Bears trade for safety Chris Harris

News story here.

This feels like a very good move by the Chicago Bears.  They resigned a safety they let get away, who immediately proved himself better than the man who replaced him (the incredibly disappointing Adam Archuleta).  I remember Chris Harris as a hard-hitting and generally competent safety.  I predict he'll be penciled in as the starter at strong safety and prove to be a major upgrade for us.  To get safety the Bears had to surrender backup linebacker Jamar Williams.  I think Jamar was a decent talent, but the Bears were deep at linebacker and disasterously thin at safety.

The question remains as to who will play the other half of the field for the Bears.  In the mix at safety the Bears have: a player who showed a bit of promise as a rookie last season, Al Afalava, a trio of mediocre to bad players, Josh Bullocks, Craig Steltz, and Kevin Payne, an athletic guy who's never found a position in Danieal Manning, and a rookie, Major Wright.

As the Bears top pick (albeit a third-rounder) in this years draft, Major Wright is safe.  Al Afalava had a sort of up and down season as a rookie, but I have to think he'll make the cut.  Danieal Manning is a coach favorite, and if they left him off the roster they'd have nobody on defense to shuttle back and forth between safety and nickleback (all-the-while wondering why the guy can't settle into a position), so I have to think he's going to make it.  I have to think this move probably spells doom for at least two of the mediocre-to-bad trio.  If it were me, I think Kevin Payne shows the best play at the position, but I'd probably make my choice based on who was the best special teamer.  Plus Kevin Payne likes to hit Bears instead of opponents, which is kind of a problem.  A nice result would be for all the good things being said about Major Wright to be true and he takes the FS position by force and owns it.

One thing that sticks in my mind is that there's been a persistent rumor that CB Charles Tillman could possibly make an effective switch to the safety position at some point.  If the Bears do find they have a couple of serviceable cornerbacks on the roster that could also turn out okay for the Bears.  Problem is, I don't think any of their corners are worth very much either.