The most coveted position in the draft is offensive left tackle, so Robert Gallery of Iowa knows what he’s talking about when he says he would like to be the first player chosen next Saturday.
The San Diego Chargers would get booed if they made the 6-foot-7-inch, 320-pound Gallery their choice over a quarterback.
The St. Louis Rams’ sanity was questioned in 1997 when they traded up to take Ohio State’s left tackle, Orlando Pace. Yet no team can be faulted for taking a careful look at the position.
Although Pace remains the only left tackle ever selected first, the position almost always must be filled through the draft and remains the hardest to fill, as the Bears can attest. The last one they drafted in the first round who panned out was Jimbo Covert in 1983. Coincidentally, they won a Super Bowl two years later.
When Covert’s back gave out, the Bears drafted Stan Thomas in the first round in 1991, the beginning of the end of the Mike Ditka regime. As he’d done with Covert, Ditka tried to start Thomas out of the gate on the left side, and he failed before he got hurt.
After patching up the position with free agents Andy Heck and Blake Brockermeyer–former first-round draft choices from other teams–the Bears drafted Marc Colombo in 2002. He was general manager Jerry Angelo’s first pick, but he hasn’t played regularly yet and maybe never will because of a knee injury.
A healthy Colombo might have allowed Angelo to forget the left tackle position for the rest of his tenure in Chicago. Instead, the Bears are lining up with a waiver pickup (Qasim Mitchell) and a converted third-round guard (Mike Gandy). If this works, the Bears will be bucking the odds.
Angelo recently was studying a chart distributed by the NFL that confirmed what he already knew. Of the starting left tackles in the league, 79 percent were obtained via the draft and 56 percent of those drafted were first-rounders.
The 79 percent is the largest percentage by far of any position in the draft. Strong-side linebackers are next at 69 percent. Quarterbacks are easier to find, with only 43 percent drafted by the teams for which they start.
The 56 percent of first-round left tackles also is the largest percentage. Running backs are next with 54 percent of starters drafted in the first round. No other position is above 48 percent. By contrast, only 12 percent of starting strong-side linebackers are drafted in the first round.
At the quarterback spot, 25 percent of starters were unrestricted free agents, 18 percent were acquired by trade and 9 percent were signed off the street. Only 9 percent of left tackles are unrestricted free agents, only 3 percent come via trade and 9 percent off the street, including Mitchell.
In free agency this off-season, left tackles Pace, Seattle’s Walter Jones and Green Bay’s Chad Clifton were tagged as franchise players, effectively removing them from the open market. So when the Kansas City Chiefs made right tackle John Tait a “transition” player, enabling them to match an offer, the Bears jumped at him.
Tait began his career as a left tackle, so he is the Bears’ ace in the hole. But if he were a great left tackle, the Chiefs wouldn’t have acquired Willie Roaf from New Orleans to replace him two years ago.
Of the eight division winners last season, six started first-round draft choices at left tackle and two started players they drafted in the top half of the second round.
The first-rounders were Baltimore’s Jonathan Ogden, Indianapolis’ Tarik Glenn, Kansas City’s Roaf, Philadelphia’s Tra Thomas, St. Louis’ Pace and Carolina’s Todd Steussie. The second-rounders were Green Bay’s Clifton and New England’s Matt Light.
Steussie was a first-round pick at Minnesota. Carolina let Steussie go in free agency this off-season (he signed with Tampa Bay) because the Panthers had drafted Jordan Gross in the first round last season to play the left side.
Gross filled in at right tackle last season.
Monday night change: “Monday Night Football” won’t be the same this season. For the first time since the series started in 1970, neither the Oakland Raiders nor the San Francisco 49ers are on the schedule.
The only other season without the Raiders was 1998. The 49ers missed in 2000, 1979-82, 1975 and 1970.
Bears schedule: When you play can be as important as who or even where you play. The Bears have to travel to Green Bay and Minnesota in Weeks 2 and 3, but they have an advantage: The Packers and Vikings are coming off tough Monday night road games, the Packers at Carolina and the Vikings at Philadelphia.
The Bears also play at Tampa Bay after the Bucs come off a Monday night game in St. Louis. They play the Washington Redskins at home after an off week while the Redskins come off a Sunday night game in Baltimore. The Bears get only four days between games against Indianapolis and Dallas, but the Thanksgiving date in Dallas allows them three extra days for their next encounter against Minnesota.
But it works both ways. The 49ers and Tennessee Titans have two weeks to prepare for the Bears thanks to open dates. And the Packers play the Vikings on Friday Dec. 24, giving them two extra days to recover before traveling to Chicago for the Jan. 2 season finale.
With all NFC North teams facing the NFC East and AFC South divisions, nobody has an easy schedule.
The Packers have it toughest with three Monday night games, one Sunday night game, and only five days to prepare for their Christmas Eve showdown in Minnesota, plus games against fellow division winners Carolina and St. Louis that no other NFC North team has.
When the Lions and former Bears coach Dick Jauron open the season in Soldier Field, the Lions will be trying to end their NFL record of 24 straight road losses.
Out of sight: No matter who the Chargers draft, he is not going to suffer from television overexposure as a rookie. The schedule makers kept the Chargers as far away as possible from prime time.
Six of their road games start at 10 a.m. California time. That’s the maximum number of early games allowed in a season. San Diego, Detroit and Arizona are the only teams without a single prime-time game.
“You have to earn the right to play on national TV,” coach Marty Schottenheimer said.
