Bears Blitz

Published by Timothy Hockemeyer on June 14, 2011
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Chicago Bears

With the owners and players reconvening talks for the third straight week and some positive noise being made about those talks, NFL free agency could finally be just around the corner.

While a lot of the free agency talk around Chicago is centered around cornerback, wide receiver and offensive line, defensive tackle may be just as important.

Starting DT Anthony Adams is a free agent, and the question must arise: Should the Bears re-sign Adams or bring in some new talent at the nose tackle position he has manned the past four seasons?

The Bears already released 3-Tech DT Tommie Harris. Harris came into the league a pure, unadulterated beast, but injuries sapped him of the initial burst and speed that made opposing offensive coordinators wet themselves in his early years.  

Matt Toeaina is also a free agent this year, though it is expected that the low-cost, versatile DT will return.  

It is entirely possible the Bears end the Marcus Harrison experiment this year, as the disappointing NT has yet to show he has the ambition or work ethic to play football at this level.

Considering the above, there are several possible holes already in the DT rotation. The Bears drafted Stephen Paea to fill one of those holes, but the bench-pressing phenom from Oregon State will suffer from a lack of training time due to the lockout. And even without that missed training time, Paea would likely have spent his first year (if not more) rotating between the 3-tech spot on first and second downs and NT on passing downs.

Henry Melton showed talent and heart last year, and will likely be a bigger part of the rotation this year. He needs to gain some size, but he figures to be an active part of the defensive tackle rotation for years to come.

What all of this says is that Chicago is going to have to fill some holes at the defensive tackle spot. Adams wants to come back to Chicago, but would it be the right move for the Bears?

There are some interesting names available in free agency.

Cullen Jenkins, for example. Or Pat Williams, who is said to be game to return to Minnesota if they’ll have him, but who has also alluded that he could be wooed by a team with a shot at the Super Bowl. There’s also Brandon Mebane, who might be the most underrated DT in free agency this year.

And then there’s Adams.

Here are the two biggest reasons why the Bears should—and will—re-sign Anthony Adams.

First, I noted before that Mebane might be the most underrated DT in free agency this year. That would be the case were if not for Adams being in that pool.

Adams doesn’t have the flashy numbers that some of the tackles around the league can boast about. But sometimes you have to look at the team’s defensive numbers instead of just the individual’s stat line.

In the case of Adams and the Bears, the most telling number can be found in Football Outsiders’ 2011 Defensive Lines statistics. Adams is a nose tackle who generally lines up over center or in the 1-tech slot on the right side of the offensive line. His purpose in life is to clog up the center of the line and stop the run, or bounce it outside to create opportunity for a stuff.

Notice that the Bears ranked first in the league against the run up the middle and at the guards, allowing only 3.28 adjusted line yards. Also note that the Bears ranked first in runs stuffed and second in the league overall in adjusted line yards allowed.  

I’ll bet you can see where this is going.

Adams is key to these run-defense statistics. He may not get a bunch of those flashy sacks, but one of the biggest factors in the Bears’ defensive scheme is stopping the run, and last year Adams was among the best in the league—if not the best—at that aspect of his job.

Second, the Bears will have far less time to get a new DT up to speed. Free agency is, at best, starting more than three months late. As with the rookies, that gives new free agents three months less time to adjust to their new team and their scheme.  

It is very possible this year that free agency will be down because of this fact alone. Teams will make more of an effort to re-sign serviceable members of their own teams rather than deal with a shorter-than-normal learning period for new players.  

The Bears themselves have a brutal three-game streak to start the year against Atlanta, New Orleans and Green Bay. A slow start could mean the difference between winning the division and missing the playoffs. Re-signing Adams and a few other key free agents (Olin Kreutz, Pisa Tinoisamoa and Danieal Manning, for starters) could make or break the Bears early on.

In the end, Adams makes the most sense for Chicago. While not heralded as such, Adams is one of the best lane-cloggers in the league, and the Bears can ill-afford taking a chance on trying to bring another DT up to speed, especially when the team has other needs that aren’t readily available in their own backyard.  

The Bears should, and likely will, re-sign Anthony Adams. 

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