Mario Williams to Bears? Why Ex-Texans DE Would Look Good in Chicago
Published by Jesse Reed on March 7, 2012
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Chicago Bears
Mario Williams would look awfully good in a Chicago Bears uniform in 2012.
A recent report from the Chicago Sun-Times suggests the Bears could consider making what seems like a dream scenario into a reality.
After all, the Bears are sitting pretty with plenty of cap space ($32 million).
Bringing in Williams would turn opposing offensive coordinators’ hair grey and keep them up at night.
Williams is a natural 4-3 defensive end, though Wade Phillips turned him into a 3-4 outside linebacker for the Houston Texans. He is a gifted pass-rusher and a stout run-defender, and can you imagine trying to defend a defensive line with both Julius Peppers and Williams? It would be an absolute nightmare.
The Bears can use the help, too. Despite having Peppers, one of the league’s best, the Bears were only able to sack opposing quarterbacks 33 times in 2011 (t-19th in the NFL).
The Bears also struggled to slow down opponents’ passing games between the 20s, allowing 4,065 yards (28th in the NFL) while doing a better job in the red zone, only allowing 22 touchdowns (t-13th in the NFL) through the air in 2011.
What this tells us is that the Bears secondary needs help.
One of the things you can do to help out your secondary is to bring in better talent at those positions. Equally effective, though, is bringing in exceptional pass-rushers.
Quarterbacks don’t make good decisions when they are running for their lives.
The Bears have a couple of young defensive tackles on their roster that would also greatly benefit from bringing in Williams. Stephen Paea is one in particular I’m excited about, and fans will start to see what kind of player he really is in his second year.
With Israel Idonije to back up both Peppers and Williams, the Bears 2012 defense could look a lot like the one that won the New York Giants their championship last year.
Another player that would love to have Williams on the 2012 roster is Brian Urlacher.
Urlacher is getting up there in age and isn’t as fast as he once was. He is just as smart and instinctive as he ever was, though, and having Williams give quarterbacks a half-a-second less to make decisions should increase Urlacher’s production of big plays for the Bears defense.
The window for the Bears is closing soon, as Jay Cutler, Lance Briggs and Urlacher get up there in age. The time is now to make a big move and acquire Williams to bolster their chances at playing for the title in New Orleans in February of 2013.
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