May

22

Corey Graham Set to Settle in as the New Bears Safety?

Posted by Rob Chiusano under Chicago Bears 

Packers Bears Football
According to Larry Mayer on ChicagoBears.com Corey Graham is getting work at free safety during OTA practices. I still have some sense of hope that the Bears will come to their senses and re-sign Mike Brown, but this news is some further evidence that we really are moving on.

The talk the last couple of years was moving Peanut Tillman to safety, with the emergence of Corey Graham & Trumaine Mcbride at corner. Now the news out of Halas Hall has Corey Graham taking 2nd team D reps behind Daniel Manning. With a healthy Vasher and Tillman returning from their injuries, the Bears seem to be loaded at corner and have something to spare in Graham.

Corey is a ballhawk and a good tackler and could be used very well behind or in front of Manning. Corner for the Bears has been kind of a revolving door the last few seasons, mostly due to injuries to Vasher and Tillman. This has got to be the last stand for Nathan Vasher to stay healthy and return to his pro bowl form he once showed or just like Mike Brown he’ll be out in the cold.

By talking to Rod Hood & drafting D.J. Moore the Bears seem to be padding themselves at corner much like they did in 2006 after getting torched numerous times by Steve Smith. The secondary has been prone to giving up the long ball the last two seasons and it is an all around trickle down effect.

Cover 2 defense is designed to not give up the long ball, by not getting pressure with the front four you expose your cornerbacks. When the cornerbacks get exposed, you put the pressure on your safeties and even your linebackers to get back into pass coverage, and by taking your safety and linebackers out of the fold, you kill your run defense.

This is what has plagued the D the last two years, if anybody wants to see how the cover 2 is run to perfection, pick out any game from the 05 & 06 seasons and you will see. I know how people love to hate Bob Babich, but with injured and young players you don’t really have a lot to work with. Hopefully with healthy players and more experienced players we can start to rebuild the mountain.

Out of all our defensive backs the player I’m looking forward to more than Corey Graham is Zach Bowman. He showed up on tape a lot on special teams, and when he got his turn at corner he made play after play until an arm injury sidelined him for a bulk of the season. Regardless of what defensive combos we put out on the field, there seems to be enough experience now for our trip back to the top.


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