Jon Bostic, Shea McClellin and Christian Jones

[Black Rainbow]

Okay, but what is his natural position? To me it's either a situational pass rusher or a 3-4 OLB. Making him a 4-3 MLB/OLB is just moving him from one un-natural position to another.

There's also something to be said for him being a football player. Take Urlacher. He played safety in college, could play any LB spot in any scheme and overall just was an asset on the field. How is Shea going to be any better against the run when he's being asked to take on a pulling guard? LBs have to shed blockers, which he's shown is a problem and cover, which is an unknown at the NFL level.

I like people having hope, but I sit back and think it's actally sad and avoidable. Pump the breaks and lower the expectations. He'll make the As it stand assume he's a situational guy. If he wins reps and ends up being a starter than that's great. If he doesn't than it's not much of a loss and you can move on to cheering for the guys actually good enough to stay on the field.

Gotta agree. Shea is a situational pass rusher only. Considering it's been said by management that they are going to use a lot of nickel packages - hence they drafted Kyle Fuller - it doesn't appear they have a lot of confidence in Shea making the transition. He's really only useful as a pass rushing OLB in a 3-4. But again, the Bears have signaled that they're looking to use nickel more on passing downs, so I don't know where people are getting that Shea will make an impact, let alone be a STARTER.

And for the folks that think he'll be a MLB. Name ONE defensive end who successfully moved to MLB in the history of the NFL. How common is that move? Especially in your third year in the NFL.

 

[Rawky]

Gotta agree. Shea is a situational pass rusher only. Considering it's been said by management that they are going to use a lot of nickel packages - hence they drafted Kyle Fuller - it doesn't appear they have a lot of confidence in Shea making the transition. He's really only useful as a pass rushing OLB in a 3-4. But again, the Bears have signaled that they're looking to use nickel more on passing downs, so I don't know where people are getting that Shea will make an impact, let alone be a STARTER.

And for the folks that think he'll be a MLB. Name ONE defensive end who successfully moved to MLB in the history of the NFL. How common is that move? Especially in your third year in the NFL.

Name one that tried...

 

[gwharris2254]

Where did you hear this? Some of the reports I read said he looks very fluid and more natural at LB than at DE and has been ok besides the one play he got burned deep by Bennett.

I didnt hear anything bad about Shea yet.

.......and wasnt the guy that got burned, Williams, not McC on that Bennett play ?

 

[gwharris2254]

Also,
When Shea got drafted didnt most here seem to want him as a LB'er ?

Now they got him as a LBer and everybody's bitchin
Go figure

 

[Tjodalv]

And for the folks that think he'll be a MLB. Name ONE defensive end who successfully moved to MLB in the history of the NFL. How common is that move? Especially in your third year in the NFL.

Name one that tried...

I don't know about moving to Mike, but there are plenty that were undersized DEs in college/early in their NFL careers that moved into a Sam/Joker role and did just fine. Frankly I think Shea has a better shot at Sam -- then getting subbed out on passing downs -- than Mike just because his coverage responsibilities wouldn't be as hefty. Setting the edge against a TE is a much better fit for him than when he was taking on the strong side Tackle (and he'd also be better able to utilize speed rushes while blitzing than he did when at DE). Either way, we need to fill both those spots somehow because DJ isn't anything more than a stop-gap.

It will be interesting to see what they decide to do at the Sam after years of Lovie bringing in guys who were considerably smaller than the average Sam and were expected to be more of a factor in coverage than against the run (Roach and Pisa are two examples of guys barely in the 230 lbs range that Lovie really liked at that spot).

I have hope that he'll pan out at LB, but not much expectation that it will actually happen.

 

[xer0h0ur]

I didnt hear anything bad about Shea yet.

.......and wasnt the guy that got burned, Williams, not McC on that Bennett play ?

McClellin got torched on one play by Bennett as well during the first OTA open to the media. If anyone has been paying attention since last year when Bennett arrived in Chicago, he has been making the defense look bad since then. I wouldn't read much into it for Williams or McClellin. Bennett is a match-up nightmare and doesn't like going down on first contact.

 

[gwharris2254]

Thanks I hadnt heard about that.

Was that a Scout report from stoltz ?

 

[xer0h0ur]

Yeah it was reported by Jeremy.

 

[gwharris2254]

You guys should all be sharin snippets from "The Source"
to us lowly poverty stricken fucktards

 

[Hbkrusso]

Okay, but what is his natural position? To me it's either a situational pass rusher or a 3-4 OLB. Making him a 4-3 MLB/OLB is just moving him from one un-natural position to another.

