Mike Ditka said Monday the Bears` defense needs more fixing than the offense next year and that he will be looking for help at every spot except the line and one cornerback.
”We have to replace the middle linebacker, obviously, because Mike Singletary is retiring,” Ditka said on his WSCR radio show. ”Outside linebacker is open to competition. Safety is open to competition. Right cornerback is open to competition. Those linemen we have will be the nucleus of our defensive line.”
Ditka singled out end Richard Dent and left corner Donnell Woolford for praise. ”Donnell is a guy we have to build on,” he said.
On offense, Ditka noted ”the line will come from the group we have. Tight end is open to competition. I like our receivers, but I think we have to have another receiver. I like our running backs very much, but we`ll see what we can do there.”
– Rookie Barry Wagner played the entire game Sunday with a torn knee ligament, according to Ditka, and will miss Sunday`s season finale at Dallas. ”He played the whole game with a tear of his medial collateral ligament,” said Ditka, ”but he wanted to play.”
Wagner had three special-teams tackles and caught a 16-yard pass in his NFL debut. Bob Christian had two special-team tackles.
– Ditka shed little light on why tackle Stan Thomas was inactive Sunday, but noted ”we have rules the league puts out where you can only have so many on the active roster.”
He said in addition to getting Wagner and Christian into the game, ”we wanted to look at (Jim) Williams and the young tackle (Louis Age). That`s all you can read into it.”
As to those who read into it that Thomas was being disciplined for telling off Ditka on the sidelines in the Pittsburgh game the week before, Ditka said, ”If it is a strange coincidence, it won`t be the strangest in the history of fooball or even of this organization.”
– Ditka didn`t want to throw rookie quarterback Will Furrer to the Lions and doubts he`ll throw him to the Cowboys, either. ”You want to look at this guy,” he conceded, ”but would it be fair to him the way the rest of the guys are playing?”