Perhaps the biggest need the Bears have yet to address is the safety position.  Lance Briggs thinks the Bears need a veteran in the defensive backfield.  I tend to agree but based on the lack of activity from the Bears in the free agent market, it stands to reason that the Bears will address this need in the draft.

Let’s check out this Gallery of the top safety prospects in the upcoming draft and see if they might be able to actually nab on of these guys.

1. Eric Berry, 6-0, 211, Tennessee

Berry is touted as a can’t miss in this draft and has even drawn some comparisons to Ed Reed.  Um, yes please.  He is a sure-fire Top 10 pick, so there is ZERO CHANCE that the Bears can pull this off.   

Nolan Nawrocki, the draft analyst for Pro Football Weekly, said on a teleconference Wednesday that four safeties could go in the first round. Tennessee’s Eric Berry projects to be gone sometime between No. 5 and No. 10 overall. Georgia Tech’s Morgan Burnett is climbing draft boards quickly and USC’s Taylor Mays and Texas’ Earl Thomas also are in the mix. Nawrocki also wouldn’t rule out Allen as a possibility to sneak into the end of the first round, which likely would put him out of reach for the Bears, who lack first- and second-round picks and don’t have a selection until No. 75 in the third round.

For the Bears to trade up into the second round, it likely would take their second-round pick in 2011 and more.

“There is more elite talent at the safety position overall this year than there has been in past years with talk about four potentially fitting into the first round and Nate Allen is a guy who could potentially sneak in there,” Nawrocki said. “I think (the Bears) have to fill that need, they’re looking hard at it and I think there is a chance they could potentially move up to the second round, trade up, and I know I have heard some discussion around the league about that possibility. They should be able to address the needs with the players that are in this draft.”

Nawrocki noted a couple players who might be available at No. 75 if the Bears stay put. The only previous time Angelo has traded up was in 2003 when he made a trade to move up in the fifth round to draft wide receiver Justin Gage. We’re talking about a minor trade at that point in the draft.

Nawrocki’s three other options with free-safety skills are Major Wright of Florida, T.J. Ward of  Oregon and Chad Jones of LSU.

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It’s time to start the building process for the 2009 Chicago Bears.  Jerry Angelo hasn’t exactly been a master builder in recent drafts, but whenever draft talk comes up, he seems to talk enough about floors and ceilings (of players) that you’d think he was a carpenter and not a GM.  Since the Bears announced that they won’t be raising ticket prices in 2009, I don’t expect any big splashes in Free Agency, so the bulk of the work will have to come through the draft. (more…)