Day: March 6, 2018

Brad Biggs at the Chicago Tribune on the Bears free agent options at cornerback:

It would be surprising if there isn’t good interest in [Kyle] Fuller. Where his market heads and what he’s seeking money-wise remains to be seen. The good news is there is solid depth at the position in free agency. Depending on who you talk to, there are two tiers of top available corners. Most folks I spoke to placed Trumaine Johnson of the Rams, Fuller and Bashaud Breeland of the Redskins in the top three. One defensive backs coach I spoke to had Johnson, Fuller and Malcolm Butler of the Patriots. There hasn’t been a ton of chatter about Butler, and who knows what happened leading into Super Bowl LII when he was benched. I don’t know that anyone will ever get the real story on that.

“Who can say what happened with that deal? It was just weird,” said the defensive backs coach. “But he’s a good player. Limited because of his size, but he’s good. He makes plays. He’s got good movement. He’s got a little attitude out there. You say he struggled this season and I counter that they didn’t have any pass rush this season at all. You’ve got to consider that.

“That’s why when I was doing my report on Aaron Colvin (Jaguars cornerback), I had a hard time. Nice player, but it was hard to write a report on him because that defense was just avalanching quarterbacks the entire season. You watch the cornerbacks in Jacksonville and they were just sitting on routes, which I would have done, too, because of that pass rush. So how is Colvin going to fit in your system if you can’t get after the quarterback like that? That’s the challenge. Nice player, but I think he’s in the next tier.”

Points are all well taken on Butler. But I’ve become convinced that the Super Bowl benching was a football decision just as the Patriots say it was.

Butler was never used on the opponent’s best receiver playing for the Patriots. It was always a situation where they either double teamed that player or, after they acquired him, put Stephon Gilmore on him. They always put Butler on the other side. The reason is simple. At 5’11” he was too short to cover the larger outside receivers that often dominate in the NFL. Butler could only be trusted covering lesser receivers or quicker receivers on the shorter side of normal.

The “long and the short of it” is possibly just that Butler just wasn’t good enough and the Patriots thought they’d have better luck without using him in coverage.

Bottom line, the Patriots didn’t consider Butler to be a top of the line cornerback. The Bears are probably better off without over paying Butler and should only consider him if his price tag comes in lower than expected.

Rich Campbell at the Chicago Tribune on the Bears sudden need for more pass rush:

In terminating the contracts of Pernell McPhee and Willie Young last week, the Bears cut from their roster a pair of veteran edge rushers who last season accounted for six sacks, 15 quarterback hits and a slew of injury-related concerns about availability and effectiveness.

The latter explained the moves and why there was minimal hand-wringing in Chicago about them. But jettisoning McPhee and Young, however justifiable, only magnifies the Bears’ need for push rushers.

I’m not surprised that the Bears let either of these men go and I think the decision on McPhee was fully justified. He’s simply been unable to stay healthy. But I’m not so sure about the decision on Young.

I understand why the Bears let Young go, too. He’s on the wrong side of 30, he’s being used as a rotational player and he doesn’t play special teams. But Young is one of those under-rated players that every team needs. He’s an underdog former 7th round pick who brings his lunch pail to work and gets after it. And he’s had a sneaky productive career with 32 career sacks including 10 in 2014. He (reluctantly) accepted a position change and made it work after the arrival of John Fox a year later.

The Bears obviously feel like they can replace his production and get younger at the same time but that’s considerably easier said than done. This year’s draft isn’t thought to be particularly good at the position and teams ordinarily don’t let decent pass rushers hit the free agent market. You wonder if this is a “grass is greener on the other side of the fence” syndrome where GM Ryan Pace is looking at what he doesn’t have more than what he has.

Young got fairly consistent pressure whenever he was in the game and that’s not easy to do. Even at 32 years old he still looked like he had a lot left in 2016 after missing most last season with a torn biceps muscle. Releasing Young isn’t quite the same as watching Alshon Jeffery walk out the door but one can only hope that they do a better job of replacing his production than they did last season when they tried to make up for the loss of Jeffery with a bunch of maybe’s that were destined to pan out only in GM Pace’s dreams.