Former Gopher safety Brock Vereen has reached an agreement on a contract with the Chicago Bears.
Pro Football Talk reports that Vereen agreed to a four-year deal with Chicago, just two days after the NFL Draft.
Vereen was drafted in the fourth round by Chicago. He joins Ryan Mundy, M.D. Jennings and Danny McCray as new additions to the Bears’ secondary.
LM: #Bears agree to terms on 4-yr deals with 2 draft picks: 4th-round S Brock Vereen & 6th-round QB David Fales.
— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) May 13, 2014
Vereen doesn’t possess optimal size, but at 6-feet and 199 pounds he makes up for that with his quickness and instincts.
He appeared in 47 games with 36 starts at all four secondary spots for the Gophers. He registered 59 tackles, six tackles-for-loss and one interception, while starting the first six games at safety and final seven contests at cornerback.
“In the Big Ten, you’re going to see a lot of big receivers,” Vereen said. “With some of those bigger guys, the more film study you can do on them to get any advantage to use as far as their timing and how they like to use their body, you can play big with them.”
Vereen is also very strong for his size. He did 25 reps of 225 pounds he did at the NFL Scouting Combine, the most by any safety.
Minnesota defensive backs coach Jay Sawvel spoke to the Chicago Tribune.
You can move Brock around and we could really do a lot of things with him. I think he played a lot of nickel for us, being on an inside receiver, blitzing, playing like an outside linebacker in certain zone coverages. He was a good run defender in doing those things. He tackles well.”
ESPN analyst Todd McShay said Chicago’s selection of Vereen, in the fourth round, was the best pick by any NFC North team in the draft.
