Tarik Cohen Is a Ton of Fun … and His 6-foot-7 College Teammate Could Be a Fit for the Bears and Other Bullets

January 25, 2018, by Luis Medina Chicago Bears

Not only do we want to see Tarik Cohen on the field more, we wouldn’t mind putting a mic in front of him more often either:

Favorite @TarikCohen quote… GO! pic.twitter.com/BkTZl7waVg

— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) January 25, 2018

Kevin Fishbain of The Athletic caught up with a handful of interesting prospects at the Senior Bowl who were teammates of current Bears at one point. The most interesting of the group might be 6-foot-7-inch North Carolina A&T offensive tackle Brandon Parker, who was college teammates with 5-foot-6 Bears running back Tarik Cohen. Beyond the size contrast, Parker is one of the 10 best tackle prospects in this class and could be a developmental mid-round (think Rounds 3 or 4) selection. Chicago has been ravaged by injuries on the line the last two seasons, while guard Josh Sitton and tackle Bobby Massie enter the final years of their respective deals. Former GM Phil Emery struck gold with Charles Leno Jr., so it wouldn’t be surprising if Ryan Pace tried to follow in those footsteps.
Also at the Senior Bowl is Georgia tackle Isaiah Wynn, who is making the most of his time in Mobile, Ala., as he works to prove he can play inside and out:

Former @FootballUGA OL Isaiah Wynn with a few nice reps. Excellent punch & sits down in pass pro. pic.twitter.com/EfBp3aXPJs

— Cole Cubelic (@colecubelic) January 24, 2018

Isaiah Wynn v Da'Shawn Hand pic.twitter.com/OEMBdYbQho

— John Sheeran (@John__Sheeran) January 24, 2018

And a hat tip to @SECAD0RA on Twitter for putting Miami receiver Braxton Berrios on our radar because we really can’t get enough of the receiver prospects in this Senior Bowl:

Braxton Berrios doing @CanesFootball proud with an outstanding grab yesterday at the #SeniorBowl pic.twitter.com/nH255bG6sW

— PFF Draft (@PFF_College) January 24, 2018

When it originally went down, the trade to acquire Mitch Trubisky was difficult to justify. But we have since learned there were other teams who coveted the North Carolina product who approached the 49ers about a trade. In the end, it was the Bears stepped up with an offer San Francisco couldn’t refuse. And it might turn out to be a good thing, as Patrick Finley of the Chicago Sun-Times writes the 2018 NFL Draft class’ struggles can be used to justify the Bears’ controversial deal. There are a handful of quarterbacks who could go in the first round, but all of them have similar issues to what Trubisky faced as a rookie. This isn’t to say there isn’t a franchise quarterback available in this draft, but there isn’t a quarterback prospect who is as NFL ready as some would have hoped (Michael: Another factor – Trubisky has a year of development in the NFL under his belt that the QBs from this class will not, which puts him one step ahead of the them in a sense).
Vic Fangio’s defense took a step forward in Year 3, in part because of contributions from a player who missed an entire year due to knee problems. Kyle Fuller played like a top-10 cornerback and NFL.com’s Matt Harmon writes the 2014 first-round pick was the Bears’ unsung hero in 2017. Fuller was a stud who allowed a 46.4 percent completion percentage, which is impressive considering quarterbacks threw in his direction more than 200 times. Fuller was on the field for 603 passing snaps, which means he was targeted more than 30 percent of the time he was in coverage.
Special Teams Coordinator Chris Tabor would like to put the Cleveland Browns’ 0-16 season behind him. Colleen Kane of the Chicago Tribune writes about how Tabor is taking on the challenges ahead of him in his return to the Bears while hoping to put behind a winless season. Special teams coaches often are working to make the most of the bottom third of a team’s roster, so given what the Browns were working with, Tabor has done some remarkable work over the years. Being a Dave Toub disciple, the dream is that Tabor (along with assistant Brock Olivo, who also worked with Toub) gets the Bears back to a respectable level of special teams production. Chicago simply hasn’t been as sharp in that phase of the game since Toub left for Kansas City.
After losing his last two offensive coordinators (Doug Pederson, Matt Nagy) to head coaching jobs, Kansas City Chiefs Head Coach Andy Reid is taking playcalling back into his own hands. “I’m going to go back to doing that; I’ll do that,” Reid told Terez Paylor of the Kansas City Star. “I did it at Denver, against Denver. And I was very happy with Matt, but we’ve had some change, and whatever I think is best for the team, I’ll go from there.” The Chiefs offense averaged more than 28 points per game when Nagy was calling plays at the end of the regular season, then put up 21 in the first half against the Titans before bottoming out after halftime in the team’s playoff loss. If I were Reid, I’d be pretty happy too … except for that playoff loss thing.
Buffalo Bills coach Sean McDermott crossed paths with Nagy when both were assistants under Reid in Philadelphia. Both Nagy and McDermott are so young, the Bills’ coach remembers a time when Nagy was trying his hand at being an NFL quarterback. Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune has some background of a storyline that we’ll re-visit when the Bills and Bears square off in the 2018 regular season..
The Atlanta Falcons appear to have stumbled onto an amazing concept. Darren Rovell of ESPN reports the team lowered prices on concessions and made more money because of it. Atlanta dropped prices by 50 percent in its new Mercedes-Benz Stadium compared to what they were in the Georgia Dome in 2016 and fans spent 16 percent more on concessions and 88 percent more in merchandise in the stadium. Now, that is good business.
Vince McMahon is bringing the XFL back into the mainstream, though you’ll have to wait until 2020 to see the product’s official return. Until then you can catch up on 10 things you need to know about the XFL reboot, as compiled by Joe Lucia of AwfulAnnouncing.com.
An Illinois bill named after ex-Bears safety Dave Duerson would ban tackle football for children under age 12. Rachel Hinton and Madeline Kenney have details surrounding the Dave Duerson Act to Prevent CTE, which is named for the former Bears defensive back who killed himself at age 50 and was diagnosed with chronic thraumatic encephalopathy after his death. There have been similar proposals in New York with the idea of raising the age children begin playing tackle football because of the risk of doing damage to a developing brain.