Bears Wootton healthy, 'ready to go'

Bears Wootton healthy, 'ready to go'
By Brad Biggs
Tribune reporter

10:16 a.m. CDT, May 25, 2012
The Chicago Bears invested a first-round draft pick in Shea McClellin but Corey Wootton knows his future with the club is tied to his own performance, not that of a rookie.

Still, the Bears made it clear they believed their No. 1 need entering the draft was upgrading the pass rush, something Wootton has been unable to do during two season since he was a fourth-round draft pick out of Northwestern in 2010.

A sprained knee in the preseason opener last summer derailed what had been a strong offseason and training camp for Wootton. Then, he broke his hand in October. Things never fell into place for him as he dressed for only seven games and was on the field for only 65 defensive snaps, making only seven tackles. It was 19 less snaps than the year before when he made headlines with a sack of Minnesota Vikings quarterback Brett Favre at the University of Minnesota's TCF Bank Stadium. It was the final snap of Favre’s storied career as he suffered a concussion.

Now, after the first week of OTA’s at Halas Hall, Wootton is focused on what he needs to do to contribute, not what others are doing around him. The biggest thing is he’s healthy.

“Definitely,” Wootton said. “And that is the biggest thing for me. Coming into last year, I had a really good camp and unfortunately I got injured and it set me back. But right now I am feeling great – the best I ever have in my life even before I had surgery – so I am just ready to go.”

A torn ACL at the end of his junior season at Northwestern derailed Wootton, who likely would have left school a year early for the NFL draft. Prior to the injury, one national scout for another NFL team projected he’d be selected in the top half of the first round. Now, Wootton looks to be in a battle with veteran Chauncey Davis and newcomer Cheta Ozougwu for a roster spot, although it’s premature to play that game with training camp two months away.

Wootton was injured in preseason on the opening kickoff against Buffalo. He had arthroscopic surgery.

“It just didn’t feel the same at first,” he said. “Kind of the whole season didn’t feel right and then I had a really good offseason this year training really working in strengthening the knee and quad and muscles around it. I really feel great now.”

Wootton, 275 pounds, says he has lowered his body/fat to 11 percent and hopes to drop it a little more so he’ll be able to “run all day” in training camp.

“The biggest thing is I control my own destiny,” he said. “Just going out there every day and working and showing them that I belong here and can help this team.”

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports...,2355590.story

Glad to hear he's in great shape. Now if he stays healthy (and perhaps is limited on ST) we can see what he's got. This is also a make or brake year for him as well.

How great would it be for Wootton to have a great year along with McClellin, we'd have one hell of a pass rush.

Wooton, the Aurise curry of the D. Lets see if he can find playing time.

Would be nice to finally get some contributions from this guy. I always thought he'd turn into a really good rotational DE, but his injuries have really slowed his development.

This is one guy we really need to step up and stay healthy. Pep needs a competent backup who can give him some breathers. He was pretty worn down by the end of the year last season and you could see it. They need to keep him off ST duty and just let him work on his game as a pass rusher. That was a fool move when they did that and got him injured last year.

6'6" and 275lbs is nice size for a DE and if can learn to bring it he'll see some playing time. It could give up some options like moving Pep to DT on some passing downs or even using Wootton on the left side and moving McClellin around at times. The Giants showed every one the path last year. You need a strong and consistent pass rush to win big and in our division that's especially true.

Wooton is the one wild card that could make our defense dangerous. He has such great size and tools. He's contributed very little and it would be great if he blossomed this year.

he needs NO playing time on ST. If he turns out to be at least halfway decent, they could probably move Idonije back inside, if that would be worth doing at this point.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Henry Burris

he needs NO playing time on ST. If he turns out to be at least halfway decent, they could probably move Idonije back inside, if that would be worth doing at this point.

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The only ST I was thinking he could do is FG block team. I think Toub has plenty of weapons this year and as Wootton is seemingly brittle he should just stick to his DE position.