Shea McClellin did not have a lot of fun times as a member of the Bears, and little of it was any direct fault of his own.
McClellin was the 19th pick of the 2012 draft, an all-around standout at Boise State who was immediately slotted as a hand-on-the-ground defensive end and assigned to rush the passer.
It never worked. Then-GM Phil Emery, who made the draft selection, admitted after two seasons that trying to fit McClellin in as a pure defensive end that the force-fit was a mistake. Unfortunately for McClellin, who arrived with all the usual expectations assigned to any first-round draft pick, he was never able to play his way into the hearts of fans.
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“I think as a rookie coming in, it’s hard to feel accepted,” McClellin told CSNChicago.com. “You have to earn it and I didn’t really feel like I did overall. So it was tough, difficult. But for the most part, the guys around the Bears organization are great guys. I’ve heard stories about other teams where it was a lot worse. So I’m glad I landed [in Chicago], of all places.”
In a touch of roster irony, McClellin arrives in New England just as Chandler Jones leaves for the Arizona Cardinals — the player that many around the league were surprised that Emery passed over in favor of McClellin.
McClellin was moved to strong-side linebacker in 2014, which produced only marginal improvement on a defense that was a collective two-year catastrophe.
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But last year marked something of a career recovery as McClellin was moved to inside linebacker in the new 3-4 scheme installed by coach John Fox and coordinator Vic Fangio. The latter was consistent in his assessment that McClellin was a positive element in the defense, handling most of the defensive signal-calling and the assignments that went with that.
Earlier this offseason GM Ryan Pace stated that the Bears still considered McClellin’s arrow as pointing up. But the Bears made inside linebackers Jerrell Freeman from the Indianapolis Colts and Denver Broncos' Danny Trevathan two of their first three free-agent pickups and McClellin’s future was clearly no longer in Chicago.
“I kind of wished I could’ve played ‘Mike’ [linebacker] from the start because I could’ve learned from Brian Urlacher coming in,” McClellin said. “That would’ve been a lot of help.”