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Bears Creating Confusion, Not Production at Safety

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We have heard many theories, rumors and speculation on what they Bears should do with their issues at the safety spot.  Two of those involved moving either Charles Tillman or Nathan Vasher to that spot.  Well, throw Corey Graham's name to that list.

In an interview discussing the the secondary, Lovie Smith dropped Graham's name into the mix:

He proceeded to rattle off the names of the safeties on the roster -- Payne, Craig Steltz, Josh Bullocks, Glenn Earl and Afalava -- before adding two more players who figured to have roles elsewhere.

''We have all of those guys in the mix, and we still have Danieal Manning,'' Smith said. ''Look at other players. We have Corey Graham.''

Ok, I'm all for putting the best players on the field, but the Bears are playing musical secondary way too much.  They are creating an atmosphere of confusion and uncertainty among the players.

Let's say Graham does well enough to take over the safety spot.  Then in game 3 Nathan Vasher goes down for a few games (hard to imagine, I know). Do we leave Graham at safety and let Trumaine McBride fill in or are they going to move Graham back over to corner and bring Steltz back up?  

You have to have at least 3 good corners in this league.  If you are playing a team like Indianapolis, you need more.  If you are the Bears you need about 6 to cover injuries, but you cannot keep moving players around between positions.  You have to give a young guy his spot and let him learn how become a good NFL player at that spot.  

Danieal Manning could be a Pro Bowler at some spot for all we know...they just won't let him stick to a position. 

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Vasher injury?

I think DJ Moore can come in right away and be decent because of his ball skills and awareness.

"I'm not so mean. I wouldn't ever go out to hurt anybody deliberately - unless it was, you know, important, like a league game or something." - Dick Butkus

by propheteer on May 4, 2009 1:13 PM CDT reply actions  

Steltz is a natural SS, but will probably be used at FS…

As far as Manning goes, the Bears said back in February that they would prefer to keep him at nickel.

I wish we could trade Vasher, Graham, Payne, Earl, Bullocks, McBride, and Afalava all for a good cover-corner and a free safety.

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by Dane Noble on May 4, 2009 1:20 PM CDT reply actions  

What value do you really think those guys have?

No one is going to give us a starting safety and cover corner for that group right now. If Earl is healthy, he was a starter for the Texans and was solid before his injury and Payne has shown promise. I still don’t think anyone can say that Steltz can be a starter in the league at this point. Bullocks, at least also has some starting experience, the others are all experiments at best. I think we’ll see Earl/Bullocks and Payne as your starters with the others as backups if nothing is done before training camp. All of it really hinges on whether Marinelli can live up to his hype and improve the pass rush. If that happens, you can have anyone back there and the job will get done.

by BearFan611 on May 4, 2009 4:14 PM CDT up reply actions  

I don't think they would have any value.

It was more of a daydream. That said, out of all of our scrubs, then only guys I can say I could see as for-sure-starters would be Steltz and Tillman (and Manning at Nickel). Everyone else can hopefully benefit from a pass-rush… but they could all just be mixed and matched.

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by Dane Noble on May 4, 2009 4:25 PM CDT up reply actions  

There should be no problem

moving corners to the safety spot. If they are so dumb not to be able to move back to corner in case of an injury they should not be on the team to start with.

by luckie815 on May 4, 2009 1:27 PM CDT reply actions  

Maybe they used their heads

and didn’t throw him in the mix when he wasn’t ready.

by luckie815 on May 4, 2009 1:51 PM CDT up reply actions  

I don't think it has

anything to do with how smart they are. Guys get used to who they are playing with. If Graham is working at safety, Tillman and Vasher get to know what to expect from him. If they than move him to corner and bring up a guy they haven’t worked with as much it could cause mis communications.

Being Who You Thought We Were Since 2005!

by Adam T on May 4, 2009 2:14 PM CDT up reply actions  

agree

It’s also simply a matter of practice and muscle memory. Cornerback is a different position from safety. Period. Yes, they use many of the same skills but they are still different positions. If you are practicing and playing games at one position, you are not practicing and not playing games at the other. If we want our players to actually GET BETTER at a position, they need to immerse themselves in that position, play it, practice it, study it, etc, etc, etc. That means stability.

by JohnPaul on May 4, 2009 2:18 PM CDT up reply actions  

Why Not Urlacher?

LOL

"The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt." - Bertrand Russell

by phastphil on May 4, 2009 2:16 PM CDT reply actions  

Hey, it is not uncommon for some linebackers

to convert to strong safety, i.e. Michael Boulware, etc.

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by Dane Noble on May 4, 2009 2:23 PM CDT up reply actions  

Yessir he did.

But I’m not so sure he has the speed anymore to do that now. Plus, he could get away at being 250 and playing safety in college… not so much in the NFL.

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by Dane Noble on May 5, 2009 10:53 AM CDT up reply actions  

just sayin

it is a reconversion of sorts

by No It All on May 5, 2009 12:12 PM CDT up reply actions  

I always thought Danieal Manning

Could be a good Safety, I was never sure why they kept moving him around. Keep him at safety I think he could do better than most of the cast of flunkies we have now.

by Sam Householder on May 4, 2009 2:25 PM CDT reply actions  

Manning

The one position he has had a chance to actually play on a consistent basis now is return man, and he has excelled as one of those.

Who knows what the guy could do if they ever let him stay at one spot and not move around.

by sabbath999 on May 4, 2009 2:44 PM CDT reply actions  

Somewhere...

