Are Bears Thinking Safety First?...........................

**soulman** · 08-30-2012, 03:47 PM

Are Bears thinking safety first?

With final cuts looming Friday, club's depth chart awfully thin on experience

Bears coach Lovie Smith and his team prepare for a preseason game against the Redskins. (Brian Cassella/Tribune Photo / August 29, 2012)

8:40 p.m. CDT, August 29, 2012

It will be interesting to see how the Bears address safety depth before the 8 p.m. Friday deadline for final cuts.

The position is rather thin. Starting free safety Chris Conte remains sidelined with a dislocated right shoulder. Backup Brandon Hardin is out for the season with a neck injury, although the rookie was out of his neck brace Tuesday.

Conte plans to play in the Sept. 9 season opener against the Colts, but the Bears still need insurance behind Conte and fellow starting safety Major Wright. Fifth-year player Craig Steltz is their only other experienced safety.

The Bears have explored the possibility of adding veteran safety Charlie Peprah, who the Packers cut in July after he reportedly failed a physical. There obviously are concerns about Peprah's health coming off arthroscopic knee surgery.

Bears coach Lovie Smith didn't rule out adding a veteran. but refused to count out young players such as Anthony Walters and Mark LeGree.

"We like the guys we have right now,'' Smith said. "But you're always, in the back of your mind, trying to improve if somebody is better than what you have.''

The Bears started Week 1 of last season with six safeties on the 53-man roster: Chris Harris, Brandon Meriweather, Winston Venable, Conte, Steltz, and Wright. There were eight starting safety combinations in 2011 because of injury or poor play.

Meriweather is now with the Redskins, while Harris and Venable are free agents.

Keeping the same total of safeties this season might be a smart move considering recent history. Since Smith took over in 2004, six safeties have been placed on injured reserve, including Mike Brown four times during that span. Conte (foot) and Walters (hamstring) each landed on IR last season.

The Bears problem is the safeties at the bottom of their depth chart have little to no game experience. Walters, who spent the first six weeks of last season on the practice squad, played special teams in four games last year.

LeGree, who signed last Monday, was a fifth-round pick of the Seahawks last season and spent time with them and the Seahawks, Cardinals, 49ers and Jets. He never appeared in a regular-season game.

And Jeremy Jones is an undrafted rookie from Wayne State.

"Walters made a couple of big plays in the last game,'' Smith said. "LeGree came in and made a couple of plays, so we're OK.''

Adding a veteran at the start of the season wouldn't necessarily be a difficult transition because the Bears' Cover-2 main scheme isn't too complex. (Bullshit. The Safeties responsibilities in the Bears Cover-2 have a lot to do with how well we prevent the "big play". It is complex for anyone even a vet and that was proven last year)

"We brought in Brandon Meriweather right at the end of cuts (last year),'' (Yeah, how'd that work out?) Walters said. "It's the coaches' choice. If they do it, they do it. If they don't, they don't.

"I would understand them wanting a veteran. It makes sense. But it doesn't change my mindset. I still want to play.''

vxmcclure@tribune.com

Twitter @vxmcclure23

**soulman** · 08-30-2012, 04:12 PM

Well I guess I'll be one who'll stand up and call Bullshit on the "we need another vet Safety". It hasn't worked in the past so why should I believe that it would work any better now.

McClure's line about the Bears Cover-2 not being difficult to transition into is malarkey. A vet may have had some NFL starting experience and some of it may have been in Cover-2 but not THIS Cover-2. Over the past few years we've brought two highly rated Pro Bowl level vet Safeties in to take over starting spots and BOTH (Archuleta and Meriweather) failed miserably. The only vet Safety we've ever brought in to start who actually played well was Chris Harris and that was only because he had experience in THIS Cover-2 prior to bringing him back.

I don't think we need Charlie Peprah or any other injured or cast off vet. I think we're better off working with a rookie who has a clean slate and no preconceptions of how to "free lance" in THIS defense and teach him how to play it correctly. We have always had better success with that type than we have ever had with the Josh Bullocks, Adam Archuletas and Brandon Meriweathers of the NFL.

I think the only examples I need to prove my point are Chris Conte, Craig Steltz, and Major Wright. Conte was starting by the end of his rookie year and pushing the Pro Bowl vets like Meriweather and Harris out the back door. His play was improving even more in the preseason until he got hurt.

Wright has been inconsistent as a tackler at times but his coverage skills have typically been pretty good and he knows how to go after the ball in the air which is what this defense calls for.

Craig Steltz lack the speed and range of the others but he's a hell of an instinctive ball player who is never far from the action and he makes all of the plays he should be making. He may get out right beat occasionally but I'm never uncomfortable with him when he's out there.

So now we have Anthony Walters playing "clean slate" Safety and at least he's been around this defense and the team for a year and has some idea of his responsibilities in the defensive backfield. LeGree give us nothing but another body who is also a "clean slate".

So exactly how does Charlie Peprah bring anything to the table these guys don't except his knowledge of the Packer's offensive playbook. Fine bring him in prior to the Packer game for that but you need to do it soon or he'll be ineligible and after that let him go. We don't need him.

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