After the emergence of Adrian Amos and Eddie Jackson in the Chicago Bears secondary last season, the other young safeties on the depth chart were out of sight and out of mind.
Deon Bush is doing his best to change that this offseason.
Defensive coordinator Vic Fangio singled out Bush specifically as one of the players showing the most improvement this offseason.
Jeff Dickerson @dickersonespn
Vic Fangio mentions ILB Danny Trevathan and S Deon Bush as players that have shown improvement in the Bears offseason program. 12:36 PM - May 30, 2018
Bush saw the field on defense in seven games in 2017, playing most of Week 15 against the Detroit Lions when Adrian Amos was sidelined by injury. He was primarily a four-phase special teams player.
Amos and Jackson won’t be automatically handed the starting safety jobs for 2018, but it would be the biggest surprise of training camp if Bush was able to beat one of them out for a bigger role in the secondary.
Still, the Bears have to be encouraged by one of their young defensive backs continuing to improve, giving them more reliable depth if injuries force Bush into action.
This is a nice surprise especially with Amos due for a contract extension and we can sure use some quality depth.
Bush was looked at as a possible 1st round pick after his junior year then fell dramatically in the draft following a poor senior year. He has good speed and hit's like a hammer but he's a perfect example of a guy lacking in instincts and football IQ.
He's been of value as a ST guy but much of what I saw on most of his college vids was very much still an issue as a pro. Maybe be Ed Donatell has been able to work some magic on him since Amos made a big leap forward last year. So Bush may be another guy to keep and eye on during preseason to see if he finally "gets it".
This is really good to hear. Like the writer says, Fang doesn't throw around compliments unless it is about something significant. Good for Deon. And good for Fangio who is able to bring out the best in players.
LINK "If there’s one thing Chicago Bears fans have learned over the past four years, it’s that Vic Fangio is never a boring quote. The guy doesn’t beat around the bush. He seems to take that George Patton moniker to heart. “Give it to ’em loud and dirty. That way they’ll remember it.” He’s up front and often blunt with his answers. That’s why fans and reporters alike love him.
He was in top form again during his press conference during team OTAs.
Most of his answers were of the typical ilk.
However, it was when he began to talk about players who’ve impressed him so far in practices that he delivered a surprising nugget.
Based on what Fangio is saying the 24-year old safety has made significant strides since the end of last season.
Keep in mind this man doesn’t throw around compliments often. So for him to single out Bush like that is significant, and all the more reason to want training camp and preseason to get here faster."
I think the real story of Fangio's presser was Danny Trevathan. Fangio went way out of his way to talk about his progress and how being healthy for OTAs has helped him greatly in his growth and development.
He also spent time discussing Eddie Goldman (after a question about him) and said if he's going to be anything better than a good starter this is the year to watch for it. I thought that was a surprising unsolicited comment from Fangio.
This is really good to hear. Like the writer says, Fang doesn't throw around compliments unless it is about something significant. Good for Deon. And good for Fangio who is able to bring out the best in players.
LINK "If there’s one thing Chicago Bears fans have learned over the past four years, it’s that Vic Fangio is never a boring quote. The guy doesn’t beat around the bush. He seems to take that George Patton moniker to heart. “Give it to ’em loud and dirty. That way they’ll remember it.” He’s up front and often blunt with his answers. That’s why fans and reporters alike love him.
He was in top form again during his press conference during team OTAs.
Most of his answers were of the typical ilk.
However, it was when he began to talk about players who’ve impressed him so far in practices that he delivered a surprising nugget.
Based on what Fangio is saying the 24-year old safety has made significant strides since the end of last season.
Keep in mind this man doesn’t throw around compliments often. So for him to single out Bush like that is significant, and all the more reason to want training camp and preseason to get here faster."
Got to remember that mid to late round guys are not going to come into the league ready to play all the time and it can take a few years. Sounds like Deon Bush was one of those guys that might have been a late bloomer.
This is really good to hear. Like the writer says, Fang doesn't throw around compliments unless it is about something significant. Good for Deon. And good for Fangio who is able to bring out the best in players.
LINK "If there’s one thing Chicago Bears fans have learned over the past four years, it’s that Vic Fangio is never a boring quote. The guy doesn’t beat around the bush. He seems to take that George Patton moniker to heart. “Give it to ’em loud and dirty. That way they’ll remember it.” He’s up front and often blunt with his answers. That’s why fans and reporters alike love him.
He was in top form again during his press conference during team OTAs.
Most of his answers were of the typical ilk.
However, it was when he began to talk about players who’ve impressed him so far in practices that he delivered a surprising nugget.
Based on what Fangio is saying the 24-year old safety has made significant strides since the end of last season.
Keep in mind this man doesn’t throw around compliments often. So for him to single out Bush like that is significant, and all the more reason to want training camp and preseason to get here faster."
More I think about it.. Last years D played well due to Fangio not Fox. I think the whole team gave up on Fox, but the D didn't give up on Fangio. Well, that is my theory.
He has the tools , but like Soul said it's a question of whether or not he has the brain . I wonder if Mike Brown has ever been asked to tutor for his old team .
