With the 19th pick of the 2012 NFL Draft......

the Chicago Bears select, Shea McClellin, DE, Boise St?

The Bears surprised most of the world by the selection of McClellin with the 19th pick.  But the Bears did show interest in McClellin and put him thru a private workout at Halas Hall.  Looks like a round peg in a square hole, but don't mistake this for a blind pick.  The Bears should have a pretty good idea of what McClellin can do in their defensive scheme.

Have been reading a lot of recent comparisons to Clay Matthews, but I think those are a little off base. The biggest asset McClellin provides is his versatility. And as a player, he's almost an exact clone of Mike Vrabel.  Shea is 6'3", 260lbs vs. 6'4", 264 for Vrabel.  I'm guessing I'm not the only one that sees the Vrabel similarities either, as Emery has mentioned the "Patriot Way" a few times since being hire in Chicago. The thing with Vrabel though is that he played every year of his career in a 3-4 defense. But what he did was play LOLB, ROLB, and ILB in the 3-4 starting for multiple seasons at each position and playing all 3 during most games in his career. Like Vrabel, I think McClellin can play all those positions. He can rush the passer from the 3-pt stance, he can blitz from the 2pt stance, he can play the run inside or out. He's actually one of the better LBs in zone coverage in this draft. The problem I see is that he's not elite enough in any of those areas to ONLY do one of those things on a consistent basis in the NFL. He's pretty decent at all of them though, which is where his value lies.

The Bears looked at a lot of undersized guys with speed this offseason. Bruce Irvin, McClellin, Tim Fugger from Vandy, Darius Fleming from ND, and Melvin Ingram. So, I wonder if they are possibly going to use McClellin as a SLB on run downs and as a pass rusher in the nickel. I think that would maximize his abilities to help this team.

My biggest issue is that if the Bears really wanted to improve the pass rush, I think Perry, Mercilus and Jones were all better pass rushers on the board. I'm not a big fan of Jones, but I think he would've been a better fit. Mercilus would be strictly a pass rusher who wouldn't help on run downs but really get after the QB on 3rd and long. Perry was the best all-around player to me with strength in the run game and explosion off the edge rushing the passer. I don't hate the pick of McClellin, but also don't love it. But let's all hope he performs well in whatever role the Bears put him in.