ESPN

CHICAGO -- The Chicago Bears are expected to host former Southeast Louisiana cornerback Robert Alford on a pre-draft visit this week, according to a league source.

Alford is projected to be a third-round draft choice.

Alford finished his career at Southeast Louisiana with 10 interceptions and earned an invite to the 2013 Senior Bowl, the first player from the school to play in the game since 1970. The 5-foot-10, 188-pound Alford ran a 4.34 40-yard dash at the NFL combine and worked out for numerous NFL scouts and coaches at the Southeast Louisiana Pro Day on March 29.

Alford was also a talented return man on the collegiate level.

Although the Bears re-signed veteran cornerbacks Kelvin Hayden and Zack Bowman in free agency, the team is expected to consider addressing the position in the draft. Pro Bowl starters Charles Tillman and Tim Jennings are entering the final year of their contracts, while the club allowed former starting nickel back D.J. Moore to sign with the Carolina Panthers in free agency.

The Bears selected a pair of cornerbacks, Isaiah Frey and Greg McCoy, in the late rounds in last year’s draft but neither player stuck on the 53-man roster.

ESPNChicago.com reported last month the Bears traveled to the University of Miami to put former Hurricanes cornerback Brandon McGee through a private workout.

ESPNChicago.com kicks off its countdown to the April 25-27 NFL draft with a look back at last year's draft class. Check back each day leading up to the draft for a positional preview of all the draft prospects.

The Chicago Bears muddied the draft picture for outsiders with the moves they made in free agency, but that certainly added flexibility for what the club can now do with the 20th overall pick.

So as we prepare to get into that subject in preparing to kick off coverage of the 2013 NFL draft, let's take a look at how the team fared in 2012 with its six draft picks. Often immediately after a selection is made, reporters -- having not seen any of the prospects play a single down in the NFL -- submit overly positive or negative grades.

Well, we've now had an entire season to make an evaluation, and here's what we think:

Shea McClellin, DE, Boise State

Round: 1 Pick: 19 (Overall: 19)

What we said after the draft: General manager Phil Emery raved about McClellin's natural instincts, and functional athleticism, which should translate well as an NFL pass rusher. His physical attributes don't necessarily jump off the charts, but he plays better than workout testing would indicate. Drafting McClellin over Whitney Mercilus and Chandler Jones says a lot Chicago's belief in his ability opposite Julius Peppers.
Initial grade: B+

What we say now: First, the bad. McClellin struggled early on at training camp, and never cracked the starting lineup as a rookie. Sure, he was a rookie. But shouldn't a team's first-round pick be an immediate starter and impact player? McClellin wasn't either of those, but that's not to say he didn't produce a solid rookie campaign. He played in 14 games with 2.5 sacks and seven tackles, and after the season, Emery discussed metrics that would indicate McClellin was an impact player. The problem was he didn't make enough of an impact. Right now, this looks like an Emery single. This team needs home runs with the first-round picks.

Current grade: C

(Read full post)

Former Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o visited with the Chicago Bears at Halas Hall in the past few weeks, according to a league source.

Te'o visited the Miami Dolphins on Wednesday, according to the Palm Beach Post.

The All-American traveled to Detroit earlier in the week to meet with the Lions, and is also scheduled to visit the San Diego Chargers, ESPN's Ed Werder reported on Tuesday.

ESPN Insider Mel Kiper Jr. has the Bears selecting Te'o with the No. 20 overall pick in his latest mock draft.

Former Kansas State linebacker Arthur Brown visited the Bears on Monday and Tuesday, one of several linebackers the club plans to host in advance of the NFL draft.

Te'o, a four-year starter for the Fighting Irish, led all linebackers in the nation last year with seven interceptions and finished his Notre Dame career as the school's third all-time leading tackler.

But Te'o's draft stock slipped after a poor performance versus Alabama in the BCS Championship Game, followed by a highly-publicized off-the-field hoax that Te'o was forced to address in front of reporters at the NFL Combine in February.

New linebacker James Anderson will be the first Chicago Bear to wear No. 50 since Mike Singletary retired in 1992, and the Hall of Fame linebacker assured the team it's fine by him.

Read the entire story.

If nothing else, two relatively minor decisions this week serve as an important reminder that the Chicago Bears never replaced center Olin Kreutz after his final season with them in 2010.

Former guard Roberto Garza has done his best to make it work at the position, but most people would agree that guard is his best position. (Pro Football Focus has made him one of their lowest-ranked centers in each of the past two seasons). He is also 34 and entering the final year of his contract.

