Bears Should Move Vasher to Safety

With the departure of Mike Brown from the Bears, a hole was left in the Windy City secondary. Adding Josh Bullocks via free agency and drafting Al Afalava in the sixth round of the draft don't appear to be answers. With the roster seemingly set for the 2009 season, the Bears will have to find a free safety starter in-house. They have many cornerbacks, so moving one to safety could work well.

After wrapping up the first rookie mini-camp, Lovie Smith discussed some of the options.

He proceeded to rattle off the names of the safeties on the roster -- Kevin Payne, Craig Steltz, Josh Bullocks, Glenn Earl and Afalava -- before adding two more players who figured to have roles elsewhere.

''We have all of those guys in the mix, and we still have Danieal Manning,'' Smith said. ''Look at other players. We have Corey Graham.''

''We have a lot of different options,'' Smith said. ''[Tillman] is ruled out. But the rest of it, it will work itself out. We're trying to get as many athletes as we can and give ourselves as many options as possible. We're going to be fine.''

One thing I haven't seen specifically mentioned, and, frankly, it's probably not very realistic, is moving Nathan Vasher back there. In addition to returning starter Charles Tillman, the Bears have plenty of depth at corner in Corey Graham, Zack Bowman, Trumaine McBride, and newly drafted D.J. Moore. Most of the current safety options wouldn't be in their proper role. Steltz is more of a role player, and he was exposed a few times last season when Brown was injured. Manning showed he's best suited as a nickel back when he made several big plays late in the season.

Vasher is coming off two injury-riddled and disappointing seasons. In fact, last season he was pretty sub-par in coverage on the outside. Even in Cover 2 he shouldn't be allowing teams to yawn their way to 10-yard slant completions. He does have a nose for the ball and big-play potential, though. Moving him to free safety would enable him to have much more of a cushion on deep coverage -- when the team is playing Cover 2 -- and he'd be able to roam more freely. He's not a very good one-on-one tackler, but he can hit. For a safety to provide run support, he needs to clog the holes more than be a great wrap-tackler.

Still, I don't see the Bears going this route. If I had to predict right now, I'd say either Manning or Graham will open the season as the starting free safety. Either would be a solid option, but I believe Vasher's talent could be salvaged if he was moved back to safety. Regardless, let's hope Vasher can improve his skills on the outside, because he was murdered via the quick slant last season.