First Round Picks Are Black And Blue » Brats & Beer

August 25, 2008
posted under: effin Bears, Justin Harrell, Ted Thompson

Offensive tackle Chris Williams, Chicago’s first round pick this year, was damaged goods and the Bears knew it, so says the Sun-Times by way of ESPN’s Kevin Seifert. The product of Vanderbilt was highly regarded in this year’s draft, but a lot of teams were scared off by a neck injury; as it turns out they were right to be frightened. Williams had surgery earlier in the month for a herniated disk and could miss significant playing time. Worse yet, Williams told the Chicago papers that both he and the Bears knew about the condition going into the draft, despite both parties saying at the time there was nothing to worry about.

Now I never pass up an opportunity to point and laugh at Jerry Angelo and the rest of the Bears organization, but unfortunately we have our own first round draft pick dealing with an injury history. Justin Harrell went to North Carolina to get a second opinion on his own back injury, which required surgury in April and flared up again at the start of training camp. This news reinforces my feeling that Harrell won’t see the field this year and cements my first opinion that Ted Thompson made a serious mistake in selecting him in the first round last year.