So it's worth noting, at least, that the Bears signed free agent center Taylor Boggs on Tuesday and are hosting California guard/center Brian Schwenke on a visit Wednesday. The Bears don't necessarily need to find a new center for 2013, but much like their short-term transition at middle linebacker from Brian Urlacher to D.J. Williams, it is time to construct a longer-term plan.

In this case, of course, the Bears have some flexibility. If they find in training camp that they have another starting-caliber center on the roster -- be it Boggs, a draft pick or another free agent -- Garza could conceivably move back to guard. The Bears signed free agent Matt Slauson presumably to replace the departed Lance Louis, but there is still one guard position without an obvious starter.

As we've discussed before, the best time to initiate a transition is before it's immediately necessary. It appears the Bears are looking to take that intermediary step now.

CHICAGO -- Former California center/guard Brian Schwenke is scheduled to visit the Chicago Bears on Wednesday, according to a league source.

Schwenke is projected to be a third-round selection in the NFL draft, although the Bears don't have a third-round pick as a result of last season's trade with the Miami Dolphins for Brandon Marshall.

One of Schwenke's trademarks is his versatility. Listed at 6-foot-3, 314 pounds, Schwenke began his collegiate career at guard where he started a combined 24 games at guard (16 at left guard, eight at right guard) from 2010-11. But the Golden Bears shifted Schwenke to center last season where he earned first-team All-Pac-12 honors.

Because of his smaller stature, Schwenke is viewed more as a center on the NFL level, but could step in and contribute at guard if necessary.

Center should be considered an area of need because the Bears will eventually have to replace 34-year-old veteran center Roberto Garza, who has performed admirably on the field and in a leadership role since moving from guard to center to replace Olin Kreutz two years ago. But Garza is only signed through 2013.

The Bears' picture at guard became a little clearer when the club signed free agent Matt Slauson after Lance Louis left for Miami, but there is expected to be competition for at least one of the guard spots between the likes of Gabe Carimi, James Brown and Edwin Williams. With Schwenke's experience at guard, he could push for playing time at that spot if the Bears are content to stick with Garza at center for at least one more season.

Schwenke has also reportedly visited the Tennessee Titans.

The Chicago Bears signed defensive end Kyle Moore to a one-year contract on Tuesday, according to ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter.

Read the entire story.

New Chicago Bears linebacker D.J. Williams didn't officially sign his contract until last Thursday, and I've finally gotten a look at the specifics via ESPN Stats & Information resources. The structure of Williams' one-year, $1.75 million deal further confirms that the Bears don't view him as a long-term replacement for Brian Urlacher.

The contract does not include any guaranteed money. Williams' base salary is $900,000, and there are two sets of roster bonuses that will pay him $23,437 for every game he is on the 53-man roster and another $23,437 each time he is on the game-day 46-man roster. So if he is active for all 16 games, those roster bonuses would total $750,000.

There is also a $100,000 workout bonus tied to offseason work.

There are reasons why Williams was available for such a relative bargain. Most notably, he only played seven games last season for the Denver Broncos because of a pair of suspensions. But the Bears still got what Matt Bowen, writing for ESPN Insider, suggests will be a 2013 upgrade over Urlacher because of Williams' "short area change-of-direction skills and speed to the ball."

As with any business, NFL teams don't want to make any more of a financial commitment than they have to. In Williams' case, the only thing the Bears are required to do is devote a low salary-cap figure ($1.328 million). And as we noted earlier Monday, the Bears are hosting a potentially longer-term answer at the position in Kansas State's Arthur Brown. The Bears have kept all options open.

This draft season has harkened thoughts of the old days in the Black and Blue division: lots of middle linebacker talk. With half of the NFC North seeking long-term answers at the position, we've discussed some of the best-known middle/inside linebacker prospects in the draft, from Notre Dame's Manti Te'o to Georgia's Alec Ogletree.

The Minnesota Vikings hosted both Te'o and Ogletree last week at their annual "Top 30 event," and the Chicago Bears are bringing in another prominent prospect for a visit starting Monday. The Bears are getting a closer look at Kansas State's Arthur Brown, projected by Scouts Inc. as a second-round draft pick , according to Jeff Dickerson of ESPNChicago.com.

Brown has been on the radar for a while but he opened more eyes at Kansas State's pro day by running his 40-yard dash in the 4.56-4.66 range, according to Dickerson. Scouts Inc.'s Insider report notes that Brown is a bit undersized at 6-feet 3/8th-inches and suggested he is best suited for a system that "protects" its linebackers with two-gapping defensive tackles. On the other hand, his speed gives him "sideline-to-sideline range," according to the analysis.

From a bigger picture, Brown's visit indicates the Bears are not sitting pat at linebacker even after signing free agents D.J. Williams and James Anderson, a topic we discussed last week. Even if they intend for Williams to be their starting middle linebacker in 2013, they still need to make plans to find a longer-term replacement for Brian Urlacher.

