The most obvious statement of the day is that the Chicago Bears need to address wide receiver. Considering how poor this unit played last season and in previous seasons, getting a game breaker for the Chicago Bears at receiver seems to be the most important thing the organization can do.
I am actually going to defy logic here a bit and suggest the most important position the Chicago Bears need to address is free safety. If you think I’m wrong, just remember the times when the Chicago Bears secondary was toasted by receivers on deep patterns? In Lovie Smith’s Cover-Two scheme, that just isn’t supposed to happen and became a problem this past season. This needs to be fixed ASAP. The only way it will happen is for the Bears to get a competent NFL free safety.
In addition to the obvious coverage help, getting a solid free safety will allow Brian Urlacher to play closer to the line of scrimmage. Having him in run support with the occasional blitz on the quarterback will help this defense. Urlacher is so good in pass coverage that there’s times that he becomes a crutch for the poor secondary. Urlacher needs to play closer to the line-of-scrimmage, and a solid free safety will allow him to do so.
Now here lies the problem…this isn’t a very strong class of safeties for the 2012 NFL Draft. There’s guys that fall into that second round category, but they’re hardly franchise-type safeties. Robert Lester out of Alabama seems to be the best of the group, and most experts feel he’s a middle second-round pick at best. I’ve always believed you take the best player available and not draft for need. Taking Lester even in the second round may be going against my philosophy. Great teams take the best talent available, and do not draft for need. That can get you into a lot of trouble.
There’s some solid free agent strong safeties on the market with the oft-injured Washington Redskin LeRon Landry at the top of the list. When healthy, he’s a beast. But the staying healthy part makes him like Mike Brown. Oakland Raider Tyvon Branch is a beast against the run, but he’s not very special in coverage. Chris Conte played well for a rookie last season, and I can see him continuing to get better. He’s got a nose for the football and just needs to understand angles better. As I see it, he’s more suited to the strong safety position. By adding one of the top free agent safeties, it will give the Bears a surplus at strong safety and not address the free safety position. It’s a real Catch-22.
Former GM Jerry Angelo made a HUGE mistake letting Danieal Manning go to the Houston Texans, a move that I still don’t understand. He needed to recognize the lack of quality safeties around the league and protect one of the best in the game. This is probably on the list of reasons why Angelo was fired on Tuesday.
The next GM will have his work cut out for him moving forward. There’s some real talent gaps on this team that need to be filled. If it can be done by next season, the Bears should be in a position to contend. But, that’s a huge if…
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I understand the lack of available safeties. I understand the Bears’ problems with the safety position, and having Danieal Manning would’ve helped this season. But to describe Danieal Manning as one of the best in the game? Really?
How good has the Titans defense been this season?
recievers and chris conte were not so bad but the number one BAD player was hands down left Tackle jamarcus Webb, our turnstyle at left tackle. We draft (sucked) just low enough to miss out on the first round left tackles without reaching so i would appreciate an article about available options.