FanHouse

If you spend time perusing the myriad mock drafts filling web tubes this month, you'll see quite a few that predict the Bears will take Rashard Mendenhall with the 14th pick in the first round. FanHouse has been doing one of their own but the Bears don't pick until next week and I don't believe in spoilers so you'll just have to guess what we think.
Far more important than our opinion, though, is Lovie Smith's and the coach was more than willing to share his thoughts with Dan Pompei of the Chicago Tribune. Smith addressed the need for a better running game in '08 but intimated that the best way to get there is by taking an offensive lineman in the first round.

"It's probably better getting linemen earlier [in the draft]," Smith said. "More running backs have turned out later in the draft than have offensive linemen or even defensive linemen."

More specifically, good tackles come early in the draft and good running backs come all over the place. For every LaDainian Tomlinson there's a Cedric Benson while the track record of tackles has been much stronger.

The bad experience of Benson (and Curtis Enis and Rashaan Salaam) shouldn't stop the Bears from picking the right back but it may make them keenly aware that there's a lot of pieces that go into creating a successful running game.