No top picks, but Angelo sees help coming in draft

Lacking first- and second-round draft picks, Bears general manager Jerry Angelo has lowered his expectations this year but he still believes he can get three players who contribute immediately.

"What I feel is a realistic goal is that we'd like to come out of this draft with (three) players that make it to Sunday, meaning that they dress," Angelo said. "If we can get that accomplished, we feel that will be a win for us."

The top two priorities for the Bears are free safety and offensive line and they are almost certain to address each of those positions with their third-, fourth- and fifth-round picks, which are 75th, 109th and 141st overall.

Angelo says the Bears have identified several players they believe will be available with each of their first three choices. He didn't seem keen to the idea of trading up from No. 75 and giving up a fourth- or fifth-rounder this year.

"We can make a small move, but if (a player) gets to the point where he's there in the second round, there's a good chance he'll be there in the third," Angelo said. "So we really would like the player to come to us because the third, fourth and fifth rounds all have value to us, given that we don't have a full complement of picks."

Angelo sounded reluctant to part with picks from next year's draft, even though they used that approach to get quarterback Jay Cutler.

"We're out of that business," he said. "I don't want to get cute and keep borrowing in the future with picks. So unless something happens that we really haven't created a scenario for, I doubt that we would do that."

Free safeties (or cornerbacks who project to free safety) who might be available when the Bears make their first two picks are Georgia Tech's Major Burnett, Oregon's T.J. Ward, and Iowa's Amari Spievey. Offensive lineman who could still be there include tackles Jared Veldheer of Hillsdale (Mich.), Selvish Capers of West Virginia and Tony Washington of Abilene Christian and guard Jon Asamoah of Illinois and Mike Johnson of Alabama.

"It's a pretty good safety board," Angelo said. "We're going to look at the secondary obviously very hard.

"The offensive line probably will be the next heaviest position (after defensive line) that will get drafted. There's a good number of players, and offensive linemen have a real premium on draft day."

As soon as the draft concludes with the final four rounds on Saturday, Angelo will turn his attention to the Bears' personnel department. Fired director of pro personnel Bobby DePaul has yet to be replaced and the future of Greg Gabriel, the director of college scouting, has not been addressed.

Rumors persist that former Seahawks personnel man Tim Haskell will be hired as the second in command to Angelo, but the Bears' G.M. ducked questions about it.

"When there's something that needs to be announced, we'll announce it," Angelo said. "Right now our focus has been on this draft."

As for talk about trading tight end Greg Olsen because he may not fit in offensive coordinator Mike Martz's scheme, Angelo said, "I've talked to several teams about several of our players. If something behooves us, then obviously it will become more serious in terms of our thinking."