quitter.

-- TOM TYRER
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