FanHouse KevinShaffer

After the Bears made the announcement of their franchise-shattering acquisition of Jay Cutler, they didn't rest. Within a few hours, they announced they had also agreed to terms with venerable left tackle Orlando Pace. I'll admit, I was overly excited about the two new Bears, as were all my Bears fans friends -- which is weird, usually at least one of us disagrees about player movement. Make no mistake about it, though. We aren't delusional. This team is far from complete and the die-hards know it.

With the team still a decent amount below the salary cap and several holes left to fill for 2009, here's what I think the Bears should do.

The final four games of this season were supposed to serve as an audition of sorts for Derek Anderson, the Browns quarterback who came out of nowhere in 2007 to lead the team to 10 wins before getting benched earlier this month.

Brady Quinn, Cleveland's latest submission for franchise quarterback, was shut down for the year after doing more damage to the broken index finger on his throwing hand during the Week 12 loss to the Texans, which opened the door for Anderson to get another shot at the gig.

Late last month, the New York Giants and Cleveland Browns were talking about a trade that would have landed left tackle Kevin Shaffer in East Rutherford, but a deal was never reached. Things seemed dead but apparently there is still a slight possibility that the Giants make one last run for Shaffer.

The Giants, who are in desperate need of a left tackle, currently have David Diehl slated to fill that spot but would like to move him back to guard. Another option is second year player Guy Whimper, who has earned only mixed reviews.

It was also reported by Bob Glober of Newsday (via ESPN video) that Shaffer wants out of Cleveland. It's inevitable that his spot will be taken by first-round draft choice Joe Thomas and that is clearly not sitting well with him.

Shaffer has six years remaining on his seven-year, $36 million deal.

Terry Pluto's Sunday column is a smorgasbord of Browns notes, including several very interesting nuggets. The most interesting is that the Browns aren't planning on trying tackle Kevin Shaffer at guard, but they could slide Ryan Tucker over.

According to Pluto, the Browns plan to give Shaffer, last year's left tackle, time at right tackle in case first-round pick Joe Thomas wins the left tackle job as expected (he says the Browns expect him to be better than D'Brickshaw Ferguson was for the Jets last year). They don't feel like Shaffer would be a good fit at right guard, but they believe that Ryan Tucker could become a very solid guard, if he proves he's over the emotional troubles that sidelined him for much of last season.

Browns offensive tackle Kevin Shaffer's agent is complaining that Shaffer wants to be traded if he's not going to be the team's starting right or left tackle.

The main reason that the team drafted Joe Thomas with the No. 3 pick is because Shaffer showed last year that he's a mediocre left tackle at best, even if he's being paid as if he's a frontline left tackle. He's either gutsy or insane for complaining about getting overpaid just a year after signing a seven-year, $36 million contract.

The funny thing about Shaffer's complaints is that this will end up working out one way or another. Shaffer's deal makes it unlikely that he'll be released this offseason (the Plain Dealer reports it would be an $8 million cap hit for the Browns), but he's still likely to end up starting somewhere on the Browns offensive line--he's good enough to either start at right tackle or right guard if Joe Thomas wins the left tackle job as expected.