Payne was part of a bevy of safeties and have been piling out of Jerry Angelo’s clown car in recent years.  He had a strong 2008 season, but took a step backwards last season.  He should have a better chance of playing meaningful snaps for the Rams.  Meanwhile, see what Michael Wright has to say about the current state of the Bears safety position:

The Bears’ jettisoning of Payne doesn’t exactly alleviate what appears to be a logjam at safety. The club has six players — Wright, Harris, Danieal Manning, Al Afalava, Josh Bullocks and Craig Steltz – fighting for two starting spots.

I think Wright, Harris, Afalava and Steltz make the roster.  Where’s Danieal Manning you ask?  Last I checked, he hadn’t signed his tender offer.  At best, he could be moving again; this time, back to the nickel spot.

Adrian Peterson had another big day against the Bears with 121 rushing yards and 2 touchdowns.  Those numbers are great if you have him on your fantasy team, but in real football it wasn’t enough to help the Vikings get past the Bears.  Meanwhile, the Bears continued to struggle to establish the run, led by 56 yards rushing by Matt Forte.  Almost every rushing play was over before it started for the Bears, but luckily scoring came from a lot of different sources.

Kyle Orton put together another great game with 283 yards on 21 of 32 passing and 2 touchdowns.  If Orton can continue to keep up this level of play fans will begin to wonder why the Bears even bothered with Rex Grossman.  What Orton lacks in throwing the deep ball he makes up for with great accuracy and a wonderful ability to call audibles at the line.  I don’t know where this sudden knack for audibles came from and why it wasn’t used in previous seasons but I hope it continues.  Orton has shown a leadership ability on the field by looking at the defense and deciding whether to change the play.  Just as exciting is the success those audible plays have had for the team to get first downs and keep the chains moving.

If the Bears don’t win this game, the storyline for the Bears are the dropped touchdown passes by Marty Booker.  He finished with 3 catches for 79 yards and a touchdown, but what you don’t see on the stat sheet are the two touchdown catches he blatantly dropped.  There are always difficult catches and miscues on the field, but twice Orton put the ball right on Booker number in the end zone and he dropped it.  The Bears seem to be showing a growing confidence in Booker and he needs to respond with better consistency.

The irony is before the game the biggest concern was the Bears secondary that was depleted from injuries and could have given Gus Frerotte a big day.  Instead, Frerotte threw 4 interceptions, all of them to young Bears defenders getting playing time because of injuries.  Safety Kevin Payne, and corners Corey Graham, Trumaine McBride, and Zachary Bowman all came down with interceptions.  The Bears defense also finally remembered that sacking the quarterback is a good thing, getting one from Kevin Payne and Tommie Harris.

Kevin Payne is an interesting player that I’m going to spend more time researching.  He’s been nothing but criticized in Chicago for his poor coverage skills and allowing receivers to get behind him for big plays.  But if you look at him on paper he came away with 7 tackles, a sack, and an interception that he brought back 50 yards.  How exactly can a kid so productive be dogged as a liability?  Only in Chicago…….

The Bears are far from the strongest team in the league but they sure are playing like a team that believes they can hang in with everyone else.  They manage to screw up plenty of games, but they are a few plays away from being 7-0.  It seems crazy but if you take away the improbable Falcons comeback, the blown lead against the Panthers, and the blown lead against the Bucs, this is an undefeated team.  It was always the Bears who had to come up with points late in the game to try to win.  This season the Bears are having no trouble scoring points but they are having trouble hanging on to leads.  It got scary for a few moments today, but perhaps this team is finally figuring out how to secure a lead late.

The Bears tried to run the ball late and run down the clock but the Vikings had Forte’s number all day.  The Vikings had their chance for heroics, but the Bears came down with an interception and breathed a sigh of relief.

I should probably be happier that the Bears came away with a win, but I’m a bit troubled how they won.  The defense broke down and allowed the Vikings to keep scoring and stay in the game.  This should have been a blown out like the Lions game.  The Bears have always had good defense and run the ball well.  They won today, but they did it by losing their identity as a ball club.  Now the question becomes, do they try to regain their old identity or do they embrace this new identity as a way to win?

Starting cornerbacks Charles Tillman and Nathan Vasher are both becoming question marks week-by-week for their availability on Sundays.  Vasher has a wrist injury and Tillman appeared at Halas Hall today with his arm in a black sling after a shoulder injury that took him out of Sundays game.  Tillman’s replacement, Trumaine McBride, injured his shoulder later in the game and had to come out.  Safety Danieal Manning suffered hamstring troubles and will also miss practice time this week.  Oh, and don’t forget safety Brandon McGowan has already been put on injured reserve earlier in the season. 

