Maybe the Bears aren’t a Super Bowl favorite yet, or even within sniffing distance of Bourbon Street and New Orleans, where the Super Bowl will be played next January.
But none of coach Dave Wannstedt’s critics, a now quiet underground movement that will grow louder if the Bears fall on their faces again this year, can argue that he and the entire organization have not been aggressive this off-season.
The remaining Grand Canyon gap in the Bears’ puzzle was pass defense. So Saturday the Bears were more aggressive than some of their cornerbacks last season in seeking the target. They drafted cornerback Walt Harris from Mississippi State, trading with St. Louis to move from 18th to 13th in the first round. The Bears surrendered their third- and sixth-round picks to move up.
Earlier this off-season, the Bears signed free-agent linebacker Bryan Cox for $13.2 million over four years. That not only upgraded their sporadic pass rush, but finally gave them the leader with a hard-nosed attitude that Wannstedt thought the team had been lacking in his first three years.
Bears President Michael McCaskey also took his bank account out of mothballs and spent the free-agent cash to bring back wide receiver Curtis Conway ($10 million, four years), defensive end Alonzo Spellman ($12 million, four years) and offensive tackle James Williams ($9.2 million, four years).
The Bears have Nebraska running back Lawrence Phillips to thank, in part, for being able to get the Rams to move back to the 18th spot in the first round.
Phillips, a potential No. 1 pick, fell to the Rams’ sixth spot in the draft and allowed them to fill their biggest need and consider offers after that.
Denver, in the 15th spot, also tried to trade up with the Rams to take Harris. Oregon’s Alex Molden was already gone to New Orleans at 11th, and Harris was the only impact cornerback left.
So the Bears outbid the Broncos, sustaining the forward-march methods they have employed since missing the playoffs last season.
Obviously, the Bears could have played it safe, stood pat and drafted highly regarded wide receiver Eddie Kennison, who went to the Rams at 18th, or speedy wide receiver Marvin Harrison, who went 19th to Indianapolis.
The Bears thought they could wait until the second round to get a receiever equally productive, and did so by drafting Penn State’s Bobby Engram, who also is likely to be their punt returner next season.
Player personnel director Rod Graves and Wannstedt decided to get what they wanted most of all in the first round. The Bears hadn’t traded up during a draft since 1976, when they jumped from 10th to eighth in the first round in a deal with Atlanta to secure offensive tackle Dennis Lick.
“We had some talks before the draft with St. Louis and other teams and that was the basis for our talks today,” McCaskey said of how the Bears laid the groundwork.
Wannstedt added: “Everybody denies it after the fact, but we know there were three or four teams interested in defensive backs and corners. We really felt we had to be aggressive on this thing to get something done.”
Graves said the Bears also talked to New Orleans about trading for the 11th pick, which would have allowed them to choose between Molden and Harris. The Bears might then have taken Molden, who is two inches smaller than the 5-foot-11 1/2-inch Harris but considered more of a pure cover man.
“The big difference between Harris and Molden is Harris is a lot bigger,” said Bears defensive backfield coach Carlos Mainord. “Now Molden is a good contact guy. But we feel Harris is a contact guy who has more (body) to bring with him.”
Graves and his scouts recently timed Harris at 4.45 seconds in the 40-yard dash on indoor Astroturf.
“He’s a big corner, something we hoped to come out of this draft with,” Graves said. “We feel like he could come in and possibly give us an immediate impact. That motivated us more than anything.”
Donnell Woolford, taken 11th overall in 1989, is the only other cornerback the Bears have drafted in the first round. The loss of Woolford last season to a hip injury sent the pass defense into a tailspin that contributed mightily to the Bears missing the playoffs.
Wannstedt didn’t hand Harris the starting job alongside Woolford. First, he wants him to compete against the likes of Jeremy Lincoln, Kevin Miniefield and James Burton, all of whom started at corner at some point last year.
“From a corner standpoint, we are real excited about getting a guy with size,” said Wannstedt, who coached and analyzed Harris this year at the Senior Bowl. “He can make plays and that’s really the most important thing.”
What’s a playmaker? Defensive coordinator Bob Slowik gives his definition.
“A guy who can make great plays,” he stressed. “When it’s third down and 10 and the other team is throwing an out-cut, a playmaker is a guy who can come up and make the play. Harris did that in college. Seems easy, but it’s a hard job.”
One the Bears struggled to accomplish last season against Central Division competition, which has evolved into a 30-yard catch and a cloud of eat-my-dust rather than the slug-it-out running games of old.
“That was a major factor in taking him,” Slowik said, “because of the big, tall, strong receivers we have in the division.”
