Let’s talk about the Bears safety as we continue our free agent profiles
Adrian Amos has been a good player for the Chicago Bears, if not a dynamic one. Amos might be most familiar to New York Giants fans as the guy Saquon Barkley famously leaped over during a late-season game in 2018.
Could Amos end up as a Barkley teammate and the upgrade the Giants need at free safety next to Landon Collins in 2019? Let’s take a closer look.
The basics
Age: 26 in April
Height: 6-foot | Weight: 214
2018 stats: 37 tackles (2 for loss) | 2 interceptions | 9 passes defensed
Pro Football Focus: Overall grade (82.7) | Run defense (78.1) | Pass defense (85.5) | Tackling (74.5) | Missed tackles (9) | Passer rating against (80.1)
PFF lists Amos as the No. 3 safety who could be available in free agency, right behind Collins. PFF says:
On an unquestionably elite Chicago Bears defense, Amos Jr. has been a stalwart. After allowing passer ratings when targeted of 115 or higher in his first two years, Amos Jr. has brought that mark down around 80 for the past two seasons and has subsequently become a top cover safety. And with Amos being just 25 years old coming off his rookie contract, suitors will be lined up for a chance to add him.
I’m showing the video below because, well, because I can.
The skinny
A fifth-round pick by the Chicago Bears in 2015, Amos has been a starter all four seasons in Chicago. He has been a solid, though not spectacular, player. He has only three interceptions in his career, two of those in 2018.
Considering the erratic play of Curtis Riley in 2018, though, solid sounds good.
Would he be a fit next to Collins? NBC Sports Chicago called Amos “a physical in-the-box type who’s adept against the run.”
That, though, isn’t really backed up by the Pro Football Focus showing how the Bears used him.
In 2018, PFF had Amos playing 685 of 1,161 snaps at free safety. He played 106 at corner and 297 lined up as a box safety. So, the Bears only used him in the box 25.6 percent of the time and lined him as a deep safety on 59 percent of their defensive snaps.
In 2017, Amos played 344 of 817 snaps as a free safety and 265 lined up in the box. In 2016, 582 free and 252 box. In 2015, 844 free and 144 box.
The only conclusion you can make is he is a good player who has been primarily used as a free safety. Sounds like something the Giants could use.
Here is Windy City Gridiron on Amos’s pending free agency:
Let me get this out of the way immediately, I like Adrian Amos and I think he’s a good football player. But I don’t think he’s going to return to the Chicago Bears. They tried to get a contract extension done with him a year ago, and that never materialized. My guess is Amos or his people — with him coming off the “elite” Pro Football Focus stuff — wanted elite safety money, and the Bears held firm in their offer.
Amos is sound player, he rarely makes mistakes, he’s a big hitter, and he’s a hard worker, but that doesn’t make him deserving of an average salary around $8-$10 million a year, which is the ballpark that “elite” safeties reside in.
My guess is the Bears let Amos test the market, and if he can’t find a salary to his liking, they’ll have something on the table for him if he comes back quick enough. But don’t rule out him wanting to go home to Baltimore if the Ravens offer him something close to what the Bears are. Also, don’t rule out the Bears moving on to a better player in free agency if Amos drags his feet.
Should the Giants be interested in at least checking out the price tag for Amos?
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