Bear Essentials

The problem is not with Jay Cutler’s attitude – whether it’s after a loss, after a win, before a loss, before a win or after the team meal on Saturday night.

The problem is that there are too many ex-NFL coaches who aren’t coaching. Instead they’re babbling about anything and everything – in this case on the NFL Network, which is an odd forum for a rip job on an NFL player. Neither Jim Mora nor Mike Martz was at Cutler’s postgame press conference after the loss to the Packers. But they have passed judgment on his demeanor.

Consider the sources. Mora called Cutler “completely immature,” and added, “I just didn't think he was very professional.”

Injured tight end Desmond Clark was not on the field for the start of practice Wednesday afternoon at Halas Hall and is expected to be out for Sunday’s home opener against the Steelers and possibly for another couple weeks with a rib injury.

Second-year tight end Kellen Davis will move into Clark’s role, which is significant given the amount of plays the Bears run with a second tight end in addition to starter Greg Olsen.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see the three-man rotation at cornerback come to a screeching halt.

It wasn’t a bad idea to use Nate Vasher in the opener to ease Zack Bowman and, especially Charles Tillman, back into the lineup. Bowman missed three weeks with a hamstring injury and played in only the last preseason game. Tillman didn’t play in any preseason games and didn’t participate in training camp. He practiced for just a week before the Packers game, so it was wise not to ask him to play every snap in the opener.

As if his 4-interception performance in the season opener wasn’t bad enough, now Bears QB Jay Cutler is getting torched for his postgame press conference.

On the premiere episode of “The Head Coaches on NFL Network,” Monday night, Mike Martz and Jim Mora took Cutler to the woodshed, and they weren’t even talking about his performance on the field that resulted in a 43.2 passer rating.

"When I saw that postgame press conference … I thought he looked completely immature,” Mora said. “He acted like he didn't even care. I just didn't think he was very professional, very accountable."

Then Martz piled on: "He just doesn't get it. He doesn't understand that he represents a great head coach and the rest of those players on that team … somebody needs to talk to him."

Maybe it’s too early, but I think a lot of people owe Devin Hester an apology.

All the haters who ripped on the fourth-year wide receiver as being nothing more than a return specialist should not that Hester had 4 passes thrown to him Sunday night and caught all 4 for 90 yards, including a 36-yard TD, the Bears’ first of the new season.

For comparison, Earl Bennett caught 7 passes for 66 yards, but he had 13 passes directed his way. Tight end Greg Olsen had 6 passes thrown to him and caught just 1 for 8 yards.

Not only is cornerback Charles Tillman active tonight, but he will start in place of Trumaine McBride, opposite right cornerback Nate Vasher.
Tillman had back surgery in mid-June and missed all of training camp and all of the preseason. He has practiced only since Monday.

Cornerback Zack Bowman is also active but not in the starting lineup.

The starting safeties are rookie Al Afalava at strong and Kevin Payne at free. Danieal Manning is active but has not regained the starting job he lost to Afalava during training camp, when he suffered a hamstring injury that sidelined him for three weeks. Manning is expected to play nickel back tonight and to return kickoffs.

Cornerback Zack Bowman had a better off-season and early training camp than almost any player on the roster. He was on the verge of winning a starting job, but then he missed about three weeks with a hamstring injury.

So what happens now that he's 100 percent?

"He's definitely in the mix," coach Lovie Smith said. "Just go back to everything that's been said about Zack and how he's performed since the off-season began. He's a good football player and we have great options right now. This is as deep as we've been in a while."

To me, that means that Bowman is a starter if he’s healthy, which he should be after practicing the past two weeks.

The currently muddled situation in the secondary is one of those cases where I don’t blame Lovie Smith and the Bears for being secretive about the status of injured players.

Let the Packers’ offense think it will be facing cornerbacks Trumaine McBride and Nate Vasher. But then, just before game time, decide that, you know what, Charles Tillman and Zack Bowman really are healthy enough to get it on with Green Bay wide receivers Greg Jennings and Donald Driver.

Tillman is unquestionably the Bears’ best corner, but it might be risky to toss him into the fray following just one week of practice after his mid-June back surgery. Based on Bowman’s performance before his hamstring injury in training camp, he was the best corner on the practice field.

I will miss HBO’s Hard Knocks ’09: Training Camp with the Cincinnati Bengals, and especially wide receiver Chad Ochocinco.

Just watched the final episode, and it was interesting to see former Bears Cedric Benson and Tank Johnson again. Even J.D. Runnels, however briefly.

I’d love to see the Bears featured on the show, but it’ll never happen, at least as long as Lovie Smith is the head coach. It would be too much of an intrusion for an organization and a head coach that value privacy and secrecy, which is understandable -- to a point.

I don’t think the Bears have anyone as hilarious as Ochocinco, but there are a couple who could be pretty funny if they got into the spirit of the show -- entertainment.

So Mike Ditka is picking the Packers to win the "NFC Central."

That should come as good news to Bears fans, considering Ditka's limited knowledge of the NFL these days. First off, the Bears play in the NFC North, and they have since 2002, when the 32-team league went to eight four-team divisions, and the NFC Central was renamed the "North."

Ditka's prognostication appeared Sunday in the Green Bay Press-Gazette article; but, not surprisingly, there wasn't much reasoning to back up his opinion.