| Cynical by their very nature, there are plenty
of Chicago Bears fans these days asking lots of questions about the team’s personnel
brain trust. Rumors continue to fly that both vice president of player personnel Mark
Hatley and director of college scouting Bill Rees will be taking on new jobs in Washington
and San Francisco, respectively, following this year’s draft.
Just how determined, these boosters wonder, will Hatley and Rees be to do the best
drafting jobs possible if they are indeed planning on splitting the Windy City scene?
Hatley has repeatedly maintained that he isn’t going anywhere and has every
intention of fulfilling a contract that runs through the 2002 season. But numerous people
in the Chi-town media continue to talk as though Hatley’s exit is a done deal.
In Washington, Hatley would be reunited with Marty Schottenheimer, the new Redskins
head coach with whom he worked for a decade in Kansas City as a LB coach, scout and pro
personnel director. The gossipmongers say Hatley will replace Vinny Cerrato, who was
canned shortly after Schottenheimer’s arrival in Washington, as the Redskins’
main personnel guy. But I’ve heard from sources close to Hatley that his relationship
with Schottenheimer hasn’t been on real solid ground for some time now.
Rees, meanwhile, seems a lot more likely to be moving on. Following the draft, 49ers
vice president/GM Bill Walsh will be handing the baton to current director of player
personnel/assistant GM Terry Donahue. Rees spent 15 years working for Donahue at UCLA,
where Donahue was a highly successful head coach and Rees served as both an assistant
football coach and a recruiting coordinator. Rees earned a reputation as one of the
nation’s top recruiters at UCLA and looks like a perfect fit to replace Donahue in
the role of the 49ers’ top personnel man.
At the moment, though, both Hatley and Rees appear to be conscientiously burning the
midnight oil with the Bears’ best interests at heart. And if they had any interest at
all in assuring all those Windy City cynics that they were genuinely committed to
selecting the best players available in this year’s draft, I have a quick and easy
suggestion.
They should forget about using their eighth overall pick in the draft on any position
other than defensive tackle.
It’s quite possible they could find themselves a game-breaking running back or
wide receiver with that top pick, especially the latter. But their track record in recent
years with first-round skill-position picks (Curtis Enis, Cade McNown) has been shaky, to
say the least.
But drafting a defensive tackle with their first pick is a no-lose proposition in a
year in which as many as five DTs are considered full-fledged first-rounders of the
highest order.
Gerard Warren of Florida, Marcus Stroud and Richard Seymour of Georgia, Damione Lewis
of Miami (Fla.) and Shaun Rogers of Texas are all blue-chip behemoths who would look great
in a Bears uniform. While the Bears need to make huge strides on offense, they should
follow in the footsteps of the Super Bowl champion Ravens and concentrate on fortifying a
defense that appears to be just a few solid players away from possibly being a very
special unit.
Hatley and Rees struck paydirt in a big way with their top two picks last year.
First-rounder Brian Urlacher has a chance to be considered on a par with legendary Chicago
middle linebackers such as Dick Butkus and Mike Singletary before his career runs its
course. Second-rounder Mike Brown quickly and effectively settled into the team’s FS
role, hardly an easy task for a mere rookie.
But the Bears could still really use some help at defensive tackle. A powerful widebody
capable of collapsing the pocket and occupying blockers to enable Urlacher to become even
more of a play-making force could be just what the doctor ordered.
The Bears recently addressed their DT need by signing free agent Keith Traylor, who led
Denver linemen in tackles last season, and they still say they are considering free agent
Ted Washington, a key cog in Buffalo’s defense before becoming one of the Bills’
numerous cap casualties this offseason.
Even if the Bears add Washington to the mix, they should still draft one of the
aforementioned studs available at the DT position with their first pick.
The offense can wait.
And all those cynics will shut up — at least for a little while. |
