Month: May 2015

Rich Campbell at the Chicago Tribune relays the text of offensive coordinator Adam Gase‘s responses to questions at the coaches’ press conference yesterday:

“On if he has a sense of how he can help Cutler, particularly when it comes to protecting the ball:

‘Well, I think he’d be the first one to tell you we’ve got to get better in that area. I know this: you don’t want to overemphasize it because then everybody starts thinking about it and the next thing you know, you start turning it over. I learned that lesson in 2013. We kept talking about it and talking about it, and we kept turning the ball over.

“‘So, one of the things we have to do is, you practice it in individual, and you let those drills work for you. And I think more times than not it works out the right way.'”

I’ll believe it when I see it. From what I can see, Cutler’s troubles with turnovers come from poor decision making and, to a lesser extent, from trying to throw with anticipation to the wrong spot, something he rarely tries to do anyway. I question whether you can coach a quarterback into making the right spur of the moment decisions in game action just because there’s a limit to how many of those situations you can (or should have to be able to) anticipate as a coach. Better preparation might help but I can’t imagine that it’s going to solve the issue.

One thing Gase can do is limit Cutler to safer routes. But that, of course, limits the entire offense and the poor progress moving down the field that the offense made seemingly in each possession last year is a testament to what happens when you have to do that too much.

Whether Cutler’s tendency to turn the ball over comes from an innate mental deficit or whether its something that can be coached out of him in his tenth season will be interesting to see. Here’s hoping it’s the latter. But I’m not holding my breath.

John Mullin at csnchicago.com describes the changes along the defensive line that will accompany the arrival of new nose tackle Eddie Goldman:

“[Jeremiah] Ratliff, who did not attend last week’s voluntary minicamp sessions, is not expected to wind up at nose tackle after all. He can play the position. But because of his age (34 in August), size (305) and standing as the best pass rusher among the current defensive linemen, Ratliff projects to be at end where his rush skills can be put to maximum use, rather than hunkering down inside with a primary assignment of run stuffing.”

Mullin probably has the right of it. Even though he made the Pro Bowl at the position, I don’t think the Bears ever ideally wanted Ratliff as a nose tackle.

There’s a lot of talk about the defense being a hybrid and how it will do fine with linemen playing one gap – which is true. But as we watch the defense come together, the truth comes out. The Bears are going to prefer big two gapping linemen and will likely resort to those who play one gap in the base defense only when personnel makes it a necessary compromise.

Dan Wiederer at the Chicago Tribune documents which Bears veterans are threatened by the arrival of the new rookies:

“Round 5: Penn State safety Adrian Amos.”

“Put on notice: Brock Vereen and Ryan Mundy.

“The details: Sensing a theme here with Emery draft picks potentially being squeezed out by prospects in his successor’s first draft class? Vereen’s versatility, unselfishness and value on special teams gives him a chance to hang around on the 53-man roster when fall arrives. Furthermore, the Bears’ depth at safety remains thin. So Vereen still could win a role as a key reserve.

“Mundy’s case? He was a reliable defensive contributor throughout 2014 and projects to be the opening-day starter again in September opposite Antrel Rolle. But Mundy joined the Bears last year on a two-year contract that will expire in March. So if he’s anything less than superb this season and/or Amos shows a quick ascension, the sands in the hourglass may start to accelerate.”

I have to take mild issue with Wiederer here on Mundy, a strong safety who rates highly in terms of being a sure tackler. Not that the position couldn’t be upgraded but Amos is by all accounts a player who excels in coverage with good range.  As Wiederer suggest, you could argue that good man coverage skills could fit Amos in the lineup as a strong safety.  And he did play close to the line of scrimmage in college.   But I think his range along with the criticism that he’s not as physical as the Bears would like make him to be make him a better free safety.   I’ll be surprised in the Bears don’t start him in that position. This would make him a much bigger threat to Rolle, a player who’s considerably older at 32 and who was visibly slowing down and losing range last year.

Dan Wiederer at the Chicago Tribune interviews new Bears center Hroniss Grasu‘s offensive line coach at Oregon, Steve Greatwood:

“Hroniss first and foremost has been an outstanding teammate and an outstanding leader in this football program. He’s one of those young men who is universally respected by all teammates and not just his position group.”

This interview is great but I’m a bit concerned. Given several opportunities to talk about Grasu’s athleticism, Greatwood took a pass. Grasu is already kind of small and needs to gain weight. I wanted to hear how he was going to adapt physically to the NFL and didn’t get any of that.

Its really nice that Grasu is a high character guy and I think the Bears can’t have too many leaders. But he’s going to have a hard time leading anyone if he’s getting bowled over by bigger nose tackles in the NFL. He’s already got great technique by reputation and that will help. But he’s going to have to use his quickness and ability to move to overcome some of the hurdles he’s going to face. Here’s hoping he has the physical skills to handle the load.

To describe the Bears draft class as a whole, the word “projects” is probably too strong. But it’s clear that the Bears top draft picks are going to need a great deal of work.

Let’s start with first round receiver, Kevin White. White has great size and physical ability but when you look at him on video, the thing that stands out is how raw he is. The West Virginia game versus Maryland, below, give you a good idea of what I’m talking about:

White uses his big frame well to get physical with corners and get open. And he uses it to block well, too. But you have to ask yourself how far this will take him against the better athletes in the NFL. White’s route running needs work and at times its down right atrocious, looking like you or I playing catch in the back yard.

White had only two seasons of division I football and he really only produced in one (last year). He needs to work on all of the little things that other receivers like Amari Cooper are well on their way to mastering – footwork, getting off the line of scrimmage and, especially, working on all of the routes in the vertical tree and making them all look the same.

Second round defensive tackle Eddie Goldman is better but its a similar story. He’s a true junior who just turned 21 in January. He hasn’t played as much football as you’d like and on occasion it shows. Note the game against Louisville below.

The great thing about this video is that it shows tremendous effort from Goldman. He’s extremely active in the middle of the line. The problem is that he’s so active that he literally takes himself out of the play on occasion. Discipline in a two gaps scheme is something Goldman is going to have to learn. The good news is that he may already be well on his way to doing that. Note this game against Florida a month later.

Goldman is much more disciplined here, holding the middle consistently agains double teams on almost every snap.  As general manager Ryan Pace noted in his Friday press conference, Goldman plays with great pad level and leverage and it’s especially evident in this video.  His pass rush took a step back in this game, though.

Note that Goldman has a reputation for taking plays off but I certainly didn’t see it in these games. The worst I can say is that he got tire late and it showed. Conditioning may be an issue but he may find himself rotating out more often in the pros, at least initially.

Finally, there’s the Bears third round pick, Hroniss Grasu. Grasu is different from Goldman and White in that he’s a four year starter for Oregon. He’s a bit under-sized but takes advantage of good technique to move larger defensive linemen out of the way (by reputation – I couldn’t find video online of Grassu to confirm this myself). Grassu’s problem is that he’s a center and, therefore by the nature of the position, unlikely to contribute right away in that role. The odds are that he’ll need a year of development and work in the weight room, possibly as a guard, before replacing Will Montgomery as center as the heir apparent.

These prospects, along with true sixth round developmental project, offensive tackle Tayo Fabuluje, are all promising. But Bears fans are going to have to wait to see it they attain their true potential – possibly more than one year. In the mean time, the Bears coaching staff is going to have to earn their money with these guys.

I think Bears fans can give the team the thumbs up for drafting good athletes with potential. For now.