The Bears are a leg injury to Mike Brown away from complete disaster at the secondary.  This is not a good way to go into a game against the Vikings and former teammate Bernard Berrian.  The Bears could be forced to put second year corner Corey Graham and Marcus Hamilton, just signed from the Tampa Bay Bucs a few weeks ago as their starting corners. 

Tillman and Vasher are still holding on to hopes of playing this Sunday, but neither are 100% and would have to play through the pain.  This Sunday could be a repeat on last Sunday when the Bears did a great job of stopping the run but appeared helpless stopping the pass.  The front four on defense will have to work twice as hard to get at the quarterback and create havoc.  If the Vikings pass the ball a lot, they may force the Bears to take linebackers of the field (their strength) and put an extra corner on the field (their weakness). 

The more I see of this Bears defense, the more I think we need to start talking about talented safeties coming out of college and entering next year’s draft.  Coaches are making due with safeties and corners selected in fifth and sixth rounds of the past few drafts.  Some have some talent but none are particularly ready to take on a starting role on their own.  As good as the Bears defense may be, it lacks an intimidating presence at safety to put next to Mike Brown.  Kevin Payne has emerged as a solid starter with his solid tackling and good coverage, but he cannot take on the load himself.  After a couple injuries this defense gets thin very fast in the secondary. 

The one bright spot is the Vikings commitment to the run and Adrian Peterson may force them to stick with the run and keep a more balance attack.  The Bears defense can handle stopping the run and will certainly look for payback after Peterson torched them last season.  However, at some point the Vikings will have to go to the air and if the Bears cannot find a way to put pressure on either the quarterback or the receiver, this could be an ugly game. 

This year the first round pick is likely to be an offensive tackle and given the lack of pursuit for a free agent lineman, the Bears are likely to comply. The dilemma comes with the second round and two third round draft picks the Bears have hanging in the air. The Bears have so many needs on the offensive side of the ball that no names or positions have been keyed in for the next pick. The reality is the Bears are likely to take the most talented offensive player, with the exception of tight end, that is on the board.

In an ironic twist of fate, the Bears have shown an almost comical inability to evaluate first round talent, but have an uncanny ability to located talent in the later rounds of the draft. Last year the Bears took the popular pick of Greg Olsen in the first round, which thus far seems like a great pick, but were also able to find Kevin Payne in the 5th round, Corey Graham in the 6th round, and Trumaine McBride in the 7th round, a trio of cornerbacks that contributed on defense last year due to injuries. In 2006, the Bears found talented linebacker Jamar Williams in the 4th round and blazing defensive end Mark Anderson in the 5th round. In 2005, the Bears went wrong with Cedric Benson in the 1st round, but picked up Chris Harris in the 6th round. In 2004, Bernard Berrian was picked in the 3rd round and Nathan Vasher in the 4th round. In 2003, Lance Briggs was taken in the 3rd round, and wide receivers Bobby Wade and Justin Gage, both starters for other teams, were taken in the 5th round.

It makes you wonder if the Bears actually are amazing evaluators of talent but succumb to outside pressure and take the popular pick. One thing is certain, the Bears have yet to figure out how to accurately evaluate NFL ready running backs. They haven’t been able to find a player ready to make the transition since the days of Mike Ditka. The organizations evaluation of defensive talent has been unparalleled and they have made attempts to use that advantage to make trades like they did with Chris Harris last season. The problem is the Bears have little need on defense and the stage is set to rebuild the offense or fall flat.

So what are the Bears priorities? One name that should be at the top of the list for the second round is Felix Jones, the running back out of Arkansas. The Bears badly need a different option than Cedric Benson and Jones could be worth the gamble. However, in recent weeks Jones has been receiving a lot of hype and he may be off the board as early as the first round.

Draft day can result in big name players falling to later rounds and having their options open actually works in the Bears favor. Most of their mistakes have come when they are determined to draft to a position rather than talent. Hype is a hell of a thing because it can change on you in a moments notice and leave you wondering about your future in the second round. Will quarterbacks Brian Brohm of Louisville, Chad Henne of Michigan, or Joe Flacco of Delaware still be on the board?

I can’t help but feel like the Bears will defer wide receiver until the third round. History shows they have had good luck picking receivers in later rounds rather than big name receivers that end up a bust. With two picks in the third round the Bears will still be looking for the best talent and may continue taking chances on the offensive backfield. There hasn’t been much talk about talent at the offensive guard position but it’s a position of need that may come up.

The Bears have a lot of draft picks and are open to making gambles that could pay off and ignite a lethargic offense that needs to get into the end zone. For Chicago fans, the real excitement will come at the beginning of the second round.