Thread: Free-agent DT Okoye to meet with Bengals

Originally Posted by Papa Bear

Hopefully this is just like Kellen where he's getting some prices and bringing it back to the Bears for them to match. I just shot an email to Larry Mayer to see if he's heard anything about the Bears bringing him back. We'll see if he answers.

I hope so cuz we need him and it would be a waste to let someone his age and potential slip away. Really, really important to get him re-signed.

Originally Posted by soulman

Oops, I guess I spoke too soon in another thread. I really hope the Bears are not foolish enough to let a good pass rushing DT get away. Losing Okoye would leave one more hole in a Dline that gets even thinner with him out of the picture.

For the first time last year I felt that we were getting the kind of inside pressure we had lacked since Tommie Harris was in his prime. Melton and Okoye combined for 11 sacks and by the middle of the season Paea was showing signs of becoming a very powerful inside force as well. Losing Okoye pushes us back as far as the development of the interior of the Dline is concerned IMO.

The four guys we should have manning the inside this year including Okoye are all young and all talented high motor guys. To me it's the one area of the defense that would need no attention as long as we keep him. Losing him puts us in the position of needing both a DE and another 3t DT in the draft or elsewhere and I don't see another FA who has as much to offer as Okoye does.

Losing him would cause me to give Emery his first black mark of the offseason.

i guess my theory of him in africa was wrong lol

Originally Posted by soulman

Oops, I guess I spoke too soon in another thread. I really hope the Bears are not foolish enough to let a good pass rushing DT get away. Losing Okoye would leave one more hole in a Dline that gets even thinner with him out of the picture.

For the first time last year I felt that we were getting the kind of inside pressure we had lacked since Tommie Harris was in his prime. Melton and Okoye combined for 11 sacks and by the middle of the season Paea was showing signs of becoming a very powerful inside force as well. Losing Okoye pushes us back as far as the development of the interior of the Dline is concerned IMO.

The four guys we should have manning the inside this year including Okoye are all young and all talented high motor guys. To me it's the one area of the defense that would need no attention as long as we keep him. Losing him puts us in the position of needing both a DE and another 3t DT in the draft or elsewhere and I don't see another FA who has as much to offer as Okoye does.

Losing him would cause me to give Emery his first black mark of the offseason.

With you completely. Emery has been pretty much flawless thus far. Losing a guy we need like Okoye who was yours to keep would definitely be a "preventable error".

I don't like the idea of having to bid against the Bucs...

Originally Posted by Zelezo Vlk

I don't like the idea of having to bid against the Bucs...

Good point and a worry indeed, particularly if Tampa still plays the one gap, "play the run on the way to the QB" system we do. Okoye proved last year that he could do that very well.

I think I would give Emery a pass on losing Okoye if he simply gets outbid by a starter-money bid. The Bears might not be willing to pay 5 million a year for him and if Tampa/other-team is (say some place he would start) the Bears might be out of luck on this.