Hardin has had his share of injuries in his college days and would try to put those days behind him. He missed all of the 2011 season with a injury. Hardin is a safety, but people speculate he could player cornerback for the Bears at times. I don’t see that as of now, barring no injuries. Hardin has played cornerback in college too. In his college career, Hardin had 105 tackles, 1 interception, 3 forced fumbles, and 1 fumble recovery in 38 games.

At the time, Hardin may have been a reached, but he has tons of potential and expects to be a contributor for the Bears. One reason he may have fallen in the draft was because he missed all of this season. So … he may have been a good reach and the Bears hope he was too.

Hardin will come in and join a safety group of … Major Wright, Craig Steltz and Chris Conte. There is open competition and with great play, he can win the starting spot. However, as of now I do not see that. But he will get his share of time rotating in and out of the field.

Now the 2012 NFL draft has officially concluded and the Bears can move on to OTA’s, training camp and look ahead to the preseason.

1) Wisconsin-Whitewater quarterback Matt Blanchard
2) Texas Southern receiver Joseph Anderson
3) Illinois State tight end Brandon Venson,
4) Concordia tackle Tyler Hendrickson,
5) Central Florida guard Nick Pieschel,
6) Boston College punter Ryan Quigley
7) Connecticut kicker David Teggart

Out of the players the Bears signed from the weekend, I can only see Hendrickson and Piechel making the 53-man roster. As the Bears still need help on the offensive line. However, Venson made a big splash in rookie tryouts and watch for his name come training camp/preseason. But tight end is full and may have a hard time making the roster. The other players I can’t see making the team as their position is full and are likely practice squad additions if no team picks them up.

With the signing of the 7 players, the Bears had to waive 3 players to get under the 90-player limit. The Bears waived tackle Levi Horn, tight end Andre Smith and guard Reggie Stephens.

Horn had so much promise as an undrafted free agent, but that did not go to plan at all. As the Bears finally cutted ties with him. I didn’t even know Reggie Stephens was on the roster, but he was as a practice squad body. So, his release is really no surprise. Finally, the release of Andre Smith is not surprising at all either. He’s a tight end and the Bears have way too much. Especially since the Bears signed a tight end from tryouts.

Other notes:
**Brandon Marshall’s case is expected to be resolved by the end of the week and Marshall’s name should be cleared. The cops are having trouble finding evidence against him. That’s good news for the Bears and Marshall.

None of these players are guarantee spots on the roster, but it will surely add competition to the defensive line. That’s what every coach wants to see come training camp and spring training. Also, any of the 3 players have a good chance to make the team as the Bears are very thin on the defensive line. The Bears have to fill snaps in which Amobi Okoye and Anthony Adams played last season.

John DcCargo is 28 years old, 6’2, and 307 pounds. DcCargo was the 26th pick in the 1st round of the 2006 draft by the Buffalo Bills. DcCargo did not live up to being a 1st round pick as he only has 52 tackles, 2.5 sacks and 1 forced fumble in his career. The Bears snapped up DcCargo after he was released by the Tampa Bay Buccaners.

DeMario Pressley is 26-years 0ld, 6’3 and 301 pounds. Pressley was a 5th round pick (144th overall) of the 2008 draft by the New Orlean Saints. Pressley has not had a good career as he’s been on a lot of teams. He has played for the Houston Texans, Indianapolis Colts, Denver Broncos and the Carolina Panthers. In his career, he has 20 tackles and no sacks.

Cheta Ozougwu is 23-years old, 6’1 and 247 pounds. He was a 7th round pick (244) in the 2011 draft by the Houston Texans. As you can see, that was last year’s draft and he did not last with the Texans. Ozougwu has never played in a regular season game before.

None of the players are eye openers, but they are a low-cost/high reward kind of deals. So … it does not hurt and let’s see what they can do.

Other notes:
**In hidden news, the Bears did sign 1st round pick Shea McClellin and 3rd round pick Brandon Hardin to 4-year deals. All the draft picks have been signed and did participate in rookie mini-camp.

Frey is 22 years old and is 6 feet exactly. He does have the height to fit in as cornerback in the NFL. However, since he was a late round draft pick, his best shot of making the team would be on special teams. In 2011, Frey had 25 tackles, 5 interceptions and 21 pass deflections for Nevada. He has great speed, but not great in coverage.

The Bears drafted two cornerbacks in the draft and Frey was the first one they drafted. The Bears also drafted Greg McCoy and he signed a 4-year deal a couple days ago. Frey and McCoy will come in and join a cornerback group of Charles Tillman, Tim Jennings, new comers Kelvin Hayden and Jonathan Wilhite. So … the cornerback position is closed or very close to being closed. Both Frey and McCoy could have a hard time making teams. However, if a player does good in preseason, the team will not let them go.

The Bears open rookie minicamp tomorrow and the Bears still have two unsigned draft picks … 1st round pick DE/LB Shea McClellin and 3rd round pick S Brandon Hardin. Not to mention, rookies are already showing up at Halas Hall today. Both McClellin and Hardin could sign very soon. The Bears want them there and they want to be there so they can get to know the team.

Here are the contracts that TE Evan Rodriguez and CB Greg McCoy received. Rodriguez earned a signing bonus of 445,200 and 2,545,200 all together. Greg McCoy received a signing bonus of 60,2408 and 2,160,248 all together.

As a player on special teams last year, McCoy had 1,505 return yards and 3 touchdowns. McCoy is a little too small to be a cornerback as he’s only 5 feet - 10 inches. At cornerback, you usually want the player to be over 6 feet for sure. However, cornerback is not where McCoy made his name and he’s more of a pick for special teams.

