Chicago Bears Free Agent Options: Cornerback

Ed Szczepanski-USA TODAY Sports

Depth:

Tarell Brown – 30, Raiders (5’10 | 190): Solid veteran corner with experience playing in Fangio’s scheme. Brown struggled with the Raiders last season, but a new scheme and lack of pass rush were factors. Reuniting Brown with Fangio could get him back to his 2013 form when he was PFF’s 31st ranked corner overall. Brown could push Jennings inside to the slot or give the Bears a starting quality backup.

Zach Bowman – 30, Giants (6’1 | 197): Former Bear who signed a one year deal with the Giants last year, but had an up and down season. Bowman has ideal size for press coverage and plenty of experience in zone coverage from his time with the Bears, which makes him a pretty solid fit for Fangio’s press/zone hybrid scheme. Bowman won’t cost much and is a solid special teams player.

My Recommendation:

Despite being the 3oth ranked pass defense last year, the Bears have some interesting young players in the secondary with Kyle Fuller, Demontre Hurst, and Al Louis-Jean all having starter potential eventually. Veterans Tim Jennings and possibly Charles Tillman add experience to the group and are former Pro Bowlers. The Bears wanted to move Jennings inside last year and could revisit that move if they can add a starting corner across from Kyle Fuller like…

Chris Culliver: Big, athletic corner who has experience in Fangio’s scheme and still has untapped potential at only 27 years old and with just one year as a starter. Culliver is a much better fit for Fangio’s scheme than Jennings and would give the Bears two long, physical starting corners.

I could see the Bears adding another corner in the draft as well. In my last mock I had the Bears taking slot corner Bryce Callahan from Rice in the 7th round, but this is a very deep corner class and there are plenty of options who the Bears could target as early as round 2.