Chicago Bears Still with Major Holes in Secondary

Ryan Pace had had a remarkable off-season. There isn’t a football expert that exists that is going to rip the moves he has made over the past month. He has brought in Bobby Massie to play right tackle which will help fortify the Bears offensive line by moving Kyle Long back to right guard, a position where he has no peers at the NFL level. He’s strengthened the defensive line by adding former New England Patriot Akiem Hicks. He’s done wonders with the linebackers adding both Danny Trevathan and Jerrell Freeman, giving the Bears potentially one of the strongest linebacking units in the NFL. He has also done a nice job retaining some of the Bears key free agents like Zach Miller, Mitch Unrein, and Marc Mariani as well as some others. The Bears are an improved football team in multiple areas- except one.

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The Bears secondary appears that it will be an area of concern again entering the 2016 season. Pace’s biggest move for the secondary has been to re-sign Tracy Porter to a three- year deal. Porter was a low-risk signing last season and paid huge dividends for Chicago. He became their most reliable cover corner in 2015 and deserved to be rewarded for his performance. There is no reason to fault Pace for re-signing Porter, he absolutely deserved the contract, and the contract itself, despite being a three-year deal, is very team-friendly. It doesn’t have much in guaranteed money and much of the max value of the contract is dependent on Porter earning certain bonuses.

The issue with the Porter signing is the fact that the Bears must rely on him for another season as their CB1. This should alarm Bears’ fans. Porter was great last season, but that was then and this is now. Porter turns 30-years old this year and has had a history of injury problems. He hasn’t played as well as he did last year in a long time and asking him to repeat the performance will be difficult. Porter even showed signs of slipping towards the end of last year and there is an excellent chance that will continue. Porter has the makings of a bad movie sequel. The first one was tremendous, but adding a second year has the making of potentially being Caddyshack 2, and no one wants to watch that.

Porter should have been re-signed, but not as the only move in the secondary. The Bears can try and improve the secondary through the draft, and they almost certainly will, but there is a big miss-rate with cornerbacks in the first round. While many of the superstar corners are picked in the first round, plenty have been far less impressive. The Pro Bowl success rate of first round corners is roughly one out of three. Jalen Ramsey, Vernon Hargreaves and Kendall Fuller (perhaps Eli Apple as well) all appear to be headed to first round selections, but based on past numbers, only one of them will be making a major impact on Sundays, one of them will be decent, and one of them will be out of the league in a couple years. With the idea that Ramsey seems to be a can’t miss prospect, that makes the odds of one of the others also becoming a star that much more of a long shot.

The Bears just spent a first round pick on Kyle Fuller a couple years ago, albeit a different front office, but any chance of Fuller developing into a star is remote, Fuller appears no better than a CB2 and that’s best case scenario. He seems more likely to bounce around the league as a serviceable low-end CB2, high-end CB3- that’s not exactly shutdown corner capabilities. That’s not to say that if Hargreaves falls to the Bears at 11 and Pace makes the selection that he is destined for mediocrity. But trends say he will be a major risk at the position, and no guarantee to help the secondary in 2016.

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There aren’t any major impact free agents remaining at the secondary positions. The Bears appear set to give a couple low-risk 1-year deals to a couple veterans to see if one of them might pan out and add a little more secondary depth through the draft. But as of right now, the Bears appear set to go into next season with Fuller and Porter at the corners, Adrian Amos at one of the safety positions and plenty of questions at the other safety position as well as the nickelback position.

Ryan Pace inherited a hot mess when he took over this team 15 months ago. He should be commended with how quickly he’s turned this roster around, and it’s impossible to fill every hole immediately. While Pace has done excellent work filling most of those holes, he has done very little to help the secondary. Retaining Tracy Porter should not have been the team’s biggest move for the secondary in free agency. The Bears know they have Amos at free safety, and question marks everywhere else in the secondary. If Porter struggles with injury and Fuller doesn’t develop, the Bears may be chasing receivers down the field again in 2016.

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Hopefully the Bears pass rush will be improved this season and that will help mask the deficiencies in the secondary, but it’s an issue that can’t be overlooked. There has been plenty of praise heaped upon Pace this off-season, and for good reason, but secondary is still a major concern and one that needs to be addressed. The problem is, it might already be too late.

Bill Zimmerman is an editor and featured writer for FanSided‘s BearGogglesOn. Like his Facebook page or follow him on Twitter for more news and interaction.