Bears go for complete, not cute
The Bears had a good day passing.
That sentence hasn't been written much when describing significant days in Bears history. But never did that apply more than Saturday, one of the most important Bear moments since Super Bowl XLI, and those words had nothing to do with throwing or catching.
The Bears passed on players in the first two rounds of the NFL draft who might have generated a bigger buzz among their fan base but did what was best for the short- and long-term future of the franchise.
Local running back Rashard Mendenhall, the pride of Niles West High School and Illinois, still was there when the Bears picked at No. 14. But it made no sense to get a cart before a horse, so Jerry Angelo wisely opted for left tackle Chris Williams of Vanderbilt.A couple of hours later, intriguing quarterback prospects Chad Henne of Michigan and Brian Brohm of Louisville still were waiting uncomfortably on national TV for their phones to ring when the Bears went on the clock again. Again, Angelo let his depth chart guide him more than public opinion and took running back Matt Forte of Tulane.
"We didn't want to get cute on draft day," Angelo said.
So they didn't get cute. They got more complete.
These seemingly might be the two most nondescript players the Bears have taken that high in succession in years. A graduate from Tulane and Vanderbilt?are the Bears rebuilding a football team or starting a law firm? Boring never has looked better at Halas Hall.
Picking Williams and Forte allowed the Bears to upgrade three positions immediately?running back, left tackle and right tackle as John Tait slides to the other side.
Give Tait off-season MVP honors. His flexibility in moving back to his more natural spot at right tackle gave the Bears more options in the first round. The Bears had options too, beyond Mendenhall, when a run on linebackers left Williams, Virginia guard-tackle Branden Albert and Pittsburgh tackle Jeff Otah still on the board.
Albert, who might wind up being a better NFL lineman than Williams in five years, probably wouldn't have been a better left tackle next year. This was no time to convert a college guard into an NFL tackle, as Albert is projected.
Williams routinely excelled blocking the best edge rushers the Southeastern Conference had to offer, experience that made his floor a better gamble than Albert's ceiling?using Angelo's lexicon.
He also just had too many intangibles to ignore. A French major, Williams comes from a family in Glynn, La., that values education and has immersed his childhood in accomplishment.
His twin sister studies chemistry, his older sister is an attorney and his father, Joseph, supervises an electrical plant. So conscientious is Williams that the newlywed?he was married April 5?postponed his honeymoon until he found out the mini-camp schedule of his new team.
"His [Vanderbilt position] coach called him the smartest player he ever coached," Angelo said.
It was using his head that ultimately helped form the knock on Williams that he was soft.
During a practice before the Senior Bowl, Williams backed off after Texas A & M defensive lineman Red Bryant shoved him badly enough for coaches to intervene. Some people might call that soft. Others would call it disciplined.
"Obviously, the Bears feel I have enough fire," Williams said.
The Bears also felt good enough about an NFL Network report early Saturday saying Williams had a lingering spinal issue that would raise red flags for teams. One league source said he suspected two teams of planting that rumor, which Williams and the Bears dismissed.
Sift through all the layers of rumor and innuendo, and no good reason exists for Williams not to be the starting left tackle Sept. 7 for the Bears in the season-opener against the Indianapolis Colts.
Don't be surprised if he's making holes for Forte. Angelo came as close as he ever has publicly Saturday in acknowledging Cedric Benson as a draft bust. Good for him.
Taking Forte instead of grabbing one of the two available quarterbacks, in a way, was a sign the Bears have more faith in Rex Grossman and/or Kyle Orton than they do in Benson. Coach Lovie Smith and Angelo took great lengths to call for competition at the running-back position. But Angelo also called the Bears "an easy team to defend" last year because of their inability "to make people miss on the second level."
Translation: Benson's forte isn't in the open field and it's the rookie's job to win.
If Angelo had been stubborn in proving his point with Benson, the Bears would have come off the bus running in place next season. Instead they got Forte, a speedy guy Angelo described as "passionate about football."
Ever hear anybody use passionate to describe Benson's feelings over being a Bear?
Forte comes to Chicago hungry after being overlooked in the pre-draft hype and being offered just one scholarship out of high school. There are stories around Slidell, La., Forte's hometown, about him running sprints at 2 a.m. because he couldn't sleep. Nobody wants to see the kid sprinting along Town Line Road in Lake Forest but those are the kind of examples Angelo was looking for in this draft.
The Bears went out in search of character. In finding it, they regained a measure of credibility when looking ahead to 2008.
