Angelo Content With Bears' Receivers

Ever since the Bears landed Jay Cutler, the media and fans alike have flooded the internet with bashing of the Bears receiving corps. Raise your hand if you've either said, heard someone say, or read someone else saying "Who's he going to throw to?" I'll just assume all hands are raised.

After drafting three Day 2 receivers, the Bears now have a group consisting of Devin Hester, Earl Bennett (pictured), Juaquin Iglesias, Rashied Davis, Johnny Knox and Derek Kinder. Yeah, yeah, I know: Cue the laugh track. Bears general manager Jerry Angelo, however, doesn't believe he needs to add anything via free agency. He's counting specifically on massive growth from Bennett, last year's third-round pick.

"I'm counting on [Bennett's emergence],'' Angelo said. ``I told Lovie [Smith] this morning I don't feel near the need to go out and sign a veteran [after Sunday] that I did before [Sunday]. I feel good about these three receivers.

"There is a misnomer about Earl's learning. Earl is a very bright person. He went to Vanderbilt, he went back and is finishing his degree. He had to learn three positions last year as a rookie because he was a backup and he had to learn all three. That is where the learning came in. I thought he got a little bit of a bad rap in that he struggles to learn. No. If we just gave him one position he would have been off and running but we had the two veterans and he was the backup. He's got a lot of fiber, he has a lot of talent. I am expecting Earl to be a very good player for us."

It's entirely possible that Bennett does step up and become a solid receiver this season. There are plenty of third-round receivers who took a few years to develop and become stars (Carolina's Steve Smith, for example). That doesn't mean Bennett will immediately become a star, but it's an illustration that such growth in year two wouldn't be unprecedented in this league. Having Jay Cutler, who connected 79 times for 876 yards and 9 touchdowns with Bennett at Vandy in 2005, instead of Kyle Orton is a definite bonus, and that should help the development of Hester as well.

Hester routinely beat coverage deep late last season, only to have Orton badly miss his mark. With the strong-armed Cutler around, Hester should emerge as one of the league's better deep threats.

Obviously, the Bears don't have a stout group of receivers. Don't think my bias for the Bears is clouding that judgment. It's just that signing Drew Bennett or Darrell Jackson doesn't exactly change the outlook. Outside of trading future draft picks to the Browns for Braylon Edwards or gambling that Marvin Harrison isn't done yet -- and I think he is -- there isn't really much to be done at this point.

It's time to see if Cutler can create stardom in Hester and a couple of third round choices (Iglesias being the other one) the way he did Brandon Marshall (a 4th-rounder) in Denver. If he can't, you can revisit the topic in next offseason.

Related Bears news: They have signed Chase Patton of Missouri to compete for a roster spot. Patton is a quarterback who was a career backup, but he's been noted as a better NFL-type passer than Chase Daniel, who he backed up at Mizzou. The Bears could be attempting to catch a Matt Cassel-type lightning in a bottle here and move him into the backup role over last year's undrafted free agent, Caleb Hanie.