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Loaded for Bear Chicago fills in several holes with draft deals
Posted: Sunday April 18, 1999 08:11 PM
LAKE FOREST, Ill. (AP) -- Whew. After two days of wheeling, dealing and maneuvering all over the draft board, the Chicago Bears are finally done. And after years of watching their talent level wither, they're restocked, reloaded and ready to rebuild. "I thought it worked out good for us, I think we were able to address a lot of needs," Mark Hatley, the Bears' vice president of player personnel, said Sunday after the draft ended. "We helped out our team just with the athletic ability we picked up." The Bears finished with 13 picks and one for next year after five trades in two days. Throw in kick returner Glyn Milburn, whom the Bears got last fall for a seventh-round pick, and Hatley said the Bears got 14 players. Not bad for a team that started the draft with six picks. "I really had no idea we'd end up with 13 picks and one for next year. I really thought when we started out that if we got to nine, it'd be a big plus for us," Hatley said. "We were able to do some things and still get the players we wanted." After getting Cade McNown, their quarterback of the future, on Saturday, the Bears spent Sunday filling holes and stocking up. They picked up two linebackers, a pass rusher, an offensive lineman, a safety, a wide receiver and a fullback. They also grabbed Jerry Azumah, a running back from New Hampshire that the Bears want to convert into a defensive back. Azumah, who holds the Division I-AA career rushing record, might have been the best athlete in the draft, Hatley said. He rushed for 2,195 yards and 22 touchdowns on 343 carries last year despite a nagging hip injury. He has a vertical leap of 42-43 inches, and he runs the 40 in the 4.4-second range. There's no guarantee Azumah can make the switch, but Hatley said Azumah is eager to try. "He just says he wants to play," Hatley said. "He wasn't hesitant. The kid's talented. He knows he's got some athletic ability and he's not afraid to try anything." The Bears started their day by bolstering their defense, taking Texas A&M linebacker Warrick Holdman and Purdue end Rosevelt Colvin in the fourth round. Holdman finished with 95 tackles last year, including seven sacks and 23 tackles for loss. At 6-3 and 245 pounds, Colvin is a little undersized, but the Bears like his pass rushing ability. His 13 sacks last year tied a Purdue single-season record, and he set a school record with three blocked field goals. He finished with 59 tackles for loss, second-best on the school's career list, including 19 last season. "He's a pass rusher we think has some special abilities," coach Dick Jauron said. "He doesn't have great size for our business, so he's going to have to learn how to freeze that tackle and get by him. But we think he's got some special pass rush abilities and that's why we drafted him." In the fifth round, the Bears took offensive lineman Jerry Wisne out of Notre Dame, linebacker Khari Samuel from Massachusetts and Azumah. Then it was "Let's Make a Deal" time again. Chicago and Cleveland swapped sixth-round picks, with the Browns giving up the first pick in the seventh round, too. The Bears then gave that pick back, getting two seventh-rounders in return. With their new sixth-round pick, the Bears took Rashard Cook, who played both strong and free safety at Southern California. They used one of the seventh-rounders on Sulecio Sanford, a receiver from Middle Tennessee State. The second seventh-round pick was the last of the draft, the "Mr. Irrelevant" pick, and the Bears used it on Pennsylvania fullback Jim Finn. "We got a guy from Massachusetts, a guy from New Hampshire and we got a guy from the Ivy League," said Jauron, who played at Yale. "So, it was a great draft." While it's too early to say how many of the draft picks will start next year, Jauron said all of them will make the Bears better. "We've done a nice job of increasing our depth here at every position. That's got to be healthy for our club," he said. "If you have that competition right behind you, you're going to be a better team, and we think we've done that."
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