O-line the weakest link

Chances are excellent you don't recall the Sid Luckman days, so it's understandable if Jay Cutler's arrival still has you a little intoxicated. Well, take caution in your giddiness. It is not my desire to step on your Bears buzz. I wouldn't dissuade anybody from making the trip to training camp in Bourbonnais, which opens a week from today. If you closed your eyes and imagined the sweet sounds of crisply punted footballs, whistles and overzealous coaches shouting at rookies, you'd jump into your car right now and get on I-57 to beat the crowd. There is a fly in the ointment, however. And it isn't Cutler's underwhelming cast of targets, Brian Urlacher's cervical spine, Matt Forte's knee or Tommie Harris' health. A Football team with a problematic offensive line is a team that won't break a sweat in a Super Bowl. And while I don't blame general manager Jerry Angelo for spending the last few months taking bows for the Cutler deal, he has assembled a cast of O-linemen that is suspect. When the Bears are at Lambeau Field for the season opener against the Packers on Sept. 13, I want to know which offensive lineman will be the one on whom Ron Turner can rely in short yardage. When it's fourth-and-inches and time for an ugly scrum, which of the Bears' front five makes Turner's decision easy? Whom do you run behind? Don't say left tackle Orlando Pace, who arrives with a big name and a big rep but without anything that screams, ''Run it here.'' Pace never has been a prolific ''hunker-downer,'' and he has been riddled with injuries, missing 23 games in 2006 and 2007 before making 14 of 16 starts last season with the Rams. Pace, 33, might have enough fuel left to use his hands and masterful technique to buy Cutler time, but he won't be confused with '80s left tackle Jim Covert. As a run-blocker, Pace is '09-speak for Blake Brockermeyer. Right tackle also should give Angelo a reason to keep Ambien on his nightstand. Chris Williams, the Bears' first-round pick in 2008, essentially is a rookie -- and a risky one at that. The Bears will tell you his back surgery wasn't serious, but they can't really believe that. And even if Williams is ambulatory, there is no evidence yet that he is a bona fide NFL player. Center Olin Kreutz is old and showed signs last season that it's time for the passing of the torch at that position. Guard Roberto Garza is reliable and, as unearthed by Brad Biggs in the Sun-Times this week, was one of the more productive players in the league. Problem is, his responsibilities will include assisting the elder statesmen around him. Is Josh Beekman going to be the short-yardage savior? Is Beekman even going to start over newcomer Frank Omiyale? If Omiyale is the road-grader the Bears need, I wonder why this is his third NFL stop in five years. I've heard nothing but panic about the Bears' issues at wide receiver, and they are reasonable concerns. Take a breath. Cutler makes the pedestrian receivers better. Tom Brady won three Super Bowls in this decade with only one ''good'' receiver, Troy Brown. Those who won't be rehearsing Hall of Fame speeches include David Patten, Terry Glenn, David Givens, Deion Branch and Jabar Gaffney. They were the ants in the afterbirth, flies at a picnic. Soul of a Football team The thing is, Brady also had able-bodied, angry, mobile beefcakes in front of him. They could get their pads under the opponents' pads when they needed a foot and a half to keep the chains moving. If memory serves, the Patriots' line was featured in a credit-card commercial as ''the five layers of protection.'' The Bears might have the five blocks of Silly Putty. Cutler is nimble enough to slip away from a rush, but he's never going to be a threat as a runner, and wispy protection might be a fatal flaw in Angelo's master plan. There is even less of a reason to have faith in the Bears in short yardage. They were bad at it last season, and all they did was get decidedly older on the left side and dramatically green on the right. The offensive line is the soul of a Football team. Without a good one, it's difficult to join the NFL's elite. And isn't that what Cutler was brought here to do for the Bears ? For now, however, let's keep sippin' that Bears Kool-Aid and get to Olivet Nazarene for camp. It's the dawn of a new day. Just remember that it won't be until September concludes that we learn whether the Bears truly are prepared to ring in a new era. Dan McNeil hosts a sports-talk show from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. weekdays on WSCR-AM (670). Comment at suntimes.com.