By Brad Biggs
The Bears have changed starting safeties 41 times since Lovie Smith arrived in 2004, with a near-even split between the two positions.
Twenty-one times the starting free safety has changed from one game to the next, and 20 times the starting strong safety has changed. You can't get that kind of near symmetry unless you are trying or something has gone wrong, very wrong.
Smith cites injuries and the difficulty of keeping players healthy at the position for much of the turnover. He has a point: A good portion of the change occurred when the Bears were forced to go to Plan B after Mike Brown was injured through the latter half of his career with the organization.
The Bears have changed starting safeties 41 times since Lovie Smith arrived in 2004, with a near-even split between the two positions.
Twenty-one times the starting free safety has changed from one game to the next, and 20 times the starting strong safety has changed. You can't get that kind of near symmetry unless you are trying or something has gone wrong, very wrong.
Smith cites injuries and the difficulty of keeping players healthy at the position for much of the turnover. He has a point: A good portion of the change occurred when the Bears were forced to go to Plan B after Mike Brown was injured through the latter half of his career with the organization.
But Brown was only one man and with him gone this past season, the Bears
still changed starting free safeties four times and starting strong
safeties five times.
Dizzy yet?
Smith said the Bears needed to "invest" more in the position last month at the scouting combine. There was only one desirable target who was an unrestricted free agent, and Antrel Rolle was paid big bucks by the New York Giants while the Bears spent even more to jump-start their pass rush with defensive end Julius Peppers.
There has been speculation the team could make a run at O.J. Atogwe, the restricted free agent from the St. Louis Rams. Atogwe is sitting out the Rams' voluntary offseason workout program after being slapped with the low tender offer by the club.
But the Bears making a run at Atogwe is only speculation at this point. They're not armed with much in the way of trade ammunition and they've already likely spent money that would have been earmarked for 2011 free agency with their shopping bonanza that also added running back Chester Taylor and tight end Brandon Manumaleuna.
Fact is, the Bears had more turnover at safety this past season than they did in 2008, Brown's final season with the club. In '08, Kevin Payne was on the field for 99.1 percent of the defensive snaps and Brown was on the field for 83.2 percent, missing the second halves of four games and sitting out the finale that year. Craig Steltz picked up most of the rest of the duty, getting 12.7 percent of the playing time.
An analysis of the playing time statistics from 2009 shows it was much more scattered. Danieal Manning played both free safety and nickel cornerback, so a chunk of his overall playing time (in the chart below) actually was as a nickel corner and not at safety. It shows how much the carousel was spinning.
Danieal Manning, FS/NB:15 games/10 starts 828 of 1,068 snaps, 77.53 percent.
Al Afalava, SS/FS: 13/13 804 of 1,068 snaps, 75.28 percent.
Kevin Payne, FS/SS: 13/5 546 of 1,068 snaps, 51.12 percent.
Josh Bullocks, SS/FS: 12/4 199 of 1,068 snaps, 18.63 percent.
Craig Steltz, SS/FS: 12/2 151 of 1,068 snaps, 14.14 percent.
Manning has been told he will be in the mix at strong safety for this coming season. What that means for Afalava is unknown. He moved to free safety in Week 13 after Manning was removed from his safety role. Bullocks probably was the best free safety on the roster, but got very little playing time, a sign of some of the misevaluations the Bears have suffered at the position. Steltz was the leading candidate to be a starter all offseason up until the start of training camp. Now, he could be back in the mix.
Or the Bears could go out and invest in the position. Stay tuned.
Dizzy yet?
Smith said the Bears needed to "invest" more in the position last month at the scouting combine. There was only one desirable target who was an unrestricted free agent, and Antrel Rolle was paid big bucks by the New York Giants while the Bears spent even more to jump-start their pass rush with defensive end Julius Peppers.
There has been speculation the team could make a run at O.J. Atogwe, the restricted free agent from the St. Louis Rams. Atogwe is sitting out the Rams' voluntary offseason workout program after being slapped with the low tender offer by the club.
But the Bears making a run at Atogwe is only speculation at this point. They're not armed with much in the way of trade ammunition and they've already likely spent money that would have been earmarked for 2011 free agency with their shopping bonanza that also added running back Chester Taylor and tight end Brandon Manumaleuna.
