The Shea McClellin pick. Merely mention those few words to Chicago Bears fans. It’s almost guaranteed you’ll receive a collective groan and deep eye roll from most of them. It was supposed to be the pick that heralded the start of a new era. A pick that began the process of a youth movement on the Bears defense. Instead, it became the one that fast-tracked its demise.
As with any draft pick, it is the player who gets a chunk of the blame for its success or failure. They are the ones who ultimately determine whether they are worth it. However, that is neither fair nor accurate. Football is game where talent matters, but so does scheme fit. This isn’t basketball or baseball where a man can be moved from place to place and excel regardless.
This is an exploration of how the McClellin pick was a complete failure from top to bottom. It’s about a rookie GM who showed just how out of depth he was, failing to understand the types of players his team required. It’s about a rigid coaching staff being unable to adapt. Last but not least, it’s about a young player who couldn’t live up to the legacy he was stepping into.
Shea McClellin pick took root in 2011
To understand the situation, one must always look for the flashpoint. In this case, a look back to the 2011 season. While the Bears defense had an okay year by their standards of the time (14th in points allowed, 5th against the run), there were significant concerns regarding their pass defense. They finished 28th in the league. A big part of why?
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The pass rush.
As a team, they had only 33 sacks that season. Star defensive end Julius Peppers had 11 of them. His primary counterpart, Israel Idonije, managed only five. Chauncey Davis was the only other defensive end to get a sack that year. Throw in the fact that both Peppers and Idonije were 31-years old at the time? It’s little wonder the team felt that position was a primary need going into 2012.
Not that it was a huge concern. GM Jerry Angelo had a solid history with defensive ends. He’d drafted Alex Brown years back and traded for Adewale Ogunleye. He knew what good ones looked like. Unfortunately, he wouldn’t get the chance to try. After a disappointing 8-8 finish that season, new Bears chairman George McCaskey fired him.
Kansas City Director of Scouting Phil Emery, who’d worked in Chicago from 1998 to 2004, would take his place. Suddenly the vision for where the Bears were supposed to go had changed.
Deciding on where to find the solution
Emery was made aware of the pass rush issue from the moment he arrived. However, that was not the only problem he’d have to tackle. The Bears offense was the primary reason the team had fallen apart. A thumb injury to quarterback Jay Cutler exposed how limited in talent the team was at the skill positions. If anything, there were more pressing needs on that side of the ball.
This left Emery a choice. Did he go after a quick fix to the rush in free agency and focus on offense in the draft or the other way around. His best option for the former would’ve been defensive end Mario Williams. The former #1 overall pick struggled in his final year with the Houston Texans with just five sacks but a change in schemes might serve him well.
The money though was a big obstacle. Buffalo signed him to a $96 million deal that was worth $16 million per year. Chicago no doubt felt they couldn’t match that offer because of what they were already paying Peppers. Williams had 10.5 sacks that same year. Emery wasn’t deterred. He felt confident help could be found in the draft.
There was a reason to think so.
All signs indicated the 2012 college class was loaded up on potential pass rushers. Among them were Chandler Jones of Syracuse, Melvin Ingram of South Carolina, Bruce Irvin of West Virginia, Whitney Mercilus of Illinois, and Nick Perry of USC. The odds of one of them falling to the Bears’ spot at #19 was fairly strong. So Emery decided to focus his salary cap dollars elsewhere.
Chicago traded two 3rd round picks to the Miami Dolphins in exchange for mercurial Pro Bowl wide receiver Brandon Marshall. Then they quickly snatched up big, athletic tight end Martellus Bennett on the open market. Finally, he added veteran left tackle Jermon Bushrod. The goal of upgrading the offense had been achieved.
Emery was free to focus on the draft where defensive end was squarely at the top of the priorities list. All he had to do was not screw it up.
How the board fell prior to #19
The 1st round couldn’t have started any better for the Bears. Every pick in the top five was an offensive player and a defensive end didn’t go until the 15th selection when Seattle hatched a minor surprise by taking Irvin. That meant three picks separated Chicago from going on the clock. It was a certainty at that point that one of the top edge rushers would be on the board.
Next came Quinton Coples to the Jets, then Dre Kirkpatrick to the Bengals. Only the San Diego Chargers remained. They took Ingram, whom many considered too small for defensive end anyway. The Bears had their choice of Jones, Perry, or their home state kid Mercilus. Emery had a softball delivered right down the middle. All he had to do was take a good swing.
The clock ticked, but nothing changed. There would be no trades. The pick went in. Commissioner Roger Goodell walked to the podium. Casually and carefully, he made the announcement.
“Who the hell is Shea McClellin?”