…Chris Harris laughs his arse off.

by Waylon on May 4, 2009 2:50 PM CDT reply actions   1 recs

well, manning got pretty good at nickel back

once lovie actually started coaching him. if lovie is more hands-on this year, i wonder if he can coach up manning back to FS. truthfully, i’d rather have him there (great physical tools to be a good FS) IF he knows what he’s doing. given how hard nickel is to learn, i’ve got to imagine lovie could do the trick and move him back to his natural position.

by guy incognito on May 4, 2009 5:04 PM CDT reply actions  

I disagree.

I wouldn’t call it confusion, I would call it being very wise. Wise to bring in as many players at the position as possible in order to find the best of the lot and put him on the field. That is what is happening.

Passion For The Game, Loyal To The Name, Chicago Bears, I Trust In Thee, Standing Strong Since 1983.

by Haightminow on May 5, 2009 10:54 AM CDT reply actions  

That would be well and good...

but they are flip-flopping some players, and can’t decide which positions to put others. that can’t be easy on a player…

Then again, better to be going through this now than in July or August…

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by Dane Noble on May 5, 2009 10:59 AM CDT up reply actions  

It doesn't matter if it is easy or hard on a player.

And it is not that they can’t decide, they can decide, and they will decide. Every team is going through similar situations at this time of year. I think that it is a good thing that we have so many options. Now it is up to the coaches to recognize the best option and put those players on the field.

Passion For The Game, Loyal To The Name, Chicago Bears, I Trust In Thee, Standing Strong Since 1983.

by Haightminow on May 5, 2009 11:07 AM CDT up reply actions  

I just wish we had more talent to choose from...

I get the feeling we might be picking the “least rotten apples” to make our pie with…

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by Dane Noble on May 5, 2009 11:10 AM CDT up reply actions  

Maybe this Afalava can fit our scheme.

Passion For The Game, Loyal To The Name, Chicago Bears, I Trust In Thee, Standing Strong Since 1983.

by Haightminow on May 5, 2009 11:12 AM CDT up reply actions  

Musical Chairs = Major screw-ups

 None of these guys in the secondary have been in football long enough to be randomly mixed and matched thru out the secondary. Two maybe three have a good understanding of their own position but that’s it. Good secondary play is like good OL play. You have to know your duties, what your going to do And Then; dovetail that with what everyone else is doing. The old, "whose got who? AND for How Long. When to release? When to Break off? The reason the Bears where always so good whenever Mike Brown was on the field was not only the energy and physical presence he brought but the Knowledge of the (entire) Secondary he brought. He was another coach. But even better, he was a coach on the field of play. He was there in Real Time moving the young guys around; he was there in Live Time calling the overages as the play developed. He could recognize it just as fast or faster than the guys on the sidelines or up in the box AND there was no lag time or pipeline distance the info had to travel. He barked-out the coverage’s instantly as the play unfolded. This ongoing problem of constantly moving guys around has already been touched on by a few of the above posts, and that is … how to interact with your teammates when your not sure what you should be doing let alone being confident about what they are doing. Who’s got who? For how long? When do I hang and when do I release, and if I do release, Where do I go? What’s my next area/player of responsibility?
Another issue. We have over the last few years, been drafting guys on the basis of buffed/athletic “Potential”. Who cares if he’s, in the words of an old passed-on Bear Scout, “Dumber than a Board”! You can get away with that at the college level, but Pro Ball is so much more cerebral and faster, that the “intellectually challenged” are toast.
It matters not how big you are or how fast you are, if you have no idea where the F*ck you are?!?
Hey! It’s no secret! Most all those 1st Rd. busts are not because they can’t run 4.39 or Vertical 39" or put up 39 reps, … they Can! It’s not because they don’t have the Tools, it’s because they don’t have the G2, the FBI, the Smarts.
And last but not least, is what I feel is the biggest issue. The fact that Lovie bought in a bunch of cronies from the college with ZERO Pro NFL Coaching experience was a guaranteed recipe for the failure of the last few years. Even if we did get a potentially good player, in some/many cases the good experienced coaching wasn’t there to develop him. Look at all the guys we cut that went on to be “Starters” elsewhere!!!
And that Ladies and gentlemen concludes my Doctoral Thesis on: The Chicago Bears during the Lovie Years. LOL!!!
NOTE: the current shake up and new acquisitions in the coaching ranks of Experienced Coaches, might be an indication that they may just have figured this out?

by pete banachi on May 12, 2009 2:54 PM CDT reply actions  

resign Mike Brown, just like Ruben Brown

At this point it seems even more appropriate that the Bears re-sign Mike Brown, now that he has tested the free agent market. He played in 15 games last season, and many had the feeling that if Mike Brown had been at free safety, instead of Manning, they would have beat Houston on the road in the last playoff elimination game of the season. Daniel Manning’s mental mistakes at safety are horrendous, he is much better for nickelback. The free safety options right now are health questions like Brown, and if they all have the health issues, then we should go with the most talent, and thats Mike Brown. Little home town discount. I know he is prototypical strong safety, but he’s our best option for free safety.

The Ghost of Ron Rivera haunts the Windy City...

by Oso Monstar of Midway on May 13, 2009 12:09 PM CDT reply actions  

DANIELLE MANNING WILL NEVER MAKE THE PRO BOWL

How is this city so blind to this guy’s ineptitude? Cut him, please for the love of all things Ditka, and resign the general… Mike Brown

by MikeBrownFreightTrain on May 21, 2009 6:15 PM CDT reply actions  

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