Bear(ing) the News – A Chicago Bears Blog

Bears general manager Phil Emery discusses the need for secrecy during negotiations with new defensive end Jared Allen.  Via Dan Wiederer at the Chicago Tribune:

“‘It does make a difference on any contract situation,’ Emery said, ‘because you remove the pressure of other situations. So the fact that we were able to do this quietly removed the counter, per se. … Jared felt that we were the right fit and we were going [to] continue through without it getting out in the papers and allowing others to advance in terms of countering during the period where we were trying to come to an agreement.’”

The advantages to the Bears in terms of preventing other teams from making counter offers is obvious.  The advantage to Allen is not.  You’d think that he’d want to drive the price up by allowing other teams to bid.

I can only conclude that Allen was sure that no other teams weren’t going to offer the package that the Bears did and that he was sure Chicago was where he wanted to be.  And it does have the advantage of preventing distractions while trying to get the work done on the contract. Still, you wouldn’t think it would hurt to let other teams think about making a last effort.  All you have to say is “No”.

Rich Campbell at the Chicago Tribune writes a nice article on the evolution of the Bears defensive scheme.  He describes what coaches around the league are thinking when they consider what a disruptive defense looks like:

“‘Talent is important, but you can schematically try to create match ups,’ Titans coach Ken Whisenhunt said. ‘We try to do it offensively. You never know for sure what you’re going to get.'”

“So what’s the key to that?

“‘If you’re going to change in and out,’ Whisenhunt said, ‘then you’ve got to have the athletic defensive end/linebacker that can do multiple things for you, that has the ability to line up in different spots and create those mismatches.’

“[Lamarr] Houston and end-turned-linebacker Shea McClellin project into those roles for the Bears.”

Two points.

First, its evident that defensive end Jared Allen was the missing piece a week ago.  All of the coaches that Campbell interviewed said the same thing – you have to get pressure on the quarterback with four men.  That is always going to start with Allen.  Defensive coordinator Mel Tucker can now start with the assumption that offenses will design protections to stop Allen first and he can put together what he will do in each situation depending upon how the offense decides to go about doing that.  Unlike the situation a week ago, Allen is the man that now allows you to close your eyes and see how the defense is going to look.

Second, I can’t stress enough how much good position coaching is going to have to be a part of this defensive overhaul.  For the last decade the Bears have predicated their defense on doing one thing really well.  Everyone knew their role and executed it.  Now players are going to have multiple roles depending on the situation.  Indeed, they may not know what their role is until the offense lines up.

Houston might be a three technique tackle one play, an end the next and a linebacker the one after that.  Shea McClellin will now be adding the role of linebacker when he hasn’t played all that well just as a defensive end for two years now.  Players are going to have to be better prepared now than they have ever been before.

As author Joseph Murray once said, “We go where our vision is.”  The Bears have the flexibility on defense in terms of personnel to do that and they know where to start when putting together their schemes.  Now its up to hard work in a world of pure imagination.

From ESPN.com:

“When the Chicago Bears restructured Jay Cutler‘s contract to clear cap space, speculation surfaced that it was to enable the Bears to sign All-Pro receiver Brandon Marshall to a long-term extension.

“Instead, Chicago signed free-agent DE Jared Allen to a four-year deal, and Marshall is heading toward the last year of his contract.”

Not so fast my friend.  According to Rich Campbell at the Chicago Tribune the Bears still have $7.5 million in cap space after the Allen signing.  I don’t know how much you need to sign draft picks but I doubt that it will be anywhere close to that.

Marshall makes it clear in the ESPN article that he has no intension of signing anywhere else.  I can’t imagine the team feels any differently and I can’t think of a better use for the remaining cap space.

This item was buried in the Chicago Tribune article covering the death of Buffalo owner Ralph Wilson:

“According to the Buffalo News, the team will be placed in a trust, which likely will control the franchise for a minimum of a few years. Eventually, the trust will sell the team, with the proceeds going to Wilson’s estate, the newspaper reported.”

There’s no mention of a commitment to keep the team in Buffalo. Is anyone else thinking about the sound of the “Los Angeles Bills”?

