Top pick McClellin needs time to grow

July, 30, 2012
7/30/12
12:40
PM CT
BOURBONNAIS, Ill. -- Mark Anderson was much more freak than fluke.

As a rookie out of Alabama in 2006, the 6-foot-4, 255-pounder's vertical jump at the NFL scouting combine was 42 inches, better than any defensive end over the previous decade. And his broad jump was 10 feet, 7 inches, which had not been surpassed in the previous nine years.

So while nobody was expecting the Chicago Bears' fifth-round draft pick that year to set a franchise rookie record with 12 sacks as a situational pass rusher, the most ever by an NFL rookie drafted in the fifth round or later, it did not exactly come out of nowhere.

Shea McClellin said Sunday he will wait until after training camp to set any specific goals. And nobody with the Bears would go so far as to say they are expecting their first-round pick to match Anderson's numbers in his rookie year. But no question the bar is high. Too high for now.

Read the entire story.

Melissa Isaacson

Columnist, ESPNChicago.com
Melissa Isaacson is a sportswriter and author who has covered Chicago sports for the last 22 years of her 29-year career, most recently as an award-winning columnist and feature writer for the Chicago Tribune.

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