Other Bears in Line for New Deal Too...............

Bears' line for new deals long


Forget Briggs, Garza is likely team's most undercompensated player

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Center Roberto Garza is more underpaid than teammate Lance Briggs. (Brian Cassella/Tribune photo)

By Brad Biggs, Chicago Tribune reporter 7:53 p.m. CDT, August 29, 2011


Since Lance Briggs clarified his contract wishes and made it clear he wants teammates also to feel the love with the Bears $19 million below the salary cap, it's easy to compile a list of players to line up outside Jerry Angelo's office.

The general manager said his "intent" is to extend the contract of running back Matt Forte, but talks haven't gotten across the goal line since they began about a week into training camp.paid. Considering the bulk of evidence there is supporting his value for the offense, why not? The Bears probably could have gotten Forte at a discount rate if they had worked on a contract during last season, but now he's aiming to be highly paid.
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The next player to knock on Angelo's door should be center Roberto Garza. Teammates should let him walk to the front of any line. He has been the lowest-paid starting lineman of his tenure in the NFL for three seasons. Angelo once said the only contract he didn't feel was fair for a player after the fact was a deal for former defensive end Alex Brown, who later was compensated. Angelo should feel that way with Garza, who signed a $12.8 million, six-year extension in 2006 and is entering the final year of that deal.

The contract included an injury waiver because of concern over Garza's right knee, which doesn't have an ACL, and he hadn't established himself as a starter at the time. The knee hasn't been an issue (he tore the MCL in his left knee last season) and he is regarded so highly the Bears asked him to replace longtime center Olin Kreutz. It would be an upset if Garza isn't selected as a captain next week.

Garza, 32, triggered $1 million escalators this season and last year, but he will make only $2.74 million in 2011, almost $500,000 less than Chris Spencer gets backing him up. He was given virtually the same contract Terrence Metcalf received in 2006. Metcalf has been gone more than two years and started only 25 games. Garza, meanwhile, has started 78 of the last 80 games. Frank Omiyale is slated to be the backup offensive tackle this season at a price tag of $2.1 million. He earned $7.8 million over the previous two seasons.

Garza and agent Jeff Griffin approached the Bears about redoing his deal in 2009. The team told them no. Neither has said a word since and both declined comment for this story. Who knows? Maybe the Bears plan to let him walk.

Defensive end Israel Idonije could be in line for a new deal considering his career has continued to grow since the extension he signed in 2009. The 30-year-old is entering the final year of his contract at $2.4 million. Coming off a career-best eight sacks in 2010, he figures to remain in the team's plans and he and Briggs share the same agent — Drew Rosenhaus.

"I understand the business aspect of the game," Idonije said. "But I am worried about getting better. No question I am leaps and bounds from where I was when I signed in '09. Everybody knows what the situation is, but the focus is handling football first."

Veteran safety Chris Harris hoped to have an extension before this season but he could be headed to free agency. Earl Bennett might be the team's best wide receiver and he's entering the final season of his contract. So is tight end Kellen Davis, who could position himself for a big payday with a strong season. Nickel back D.J. Moore, defensive lineman Henry Melton, wide receiver Johnny Knox and guard Lance Louis are signed through 2012, and in the past the team targeted young players after their third season for extensions.

bmbiggs@tribune.com

Twitter @BradBiggs

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Although it would appear that way, and I wouldn't blame them if they thought so, I'm really not trying to be an asshole but it's been the basis of my contentions all along, so the first thing I wanted to call to the attention of the "Matt Forte Should Honor His Contract Society" is the underlined phrase in the last paragraph. "in the past the team has targeted young players after their third season for extensions". This has been a tradition for quite a few years now going all the way back to the middle of the last decade.

So it's really not out of line for Matt Forte to come knocking based on that precedent alone. One other fact also invites his approaching the Bears for a new deal as well and that would be the precedent the Bears set with Alex Brown who Jerry stated was the only player he felt was not fairly compensated in his rookie deal and offered an extension prior to the end of his contract as well. These things do happen, have happened in the past and will continue to happen. There will always be players who outplay their contracts and it isn't out of the ordinary for them to ask for consideration when that contract nears it end. These guys aren't ungrateful villains for doing it.

