The Bears have been on a seemingly perpetual search for good safeties since the days of Mike Brown years and years ago. Safeties have come and gone, some were decent, most were awful.
Good safeties are hard to come by and, because of the nature of the position, it often seems that the good ones break down a little bit earlier.
Ryan Pace may have actually found a decent player when he plucked Adrian Amos in the fifth round of last year's draft.
Usually a fifth-round safety generates eye rolls, but Amos played with promise and ended up being a 16-game starter for Chicago after Ryan Mundy was injured in training camp.
The issue with Amos wasn't in his ability, in fact he outplayed veteran Antrel Rolle for much of the season, but it came down to the little things. Mainly, Amos accounted for a whooping zero turnovers. No picks, no forced fumbles.
While perhaps those will come to him in his second season, when he's able to play with better instincts instead of reacting to the offense as many rookies do, but there are concerns about his game but even more so, concerns about the safety spot opposite him.
Rolle got a lot of money and ended up hurt and playing ineffective. Now, the veteran is a candidate to be released from the team at some point this season and there is really no one on the roster to step up in his place.
So perhaps Pace will look to free agency to fill the void.
Enter Rodney McLeod.
McLeod has been with the Saint Louis-now-Los Angeles Rams after being undrafted out of Virginia in 2012. The 5'11" has been a three-year starter for the Rams and in that time has racked up seven forced fumbles, 18 pass deflections and five interceptions.
While he has the free safety designation, which is the mold that Amos fits, Vic Fangio didn't designate his safeties last year.
McLeod has a reputation as a hard hitter and that could be a boon for a Bears defense that lacked physicality at times last year.
McLeod received a one-year restricted free agent tender last year and will likely be looking to field more offers around this offseason. He's young at just 25 and graded out at 83.9 by Pro Football Focus, higher than teammates Janoris Jenkins and Trumaine Johnson.
Do you think McLeod would be worth the Bears exploring?