Last week I wrote that with the release of wide receiver Earl Bennett, the Bears would be in need of a new third wide receiver. Yesterday at the league meetings head coach Marc Trestman confirmed that wide receiver Marquess Wilson would have the first shot at the new opening with competition likely coming later in the offseason. Via Brad Biggs at the Chicago Tribune:

“I think he showed that we can work with him and develop him.  He’s got the football intelligence that we’re looking for and the ability to be flexible within the offense. He was consistent. So we’ll see how it goes. We’re not anointing people at this point in time. He’s going to have a chance to compete and be a part of what we do after Alshon [Jeffery] and Brandon (Marshall). We’ll see how it goes. We’ve got a long way to go but we like (Wilson) and we’re excited about him to develop him and work him.”

Wilson is a seventh round pick that hasn’t shown much simply because he’s been playing behind Marshall, Jeffery and Bennett.  But there’s good reason to hope that he’ll be replacing Bennett this season.

Wilson is 6’3”, 194 lb which fits the Bears ideal profile for a wide receiver. Wilson has also been working out with Marshall and Jeffrey at Marshall’s Fit Speed facility in the off-season. If Marshall can bring Wilson along like he did Jeffrey, Wilson will be quite an addition to the starting lineup in 2014.

The Bears need Wilson to develop. As pointed out by Mike Wilkening at profootballtalk.com, Marshall becomes an unrestricted free agent at the end of next season and Jeffrey’s contract is up after 2015. Wilson is only 21 years old and could serve as a young Insurance policy for the loss of either or both. The draft is the lifeblood of any NFL football franchise, and Wilson is a part of that for the Bears. Let’s hope for a productive 2014 for him.

John Mullen at CSNChicago.com addresses the question of whether Mark Sanchez is in the Bears’s future:

“The unknown is whether the Bears may take a flyer on Sanchez because [quarterback coach Matt] Cavanaugh knows him from New York, or take a pass for precisely the same reason: because Cavanaugh knows him from New York.

“[General manager Phil] Emery did leave the door decidedly unlocked for a Sanchez or reasonable facsimile thereof:

“At some point we’ll probably bring in a bunch of veterans after this wave of free agency—this first and second wave—and we take a look at who’s still looking for an opportunity,” Emery said this month, “and we’ll bring them in and we’ll try them out and we may sign another one.’”

The Bears is will be in the market for a young, developmental quarterback. However whether Sanchez fits that description is debatable. Sanchez is only 27 years old.   However he will be 30 years old three years from now at the effective end of Jay Cutler’s seven year contract. That may be a couple years older then the Bears would like.

It would be interesting to see what head coach Mark Trestman and Cavanaugh could do with Sanchez and they could develop him for a years or two, then trade him for a draft pick as the Packers were known to do for many years as they developed backups to Brett Favre. Nevertheless I’m inclined to believe that they would rather find a younger quarterback later in the draft. If they don’t find one (as happened let year) then I think that a veteran like Sanchez may be an option if he comes cheaply.

Pro Bowl linebacker Lance Briggs visited the NFL Network and talked Bears [link].

Amongst his comments, I can completely agree with his statements regarding the signing of cornerback Charles Tillman.  Briggs said he was “the happiest man in Chicago” when Tillman resigned.  If that’s true, I wasn’t far behind.

I understand the Bears drive to get younger on defense but, unlike the other veteran players who have left the Bears over the past month, Tillman possesses one totally unique characteristic that would literally be impossible to replace.  You can find other, younger cornerbacks who can do a good job in both man-to-man and zone coverages.  But you’ll never find another cornerback anywhere who generates turnovers the way Tillman does.  I’ve never seen anything like it.  I doubt very much that we’ll ever see anything like it again.  I’m personally grateful for the opportunity to watch Tillman do his magic for at least another year.

Apparently moving kickoffs from the 30 yard line to the 35 yard line a few years ago didn’t take things far enough for at least some NFL owners.  Via profootballtalk.com:

“The Competition Committee announced today that owners will vote at next week’s league meeting on whether to move kickoffs again, this time to the 40-yard line.

“According to the Competition Committee, this is a rule proposal designed to take player safety into consideration: Moving the kickoff will result in more touchbacks, fewer returns and therefore fewer collisions. The NFL in recent years has identified kickoffs as some of the most dangerous plays in the game of football.”

I will never understand this.  There is a proposal to to move the extra point back to the 25 yard line because the almost automatic kick from the 3 yard line is too boring and a waste of time.  But is there a bigger, more boring waste of time than a touchback on a kickoff?

