Chicago Bears 2014 NFL Draft Review: How Have the Rookies Performed?

Chicago Bears general manager Phil Emery has done a very good job in his tenure of addressing his team’s needs in real time.

Last season, the Bears defense ranked at or near the bottom of the league in most statistical categories. The core pieces no longer resembled what core pieces should look like. Depth was an issue all season.

So, what did Emery do? He hit the ground running in free agency and attacked the draft for long-term building blocks.

Emery signed defensive ends Lamarr Houston, Jared Allen and Willie Young. He signed safety Ryan Mundy. When the draft came along, he selected defensive players with four of the Bears’ seven picks. Three of those four picks unexpectedly have played significant roles this season.

Let’s now take a few moments to check in with the entire 2014 draft class to see how the players have performed through the first five games of the season.

1st Round (14th Overall): CB Kyle Fuller, Virginia Tech

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When the season began, Fuller was the nickel corner on the depth chart. Charles Tillman and Tim Jennings were the starting corners in base packages.

In nickel situations, Fuller played the left corner spot with Jennings moving into the slot. It worked out well for one-plus games until Tillman suffered a season-ending triceps injury in the Bears’ Week 2 win over the San Francisco 49ers.

Fuller immediately took Tillman’s place on the left side, with Jennings staying on the right side in base packages. It was in that game when Fuller had his coming-out party.

The rookie intercepted two Colin Kaepernick passes and added seven tackles. Fuller added another interception and two forced fumbles the following week against the New York Jets.

Those two performances led to Fuller being named the NFL’s Defensive Rookie of the Month for September.

According to Pro Football Focus (subscription required), Fuller is the 16th-best cornerback in the NFL right now. His three interceptions are tied for the league lead; and opposing quarterbacks featuring a QB Rating of 43.4 when Fuller is the primary defender in coverage is good for fifth-best in the league.

“I make it simple," Fuller told ESPN (via Bleacher Report). "I just try to go out there and do my job. When it comes to technique and fundamentals, I just let it all come to me.”

2nd Round (51st Overall): DT Ego Ferguson, LSU

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Ferguson has played better and better as the season has gone on, with his breakout game coming last week in the loss to the Carolina Panthers. The defensive tackle spent the first four games averaging in the range of 20-30 percent of the total snaps on defense.

It wasn’t until last week that he saw a huge upswing. Ferguson was on the field for nearly half of the plays against the Panthers, coming up with batted passes on back-to-back plays—one of which led to a Lance Briggs interception.

Fellow lineman Willie Young was very impressed with Ferguson’s play Sunday, via ESPN Chicago’s Michael C. Wright.

"That guy's playing some phenomenal football right now. He's a young guy, a lot of upside. I get excited every time I see him out there on the field. He's bound to make something happen. He got two batted balls in a row. I've never seen that in my life. I don't even think J.J. Watt got two batted balls on two consecutive plays."

Let’s not get carried away, Willie. 

With Jeremiah Ratliff still suffering the effects of a concussion, Ferguson, along with fellow rookie tackle Will Sutton, likely will see more and more snaps as the season progresses.

The two rookie tackles give the Bears much-needed depth on a defensive line that had zero continuity last season. Ferguson knows the benefits of having a rotation too, via Adam L. Jahns of the Chicago Sun-Times:

"You look at every great D-line the last couple of years, they all had a rotation. It wasn’t about who starts. It’s just about keeping the high effort and production up while you’re in there. It’s all about production. If you can go 15 plays strong, that’s a great thing instead of going 40 plays [tired]."

3rd Round (82nd Overall): DT Will Sutton, Arizona State

Bob Leverone/Associated Press

Sutton was thrown to the fire early this season after Jeremiah Ratliff suffered a concussion in Week 2. But everyone in the Bears organization has shown a lot of faith in Sutton’s ability to play a large role on a weekly basis so early in his rookie season.

