Have we seen the last of Shea McClellin?

As March 9th approaches, Chicago Bears GM, Ryan Pace has many decisions in front of him. One of them is making a decision on the future of Shea McClellin. Matt Forte and Alshon Jeffery have garnered much of the fans attention in regards to re-signing, but what the Bears do with Shea will have a big impact as well.

Most Bears’ fans regard McClellin as a first round bust. He came out of Boise State as a linebacker and even Phil Emery, who made McClellin his first ever selection, saw McClellin as a linebacker. However, in Lovie Smith’s infinite wisdom, he moved Shea to defensive end and thought they would capitalize on his speed being an edge rusher. The results over two season were uneven, and that is being kind.

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Then in 2014 he was moved to LB where several analysts thought McClellin would find his bearings and play better. Again, his play was less than thrilling and at times looked lost on the field. Many of us gave him a pass and blamed Mel Tucker’s defensive scheme as the problem. As 2015 rolled in, a new coaching regime came aboard. John Fox and Vic Fangio, two dynamic defensive coaches, would surely either cut Shea or figure out how to unlock this potential that we saw intermittently.

Most fans assumed Fangio would see that Shea was hopeless and cut him and move on. Especially, with the glimmer of hope Christian Jones flashed during 2014. What surprisingly occurred was that Fangio stated that McClellin would be the starter and believed he could become a viable inside linebacker. In fairness to Shea, he has gone through a lot with the Bears, and has always maintained an aura of being a good teammate and a professional. During the 2015 season, there were moments when he looked good and played better than we had seen in the past. Based on those glimpses, perhaps Fangio did unlock McClellin’s potential and had him on his way to becoming a legitimate contributor.

As hope began to build, Shea was injured. When he returned he didn’t seem the same. Maybe the injury hampered him, but it looked like he had reverted back to his clueless ways of playing. And now here we are. What should Ryan Pace do? McClellin’s salary has been $2 million per year, and Pace has to ask himself if he’s worth it. My instincts tell me that Pace will let Shea test the market and probably re-sign him for a lot less.

Pace has options when it comes to the ILB spot. There are several good free agent possibilities and there are also good players in this draft. No matter what Pace decides to do, in the end Shea McClellin will still be a Bear.