The Chicago Bears made arguably the biggest splash this offseason when they acquired quarterback Jay Cutler from the Denver Broncos for quarterback Kyle Orton, two first-round picks, and a third-round pick.

Cutler is coming into Chicago as the best quarterback the franchise has seen in the past two decades and a lot of attention is now falling on the supporting cast of offensive members who will help make Chicago a contender this season in the shaky NFC North.

With no clear-cut number one receiver, the Bears looked last year to converted wideout Devin Hester to make a big impact on the offense. Hester turned a lot of heads in his rookie season in 2006 as an explosive return man, returning six kicks for touchdowns.

In the 2008 season, Hester was limited to 665 yards receiving and three touchdowns as he struggled with being undersized for a receiver and learning how to run routes. Nevertheless, Chicago offensive coordinator Ron Turner will look to utilize Hester’s breakaway speed now that he has a quarterback in Cutler who has the arm to make the throws that Orton couldn’t.

Despite a lot of rumors that the Bears are looking to pick up a veteran wide receiver to help bolster their receiving corps, don’t expect anything drastic from general manager Jerry Angelo. Chicago doesn’t have enough to offer the Arizona Cardinals for Anquan Boldin after giving up two first-round picks in the Cutler trade and Angelo has also denied rumors that the club is going to make a play for free agent Amani Toomer.

The bottom line here is, expect the Bears to have the same look at the receiver position that they had last year.

That being said, the Bears still have weapons for Cutler to work with in his first season with Chicago. The Bears have two great pass-catching tight ends in Greg Olsen and Desmond Clark, who combined for over 900 yards and six touchdowns last year. Both of these players will have more than ample opportunity to have breakout seasons in the upcoming year with the more accurate Cutler under center.

The offense will also be helped out by second-year running back Matt Forte who had an outstanding rookie season rushing for over 1,200 yards, adding 400 more through the air, and finding the end zone 12 times.

The number two option for the Bears at wide receiver is Rashied Davis, who had an illustrious career in the Arena Football League, yet is still trying to find his niche in the NFL. The jury is still out on whether Davis can turn into a big time NFL wideout or not.

Chicago is in an interesting situation at the moment in that the vast majority of their pass catchers are extremely young, so time will tell how they will develop into NFL wide receivers. In this draft alone they spent three of their nine picks on receivers, including University of Oklahoma’s Juaquin Iglesias who many will feel will have success at the professional level.

Another wide receiver which intrigues many is second-year player Earl Bennett who played at Cutler’s alma mater Vanderbilt. Bennett had an amazing college career, setting an SEC record for most career receptions, though he failed to catch a single pass in his rookie season in Chicago.

Overall, the Bears’ wide receiving corps is fairly undersized, though Turner can look to create a more vertical passing game with Cutler taking the snaps. Cutler’s arm ranks up there as one of the strongest in the league, and last year he threw for over 4,500 yards and 25 touchdowns. This makes it all the more likely that the experiment with Hester playing wideout will be a success, just so long as Cutler gets him the ball in space with room to make plays.