Chicago Bears free agency: Safeties

George Iloka, 25

The Cincinnati Bengals may be a team in transition. After five straight first-round playoff exits and six in seven seasons, it may be time to retool. They have a lot of players who can hit free agency, and Marvin Lewis and the Bengals’ front office will need to make tough decisions.

One of those decisions is on George Iloka.

Iloka will be an interesting story. He was the Bengals’ fifth-round draft pick in 2012, and is now a starter. He has great size for a safety. He is 6-foot-4, 225 pounds.

At that size, you may pencil him in as an in-the-box safety, and he does play that well. He also has good speed, though. In fact, in Cincinnati he played a lot of the snaps as a free safety.

With Iloka, you can alternate with him and he can play both slots and play them well. Defensive coordinator Vic Fangio loves having flexibility. He loves having moving parts to keep an offense guessing.

With his speed, Iloka can get to a runner quickly. With his size, he can take down those runners well. The Chicago Bears have had trouble against the run, so having a safety who can solidify that area will be of great help.

There are other safeties who receive more attention (Eric Berry, Eric Weddle), but I think Iloka will have the best value of the free agent safeties this offseason.

Next: He was inserted into the lineup and the defense got better