Originally Posted by
Dagan81
I can tell you guys, from personally having watched him play at the University of Tennessee, that Robert Meachem was a stud. He was an All-American, All-SEC, and he set the single-season school record for wide receivers at Tennessee with over 1,260 yards that still stands today. He can do it all. He can go deep, or he can run clean routes, juke a man's jock strap off, catch the ball, and run on to day light. He is one of six Tennessee wide receivers in school history to have over 2,000 yards receiving in his career. That being said, New Orleans has sorely underused him because as I see him, he is at least as talented as Marques Colston, if not more so. He's just two inches shorter.
He could be had relatively cheap because the Saints have low-balled him on his numbers. That being said, I would still like to go after Vincent Jackson simply because we could have two receivers with big-play capability. Having those two speedsters along with Earl Bennett lining up in the slot, and you have yourself one terrific trio of wide receivers. But if going after Jackson is problematic to you guys, I would be totally fine with going after someone like Robert Meachem. He would be a good value for the Bears.
I would caution one thing about Meachem, however. The offensive coordinator at the University of Tennessee at the time he was in school was none other than the man who developed both Peyton and Eli Manning - David Cutcliffe. This may be coincidental, but Coach Cut knew how to bleed a turnip of everything it had, and he always got the best out of his skill position players. We had All-Americans at QB (Heath Shular and Peyton Manning), WR (Carl Pickens, Alvin Harper, Peerless Price, Donte Stallworth, and Robert Meachem), and RB (Jamal Lewis, Travis Henry, and Travis Stephens). That being said, some of these players went on to have great careers as pros, while some were busts. I think the jury is still out on Meachem, as we haven't seen just how effectively he be utlized in the pros as of yet. The reason I caution people on this is because Cutcliffe always got the best out of his athletes; hell, Tennessee won the National Championship in 1998 with Tee Martin as quarterback, a full year after the Vols should have won the title before getting bludgeoned by Nebraska in the Orange Bowl. Tennessee has produced some of the greatest pros ever, but it's also produced some busts. I'm interested in seeing under which catagory Robert Meachem would fit.