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The Chicago Bears have a fairly young secondary. Among the players in regular rotation at safety and corner, the only one with more than 3 years of NFL experience is cornerback Tracy Porter. He actually leads the Bears in both interceptions (2) and in passes defended (9), but those numbers aren't all that impressive.
Chicago needs better play from their defensive backs, in particular their safeties. So far through 13 games, the four players that have combined for the bulk of the safety reps, Adrian Amos, Harold Jones-Quartey, Deon Bush and Chris Prosinski, have a combined for 1 interception, 8 passed defended, 1 forced fumble, 1 fumble recovery and no sacks.
For comparisions sake, the last really solid safety the Bears had was Mike Brown, and in his last year in Chicago, 2008, he had 2 interceptions, 8 PD and a sack in 15 games. So Brown's 15 game stretch as a 30 year old, was comparable to the combined 47 games played by the top 4 safeties of the Bears in 2016.
In my latest T formation Conversation Podcast (Subscribe now on iTunes!), I look at Chicago's current safety group in detail, I talk about a few free agency options they could have this offseason and I go over a few prospects that could be available in the 2017 NFL Draft.
I suppose it's possible that one of the Bears young safeties can become a legitimate playmaker, but I'd feel a lot better about the position if the Bears added more talent.
Yesterday, the Athletic's Dan Durkin had a mini Twitter rant about Chicago's safeties.
Per @PFF, Matthew Stafford had a perfect 158.3 passer-efficiency rating when targeting #Bears S Harold Jones-Quartey (5/5, 89 yards, 1 td).
— dan durkin (@djdurkin) December 12, 2016
Just saw yet more replays of the Deon Bush tackle attempts on Boldin and Stafford. As poor of fundamentals as you can have, no wrap at all.
— dan durkin (@djdurkin) December 12, 2016
I asked Durkin his thoughts on Kyle Fuller making the move to safety and here's what he had to say.
@wiltfongjr Don't see it as being the fix. I understand he does better playing off, but he's not physical or sudden player.
— dan durkin (@djdurkin) December 13, 2016
What do you guys think about the safety spot for the Bears currently, and what would you like to see them do next year?