Posts tagged BrianUrlacher at FanHouse

Being a Bears fan, I figured I was in for at least a little bit of torture last night. The game was at home against the lowly Niners on Fox -- meaning Troy Aikman would contribute to the torture. Going into the game, one would reasonably expect the Bears offense to provide said torture, while the defense, Devin Hester, and Robbie Gould offered a reprieve.

Then the game started ... and we entered a whole new universe. Good was bad, up was down, day was night ...

For example:

- Kyle Orton was great. Sure the touch pass in the end-zone was too low and shallow, but he seems to have developed great game-relationships with Greg Olsen and Rashied Davis. Orton ended with quality numbers, but they should have been better. There were several dropped passes, including one by Davis that would have been his third TD.

- The offensive line provided solid protection for Orton, which was a huge bounce-back from the embarrassment in Seattle. They also opened up good enough holes for Matt Forte and Kevin Jones to combine for 74 yards on 14 carries. Forte ran very hard and shed several would-be tacklers.

- Dusty Dvoracek and Mike Brown appeared healthy and full-speed.

- Danieal Manning was stellar in the return game ... coming away with a 60-yarder and a 75-yarder that set up 10 first quarter points for the offense.

On the other hand ...

Training camps are underway, the NFL season is a month off, and to get you ready for 2008, FanHouse previews all 32 teams, "heat index" style. We'll rate each club in 10 categories on a scale of 1 to 10, high score wins.

Quarterback: It's an open competition between Rex Grossman and Kyle Orton. Cue the laugh track. I'll try to be positive. In 2006, Grossman led the team to a 13-3 record and an NFC Championship to boot. He led the NFL in 100+ QB rating games (yes, I know he led in games below 40 and also had a zero rating once ... remember I was being positive), and threw for over 3000 yards with 23 TD passes for a running-and-defense team. Orton went 10-5 as a starter in the previous season with atrocious numbers (seriously, he didn't even throw for 2,000 yards or ten TDs in 15 games). Look for Grossman to start, unless the Bears want to completely take away the threat of Devin Hester. And they can't do that. Heat Index: 2

Isn't this the best part of every training camp ... also the pre-season in basketball, baseball, and hockey? A veteran star feels like he's in the proverbial "best shape of his career." How many times have we heard it? It's so cliche, but according to Dan Pompei of the Chicago Tribune, this is exactly the case with the face of the Monsters of the Midway.

Apparently Brian Urlacher is using a training regimen called Egoscue that aging vets Junior Seau and John Lynch had used in the past to try and keep up the younger players of the league. It involves a bunch of stretching and self-resistance, among other things:

"It's a lot of core work, holding a pose for a minute or two," Urlacher says. "Some weird stuff. It's hard. Muscles you didn't even know you had start burning. But it makes you more flexible and functional. When I get done I feel great."

Remember, Urlacher was playing with pain last season -- just like Tommie Harris was -- as he dealt with a pinched nerve in his neck and assorted other back issues.
And now?

The Chicago Bears have been lambasted by everyone this offseason for their offensive personnel, specifically the air attack. QB wasn't really addressed in the off-season, and letting Bernard Berrian walk to division rival Minnesota made the receiving corps the most maligned in the NFL.

Well, General Manager Jerry Angelo shed some light on the subject today with the inclusion of pro-bowler Lance Briggs:

''It would have been Berrian or Briggs,'' Angelo said. ''We made a decision. We tried to do Bernard; didn't work."

Look, it's pretty obvious the Bears aren't being cheap this off-season in keeping their own guys after splurging to ensure Brian Urlacher, Devin Hester, and Tommie Harris are happy campers. Angelo also stated within the same piece that they believed Hester could replace Berrian's production.

The real question here is, do you make sure your strength remains just as strong as ever while sacrificing an important cog to your weakness? The flip-side would be allowing one of the most important members of the strength walk while retaining an important part of the weakness.

With the external factors being as they are, I'd definitely keep Briggs over Berrian in a heartbeat. The QB situation isn't resolved, so the possibility that Berrian would be wasted is real. The way the Bears are going to have to try and win football games this season is by grinding the clock with the running game and playing stellar defense. You need Briggs on the field alongside Urlacher to make sure this happens. Offensively, the threat of Hester going deep is enough to stretch the defense. He did catch two long TDs last year in limited duty.

So much for my brilliant plan to save the Bears' season: move Rex Grossman to running back, try Kyle Orton at wideout and make Devin Hester the quarterback. The organization was able to extend the contract of middle linebacker Brian Urlacher, and sign first-round pick Chris Williams, but the most dangerous returner in the league was a no-show for the first day of work.

Apparently, Chicago's primary scoring threat thinks he's worth more than the two years and $2.86 million remaining on his rookie contract. I can't imagine anybody would disagree, particularly the Bears who, according to the Chicago Sun-Times, were in the process of hammering out a new deal:

Holding [Hester] out of camp is an interesting strategy since the Bears set precedent by re-doing Urlacher¹s contract because the player successfully argued he outplayed the value of the deal despite having four years remaining on it. Urlacher was considered a unique situation in the eyes of the franchise because of his status as a potential Hall of Fame talent.

Hester can make the same argument, and in fact, his value to the Bears might be even greater considering his contribution to a team with a moribund offense.

Brian Urlacher was still looking for a new deal last Friday, and yesterday, it finally happened. No holdout necessary, apparently, even though those empty threats were made (as they often are during contract disputes), and while the Bears Pro Bowl middle linebacker wasn't interested in a one-year extension, the organization made too attractive an offer to turn down.

