Bowen: Lack Of Player Development Continues To Haunt Bears
(WSCR) It's no secret former Bears general manager Jerry Angelo "missed" on a lot of top draft picks.
Few of Angelo's top picks turned into viable professional atheltes, but maybe that wasn't all Angelo's fault.
"In the pros, (developing talent) is their job," Matt Bowen of the National Football Post told The Mully and Hanley Show. "If you have to stay after practice, if you have to work a guy til midnight, you do it. You gotta develop talent. That's what we saw. It wasn't so much that Jerry was a terrible drafter. I know he had his issues, but the players they brought in, these speed and size guys, were never developed into starters."
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Bowen pointed to the lack of depth at key defensive positions such as linebacker and safety.
"When is the last time a linebacker was developed here?" Bowen said. "Talk about that position. You have Brian (Urlacher) and you have Lance (Briggs.) Two Pro Bowlers, two great players that are getting older. Behind them, who do you have? Do you have a guy that, if Brian was to have an injury, could step in and you'd still see the same productions? Or, do you have a guy behind Lance so you don't have to worry every time (Briggs' agent) Drew Rosenhaus calls on the phone up at Halas Hall. You don't have those guys. I don't think they've done a very good job developing talent."
