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The Bears have changed starting safeties 41 times since Lovie Smith arrived in 2004, with a near-even split between the two positions.
Twenty-one times the starting free safety has changed from one game to the next, and 20 times the starting strong safety has changed. You can't get that kind of near symmetry unless you are trying or something has gone wrong, very wrong.
Smith cites injuries and the difficulty of keeping players healthy at the position for much of the turnover. He has a point: A good portion of the change occurred when the Bears were forced to go to Plan B after Mike Brown was injured through the latter half of his career with the organization.
But Brown was only one man and with him gone this past season, the Bears still changed starting free safeties four times and starting strong safeties five times.
Dizzy yet?
Smith said the Bears needed to "invest" more in the position last month at the scouting combine. There was only one desirable target who was an unrestricted free agent, and Antrel Rolle was paid big bucks by the New York Giants while the Bears spent even more to jump-start their pass rush with defensive end Julius Peppers.
There has been speculation the team could make a run at O.J. Atogwe, the restricted free agent from the St. Louis Rams. Atogwe is sitting out the Rams' voluntary offseason workout program after being slapped with the low tender offer by the club.
But the Bears making a run at Atogwe is only speculation at this point. They're not armed with much in the way of trade ammunition and they've already likely spent money that would have been earmarked for 2011 free agency with their shopping bonanza that also added running back Chester Taylor and tight end Brandon Manumaleuna.
Fact is, the Bears had more turnover at safety this past season than they did in 2008, Brown's final season with the club. In '08, Kevin Payne was on the field for 99.1 percent of the defensive snaps and Brown was on the field for 83.2 percent, missing the second halves of four games and sitting out the finale that year. Craig Steltz picked up most of the rest of the duty, getting 12.7 percent of the playing time.
An analysis of the playing time statistics from 2009 shows it was much more scattered. Danieal Manning played both free safety and nickel cornerback, so a chunk of his overall playing time (in the chart below) actually was as a nickel corner and not at safety. It shows how much the carousel was spinning.
Danieal Manning, FS/NB:15 games/10 starts 828 of 1,068 snaps, 77.53 percent.
Al Afalava, SS/FS: 13/13 804 of 1,068 snaps, 75.28 percent.
Kevin Payne, FS/SS: 13/5 546 of 1,068 snaps, 51.12 percent.
Josh Bullocks, SS/FS: 12/4 199 of 1,068 snaps, 18.63 percent.
Craig Steltz, SS/FS: 12/2 151 of 1,068 snaps, 14.14 percent.
Manning has been told he will be in the mix at strong safety for this coming season. What that means for Afalava is unknown. He moved to free safety in Week 13 after Manning was removed from his safety role. Bullocks probably was the best free safety on the roster, but got very little playing time, a sign of some of the misevaluations the Bears have suffered at the position. Steltz was the leading candidate to be a starter all offseason up until the start of training camp. Now, he could be back in the mix.
Or the Bears could go out and invest in the position. Stay tuned.