Draft experts continue to link former Notre Dame star Manti Te'o to the Chicago Bears, but the recent landscape change at the linebacker position due to the additions of D.J. Williams and James Anderson, and needs in other areas appear to make that unlikely.

That's not to say that Te'o to the Bears won't happen. He's certainly a first-round talent who probably improved his stock slightly at a recent pro day workout. But as one NFC personnel man said Friday morning, the 20th overall pick might be "a tad rich for Te'o."

Perhaps the Bears feel that way, too.

So if there's truly a level of interest in selecting the linebacker, the Bears could be pondering ways to move back some to land him. While the 20th pick might be too high to draft Te'o for some, several personnel evaluators consider him worthy of a pick closer to the bottom of the first round.

(Read full post)

Under normal circumstances, the Chicago Bears' only concern in the preseason should be avoiding serious injuries to any front-line players.

That's because what happens in the preseason rarely, if ever, carries over into the regular season when the games actually matter.

Remember the panic in the summer of 2006?

After the Bears looked bad in preseason losses to the San Francisco 49ers and Arizona Falcons, fans were wondering if the 2005 division championship was a fluke. All the Bears did that year was win 13 regular season games and advance to the Super Bowl for the first time in 21 years.

(Read full post)

The NFL released its preseason schedule on Thursday, with the Chicago Bears opening the preseason on the road against Ron Rivera and the Carolina Panthers the weekend of Aug. 8-11.

Exact times and dates for the road contests will be announced at a later date.

The club's preseason home schedule includes an Aug. 15 nationally-televised matchup with the San Diego Chargers at 7 p.m. CT, which will air on ESPN. The Bears also host the Cleveland Browns in the preseason finale on Aug. 29, which will mark the 10th consecutive year the teams played their final exhibition game against one another.

Aside from the preseason opener at Carolina, the Bears' other road opponent includes the Oakland Raiders (Aug. 22-25).

None of the Bears' preseason opponents had a winning record in the 2012 regular season.

The regular season schedule will be announced later this month.

With the release of veteran defensive tackle Matt Toeaina on Tuesday, the Chicago Bears created a void at the position they'll need to address through the upcoming draft or veteran free agency.

As it stands now, the club carries just three defensive tackles into its offseason conditioning program in Henry Melton, Stephen Paea and Nate Collins. At the end of the 2012 season, the Bears were carrying four players at the position.

According to the team's game-by-game participation statistics, the Bears rotated six players at defensive tackle, including free-agent defensive end Israel Idonije, who started two games at one of the interior spots.

Given the importance of the defensive tackle position in a 4-3 scheme, the Bears certainly need to acquire at least one more player to serve in the rotation. On the offensive line, players participate in entire games at their set positions. But on defense, teams typically like to rotate the more athletic defensive linemen in and out of the lineup to keep them fresh.

Veteran defensive tackle Amobi Okoye may still be a possibility for the Bears, but he's testing the free agent market. A four-year starter with the Houston Texans, who drafted him No. 10 overall in 2007, Okoye has never lived up to the expectations that accompanied his high draft position. Because of Okoye's history with former defensive coordinator Rod Marinelli, who recently joined the Dallas Cowboys, it was rumored the Cowboys might be interested. But Okoye remains unsigned, and there's a small possibility he could return to the Bears on a veteran minimum deal.

Idonije appears to be another option as a rotational player, although he started the first nine games of last season at left defensive end, opposite Julius Peppers. Idonije possesses the versatility to kick inside to defensive tackle in a pinch as a starter or as a situational pass rusher. Idonije received $2.5 million last season in salary and bonuses. But a return to Chicago for Idonije would have to come at a greatly reduced rate.

So whether the Bears use the draft in April or veteran free agency to address defensive tackle it appears certain the team will add at the position before it gets into the meat of its offseason schedule with minicamps and organized team activities looming.

After all, just getting through practices would seem to be a difficult task with just three defensive tackles on the roster.

DES PLAINES, Ill. -- Chicago Bears offensive tackle J'Marcus Webb said Tuesday he is "moving forward" after an offseason arrest in Southern Illinois for marijuana possession.

The charges were eventually dropped against Webb, who met the media for the first time since the incident at the Bears' annual Ed Block Courage Award luncheon at Maryville Academy in Des Plaines, Ill.

(Read full post)

DES PLAINES, Ill. -- Chicago Bears chairman George McCaskey talked with Brian Urlacher for the first time since the team parted ways with him and said the star linebacker, who was bothered he hadn't heard from the team, was "gracious" during their phone conversation.

Read the entire story.