Bears Blitz

Published by Matt Eurich on February 23, 2015
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Chicago Bears

Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Pace and head coach John Fox descended upon Indianapolis last week to get an up-close look at this year’s draft class at the NFL Scouting Combine.

Both spoke for the first time last week since Fox’s introductory press conference in January, and they made it clear they are still evaluating their roster. They have identified some needs, but they were unwilling to divulge any information.

“That’s ongoing,” Pace said last Wednesday, via Dan Wiederer of the Chicago Tribune. “I’d rather keep some of that in-house for now. But I’m excited about free agency approaching and the draft, and we’ll be able to address those (needs).”

Fox views the roster as a “clean slate,” and he and Pace are working toward building a winner. Fox said, via Wiederer:

It’s kind of a clean-slate, start-fresh (approach). We’ve got to analyze everything. And honestly, it goes beyond the players. It’s the entire building. You have to identify, OK, why has there been a lack of success? And we have to fix that.

While in Indianapolis, Pace and Fox had the opportunity to watch prospects run various drills and got to interview those they were interested in. The Bears have plenty of needs on both sides of the football, but it seems likely they will be looking closely at the defensive side of the ball come late April.

Fox made the announcement last week that the Bears will be moving to a 3-4 defense in 2015 under defensive coordinator Vic Fangio.

#Bears coach John Fox says “we’re going to be in a 3-4 (defense) terminology wise” but players will help define what defense will look like.

— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) February 18, 2015

Now that the Bears know what sort of defense they want to run next season, they can key in on which players can have an impact in their new defense.

Here is our Chicago Bears mock draft following the NFL Scouting Combine.

Begin Slideshow