Phil Emery is cutting safeties as if that's Chicago's deepest position - and that is a big mistake

When your secondary is constantly giving up big pass plays to opposing teams, then your team's GM should be focusing on adding depth to the secondary. Last season, the Bears safeties were absolutely horrendous, and Phil Emery opened up the offseason by signing free agent safeties Danny McCray, Ryan Mundy, M.D. Jennings and Adrian Wilson. Emery drafted cornerback Kyle Fuller and safety Brock Vereen. I was very pleased with Emery's moves because safety depth is what the Bears failed to have for the last 7 years or so, and last season, it caught up to us.

Chris Conte and Major Wright? They're just not cutting it.

With the slew of safeties Emery brought to Chicago, I was pretty happy because I thought that we added some decent depth at safety.

But then, Phil Emery did something that I really, really dislike.

He cut the following Bears safeties:

• Adrian Wilson
• M.D. Jennings
• Craig Steltz

So basically, Chicago's safety core got cut in half. It's fine to cut our wide receiving core in half because that's a deep position, and cutting our wide receiving core a little won't hurt the team overall that much. 

Safety, on the other hand, is a different story.

As mentioned before, it's no secret that our safeties flat out stunk last year.

We need depth at the position. Sure M.D. Jennings, Adrian Wilson, and Craig Steltz didn't put up a big show in the preseason, but it's not like Chris Conte and Major Wright are good. Why not at least have the presence of Wilson, who has proven himself to be one of the best safeties in the game when he was in his prime? Sure, he's missed two years with injuries, and he's past the 30 mark, but his presence alone and his potential to be effective (again) should be enough to keep him on the team. And even though he didn't have the best preseason, it's possible he could return to at least an effective backup or okay starter midseason.

M.D. Jennings is no star, but I'm sure he's gotta be better than Conte. His speed matches both Wright and Conte, and his playmaking abilities and upside make him a backup that I'd be happy to have (especially if we have zero safety depth).

Craig Steltz doesn't match the speed or size of the other safeties on the Bears roster, but his pass coverage and effectiveness on special teams makes him a valuable asset to any club. And, again, with a team with this little safety depth, Craig Steltz is a guy I'd be glad to have on my roster.

I was very pleased to see Danny McCray and Ryan Mundy (two of the safeties that were NOT cut in the preseason) have a good amount of playing time on Sunday's Week 1 matchup against Buffalo. In fact, both McCray and Mundy had a lot more playing time than I expected for week 1. Although announcers calling the Bears/Bills game didn't call McCray and Mundy's name every single play, the two guys played well.

However, as mentioned before, this team would not be hurt with a couple extra safeties.

I can't really say that I'm proud of the fact that my team's starting safety got destroyed by the oldest running back in the NFL on Sunday.

Now, I'll cut Conte a little bit of slack. He said that if he were to tackle Jackson at the 20-yard line (which is what he could've done), that would automatically be a game-winning field goal for Buffalo. And, most likely, he'd be right. So he said he was going for the ball, trying to strip it out of the hands of Fred Jackson. Obviously, that plan failed miserably. Refer back to the GIF above. Bears linebacker Jon Bostic (#57) bailed Conte out on that play at the very end, but not before Jackson worked his way to the 1-yard line. Okay, maybe I shouldn't say "worked his way". It's more like "de-Conted his way" to the 1-yard line.

Anyways, safety continues to be a position of weakness for Chicago, and Phil Emery cutting a slew of safeties is not a good move.

I'm not sure what you were thinking, Phil. I'm still scratching my head.