Bear Digest

Bears find no running backs in Rounds 4 or 5 but plenty of speed

As Ryan Poles continued to stick to his draft board, the speed the Bears wanted surfaced in the selection of defensive players Ruben Hyppolite and Zah Frazier.
Gene Chamberlain|
Wide receiver Will Sheppard of Colorado makes a catch with UTSA defensive back Zah Frazier covering. The Bears took Frazier in Round 5.
Wide receiver Will Sheppard of Colorado makes a catch with UTSA defensive back Zah Frazier covering. The Bears took Frazier in Round 5. | Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

The speed kept coming for the Bears in Rounds 4 and 5 of the NFL Draft, just not at running back where it seemed obvious they needed it.

Bears defensive coordinator Dennis Allen had said he wanted to see more players who could arrive quickly at the ball and without a running back in Rounds 4 or 5, GM Ryan Poles got Allen got what he wanted with a pair of lesser known players in fourth-round linebacker Ruben Hyppolite from Maryland and fifth-round cornerback Zah Frazier from Texas-San Antonio.

Hyppolite didn't set the combine on fire with his 40-yard speed but that's because he didn't get invited. At the Maryland pro day he had scouts doing double-takes on their watches with a 4.39-second effort.

Had he run that at the combine, it would have led all linebackers.

“I expected to run that time," Hyppolite said. "I train with (four-time Olympic gold medalist) Ato Boldon at Test Football Academy based out in Jersey.

"Kevin Dunn and his team and Otto was our speed coach. I had a lot of talks with him about what I wanted to do and how I wanted to perform at my Pro Day and he helped me reach all my goals along with the nutrition and the weight program with JT."

With a time like this one, it seems only natural he would have been invited to the combine. It wasn't the case and he'd still like an explanation.

"I don’t have a sense at all, man," he said, about being jilted. "The only thing I did was just decide what I’m going to do and that was just capitalize on my Pro Day, make the best of that opportunity and then just call it on the visits and on the Zoom calls and everything that I had throughout this process and I feel I did that.

"I put my best foot forward like I said before. I have a great team around me, have a great support system."

Hyppolite needs the speed because he isn't a tall linebacker at 5-11, but doesn't seem bothered by this in pass coverage.

"He has the speed to stay with slots," Bears assistant college scouting director Francis Saint Paul said. "Good instincts, good feel, he can really read things. He’s smart on play-action. He doesn’t take the cheese all the time.”

Saint Paul believes they'll have Hyppolite slated for weakside or middle linebacker rather than strong, where there appears to be a lineup opening after Jack Sanborn's departure.

As for Hyppolite's combine slight, the Bears can't explain it.

"There are some guys where I say I don’t get it," Saint Paul said. "A lot of people should go to the combine, he is definitely one.”

Frazier, who is 6-foot-3, 186 pounds, actually got to Texas-San Antonio via Southern Illinois and Coffeyville Community College. He played three years at UTSA and in his final season led the American Conference in interceptions with six, while breaking up nine passes.

Frazier actually did get invited to the combine and made the most of it with a 4.36-second 40-yard dash.

"Yeah, I think anytime you can increase your team speed, that's always a benefit," Bears director of player personnel Trey Koziol said. "You know, obviously Zah is a long corner, ran a 4.3, showed ability to take the ball away, so yeah, anytime you can get bigger, longer, faster on the defensive side of the ball, it's a win."

Koziol described Frazier's skills as a bit beyond mere speed.

"I think he has really good instincts and he's really good ball skills, so there is a couple plays on there where he turns and he can find it, track it down field, which is a really difficult thing for a lot of defensive backs to do," Koziol said. "If the ball is up in the air, it's one thing to have that frame and that length, it's another thing to be able to go up and play it like a wide receiver, which was really fun to watch."

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.