Professor

Bears counting on diminutive Wolfe to hit ground running

It's wait and see with pint-sized pick on ChicagoSports.com

excerpt:

BOURBONNAIS -- Slipping through a crevice only someone his size could slither through, Garrett Wolfe glided between two blockers before disappearing into a sea of defenders.

The play during Wolfe's first full-speed practice the other night underscored the critical questions surrounding the 5-foot-7-inch, 186-pound rookie running back.

Will Wolfe's low center of gravity make him hard to bring down when the tackling gets serious on Sundays?

Or is Wolfe destined to be swallowed by NFL defensive fronts that are bigger and stronger than the ones he shredded while at Northern Illinois?

Will Wolfe emerge as a steal in the draft or be exposed as a guy the Bears took at least two rounds too early?

Wolfe and the Bears make convincing arguments that he will contribute immediately, enthusiasm that's understandable seeing the way he accelerates and changes direction like nobody else in camp except Devin Hester. But objectively, the extent to which the Bears' offense is counting on the rookie seems like one of the bigger risks the team will take.

The Super Bowl-or-bust Bears need production from Day 1 and can't afford a developmental season for Wolfe, a lot to expect even from a guy who rushed for the equivalent of three miles in college (5,164 yards).

"It's a different level, but there are players who didn't have the numbers I did in college and turned out fine," Wolfe said. "It's not all about numbers but production once you get between the lines."

People pull for Wolfe, and it's easy to see why. He is a Chicago kid who grew up a Bears fan and was a local star at NIU. He says please and thank-you, yes sir and no sir, and probably opens doors for the elderly.

He is small in stature only, the kind of young man you want to introduce to your daughter, niece or sister.

Wolfe already is a fan favorite among Bears faithful down here and so popular with reporters that he worries what his veteran teammates will think about the attention he has been receiving. His is potentially a great story, but the next chapter is where this feel-good page-turner becomes more of a mystery.

Bears offensive coordinator Ron Turner left no doubt he expects a happy ending.

"We're not going to have to [trust] him, but we want to," Turner said. "We're going to bring him along and give him as much as he can handle."

It will start with a package of plays designed with Wolfe in mind that he will learn. If things go the way the Bears hope and plan, he will provide a change-of-pace option at running back behind Cedric Benson and Adrian Peterson and create mismatches on the perimeter in the passing game.

He especially will add a dimension out of the backfield the offense lacked with his 4.3 speed and hands that convinced the Bears he was worth a third-round pick, at least a round higher than most projections.

He will block blitzing linebackers trying to hurt Rex Grossman, a task Benson had to master last year before seeing the field on third down.

"[Blocking] will be the biggest challenge for him," running backs coach Tim Spencer said. "I'm not so much worried about him blocking guys, because he's tough. Will there be guys who will overpower him? Yeah, but that could come up with any of our guys. It's about getting on the right person."

Is Wolfe the right person for such a key role? It's still too early to know.

Pick a Bears executive or coach and five minutes into a conversation Wolfe will be compared with either Warrick Dunn or Dave Meggett, two smallish guys with 20 years' NFL experience between them. Jerry Angelo said Wolfe was the one player in this year's Bears draft class who intrigued him most, the prospect who "Hesterized" Angelo the way Devin Hester did a year earlier.

Two weeks into his first NFL training camp, when he has everything to prove, the biggest thing Wolfe has proved is that he remembers from college the value of patience. He missed the first 10 days of practice because of a hamstring injury that forced him to play catch-up, a setback Spencer called "crucial."

"In college I was ninth on the depth chart when I started and went two years without even playing football and I'm here now," Wolfe said. "I think I'm ahead of my college curve. I'm at the bottom, but I'm not ninth."

He's actually third, with the chance of being included in game plans. Proven depth at running back could linger as one of the Bears' few training-camp questions until Wolfe justifies the uncommon faith the Bears have placed in him.

__________________