He has the tools , but like Soul said it's a question of whether or not he has the brain . I wonder if Mike Brown has ever been asked to tutor for his old team .
sometimes it's the work ethic also. Some of these kids are such great athletes they aren't used to trying to improve. It's different at the NFL level, gotta work on your craft constantly to improve.
He has the tools , but like Soul said it's a question of whether or not he has the brain . I wonder if Mike Brown has ever been asked to tutor for his old team .
sometimes it's the work ethic also. Some of these kids are such great athletes they aren't used to trying to improve. It's different at the NFL level, gotta work on your craft constantly to improve.
And I think that is a huge problem for a lot of kids when they hit the NFL. They have been able to get by on skills alone for their entire lives. Always having been a man among boys purely because they a so much bigger, faster, stronger.
Then they hit the big time and everyone is a physical freak. And there are opponents who will spend all the time in the world in the film room looking for their weakness.
He has the tools , but like Soul said it's a question of whether or not he has the brain . I wonder if Mike Brown has ever been asked to tutor for his old team .
I always figured Mike Brown to be a guy who would return to the NFL as a coach. Here' what Urlacher had to say about him. Mike Brown could also be the answer to a trivia question; "Who did the Bears select in round two of the 2000 draft after drafting Brian Urlacher in round one."
Brown is also noted by teammates and coaches for his on-field coaching ability. He made the NFL transitions much easier for his fellow safeties Chris Harris and Danieal Manning by making sure they were in the correct positions. Brian Urlacher often referred to him as the actual leader of the defense.
Here' some recent news I could find on him. It appear he's out of football entirely.
10 years later, Mike Brown still processing his Super Bowl heartbreak
Dan Wiederer Dan WiedererContact ReporterChicago Tribune
An excited but injured Mike Brown chats with reporters during Media Day at Dolphins Stadium on Jan. 30, 2007. (Jim Prisching / Chicago Tribune)
The sharpness of the emotion still sits with Mike Brown. It surprised him, really. How deep it was, how raw and how hollow. In what was, in so many ways, a celebratory week for the NFL franchise Brown had grown up with and lifted to great heights, the Bears' trip to Super Bowl XLI in early 2007 ultimately left him empty.
A two-time All-Pro, Brown spent the final 10 games of 2006 plus the entirety of that postseason shackled by two cruel letters: I.R. As in injured reserve. As in unable to contribute.
So when the Bears reached football's grandest stage 10 years ago, preparing for their championship showdown against the Colts, Brown's frustration only intensified, peaking the night before the game.
"Heavy on me," Brown says now. "It hurt bad. … It was personal, man. I'm telling you. That disappointment. It was like 'Ahhhhh, man! After all this work?"
Ten years later — and seven years since he played his final NFL season with the Chiefs — Brown admits he has had to grapple for closure on his football career, to find the right mindset to enter the next phase of life.
Brown lives in San Clemente, Calif., with his wife, Erin, and two kids. Daughter Kyla is in sixth grade. Son Sam is in third. Brown's doing great, he wants it known. But he has battled anxiety he didn't fully expect, working to turn off — or at least control — the ultra-competitiveness and hyperfocus that fueled his football career.
And with his 39th birthday approaching this month he's still working to figure out what's next.
"I'm trying to become a better man, my friend," he says. "That's basically it. … Right now, I'm taking it day by day."
In 2006, Brown was a standout on the league's best defense, a playmaking safety, a leader. In what was arguably the most memorable win of that season — the 24-23 miracle over the Cardinals on "Monday Night Football" — Brown jumpstarted the Bears' comeback with a 3-yard fumble return touchdown on the final snap of the third quarter.
On the next series, however, he tore the Achilles tendon in his right leg.
Brown remembers the unbridled glee he felt watching Devin Hester's game-winning 83-yard punt return from the visiting locker room.
"Bonkers," he says. "I'm right out of the shower, watching on TV with a couple locker room attendants. I'm hopping around naked like crazy."
But his season-ending despair was beginning to set in. Brown loved that team deeply. He recalls the team barbecues, the paintball wars at Brian Urlacher's house and the unity that pulsed through the locker room.
"Everybody could feel that was a different team than the ones they had been on," he says. "It's something you can't explain. But when you feel it, you know it. It was the looks you'd give each other in the locker room, the way that the love was going through."
Brown's injury-related separation — from the grind, the bond, the investment — stung. "You lose your connectivity," he says.
Whatever emptiness he felt the night before the Super Bowl morphed into a hard-to-describe remorse after the Bears lost to the Colts 29-17.
Ten years later, Brown acknowledges, the "what might have?" grief that silently taunted him for so long.
"But what might have been isn't, right?" he says. "So you have to get off that. But I'm telling you, it's hard though. It's hard to do."
Brown calls Super Bowl week 10 years ago "the beginning of me losing my mind, so to speak." But he prefers speaking only vaguely about the struggles he has had finding inner peace since then. He has learned to combat self-pity and regret and relies on his deep spirituality for guidance.
"You have to confess what's on your heart, give up your words and it gives you freedom," Brown says. "It's different for everybody. But for me, that's given me freedom."