Fact is, the Bears had more turnover at safety this past season than they did in 2008, Brown's final season with the club. In '08, Kevin Payne was on the field for 99.1 percent of the defensive snaps and Brown was on the field for 83.2 percent, missing the second halves of four games and sitting out the finale that year. Craig Steltz picked up most of the rest of the duty, getting 12.7 percent of the playing time.
An analysis of the playing time statistics from 2009 shows it was much more scattered. Danieal Manning played both free safety and nickel cornerback, so a chunk of his overall playing time (in the chart below) actually was as a nickel corner and not at safety. It shows how much the carousel was spinning.
Danieal Manning, FS/NB:15 games/10 starts 828 of 1,068 snaps, 77.53 percent.
Al Afalava, SS/FS: 13/13 804 of 1,068 snaps, 75.28 percent.
Kevin Payne, FS/SS: 13/5 546 of 1,068 snaps, 51.12 percent.
Josh Bullocks, SS/FS: 12/4 199 of 1,068 snaps, 18.63 percent.
Craig Steltz, SS/FS: 12/2 151 of 1,068 snaps, 14.14 percent.
Manning has been told he will be in the mix at strong safety for this coming season. What that means for Afalava is unknown. He moved to free safety in Week 13 after Manning was removed from his safety role. Bullocks probably was the best free safety on the roster, but got very little playing time, a sign of some of the misevaluations the Bears have suffered at the position. Steltz was the leading candidate to be a starter all offseason up until the start of training camp. Now, he could be back in the mix.
Or the Bears could go out and invest in the position. Stay tuned.
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If you are talking about bringing Mike Brown back then you did not watch him play football last year. He was absolutely brutal for the Chiefs. I felt so bad for him. In back to back games, I watched him be personally responsible for 6 TDs. He had a horrible year and looks at least 3 steps slow. It was the right decision to let him go but a bad decision to think we should have not upgraded the position.
Its amazing how many people want to foolishly hold on to the glory days by bringing back an old washed up player like Mike Brown. I say get young & athletic back there not old,slow & injury prone. This whole S thing is an indictment on the whole Lovie regime. At a position that is so vital in this lame ass Tampa-2 it has still never been emphasized. The real problem is this administration is full of nice guys. Ones that pay Urlacher & Harris bonuses even though they're injured & bad,keeps Mike Brown 3 years too long,keeps coaches who have no business being coaches in the NFL & so on. This is the NFL! Not for lonmg except at Hallas Hall apparently. Its where you get & keep jobs when you're undeserving of it.
I have to agree we should have held onto Brown...
Jerry or whoever really does not draft very good, just look at the positions they have tried to fill for years, and finally had to go to FA for DE/OL/RB/DB etc.....
The list goes on and on.
I do not see the Bears going FA for the Safety as they spent too much money already. I see them maybe going alot cheaper safety FA or my best guess is the draft for Safety and OLineman, they have brought in Tackles but not Guards?? Whats up with that as we all know we are OG depleted.
Peppers will help our DB but not to the extent we cant use a good Safety for sure.
fyi Peppers is being reported as making ALOT of money last year...close to what we are paying him this year. Sounds (reasonable enough) He made more than J. Allen as well.
AND he's a Bear :)
Deon Grant was just released from the Seahawks and is a Tennessee Volunteer alumn (as is Lovie Smith). Granted he's a strong safety but I wouldn't be shocked to see them try to fit a square peg into a round hole once again.
Here's what happens when you use safeties as run stuffers. Surprise! They get hurt a lot!
How many times have this coaching staff mis-evaluated players? Too many players have been yo-yo back and forth from different positions and this is something you can squarely blame on the poor coaching and evaluating. Bring in people who can do the job instead of these clowns!
OJ Atogwe is the answer for us at safety. I know is taboo and the owners don't want it to be used but this is the perfect opportunity to use the poison pill contract provision to steal a safety who has forced more turnovers than any other besides Ed Reed since he came into the league. Put him on a team with a good pass rush and you've got something. Leave Manning at nickel back. Then you've got Steltz, Payne and Afalava all competing at strong safety where they are all best suited. The Bears secondary could be a strength for years to come. Everybody is fairly young with Tillman being the elder statesman at 29.
Jeez, tell me something I don't know.
Yea bring Mike back for SS!
Mike Brown is a UFA this year...I'm just sayin'