Now I think Biggsy makes a good point about Lance Briggs and his stated desire to see other teamates fairly compensated as well. Besides Matt Forte if there's anyone else he should stand behind it's Roberto Garza. Talk about a guy who's outplayed his deal before now and was denied consideration for an adjustment two years ago. Here's another guy whose backup is making more then he is. Garza has been the lowest paid Olineman of his tenure in the NFL over the last three year???? He earned half of what Omygod earned over the past two seasons???? On top of that the Bears insist on a injury waiver in his contract to protect themselves against his injuring the knee without the ACL???? Garza may not be an all-pro OG but he's sure a hell or a lot better lineman than OMG. If I were him I'd tell them to keep the f'n captaincy and just shoot me another mil or two for the year.

Well you can see the list of the contract which are coming up for extension so maybe it begins to make more sense as to why the Bears are sitting on that cap excess. In addition to Forte there isn't one other guy on the list of those expiring after 2011 that we wouldn't want to keep and none on the 2012 list that should be done next year as long as Lance Louis continues to progress. Maybe it's time to get busy using that $$$ to lock some guys up if we're not gonna use it any other way.

honestly I think we need to learn when to walk away from players

Garza=wrong side of 30
izzy=wrong side of 30

that way we dont cut off our nuts and end up losing the future of the franchise like players Forte or Bennett.


Im not in the camp just cause we have cap space we should use every available penny. We did that in the past and got shit for it like OMG and Archuletta. Spend wisely and we can be leaders in this division. Garza extension is not a wise move.

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Originally Posted by motownbear

honestly I think we need to learn when to walk away from players

Garza=wrong side of 30
izzy=wrong side of 30

that way we dont cut off our nuts and end up losing the future of the franchise like players Forte or Bennett.


Im not in the camp just cause we have cap space we should use every available penny. We did that in the past and got shit for it like OMG and Archuletta. Spend wisely and we can be leaders in this division. Garza extension is not a wise move.

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Garza comes cheap and probably always will because no one else was willing to sign a deal with a guy who's missing an ACL in one knee. Still, the reason we signed Spencer is for him to take over at OC and if both Louis and EWill make progress at OG this year we won't have all that much need for him. If they make him any kind of offer I'm betting that it won't be very big or very long.

The thing with Izzy though is that he's a late bloomer without a lot of miles on him, he stays healthy and he stays in shape. He's a guy you could offer a 4 year deal to and not hurt yourself. The only thing I don't like about that situation is hearing the Rosenhaus word and Izzy's in the same sentence. Anytime your neighbor buys a guard dog for protection but promises to keep it tied up he may sleep better at night but that doesn't mean that you will.

If we're not spending the cap excess on new guys it might just as well get used up on players we have. When I said in another post that the Bears encouraged this "grab for the cash" I didn't mean that it was intentional but the fact that the cap $$$ is there and everyone knows isn't playing out well is it? It's like when you win the lottery and all of a sudden you have relatives you never even knew you had.

I dont mind extending Izzy but at what cost? Who do we lose for another 30+ year old defender? I like the player but sometimes we need to stop and take a realistic look at things.

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Originally Posted by motownbear

I dont mind extending Izzy but at what cost? Who do we lose for another 30+ year old defender? I like the player but sometimes we need to stop and take a realistic look at things.

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That I can't say mo. I have no idea what the market for him is but if Rosenhaus is his agent it's certain to be more then JA will think he's worth. Part of the problem is that we have no one to replace him who's already in the pipeline. Wootton appears to be more of a RDE so even if he comes back strong I don't know that he's the guy.

Look at our DE situation compared to the Giants. They scout out, find and draft NFL caliber DE like Osi, Kiwanuka, Tuck, Pierre-Paul etc and we draft Anderson, Gilbert, Baldwin, Clermond, Bazuin, ad naseum and end up having to trade for or sign pass rushers as free agents like we did Peppers. For all the effort put into scouting and drafting DE's we haven't had much success have we? Even Izzy was an undrafted free agent out of Canada.

Until we've got at least two sure things in the pipeline do we really have a choice? Another problem is that we spend way too much time trying to bring guys up to a productive level or they turn out to be a flash in the pan like Anderson was. When we have a guy like Wootton who finally gets his burst back over a year after a serious injury we're foolish enough to let him cover kicks in a meaningless preseason game when we have 30 rookies around to do it and we get him injured again. Now how long will it be before we know whether we have another Dent in him or another Anderson?

You know I hate to say it but Steve Rosenbloom is right. The management and coaching staff of this team can behave very stupidly at times yet we win despite that. Think of good we could be if they actually had all of their cylinders firing.

Don't know why we need two threads that cover the exact same topic. Would you guys like to combine this one with Windy's titled Contract Extensions?