In case you missed it, Greg Gabriel over at the National Football Post has been doing a series the last couple weeks on guys who will be entering their second year in the league but were drafted later, were injured, didn't have a great first season, or even a combination of the above, and who he thinks has potential to have an impact in 2011. The Bears have two players on his list - safety Major Wright and defensive end Corey Wootton. Follow me past the jump and let's take a look at what Gabriel has to say about them...
Link here for the writeup on Major Wright:
In the 2010 draft, Wright was the Bears first pick; though it was in the third round. He was drafted to start but because of an injury sustained in training camp his development was hindered. In the second half of the season, Wright got a lot of playing time in a rotation with the two starters (Chris Harris and Daniel Manning) and played well. Wright is an ideal strong safety who is a big hitter and has better cover skills than many at the position. He will pair with this year's draft pick Chris Conte to give Chicago a very athletic pair at the safety position.
Link here for the writeup on Corey Wootton:
Wootton was the Bears fourth-round pick a year ago. Going into his senior season he had a very high combine grade, but he was hurt (right knee ACL) in his team's bowl game at the end of his junior season and did not look like the same player. He lacked the explosiveness that he showed as a junior. This carried over to his workouts before the draft and thus he slipped to the fourth round. With the Bears having a lot of depth in their defensive line it wasn't until the last part of the season that he began to get playing time. In his limited role he showed flashes of his former self and this year he could play a big role in the defensive line rotation. The Bears like to rotate 6 to 7 players on the defensive line, so it could mean playing as much as 50 percent of a game. This is a tall, athletic guy with edge pass rush ability.
My take, they're both very good selections. This year, we'll really start to see what Wright can do at safety now that he's completely healthy, and we can go ahead and ask Brett Favre about Corey Wootton's ability to impact a game.
While you're at it, read the other two parts to this too, really good series.