LAKE FOREST, Ill. -- The offseason departures of Anthony Adams and Amobi Okoye has set the stage for second-year defensive tackle Stephen Paea to assume a much larger role in Lovie Smith's defense.
[+] Enlarge Jamie Squire/Getty ImagesStephen Paea made an immediate impact for the Bears in his NFL debut on Oct. 16, recording a safety.
Paea, the Bears’ second-round draft choice out of Oregon State in 2011, battled a sore knee for much of the preseason and wound up inactive the first five games of his rookie year before dressing for the first time against the Minnesota Vikings on Oct. 16. In his NFL debut Paea sacked former Vikings quarterback Donovan McNabb for a safety.
Paea ended up recording 18 tackles, two sacks and two tackles for a loss in a reserve capacity.
Without the benefit of participating in the 2011 offseason program due to the NFL lockout, Paea is relishing the time he gets to spend at the facility and in the classroom with the coaches heading into his second full season.
"The advantage for me right now is that I know my mistakes from last year, and I need to make sure they don't happen again during this season," Paea said Tuesday at Halas Hall. "Now all the assignments and the keys, it's all a review [during meetings]."
The Bears projected Paea as a three-technique coming out of college, but he was quickly moved to nose tackle last summer at the onset of training camp. Although the Bears might be eyeing another interior defensive lineman in the draft, Paea seems all but assured of a shot to challenge for a starting job, if not earn one outright.
"If we just have four guys who want to hunt the quarterback or ball carrier every time, we're going to have a breakout (year)," Paea said. "It doesn't matter if it's me, Matt Toeaina, Henry Melton, we all have confidence in each other. If you have confidence in each other, it will play out right."
I'm getting to that age where a lifetime warranty just doesn't mean as much to me anymore as an afternoon nap.
Honey Badger Don't Care. Honey Badger Don't Give a Shit.
Just a little update on our DT situation. I don't think there's any question that we'll see more of Paea this year. The lack of any offseason prep time before camp and the fact that he was still nursing an old knee injury set him back in his development last year but that shouldn't be a problem this year. I'm looking for some big things from this kid from here on out.
One point to make about him is that, like the Bears, we all saw him as a 3t DT coming out of college. He may have had the strength of a NT but certainly not the size. Despite that the Bears played him at NT last year from training camp on and played Amobi Okoye at the UT spot. So what about this year?
It seems to me that while he has the goods to play at UT the Bears will most likely keep developing him as a NT which means he shares that spot with Toe. Toe is a good NT and has some ability of his own to penetrate but he lacks and real pass rush skills beyond a simple bull rush. So provided Paea stays at NT look for him to be used almost exclusively on passing downs.
Losing Okoye and AA now leaves us a man short at both NT and UT. Fortunately this years draft is deep in both but if Paea is to remain at NT it should be a 3t type we'll be looking for. A "gap shooter" who can penetrate against the run and provide a strong inside rush. This is where guys like Cox (1st rd), Reyes (2nd rd.) or Billy Winn (3rd rd) along with others may fit the Bears needs.
There are other as well to be sure but I expect the Bears to take both a DE and a DT fairly early in this draft and not necessarily in that order. We typically use a four man rotation at DT and as it stands we're one man short.
I'm getting to that age where a lifetime warranty just doesn't mean as much to me anymore as an afternoon nap.
Honey Badger Don't Care. Honey Badger Don't Give a Shit.
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Jamie Squire/Getty ImagesStephen Paea made an immediate impact for the Bears in his NFL debut on Oct. 16, recording a safety.
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