[CBFF] [Fwd: Bear necessity: Draft left tackle]

[Tom Shannon]

http://www.suntimes.com/sports/mulligan/907571,CST-SPT-mully22.article


  Bear necessity: Draft left tackle


      Team should move up in first round to secure franchise player at
      key spot

April 26, 2008

BY MIKE MULLIGAN <mailto:mmulligan at suntimes.com> mmulligan at suntimes.com

When Bears general manager Jerry Angelo was asked at the end of last 
season about building blocks on offense, he said something about having 
a ''formidable'' offensive line. It was a confusing statement even 
before the team cut Fred Miller, opted not to re-sign Ruben Brown and 
said it planned to move John Tait from left tackle to the right side 
depending on what happens in the draft.

Coach Lovie Smith was asked recently who is going to start where on the 
line next season and responded, ''We're not there yet.''

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Jerry Angelo
(Al Podgorski/Sun-Times file)


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It's time to get there. It's time to draft a franchise left tackle from 
a class that some scouts are calling the best at the position in a 
generation. It's time to build a formidable line.

It's imperative the Bears come away Saturday with a starter-quality left 
tackle. To do that, they need to break the trend of turning tail and 
running down the draft board. It's time to make a move up, be it two 
picks or five or 10, to secure the right player at left tackle.

The fear is that they will sit and wait at No. 14 and hope someone 
capable slips to them. That would be a huge mistake given the quality of 
the tackles on the board, the success first-round picks have had at that 
position and the need teams have there. They can't let a team such as 
Philadelphia, loaded with draft picks and desperate for a left tackle, 
move up and clean out the cupboard before the Bears can take their guy.

Four left tackles are projected to go before or around No. 14: Jake 
Long, Ryan Clady, Jeff Otah and Chris Williams. Virginia guard Branden 
Albert, whom many regard as a future left tackle, is moving rapidly up 
the draft board. It would be unconscionable for the Bears to allow all 
five players to be taken before they pick.

What then, draft Rashard Mendenhall and watch him get tackled in the 
backfield?

How much would it cost the Bears to move into the left tackle safety 
zone? Probably not much more than a third-round pick. With all due 
respect to Lance Briggs (2003) and Bernard Berrian (2004), who outplayed 
their status as third-rounders, the last three players the Bears took in 
that round were Dusty Dvoracek, Garrett Wolfe and Michael Okwo.

History tells us half the high picks will be busts, and that ratio is 
even higher with offensive players taken by the Bears. The safe move is 
to be conservative, collect picks and hope for second-day wonders who 
can raise the batting average.

But star-quality players are found at the top of the draft, and it's 
important to identify them, pursue them and build around them. 
Otherwise, you wind up paying through the nose.

It has been said you can't put a price on a gifted left tackle, but my 
how the Bears have tried. Andy Heck got a four-year, $10 million deal in 
1994 that made him the richest lineman in team history. Five years 
later, Blake Brockermeyer signed a four-year, $17 million deal that made 
him the highest-paid player in team history. Five years after that, it 
was John Tait's turn to become the Bears' richest free-agent acquisition 
with a front-loaded deal that pays him $33 million over six years.

The Bears have tried sporadically to draft left tackles. Angelo used the 
first pick of his tenure on Marc Colombo in 2002. Terrence Metcalf was a 
third-rounder that year, and Angelo hasn't used that high a pick on an 
offensive lineman since.

The last time the Bears found a franchise left tackle in the draft was 
Jimbo Covert in 1983, two years before the only Super Bowl title in team 
history. Once every 25 years, the franchise needs to save its fans from 
the likes of Qasim Mitchell and Bernard Robertson.

The time is now.