Thread: Angelo: Forte contract talks on hold

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports...,1681781.story

Barring something unforeseen, contract talks with Matt Forte are off until the end of the season, according to Chicago Bears general manager Jerry Angelo.

Angelo told WBBM-AM 780 on Monday night that the focus is on the season ahead for the running back, who is entering the final year of his deal.


As far as Pro Bowl linebacker Lance Briggs, who has been on a contract push since the lockout ended, Angelo said that was also a matter for the offseason.

After the dust settled five days into training camp and the Bears finished bringing in more than 50 new players, Angelo said his “intent” was to work on a long-term contract extension for Forte, who has been the most consistent part of the team’s offense for the past three seasons.

Carolina Panthers running back DeAngelo Williams struck it big right after the lockout ended with a $43 million, five-year contract that includes $21 million guaranteed. Tennessee running back Chris Johnson got a record-setting $55.26 million, six-year contract that includes $30 million guaranteed. San Francisco’s Frank Gore got a $21 million, three-year extension but it’s light on guarantees. While he’s protected for injuries, he’s not protected against skill, meaning the 49ers can cut him without being on the hook for big money.

But Forte apparently will have to wait for his pay day.

“We’ve decided that we’re just going to focus on the season and that’s something we talked about when we went into the negotiations,” Angelo said on WBBM. “We were hopeful, I’m not saying the door is shut, but right now our focus is going to be on the season.

“There was a mutual understanding. We visited a few times. In our last meeting we felt like with the season upon us that right now we want to focus and Matt wants to focus on the season and having the great year that we all expect and know that he will.”

Forte can tell the Bears he is looking forward to entering the open market after the season. The Bears can counter with the franchise tag. Could the two bargaining chips bring the sides back together for contract talks during the season? The franchise tag for running backs this season would have cost about $9.5 million. That’s a lot to pay for one season and Angelo doesn’t like to use the tag, but he did with Briggs in 2007.

Will the situation hang over Forte? No question. He admitted as much last week to the Tribune’s David Haugh.

"I have to stay positive and hope it gets done to eliminate distractions in the regular season, (but) I'm human,'' Forte told Haugh. "I'm going to be distracted by something like this. I just hope it does get done.''

Optimism seems to have fallen away at this point. Bears chairman George McCaskey told the Tribune last Thursday he remained optimistic as well. Again, perhaps the two sides will come together at some point during the season, but at this point Angelo seems relegated to riding it out into the offseason and that’s not the worst thing from the team’s perspective. Forte has the world to play for now this season. Yes, that’s a lot of pressure but it’s also a tremendous amount of motivation.

Briggs has been upset with his $36 million, six-year contract that he received as an unrestricted free agent. The deal included roster bonuses in the first three seasons and those have now been paid. A front-loaded contract is now more team-friendly and Briggs is unhappy, viewing the situation as if he’s taking a pay cut.

“I understand his position, this isn’t something that is new to us and or to the league,” Angelo told WBBM. “These things come up from time to time. It’s the business side of it. Because we had the lockout a lot of this would have been done behind closed doors, so to speak. Unfortunately there were some comments made in the media and now our laundry is out there.

“These things will take care of themselves. Lance is focused on having a great year for the Bears. He’s in great shape and we’ll leave it at that.”

While Briggs has maintained that the club has treated his requests with silence, Angelo at least hints that it will be resolved at the end of the year. Whether that resolution is the team telling Briggs to play out the deal, who knows? Maybe the Bears will give him a one-year extension to fatten his current deal a little as was done with Brian Urlacher in 2008. Or perhaps the Bears will say enough is enough and allow Briggs to seek a trade. He turns 30 in November and when he was unrestricted in 2008, no market formed for him in free agency. He’s been a terrific player since and has been selected to six consecutive Pro Bowls.

“What he’s doing is not something that hasn’t been done, here in Chicago and as I said around the league,” Angelo said. “We feel very, very confident that Lance’s focus is going to be on the season and having a great year and we’ll just take care of our business when that time comes and that will be at the end of the year.”

bmbiggs@tribune.com
Twitter @BradBiggs