Safeties: What Will the Chicago Bears Do Without Them?
Published by Michael Gibbons on May 23, 2010
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Chicago Bears
And Lovie has done it again.
For everyone who thought the drafting of Major Wright and then the trade that brought back Chris Harris stabilized the safety spots, you were wrong.
At the Bears first minicamp Chris Harris was lined up at free safety and Danieal Manning at strong safety.
Really?
We have covered this before with Harris, and we agreed he is a more natural fit at STRONG safety.
For those who think free and strong safety are the same, you are incorrect. You want your free safety to have good speed and coverage skills while being a bit of a ball hog.
Your strong safety should be a great tackle and a hard hitter who likes to blitz and play down in the box (basically be the eighth man in the box to help stop the run).
Both have played alongside Mike Brown over the years. Both have played each spot. So they have the experience. However this is what I don’t understand: the Bears spent their first draft pick, the 75th overall pick, on safety Major Wright who everyone envisions as a free safety.
This also means another position change for Danieal Manning who spent last season as the nickel back. I don’t know what Lovie and the coaching staff have planned. I know it is only the first minicamp. We are two months away from training camp and over three months away from the first game but this bothers me.
Players are going to be more comfortable playing in a spot they are familiar with and not getting mis-positioned down the road. They have already screwed up Manning to the point of beyond repair after moving him between safety spots and nickel back, plus throwing in kick return duties and I don’t want them to do the same with Major Wright.
In my mind the best thing they could do is flip Harris and Manning and allow Wright to compete with Danieal at the free safety spot. They have made Manning a versatile player by playing all these spots so he might be best playing from the bench and playing a little bit of everything.
Besides the safety spots there isn’t much from minicamp worth talking about so I’ll just throw some quick hits at you:
-Cutler loves working with Martz
-Knox and Hester were listed with the first team. Bennett sat out due to offseason surgery
-For those out there in love with rookie QB Dan LeFevour, you better head to training camp or preseason games because it sounds like that will be the only chance you have at seeing him. Sounds like he will be locked in at third string so if they do bring a vet in as a backup Hanie would be the odd man out.
-Devin Aromashodu is working hard to grab one of those top receiving spots.
-Tommie Harris is supposedly healthy. I’ll believed it when I see it.
For this and much more check out the home of Da Chicago Fan
Read more Chicago Bears news on BleacherReport.com