That was pretty much the sentence on the lips of a majority of Bears fans when the announcement hit. Only the most diehard college football lovers would’ve known who he was at that point. McClellin was a hybrid defensive end and linebacker at Boise State. Across four years at the program, he showcased his athleticism and versatility by being able to move around the field based on the situation.
One play he’d be on the edge. The next he could be lined up at inside linebacker. This enabled him to make 130 tackles, compile 20.5 sacks, and snag four interceptions in his college career. He soon followed up that productive run with a strong pre-draft, most notably a 4.63 time in the 40-yard dash at 260 lbs. It was an impressive display.
By the time the draft rolled around, he was considered a late-riser in scouting circles. Somebody who looked like Day 2 pick but might end up sneaking into the 1st round. Sure enough, the Bears made that a reality.
What made the selection so baffling
While McClellin was technically a pass rusher by the pure definition of the term, quick research revealed he was not a defensive end. Not in a traditional sense anyway. He looked like a player that would require a defensive coach with a bit more creativity in mind. Somebody who would move him around trying to find matchups.
This is why teams like New England and Green Bay, with their diverse systems, were reportedly the most interested. Lovie Smith, for all his success as a defensive coach, wasn’t known for his flexibility. He ran a traditional 4-3 defense and it demands specific types of players. Especially on the edges. There was one glaring concern in that regard with McClellin as Lance Zierlein of NFL.com pointed out.
“McClellin will have a tough time convincing teams, even though he has been productive, to take a shot on him early in the draft because of his size. He has displayed enough athletic ability for teams to consider him at outside backer, but size is his only true, glaring fault and he could absolutely stand to lose weight as he enters the next level. He can get smothered by double teams and moved aside by more powerful linemen with NFL talent.”
All one had to do was look at the most successful defensive ends in the Bears’ system under Smith.
- Julius Peppers – 6’7, 290 lbs
- Adewale Ogunleye – 6’6, 260 lbs
- Alex Brown – 6’3, 260 lbs
- Israel Idonije – 6’6, 275 lbs
Almost universally they were either much taller or heavier than McClellin, or both. Brown was the only one with a similar stature but he had the benefit of longer arms. McClellin was not only smaller by defensive end standards, he didn’t have the length or natural power to compensate.
Worst fears realized
Still, the decision was made. Emery stated to defensive coordinator Rod Marinelli, “You got a Chicago Bear.” Things started off well enough. McClellin flashed in the preseason, sacking former Bears QB Caleb Hanie. Then in the second game of the regular season, he delivered 1.5 sacks against the hated Green Bay Packers. People started to think maybe the Emery had outsmarted some people.
He had not.
McClellin would have just one more sack the rest of the season. Not a good sign considering Peppers and defensive tackle Henry Melton were dominating that year. Combined they had 17.5 sacks. Offensive lines were devoting constant double teams in their direction. With all the single-blocking McClellin saw, he should have had more than three sacks.
Meanwhile, guys like Jones and Mercilus whom they had passed on in the draft each had six sacks as rookies. Jones now has 77 in his career. Mercilus has 42.5. Even Jack Crawford, a 5th round pick that year, has more sacks than McClellin ended up with (15.5 to 7.5). Emery hadn’t just misfired on that pick. He’d missed the target and blew up an orphanage as collateral damage.
Emery doubles down
The best part of this though is the part people tend to forget. After the 2013 season, McClellin had four sacks. A modest improvement but nowhere near the big jump people hoped for. It was becoming clear the Bears might need to add more help on the edge to help Peppers. Emery, with his relentless “genius”, decided on a better course of action.
He cut Peppers instead.
The reasoning for it was age and money. Peppers had seven sacks that year, his lowest total since 2007. He’d be 34 in 2014 and command a lot of cap space that year. Emery felt he was finally slowing down and the Bears could fill that production with cheaper options. As things turned out, he was only half right.
Chicago signed two defensive ends in free agency. The first was overlooked Lions reserve Willie Young who had a career-high three sacks the year before on limited snaps. The other was former Vikings star Jared Allen, who was only a year younger than Peppers don’t forget. Young ended up with 10 sacks that year, a huge spike in production. Allen? He disappointed with only 5.5.
Peppers?
He would play five more seasons after that, including three in Green Bay. He had 41 sacks over that span. That is more than Young and Allen had combined over the same time span (34.5). So not only had Emery made a mistake by drafting McClellin, he compounded that mistake by releasing a player who was still productive.
It’s little wonder the defense endured its darkest period in 2014, finishing 31st in points allowed including back-to-back 50-point humiliations against the Patriots and Packers. McClellin had just one sack amidst that carnage. His last as a Bear. Emery was fired at the end of the season. His first and most disappointing draft pick followed a year later.
Not before multiple positions shifts to outside linebacker and then inside linebacker though. McClellin would be out of the league by 2017 at the age of 28.
