Bears have and have had and could have Super Bowl talent

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Personnel decisions are always easy to second-guess. Every team in the NFL passed for two-plus rounds in the 1979 draft before San Francisco grabbed Joe Montana in the third. Tom Brady was passed over 198 times in the 2000 draft (the Bears took Brian Urlacher, Mike Brown, Dez White, Dustin Lyman, Reggie Austin, Frank Murphy and Paul Edinger while Brady waited by the phone) before New England took him as afterthought insurance behind Drew Bledsoe.

So in hindsight with the Super Bowl teams now determined, it is interesting to consider the might-have-beens with the Bears roster:

The Bears passed on trading a second-round draft choice to Arizona for wide receiver Anquan Boldin. They used a No. 2 in the 2012 draft for Alshon Jeffery.

Corey Graham couldnt stay out of the coaches doghouse in Chicago and was out of the mix at cornerback and nickel back before leaving for Baltimore via free agency. The Bears struggled at nickel with D.J. Moore and Kelvin Hayden while Graham was starting eight games, intercepting two passes and breaking up eight. Graham was in on 36 combined tackles on defense and special teams.

The Bears added a highly regarded Central Michigan lineman in the 2007 draft but it was defensive end Dan Bazuin, not Pro Bowl left tackle Joe Staley, who went to the 49ers three picks before the Bears chose Greg Olsen. The Bears, coming off a Super Bowl appearance with an offensive line four-fifths free agents, picked Bazuin 62nd overall before Marshal Yanda went to Baltimore 86th and tackle Jermon Bushrod went to New Orleans 125th.

As I said, second-guessing is easy, and Jerry Angelo conceded that finding offensive linemen was not a strength of his regime. If anything, the bigger point is that the likes of Yanda and Bushrod, both Pro Bowl selections, were taken in mid rounds of drafts.

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