Bears will try to pound ball on the ground

Every offseason brings change in the NFL, not only in terms of players and coaches, but, by extension, new philosophies and schemes. NFL coaches and front offices do a great job of self evaluating, and many times they will tweak their schemes or philosophies to better fit their personnel, or simply to get better production. Let's take a look, team by team, at the philosophical changes heading into the 2005 season.

NFC: EAST | SOUTH | NORTH | WEST
AFC: EAST | SOUTH | NORTH | WEST

Chicago Bears
New offensive coordinator Ron Turner is expected to totally revamp a lethargic offense from a year ago that cost Terry Shea his job. The problem for Shea was that he tried to bring the same offense with him from Kansas City, but he didn't have the players with the Bears to carry out that offense. Turner will run a much different scheme.

First and foremost, he will utilize a power run game and get the ball to rookie RB Cedric Benson as many times as he is capable of carrying it. Turner also brought Terry Hiestand, his long time offensive line coach, with him from the University of Illinois. That will help in the communication along the offensive line, which was a huge problem a year ago, as this unit gave up 66 sacks, and much of the time seemed totally confused and unaware.

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