Either the play is too dangerous or it isn’t.  If it isn’t they should have the kickoffs from the 30 yard line and let the players play.  If it is, the owners should stop playing around and eliminate it.

Rich Campbell at the Chicago Tribune comments upon the release of number three wide receiver Earl Bennett:

“[Marquess] Wilson, a seventh-round pick out of Washington St., is positioned to compete with newly-signed Domenik Hixon for the No. 3 receiver spot. Wilson had two catches for 10 yards as a rookie.

“The Bears consider him a natural catcher and smooth runner. They like how he can beat press coverage with quickness and decisiveness.”

My gut tells me that the Bears won’t go into camp depending upon either Wilson or Hixon to do the job.  Wilson is unproven and Hixon hasn’t really shown himself to be in a class that deserves to be on the field that often.  I’d look for them to find at least a third, potentially better option.

One possibility is to find another receiver in what is thought to be a draft which is deep on talent.  The Bears will — and should — concentrate on drafting defense.  But if the right guys falls, another wide receiver is a very real possibility in either day two or three.  In the same way, a second tight end is also an option that I’m sure they’ll consider.

Yesterday, I described the uncomfortable feeling I had about how the Bears were going about “improving” the defense.  Apparently I wasn’t alone.

Here’s what Steve Rosenbloom at the Chicago Tribune had to say as he urged the Bears to sign defensive end Jared Allen:

“Jared Allen has recorded double-digit sacks in each of the last seven seasons. That’s a right defensive end the way it oughta be.

“The way Julius Peppers used to be.

“The way the Bears need one to be.”

When you are talking about replacing the sacks generated by veterans like Peppers and, potentially, Henry Melton, Allen seems more like the guy conventional wisdom would indicate is needed.

The 2013 Bears defense was essentially the same as the 2012 version.  There was a lot of talent there.  With the new signings by general manager Phil Emery, that talent hasn’t been replaced “by the numbers”.

In thinking about this situation I realized that my uneasiness reminded me of the way I felt after Emery drafted offensive guard Kyle Long and linebacker Jon Bostic last year and defensive end Shea McClellin the year before.  Here’s what I said:

“Emery appears drafting by the numbers.  Like former Bears head coach Dave Wannstedt in the days when the Bears drafted the likes of John Thierry and Alonzo Spellman, Emery appears to be enamored with measurables that can be derived from workouts rather than what he sees in terms of play on the field.  He’s drafting ‘traits’ not football players.”

And it suddenly hit me:  what Emery is doing is what he’s done in the draft since he’s been here – he’s projecting future performance based upon “traits” and player development.

What traits is Emery looking for?  Here’s what he said about new defensive end Lamarr Houston: (via Melissa Isaacson at espn.com):

“He’s a good pass-rusher.  When I looked at him versus the players that we have on our team, his two-year combined total disruptions is higher than anybody on our team. And I know I’ve used that word disruption and there are a lot of variations of what that means …

“The research from 2008 on [shows] when a pass play is performed without pressure, without a knockdown, hit or sack, the percentage of completion is about 64 percent. When there’s a sack, obviously it goes to 0. But with a hit or a pressure, it goes to 38.5. So those are significant when you talk about disruptions of a passer. And he certainly has had those.”

Similarly, here’s what Rich Campbell and Dan Wiederer at the Tribune emphasized about the signing of defensive end Willie Young:

“In his first year as a starter last year with the Lions, harass quarterbacks is exactly what Young did, recording 11.5 knockdowns and 15 hurries (according to STATS). But sacking them – he only had three in 2013 for six in his career – is another thing.”

Yes it is.

Emery continues to play a dangerous game.  Going from “pressures” to “sacks” is a line that is difficult to cross.  There are a lot of players that never do it.  Yet Emery continues to be completely focused on bringing in unproven youth not only in the draft, but now in free agency as well.  This involves projecting forward to what he thinks the player is on his way to, not taking the more sure route of buying what the player already is.  Perhaps he’s forced to do it by budgetary constraints.

In any case, he’s betting heavily on his ability to tell the future and the coaching staff’s ability to make it happen.  Sometimes it works out, as it did for Long.  Sometimes it doesn’t as it has yet to do with McClellin.  All we can do is hold our breath and pray that he knows what he’s doing.  We surely won’t be alone.