Sutton only played 19 percent of the defensive snaps Week 1 against the Buffalo Bills, but his snap counts have significantly increased ever since. Over the last three weeks, Sutton has played 72 percent of the snaps (138 of 193), according to Pro Football Focus.

On tape, Sutton’s pass-rushing skills appear to be ahead of where he is as a run defender. Against the Jets in Week 3, Sutton did a nice job of getting into New York's backfield, harassing Geno Smith on two QB hurries along with five tackles.

Sutton has looked to be every bit worthy of the third-round pick that was used to draft him.

4th Round (117th Overall): RB Ka’Deem Carey, Arizona

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Carey had to know when he was drafted that finding playing time behind Matt Forte was going to be difficult. Through five games, Carey has seen just 18 carries for 78 yards, with 14 of those carries and 73 of those yards coming in the loss to the Green Bay Packers in Week 4.

While the rookie has seen more snaps of late, he began the season as a nonexistent factor in the Bears offense. Carey saw only four snaps against Buffalo in Week 1; he was inactive Week 2 against San Francisco; and he played a whole two snaps against the Jets in Week 3.

It was the game against the Packers when the Bears decided to start running the ball more often. It was the first game of the season where the offense ran more run plays than pass—hence the uptick in snaps for Carey.

Once Carey improves his pass-blocking skills, expect to see him spell Forte more often than he has been. But as long as the Bears are without left tackle Jermon Bushrod, Forte more than likely will continue to play 90-plus percent of the snaps.

4th Round (131st Overall): S Brock Vereen, Minnesota

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Snaps have been few and far between for the former Golden Gopher. Vereen either sees a lot of snaps or no snaps at all.

He didn’t play at all the first week of the season, according to PFF, only to then play a combined 35 percent of the snaps in Weeks 3 and 4 when starters Chris Conte and Danny McCray were in and out of the lineup with various injuries. He was the emergency nickel corner San Francisco after Charles Tillman and Conte were lost. He then filled in at safety in Week 3 after Conte and McCray went out.

Vereen played some nickel corner in college, but he had not yet tried his hand at the position since joining the Bears. When he’s in the lineup, he can serve as a Swiss army knife-type player.

He might start to see more action too now that Conte is once again sidelined with a concussion after suffering his second of the season in Sunday’s loss to Carolina.

6th Round (183rd Overall): QB David Fales, San Jose State

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Fales started the Bears’ final preseason game back in August and really hasn’t been heard from since. Head coach Marc Trestman wanted to see what Fales could do while playing a full game. The quarterback responded by completing 13 of 24 passes for 146 yards with one touchdown and one interception.

Fales failed to make the opening-day roster but was signed to the practice squad instead only to be waived shortly after. The Bears ended up re-signing Fales to the practice squad in mid-September.

There he seasons.

6th Round (191st Overall): P Pat O’Donnell, Miami

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Very few people thought the Bears should be spending a draft pick on a punter. O’Donnell’s play through five games hasn’t really done a whole lot to change the mind of those folks either.

O’Donnell ranks No. 29 in net yards per punt, according to Pro Football Focus. As a team, the Bears have given up 129 return yards on just 18 punts, fifth worst in the league. For comparison’s sake, the punters who rank No. 1 and No. 2 on that list, Carolina’s Brad Nortman (25 punts) and the Jacksonville Jaguars' Bryan Anger (28 punts), have punted seven and 10 more times than O’Donnell.

But the Bears' special teams unit really hasn’t done O’Donnell any favors. Carolina returned a punt 79 yards for a touchdown in Week 5 on a play that had "special teams blunder" written all over it.

O’Donnell will start to see more success once the Bears improve on special teams.

7th Round (246th Overall): OT Charles Leno, Boise State

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Leno has yet to be active for a game this season, but he did play well in the preseason.

According to PFF, Leno played 166 snaps in the four games leading up to the regular season. He was PFF’s sixth-best tackle with a plus-4.0 grade.