Free Agent to be Earl Bennett Says; "Bears Get First Dibs".................

Bears could lose Earl Bennett if they’re not on the ball
By Sean Jensen sjensen@suntimes.com November 12, 2011 12:50AM
Updated: November 13, 2011 2:35AM


Receiver Earl Bennett, who is scheduled to be a free agent after this season, isn’t all that excited to test free agency. ‘‘First and foremost, the Bears get first dibs,’’ Bennett said this week. ‘‘They drafted me here, and I got a lot of friends here, and I love the city and my teammates. But at the end of the day, I have to do what’s best for my family.”

Bennett is one of 13 players on the roster whose contracts expire after this season. The others are Kahlil Bell, Matt Forte, Corey Graham, Caleb Hanie, Israel Idonije, Brian Iwuh, Tim Jennings, Brandon Meriweather, Amobi Okoye, Craig Steltz, Edwin Williams and Roy Williams. Edwin Williams and Bell are restricted free agents.

General manager Jerry Angelo repeatedly said that running back Forte was the team’s top priority heading into the season. But negotiations are at a standstill, and Forte seems destined to land the franchise tag.

If that’s the case, then the Bears have no recourse to retain Bennett, which makes the coming weeks all the more important. Bennett missed five games with what the Bears described as a chest injury. But he returned against the Philadelphia Eagles last Monday and was one of the game’s MVPs, with five catches — three of them on third-down conversions — for 95 yards and a touchdown.

His best season was 2009, when he had 54 catches for 717 yards, and his career high is three touchdowns in a single season, in 2010. But Bennett has been clutch on third downs, he’s a good punt returner, and he’s clearly quarterback Jay Cutler’s favored receiver. Cutler noted Wednesday during his news conference that he’s ‘‘been with Earl a long time,’’ referring to their playing days at Vanderbilt.’’But later, in an interview on ESPN-1000, Cutler said ‘‘Someone is going to throw some money at that dude".

‘‘He can do it in all phases,’’ Cutler said. ‘‘Obviously I want to keep him here, and I’m going to make a push for him.’’

Bennett’s ability to work the slot alone is an asset, ESPN analyst Ron Jaworski said. ‘‘I think the slot position is so critical in the NFL,’’ Jaworski said, highlighting Bennett’s inteligence and hands. ‘‘Then you got to be tough. When you catch the ball inside, you got safeties, linebackers, and D-linemen with one ambition: to smash you. ‘‘He’s got all the attributes.’’

During free agency, Bennett could be appealing to a team with a legitimate No. 1. That’s what the Detroit Lions were thinking when they brought in veteran Nate Burleson to complement Calvin Johnson. His production, though, has been spotty (26 catches for 245 yards this season), considering he signed a five-year, $25 million contract that included $11 million in guarantees.

Regardless, the Bears have $15  million in salary-cap space, so they’ll make a push to sign some of their players to extensions before this season ends. Bennett, Okoye, Graham, Jennings and Idonije should be players the Bears make a run at.

But since we’re already into November, these players may be more inclined to finish out the season and become unrestricted free agents. That, of course, means the Bears may have to sweeten the pot to get a few of these players to sign now. And Bennett should be near the top of that list.

PRO BOWL PLAYER

As you consider voting online for the Pro Bowl, seriously consider Bears cornerback Corey Graham. Last season, he led the league with 22 special-teams tackles, although the Bears counted 25. This year, he’s again leading the Bears.

‘‘I feel I’m that caliber a player,” Graham said. ‘’If I’m not, who is? But I can’t control what people say. As long as our team finishes No. 1, that’s all that matters. We consider ourselves one of the best special-teams units.’’

Don’t get Bears special-teams coordinator Dave Toub started on Graham. He obviously has been disappointed Graham hasn’t been honored yet.

IN THE CLUTCH

According to STATS, Antonio Brown of the Steelers, Wes Welker of the Patriots and Roddy White of the Falcons are tied for the league lead with 13 ‘‘clutch catches,’’ defined as a reception on third or fourth down that results in a TD or first down.

