Chicago Bears Rookie Grades (Part 1)

5th Round: Adrian Amos 

My favorite pick of the Bears draft turned out to be the Bears most reliable defensive player in his rookie season. Amos led the Bears in defensive snaps played and finished 3rd in tackles. He didn’t make enough plays for a guy that played that many snaps, but he didn’t make many mistakes either which for a rookie playing in a new scheme is pretty impressive. Even more so considering that Amos had only one year of safety experience in college before being drafted.

The Bears signed veteran safety Antrell Rolle with the idea that he would provide stability in secondary and point Amos in the right direction, but multiple injuries and sub-par play kept Rolle on the sidelines for more than half of the season. Instead Amos was paired with either an even less experienced safety like Harold Jones-Quartey or a less talented one like Chris Prosinski. All things considered, the fact that Amos was able to be the stabilizing presence in the Bears secondary w as a rookie was pretty impressive and bodes well for his future. He was one of only two players that HC John Fox mentioned as building blocks for the future on defense.

The game should slow down a little for Amos next season and if the Bears can add a veteran free agent safety (Eric Weddle please) to provide some guidance, we could see a breakout season from Amos in his sophomore campaign.

Grade: A-

6th round: Tayo Fabuluje

Only saw two snaps this year, but that was expected as Fabuluje was drafted as a developmental project. Fabuluje is a massive o-linemen (6’7 | 353) who needs to slim down a little and clean up his technique before he is NFL ready, but he looked better than expected in the preseason.

We haven’t seen him since, but I’m hearing good things about his work ethic and performance in practice this year. It also sounds like the Bears are debating moving him inside to guard where he can better utilize his power and his suspect pass pro skills won’t be as exposed. Fabuluje has an interesting back story and is a prospect with legit potential if he can keep his weight under control. He should be in the mix for at least a back-up role next season.

Grade: C+

Overall GM Ryan Pace’s first draft with the Bears graded out as a solid B, which is a letter or two higher than former GM Phil Emery’s last few drafts with the Bears. Most of the Bears rookies were forced into action before they were ready and some of them stepped up and became building blocks for the future. I will be covering the undrafted rookies in part two of my rookie grades in the next few days.