Chicago Bears get UDFA steal in LSU CB Kevin Toliver
The Chicago Bears got a steal in undrafted free agency in LSU cornerback Kevin Toliver. Can he make the 53-man roster in Chicago?
The Chicago Bears have drafted the quarterback of both their offense and defense with their top pick in each of the last two draft classes, landing North Carolina’s Mitch Trubisky in the 2017 NFL Draft and Georgia’s Roquan Smith in the 2018 NFL Draft.
Those players will get the headlines, but building a deep roster is hard in the NFL, and it takes hitting on some undrafted free agents year to year. This year, the ‘hit’ for the Bears in undrafted free agency could be LSU cornerback Kevin Toliver.
Toliver, who played 31 games at LSU and started just 18 of them, is raw but physical and a very intriguing talent that passed the eye test prior to the draft.
Toliver will undoubtedly carry a chip on his shoulder into the 2018 season, and he ought to, but he was not the only prominent SEC defensive player to get no calls from NFL teams during this year’s draft.
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Players like South Carolina’s Skai Moore, Auburn’s Jeff Holland, Georgia’s Trenton Thompson, and Alabama’s cornerback duo of Levi Wallace and Tony Brown all didn’t get any calls in the 2018 NFL Draft.
Toliver is a bit unpolished, but the talent is there for him to be a starting cornerback in the NFL, and I thought he would be selected no later than the fourth or fifth round based on his measurables and abilities in press-man coverage.
At 6-foot-2, nearly 200 pounds, Toliver is able to match up with receivers physically, but he also has the fluid hips and quick feet to stay with receivers in the slot.
He’s a former five-star recruit, which means nothing at this juncture of his playing career, but the talent is certainly there. The Bears actually got a couple of intriguing cornerbacks in undrafted free agency that I like, in particular, Dubuque’s Michael Johnson.
Since the Bears failed to draft anyone at this position, both Toliver and Johnson stand a decent chance of making the final roster. I think what sets Toliver apart is physicality, but that got him into trouble at times at LSU as well.
He’s a classic ‘feast or famine’ type of cornerback, but if his skills can be honed in, he’s going to have a productive NFL career and could start fairly quickly.