Greg Jennings of the Packers and Calvin Johnson of the Lions are among the receivers tied for second with 12 clutch catches.

As middling as our receivers are extending Bennett is a must. He's by far the best receiver we have in terms of toughness and consistency and I fully expect he'll be high on that list of clutch catches before the season is over. He's another guy that Cutler favors and you don't lose guys like that when you want to keep your QB happy. I think Jay got his point across about that on Monday night.

My guess is that we'd like to keep all of the FA on that list with the possible exception of RWill and Meriweather if he doesn't change his ways. Both of them will have a chance to prove their value to the team this last half of the season. But I'd make Bennett a priority along with the others Jensen has suggested. All are pretty key starters IMO.

Jerry's gotta give Forte and Bennett what they want or I'll be mad.

Bennett will get his extension before Forte does. Deservedly so. He's been our best receiver ever since he's been here.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by soulman

Bennett is one of 13 players on the roster whose contracts expire after this season. The others are Kahlil Bell, Matt Forte, Corey Graham, Caleb Hanie, Israel Idonije, Brian Iwuh, Tim Jennings, Brandon Meriweather, Amobi Okoye, Craig Steltz, Edwin Williams and Roy Williams. Edwin Williams and Bell are restricted free agents.

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What Bears should do:

Bennett: re-sign
Bell: let go
Forte: re-sign
Graham: let go
Hanie: re-sign
Idonije: re-sign
Iwuh: re-sign
Jennings: re-sign
Merriweather: let go
Okoye: re-sign
Steltz: iffy, re-sign for cheap
Williams x2: let go

I agree except for Graham. I know Toub seems to have the special teams top-notch no matter who's in there, but Graham is a stud.

Bennett is the best we have at WR. He has the ability to be like a Wes Welker at the position. He's bigger than Welker, probably a little faster, and has better hands. The problem is going to be getting Martz to use that type of aerial attack instead of chucking it deep all the time.

[QUOTE=Jimmors;850362]What Bears should do:

Bennett: re-sign
Bell: let go (why, he good, he's cheap and you have no one behind him)
Forte: re-sign
Graham: let go (not as long as he can play ST like he does. he's the leading tackler again this year)
Hanie: re-sign
Idonije: re-sign
Iwuh: re-sign
Jennings: re-sign
Merriweather: let go (depends on how he plays from here on out and what it takes to sign him)
Okoye: re-sign
Steltz: iffy, re-sign for cheap (he's be far easier to replace than either Graham or Meriweather)
Williams x2: let go (I agree with you here. we can get better in th draft or 2012 FA) [?QUOTE]

About the only two I say bye bye to for certain are RWill and EWill. Bell is a cheap backup and it's not gonna take much to re-sign him. Probably a vet minimum and if we get better in the offseason we can always cut him then. Graham is the single best ST tackler in the NFL and now that he's realized he won't get a starting CB's money anywhere he won't be very tough to re-sign either.

A guy like Meriweather is great to have in the Safety rotation. Conte looks like the real thing at FS and I don't think he budges fom there but Wright still has a ways to go despite his play today. Meriweather was in there today and played well so if we can get him for the right price I'd try and keep the guy. He's young and he's fast. He just needs to stop being stupid.

Steltz is pure ST and what we save not keeping him we can give to Graham. RWill can pack his bags the morning after the final gun sounds but you can sign EWill cheap and much like Bell if you find better you just cut him next year and you're not out much if anything.

These backups don't command upfront bonuses so if they don't make the team it costs us nothing.

Quote:

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‘‘He can do it in all phases,’’ Cutler said. ‘‘Obviously I want to keep him here, and I’m going to make a push for him.’’

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I think, that this quote alone should tell us that he stays

Didn't help keep Olsen around. But Bennett is a different story. He's a WR amd Martz actually likes those guys. Now if he can just stop fooling himself into thinking that lazy jerks like RWill will play better for him that anyone else we may get somewhere.