There's also something to be said for him being a football player. Take Urlacher. He played safety in college, could play any LB spot in any scheme and overall just was an asset on the field. How is Shea going to be any better against the run when he's being asked to take on a pulling guard? LBs have to shed blockers, which he's shown is a problem and cover, which is an unknown at the NFL level.

I like people having hope, but I sit back and think it's actally sad and avoidable. Pump the breaks and lower the expectations. He'll make the As it stand assume he's a situational guy. If he wins reps and ends up being a starter than that's great. If he doesn't than it's not much of a loss and you can move on to cheering for the guys actually good enough to stay on the field.

well with him being moved now its almost as if hes starting over as a rookie and relearning a position he played years ago gonna be an uphill climb for him and that makes me wanna like him more....ive always been a sucker for an underdog

 

[Rawky]

I don't know about moving to Mike, but there are plenty that were undersized DEs in college/early in their NFL careers that moved into a Sam/Joker role and did just fine. Frankly I think Shea has a better shot at Sam -- then getting subbed out on passing downs -- than Mike just because his coverage responsibilities wouldn't be as hefty. Setting the edge against a TE is a much better fit for him than when he was taking on the strong side Tackle (and he'd also be better able to utilize speed rushes while blitzing than he did when at DE). Either way, we need to fill both those spots somehow because DJ isn't anything more than a stop-gap.

It will be interesting to see what they decide to do at the Sam after years of Lovie bringing in guys who were considerably smaller than the average Sam and were expected to be more of a factor in coverage than against the run (Roach and Pisa are two examples of guys barely in the 230 lbs range that Lovie really liked at that spot).

I have hope that he'll pan out at LB, but not much expectation that it will actually happen.

Or have him at Sam EXCEPT during passing situations. I think the Seahawks do something like that with Bruce Irving.

That's all contingent on him earning a starting spot. Won't matter one bit if bostic improves like we all hope he does

 

[Raskolnikov]

What kind of DE would Urlacher have been his first two year? Thats what I think about when I think about Shea at DE? no way, no how....doesn't have the strength or power explosion, the hands to shed blocks or technique.

Urlacher would have been better at DE, but it might not have worked out to a hall of fame career.

 

[Bearly]

Actually, shedding blocks has always been the biggest rap on Brian. He also didn't show well in his short stint at Sam when we used it to hold ground. Give him space and he dominated.

 

[gwharris2254]

I think shedding blocks from 310+ pounders would be tuff for any LB'er on a regular basis......Thats why I'm liking the FO shift to a two gapping 2 technique run fit D as a good thing.......... if we have an effective interior, it should free up the LB'ing crew to roam to the ball.

I wonder how much of this changed philosophy is FO - Emery and Trestman, and how much it is Mel Tucker ?

 

[Desperado34]

Yeah it was reported by Jeremy.

out of curiosity.. How much do you think, roughly, Stoltz makes a year?

 

[Desperado34]

Actually, shedding blocks has always been the biggest rap on Brian. He also didn't show well in his short stint at Sam when we used it to hold ground. Give him space and he dominated.

Still think he would've den even better if he had Mammoth men like Traylor and Washigton holding down the linemen

 

[xer0h0ur]

out of curiosity.. How much do you think, roughly, Stoltz makes a year?

I don't care?

 

[Desperado34]

I don't care?

I was literally just curious

 

[xer0h0ur]

You can get a general sense of how many users there are but without knowing how much of the subscription fee goes to him we really have no idea. Ultimately I really don't care how much he makes though. As I have said before, its a luxury I happily pay for due to my obsession.

Although its pissing me off that since they made changes to the site now I can't access any old content and by old I don't even mean that old. Like the first OTA wrap up article. I can't even read it anymore. The fucking links for anything before May 30th don't fucking work. Whomever is in charge of the site needs to get replaced.

 

[BearsFan51]

LOL

"-During 11-on-11 drills, TE Martellus Bennett had the catch of the day. Running a deep crossing route, Bennett created separation from Williams and was open roughly seven yards from the sideline."

7 yards in the NFL is a canyon.

Edit: Then again its probably just be where he was on the field not the amount of separation between them.

McClellin got torched on one play by Bennett as well during the first OTA open to the media. If anyone has been paying attention since last year when Bennett arrived in Chicago, he has been making the defense look bad since then. I wouldn't read much into it for Williams or McClellin. Bennett is a match-up nightmare and doesn't like going down on first contact.

Now you're not wanting to"read too much into it" when a couple days ago you wanted to read everything into it to try and prove me wrong. You're flailing around trying to make me look bad and in the process look like a...