Bears draft Penn State safety Adrian Amos in 5th round

The Bears selected Penn State safety Adrian Amos with the 142nd selection in fifth round of the NFL draft on Saturday.

“I feel like it’s a good situation there to come in and compete for a position,” said Amos, who didn’t have much contact with the Bears before the draft.

And he’s right.

Safety was a priority for the Bears in the draft. Amos joins Antrel Rolle, Ryan Mundy, Brock Vereen and Malcolm Bronson. Vereen was a fourth-round selection last year. Bronson, a tryout player at voluntary minicamp this week, was signed before the draft on Thursday.

Pundits have called this year’s safety class weak and Amos is eager to prove them wrong.

“You can’t tell if this is a weak class or not until we get on the field in the NFL,” he said. “Regardless of what people say, you still have to play. Once we get on the field, we can prove what kind of talent this class has.”

Amos played cornerback first at Penn State before moving to safety. Amos, who made a team-high 38 consecutive starts, said the position change was for a team need. He also played nickel back.

In 2014, Amos had 42 tackles, three interceptions and 2.5 tackles for loss.

“I feel like my best asset is my coverage,” Amos said. “I cover the slot, cover tight ends, cover outside receivers. I feel like as a DB, you have to be able to be able to cover. That should be the No. 1 thing that you have in your repertoire, to be able to cover. I feel like I would help a lot in that regard.”

Amos took part in the NFL Scouting Combine, but really stood out at Penn State’s pro day. He ran the 40-yard dash in 4.37 and 4.4 seconds and did 21 repetitions of 225 pounds on the bench press.

Evaluators have been critical of Amos’ tackling, but he questions those reports.

“I still to this day try to figure out where that comes from because a couple of years ago my knock was that I wasn’t good in coverage but I will hit you and that’s what I would do,” he said. “I would come up and hit you and I was a good tackler, and then out of nowhere, it was speculation that I couldn’t tackle just this past year.

“I just want to work on getting better every day I can get better at everything. I can get better at tackling, better at wrapping up, better in coverage. I can improve in all aspects in the game. I’m still young, still learning the game. I feel like there’s no ceiling.”