Specifically, an extra $18 million to play tackle football in Chicago through 2012. But Urlacher also warns against signing long-term, very lucrative contracts because, well, you might just outplay them.

''I would definitely caution anyone signing a deal that long,'' Urlacher said of the nine-year, $56.65 million contract he signed in 2003. ''It's very enticing at the time because it's a lot of guaranteed money up front, and you want to get that security. But at the same time, you don't know how you are going to play, either. You may outplay it.

''I'm glad it's done now. It feels good because they didn't have to do anything. That was a nice deal they offered me, and we ended up getting it worked out.''

Yes, just because somebody offers you $6.3 million a year for nine years, doesn't mean you should just accept it. Of course, there's always a chance you get injured, or don't perform like you once did, but what's the chance that happens?

I'm fine with Urlacher getting as much as he can -- NFL careers are notoriously short and the salary cap favors the owners. That said, it's hard to sympathize for a guy in such a horrible financial situation. Whatever, disaster averted. Until the season starts and we get to see the Bears' offense, anyway.

Obviously, Tommie Harris is the big winner after signing a four-year, $40 million deal, but the Bears have to be pretty happy to lock up one of the most important cogs in their defense. One of the players Harris protects, middle linebacker Brian Urlacher, should be ecstatic over the news.

Not only does he have one of the league's best defensive tackles in front of him, Harris' new contract should free up some money for Urlacher to get that extension he's been bellyaching about all offseason. Cue ESPN's John Clayton:

Urlacher may end up being all right with the Tommie Harris deal because it does give the Bears room to enhance the linebacker's contract. Urlacher makes in the $7 million-a-year range and clearly needs to be the highest paid defender on the team. There could have been a camp holdout if he was going to make $3 million-a-year less cash than Harris. The fact Harris put close to $10 million of his $40 million in things he has to earn, the Bears can give Urlacher a couple million dollars-a-year more and make him the highest paid Bears defender. That deal could be worked out before camp.

So one less thing the Bears have to worry about. Hooray for progress.

Just when you think you've got all the answers to Brian Urlacher's current relationship with the Bears, he changes all the questions. Last week he continued his tradition of missing the team's OTAs and earned a response from the Bears that they weren't willing to negotiate with players who weren't taking part in practices. Voluntary or not, teams aren't thrilled by players under contract who choose to skip the workouts.

Urlacher wasn't swayed by that argument. Well, he wasn't swayed by it last week, anyway. What a difference a few days makes because #54 was on the practice field for today's OTA. The Chicago Tribune reports that Urlacher said on Tuesday that no deal was imminent. Discussions have been going on between the team and Urlacher's camp, though.

The Bears made it clear that talks would continue to remain positive if Urlacher returned to the practice field. That's part of the reason he showed Wednesday. But no new figures have been traded between the sides, although Urlacher presence at OTAs could change that.

If his appearance today was merely a good faith gesture, it was a smart one. Urlacher wasn't happy with the team's first offer and reacted by taking his ball and going home. That's posturing and it wouldn't be good business to just throw money at every player who pouted. Urlacher's not every player, though, and his reappearance should go a long way to a second offer coming across the table.

Any idea that Brian Urlacher and the Bears had settled all their squabbles when the linebacker showed up for last week's mandatory minicamp seems to be premature. Urlacher was a no-show for yesterday's voluntary workouts which indicates that his desire for a new contract will continue to cause friction between him and the team.

In retrospect, we probably should have seen it coming. Urlacher wasn't guaranteeing anything last Friday.

''Not sure,'' he said when asked if he would be at OTAs. ''Possibly. Maybe. Yes. No. Pick any one of those answers you want.''

Because this workout was voluntary, Urlacher cannot be fined nor can the Bears go after the remainder of his signing bonus. Both were possibilities if he'd missed last weekend's minicamp. With no financial motivation urging him to participate, Urlacher didn't.

The Bears have said they aren't willing to negotiate with players who are AWOL. He's turned down the one deal the Bears have offered but doesn't seem to have much interest in finding a middle ground with the team to create a compromise. Continuing to show up for practice would likely have helped get things moving. If Urlacher misses the rest of this week and next week's OTAs, though, there's little chance any deal will get done before training camp opens.

Guess who's back in the mother-fudgin' house? Brian Urlacher, that's who. After weeks of all but guaranteeing that he'd skip this weekend's mandatory minicamp, the Chicago Tribune reports that Urlacher's in the Windy City and planning on going to practice.

That doesn't mean he isn't still looking for a new contract. More likely, he had his mind swayed by the potential loss of nearly $4 million if the Bears tried to seize his signing bonus as punishment for skipping camp. The team hasn't, to our knowledge, proffered an offer after Urlacher balked at their one-year extension. It would have paid him $5 million up front, an additional $1 million for the life of the existing deal if he played 85% of the defensive snaps and a base salary of $7.5 million in 2012, the final season.

Urlacher's complained about how the market has changed since he signed his current deal but there isn't much to back up that assertion. Yes, many players are now paid more than Urlacher but not many linebackers. Lofa Tatupu, for instance, signed a six-year, $42 million extension. That's more than Urlacher but not egregiously more. The extension the Bears offered would bring him right in line with whatever inflation has occurred and, given his age and injury history, that's reasonable.

That's an argument for another day, though. For now the Bears can put the soap opera on the back burner and concentrate on getting ready for 2008 with their whole roster.