Like I just said, he’s more for his kickoff abilities. However, the Bears have 2 great kickoff returners. Devin Hester whom will be returning punts and Eric Weems who will probably return kickoff returns.

I see McCoy as a longshot to make the Bears 53-man roster out of preseason. But I can see him being added to the Bears practice squad if no team picks him up. Then if Hester or Weems gets injured, McCoy can be added to the roster and return kickoffs. Let’s not hope injuries occur to either of them.

McCoy is the second draftee of whom the Bears have signed. Last week the Bears announced that they signed 2nd round pick Alshon Jeffery to a 4-year contract.

With the McCoy deal in the fold, the Bears have about 4.1 million left to sign they rest of their draft picks. In which, that is 4 players the Bears still have to sign.

We could hear more of the Bears draftees to sign in the next few days as the rookie minicamp opens up on Friday.

Lewis is 26-years old and was the 6th round pick (185 overall) by the Atlanta Falcons in the 2007 NFL draft. The Bears organization knows Lewis pretty well as they scouted him heavily coming out of Washburn University. Phil Emery, of whom was not with the Bears in 2007 was with the Atlanta Falcons as the director of college scouting. So … he played a role in drafting Lewis and knows him well too.

Lewis was released by the Falcons on September 2, 2011. He was not on a team for the 2011 season. So … the veteran minimum will be enough to sign Lewis. Lewis has also not been effective in the NFL because of past knee injuries. Lewis did recover from knee surgery and is said to be ready to play and contribute to a team.

If the Bears were to sign Lewis, he would join a defensive tackle group of Matt Toeaina and Stephen Paea.

I’m all for the Bears signing Lewis. I see the signing of Lewis as a low-cost/high reward kind of situation. This is how I see it … if his knees come back to be 100% healthy, he could help out and contribute for the 2012 season. Also, he won’t cost much at all. I guess we will find out in the next few days on how his workout went and if the Bears signed him.

Winston Venable was off and on the Bears roster last season. With Venable appearing 12 games last season, he was also on the Bears practice squad. He came off the Bears practice squad when a safety became injured. As I already mentioned, Venable was a great special team players. However, the Bears signed a few special teams players this off-season.

Venable manly lost a spot on the roster when the Bears drafted Brandon Hardin in the 3rd round of the NFL draft. The Bears safeties consist of Major Wright, Chris Conte, Craig Steltz and they will have a spot on the roster.

Venable may get picked up by a team on waivers and play with them. But if he is cut in training game or spring training, I can see the Bears re-signing him to their practice squad. As he knows their defense and will be easy for him to go back.

As of now, Venable has not been picked up by a team since the Bears have waived him.

I like Venable, but there’s just no spot on the roster. I hope he is re-signed to the practice squad, but I don’t know if that will happen.

The Chicago Bears are always one of the 1st teams to sign their draft picks, thanks to Cliff Stein whom is the one to sign draft picks. Stein always wants to sign all of his draft picks before June 1st. So, the signing of Jeffery this early is no surprise. We will probably hear more of the Bears draft signings in the next week or so.

Jeffery was the 45th pick of the NFL draft and the 13th pick of the 2nd round. Last year’s 13th pick of the 2nd round pick, Rahim Moore made 4,5 million and a signing bonus of 1.735 million. So … it looks like Jeffery made a little more than Moore did last year.

Adam Schefter brings up a great point, we could possibly be looking at fast rookie deal thanks to the new CBA.

Zach Zaidman brings up a great stat … Alshon Jeffery is the earliest 2nd round pick to sign since the Dallas Cowboys signed Kevin Williams on Aprile 28th, 1993.

Like I said in my article when the Bears drafted Jeffery, I expect him to be a draft pick to pay off. I expect him to have a great year paired with Brandon Marshall. There’s a good chance he will go into the 2012 season as the Bears 2nd wide receiver. You can find my article of the Bears selecting Jeffery here.

1 down, 5 more to go!

Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler and his fiance, Kristin Cavallari are not happy with his teammate, Earl Bennett after he announced to the world that they were expecting a baby boy. Cutler was apparently not ready to pass out the personal information to the press, but in a recent radio interview Earl spilled the beans. He said, “New toys, a baby on the way–he’s having a boy-and, you know, I’m excited for Jay. It’s a great time.” Nothing harmful by Earl saying this in my opinion, but Jay clearly isn’t happy with it. He was currently caught flipping the bird to a paparazzi camera while walking his dog, and now he has deleted his twitter account as of May 3rd-

Earl aka @Agent_Orange80,  has almost 4,000 tweets, and was tweeting on a regular basis. His account has been stagnant since April 30th, so my guess is somebody told him to shy away from the social media giant for a little bit. Both are long-time friends and have been teammates since their Vanderbilt days. I’m sure this won’t hurt any chemistry on the field, or at least I hope it won’t, but Kristin is a media drone and probably enticed Jay to do something about it. Whatever the case may be, I really hope both put the high school drama to the side, and start to focus on the 2012-13 football season. The Bears have been very busy this off-season in making the team stronger, so distractions are the last thing a team filled with new players is looking for. Congratulations to “Midway Jay” on the news of becoming a father, but man up and stop acting like the baby you are about to bring into this glorious world. Stop walking around with that smug look on your face, and flicking off cameras. Smile once in awhile, or just wave at the paparazzi, things could be much worse right now Jay.

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