Adrian Amos to the Chicago Bears: Full Draft-Pick Breakdown
Published by Ross Read on May 2, 2015
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Chicago Bears
Instincts and intelligence are important when playing safety, and Adrian Amos has both. The Bears get a great value pick in the fifth round with this selection.
Amos started 37 games over his last three seasons at Penn State. He was a high school standout, winning Baltimore City Defensive Player of the Year.
Amos is a 6’0”, 218-pound center fielder who’s great in zone coverage. Amos is comfortable in his backpedal and can sniff out receiver routes.
Free safety is where Amos will get the majority of his snaps on defense, but he has no problem covering slot corners in sub-packages. He does a great job of exploding on the football and gave up only 3.9 yards per target in 2014.
Being a backup safety is where Amos will start, but he has value right away on special teams. He was a worthy special teams player his sophomore season at Penn State and can bring the same hunger and humbleness to the Bears.
The area where Amos needs the most development is against the run. He doesn’t show enough aggressiveness closing in on the ball-carrier and has a tendency to take bad angles on running plays.
Defensive coordinator Vic Fangio found success right away with safety Eric Reid. Amos has similar size and style to Reid, but Reid came into the league a more polished player.
Antrel Rolle will step into the starting strong safety role but the free safety job is up for grabs. Ryan Mundy is the veteran favorite, but Brock Vereen and Amos can be seen as the future. Mundy has only one year left on his deal.
The Bears get great value with this pick. Amos could have easily been a third-round pick this year. The NFL is looking for single-high deep safeties against explosive passing games, and Amos can be the guy.
It will be interesting to see how Amos and Vereen fit in together. Vereen struggled at free safety in his first year last year but improved late. Both players will likely see split reps until one steps up and breaks away from the other.
Given the fact that the Bears haven’t had a solid safety group in quite some time, this was a good pick. They now have a good mix of veterans and young players who have specific skill sets and will battle for field time.
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