Go back to he 06 Super Bowl season for a minute. Remember who the Bears’ starting safeties were? You got it! The same guys that are starting for the Bears next week – Chris Harris and Daniael Manning. Yeah, I know about Mike Brown being hurt, but for argument’s sake these guys were our starters. Now, can you name all the guys that have started for the Bears at safety between then and now? Let me break it down:
After trading away Chris Harris and playing round with Manning at corner and nickle back, the Bears relied on a whole host of different guys at safety. Of course there was Mike Brown, but the Bears made a big mistake relying on the injury prone veteran. Brandon McGowan was a solid player and a good find for an undrafted guy, but he should have only been a depth and special teams player. The weirdest move in my opinion was trading Chris Harris for what essentially was his replacement in college at the football power house known as Louisiana Monroe in Kevin Payne. Kevin and Chris both were at school at the same time, yet Chris started at safety ahead of Kevin. So it only makes sense to trade a guy that started ahead of another guy in college, just started as a rookie on a team that made it to the Super Bowl andplayed well for a guy that was essentially his backup in college… Good move Jerry.
But what very well may have been the worst move of all that year was trading for the venerable Adam Archuletta. God, just shoot me now. The white chocolate of the NFL, Adam wowed all the scouts when he was drafted with his super athleticism. But what I’ve come to realize was that Adam was not really that great of an athlete. All these pre-draft, pre-combine training facilities have inflated the true athletic ability of a lot of prospects. I feel Mr. Archuletta owes a lot of money to Jay Schroeder, the founder of Evo-Sport for all his success.
A guy I wished the Bears would have kept around was Todd Johnson. I loved watching this guy play with complete and utter reckless abandon and total disregard for his own safety. I can’t remember all the specifics of the play, but i think it was in 05 that Todd hit a receiver so hard that it knocked the ball out of their hands, injuring himself and another Bears player in the process. He was one of the hardest hitters in the league. Too bad he wore lead boots and couldn’t run.
So moving along, Mike Brown gets hurt again, Kevin Payne plays ineptly. Craig Steltz’s southern accent gets more annoying, the Manning experiment contines, and the position is in complete shambles.
Welcome Al Afalava, a sixth round pick. He plays solid, but completely uninspiring ball, and is unemployed one year later. That’s how bad the position was. The guy that started for us last year, is very young with starting experience and would be a minimum contract guy, can’t even latch on to a team or a practice squad. Josh Bullocks was basically kindling in New Orleans, meaning he was always getting burned and things weren’t much different here.
So this year things have turned full circle. We bring Chris back from Carolina, and move Manning back to safety where he belongs. Just think if the Bears would have left this combo back there since the Super Bowl. They would have a lot more experience playing together and gained a lot of experience in playing this position in this system. Think about Manning. Everyone knows about his athleticism and potential. Imagine if would have had these past couple years to refine his techniques at safety rather than bouncing around in the secondary. Think about the comradery with Harris and the guys and how that might have improved morale with the team.
What I fear is the same type of thing is happening with the O-line especially concerning Chris Williams. He’s been getting the Daniael Manning treatment here and its affected him and the team negatively. Common sense dictates that Chris should play left tackle and Omiyale should play right. By moving these guys all around the past two years it is hurting their development and the teams cohesion. Going into the offseason, we’re not going to have any idea still in what we have with the young guys on the line. Is Chris the starting left tackle of the future? We don’t know. We should have figured that out this year, but I don’t think we’re going too.
Lovie, Mike, and Mike: Please play these guys at the positions they belong. Stop impeding their growth and doing crazy things with their positions and let them develop properly so we know what we have.
And Jerry, well that’s a whole other article…
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