The 2015 Outlook and Beyond for Shea McClellin

On Saturday Fox Sports put together a small throwaway feature on former first-round picks who might be fighting for their NFL lives, and when they only feature four names, you know you might not be running into the most complete list. They highlighted Johnny Manziel, Trent Richardson, 2010 Saints first round pick Kyle Wilson, and of course, Tim Tebow. That alone doesn't make it worthy of much discussion here (when two are obvious, one is full of conjecture, and the other is actual analysis), but it did get me thinking about our own former first-round pick Shea McClellin.

The first-ever draft pick of the Phil Emery era has not panned out over his first three seasons. His first season was spent as a defensive end in Lovie Smith's Tampa 2 scheme; his second was spent as a defensive end in Mel Tucker's scheme before being moved to outside linebacker in his third season. Heading into his fourth year, his first in Vic Fangio's 3-4 defense, he'll be learning yet another new position after being serviceable at outside linebacker last season.

McClellin's not a new topic, and to quite a few people he may be a relic of now two bygone eras that the new coaching staff may want nothing to do with. He may also find a position that actually agrees with him as a productive NFL player. Or, maybe he'll be able to contribute to an actual NFL defense.

But, let's narrow the question to this: What kind of season does McClellin need to have in order to stay in Chicago? If he falters this season, is his NFL career in jeopardy? What do you think will happen?