[CBFF] CT - Bears’ picks hit the spot

[Jerry Madsen]

Bears' picks hit the spot
Beekman, Payne among new parts of Angelo master plan
By John Mullin
Tribune staff reporter

April 29, 2007, 10:48 PM CDT

It will be at least a half-season before the quality of the Bears'
2007 draft is truly known. But as Sunday's final rounds wound down,
the Bears at least knew they had gotten specific players they had
sought, though not necessarily the ones with the highest profiles.

The Bears chose a weapon on offense with Miami tight end Greg Olsen in
the first round Saturday. They added a pass-rushing threat in the
second with Central Michigan defensive end Dan Bazuin, who also frees
them to deal a current end if they want.

But somewhere in the 255 picks made over two days, the Bears had hoped
to secure three so-called value players in particular. By early Sunday
they had the third when, in the fifth round, they selected safety and
returner Kevin Payne from Louisiana-Monroe, the same school that in
2005 gave them safety Chris Harris, Payne's predecessor in that
secondary.

Payne, along with the third-round choices of linebacker Michael Okwo
and running back Garrett Wolfe, were unheralded key picks in the draft
from the Bears' perspective. Some way, somehow, the Bears wanted those
three, said college scouting director Greg Gabriel.

Payne was taken with one of the picks acquired in Saturday's
second-round trade with the San Diego Chargers. The Bears also took
guard Josh Beekman in the fourth round, cornerback Corey Graham in the
fifth, and cornerback Trumaine McBride and offensive tackle Aaron
Brant in the seventh.

General manager Jerry Angelo, who identified the trade with San Diego
that gave the Bears the picks and flexibility to make them, said: "We
like Kevin Payne very much. We liked Wolfe and we liked Okwo very
much, so we had to sacrifice maybe that receiver if we would have
stayed to pick up this running back, pick up another safety, a corner.
Who knows? In time we'll find out if we did the best thing."

The future indeed will reveal whether those three, the other six
draftees or any of the undrafted free agents being added will have the
impact the Bears envision. But the Bears finished the draft with
additions in nearly every area they identified as needs going into the
off-season, including free agents Anthony Adams at defensive tackle
and Adam Archuleta at safety.

Only quarterback and wide receiver went without an addition, and the
Bears weren't feeling pressed to add in those spots.

"I think it has gone according to plan," Gabriel said. "When we put
together our strategy during the last couple of weeks, we had areas
where we wanted to get certain guys, and we have been lucky that it
[fell] that way."

Sunday began with the Bears adding an offensive lineman in the fourth
round, selecting Boston College's Beekman. He is only the fifth
offensive lineman taken in six drafts under Angelo.

The Bears have not landed a long-term starting offensive lineman in
the draft since center Olin Kreutz in the 1998 third round.
Prophetically, the Bears hope, Kreutz began his Bears career playing
some guard as well as center in an intense competition with Casey
Wiegmann, who went on to start for a good Kansas City Chiefs line.
Beekman started at both guard and center for BC last season.

Marc Colombo, chosen in the first round of the 2002 draft, became the
starting left tackle midway through his rookie season. But he went
down in just his fifth start with a catastrophic knee injury that cost
him the 2003 season and ultimately his career in Chicago. He was
released in 2004, signed with Dallas the next year and started all 16
games last season.

The issue now will become how much of an impact any of the rookies can
have on a team that was the Super Bowl runner-up last season. The same
questions were asked last year when an 11-5 team returning all 22
starters and boasting one of the NFL's top defenses drafted almost
entirely on defense, with no pick in the first round.

That class produced safety Danieal Manning, returner Devin Hester and
defensive end Mark Anderson and might have yielded more but for
injuries to defensive tackle Dusty Dvoracek and linebacker Jamar
Williams.

"We have a track record of playing younger players," coach Lovie Smith
pointed out.

Angelo said that whatever benefit rookies provide in their first year
is found money.

But "a good handful of them are going to make this football team and
start for us, and we're going to win with them," he said. "And that's
the bottom line: Can you win with a player?"

jmullin at tribune.com

Copyright (c) 2007, The Chicago Tribune
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