Rich Campbell and Dan Wierderer of the Chicago Tribune discussed the state of the Bears secondary during their weekly podcast. Thanks to the additions of Prince Amukamara and Marcus Cooper, along with the return of Johnthan Banks, the team has a bit of a logjam at the corner position. This means the team will have to do some roster shuffling. Of course cuts and trades could be made.
However, both men agreed that there is a very good possibility defensive coordinator Vic Fangio might consider a position switch for one of them. That being former fourth round pick Deiondre Hall.
“Deiondre Hall maybe now has an ability to take a longer look at safety.”
“I don’t think there’s any question about that, yeah. Especially if they add a corner that you’re going to go to Hall’s college experience as a safety and the Bears like him and his upside there.”
Hall came out of Northern Iowa last year as a cornerback. Two things that stood out about him immediately were his size (6’2″, 200 lbs) and his impressive ball skills (13 INTs in three seasons). Unfortunately the one drawback was speed. Big corners like him tend to struggle at the NFL level because they don’t have the ability to run with many of the sprinters top offenses employ. That was likely part of the reason Hall couldn’t get on the field much.
However, one of the typical solutions for this problem is switching such players to safety. They have the body to handle to the physicality and their speed requirements are considerably less. What makes Hall such a great candidate for the move, unlike somebody like Kyle Fuller, are his instincts. His ability to track and go get the football can often make for excellent safeties.
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As the clips show, Hall always seems to be in the right place at the right time. He’s got good hands for making the interception and also doesn’t shy away from contact. More than once he’s been able to deliver some nice shots on ball carriers. That last part is often vital for safeties. The transition will take some work but if it keeps Hall on the roster then it’s not only a good move, but the right one.
If nothing else he won’t exactly have a lot of steep competition to overcome. Adrian Amos, Harold Jones-Quartey and Deon Bush have all proven to be disappointments at the position thus far. It would not be surprising at all to see a pairing of Hall and Quintin Demps starting on opening day in September.
