| 18 February 2010
Reports have surfaced recently about the Chicago Bears' interest in a certain safety prospect from the Florida State Seminoles, Myron Rolle. Rolle is probably most famous for being a star safety for four years with the Seminoles, but he should also get more credit for his intelligence and the fact that he gave up his senior year of football to take a Rhodes Scholarship to study anthrolpological medicine at Oxford University.
Rolle was one of the most impressive prospects at the 2010 Senior Bowl, impressive because he hasn't played football in over a year. At 6-foot-2 217-pounds Rolle projects as a likely strong safety in the NFL, based on his size, but his ability in coverage may suit the Cover-2 defense the Bears run just fine.
Rolle is very reminiscent of former Bears safety Mike Brown, who was also a very academically smart as well as a very intelligent football player. It's no secret that people often times get hung up on height weight and 40-yard dash time, but when Brown was a senior college safety prospect coming out of Nebraska, he too wasn't the ideal prospect when you stacked him up with the eye ball test. Understanding the game of football, being able to read an offense, and react in coverage is one of the most important aspects in playing in Lovie Smith's defense. Being in the right gap at the right time, being in the right area of the field to make a play in coverage are equally as important as speed speed speed.
Bears fans should be all too familiar with the failures of athletes playing the safety position. Look no further than Danieal Manning who is easily one of the fastest players on the team, but seems to always be in the wrong place at the wrong time in coverage. Giving up touchdowns, not knowing coverage responsiblities the Bears have seen it all with Manning.
This is why a player like Rolle makes sense even if his 40-yard dash time may night light up the scoreboard at the upcoming NFL scouting combine. Regardless Rolle has a full three years worth of college production to say he knows the game of football and that he can play it at a high level.
The thing to watch with Rolle is how well he performs in space, in his back pedal, and in his breaks. Can he get quick break out of his back pedal...can he take good angles to the ball. Scouts have focused on the fact that Rolle was the number one player in the country coming out of high school and a disappointment at Florida State as a result of receiving such high praise.
But given how hard Rolle has worked in the class room and how hard his work ethic has been since he took a year off of football those are hard facts to ignore. Rolle was in football shape at the Senior Bowl when a player like Andre Smith was not in shape last year during the 2009 work outs. That speaks a lot to Rolle's abilities as a player that he had the work ethic to show up ready to play football even after a year lay off studying abroad as a Rhodes Scholar.
Work ethic and heart like that may be just the type of value the Bears would like to find in the third round of the draft.
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