Thread: This Weeks Winner of the "No Shit Shamus Award".............

I'm not even half as disappointed in Salaam as I was in Enis. At least Salaam wasn't a complete con man but the results turned out about the same. For those of you who haven't been with us very long Salaam was the first of a long line of RB's who we drafted in the first round to carry the torch as the Bears top RB and live up to the rep of their predecessors like Sayers, Payton, and even Neal Anderson.

They all failed to do much more than even scratch the surface of the greatness of those guys. First Salaam, then Enis and finally Benson all wasted first round picks who had all kinds of potential who achieved very little in their career as Bears.

Salaam was better at holding a roach clip than a football, Enis was a lazy bastard who couldn't stay healthy and wouldn't work to rehab from his injuries, and Benson was beginning to make progress when he wasn't pouting about sharing carries with TJ until Bob Sanders laid some serious wood on him in the SB. He left the game like a little boy who'd had his favorite toy taken from him and spent the rest of it on the bench, healthy enough to return, just unwilling to. I was never quite so pleased with a release as I was when we let him go a couple of years later. Big baby!

So now we finally have a guy who can stand in the shadow of those legends and I just wish to hell that he'd sign his contract and get on board the train. He's the best all around back we've had since the days of Neal Anderson and he puts any of the aforementioned trio to shame.

Glad to hear things are working out for you Rashaan. There's a case of "stickum" in route to you compliments of Bears fans everywhere.

Originally Posted by Riczaj01

Good for him for owning up to his demons and making something of himself after the NFL. Nothing worse then someone blaming there failures on someone else, or wanting a pitty party thrown for them.

I agree Ric but I couldn't resist a little ball busting over what he could have and should have become. Maybe I'm just harder on him because he was a CU guy and after watching him play here I was really excited when the Bears drafted him. Major disappointment to follow!

Originally Posted by Riczaj01

Ya all 3 of them were huge disappointments...you forgot A-Train in there though, he was the real start and he was the most disappointing imo. Sadly Benson showed he was the only one that was actually worth a damn.

Double Z on the score said the Bears aren't willing to pay FA value for Forte, and said it's justifiable w/how RB's have faired after big contracts over the past several years(not that Forte has to be happy w/that) and that's what Forte wants FA type money(which he is not). So I wonder how far apart they really are; and where Forte's price really is.

Soul in that we both agree though, Forte is the first great RB we've had since Anderson. And I'd hate to see that relationship end. And I REALLY believe he would have his best year this year; w/less carries b/c there is no way for a team to tee off on him like they have in the past. He'll sign. ZZ said the major date right now is like july 16th. it has something to do w/how FT'd players can sign and then continue on w/a long term deal(excuse me I was sick as hell the last 3 days and I couldn't concentrate for more then 2-3 min's). That's when we'll know if he's going to hold out and be an issue though.

Oh yeah I did forget about AT. Guess we can thrown him in the 2nd round pile of failures but I guess he's the only one who comes to mind right now. The other has been a huge success but maybe not quite as much as his agent or his ego have led him to believe.

So Zach Z says no FA coin for Forte and of course to me that makes sense. He's not one so every time they up the ante they're only bidding against themselves. We still don't know the details but if we go by what the other deals have outlined we can make an educated guess. I think we can start eliminating AP and CJ kind of deals to begin with and work from there. If he's expecting that kind of $$$ he really is crazy.

So what's left? The $40 mil deals that DWill and Foster got and the $30 mil deals below it. There are no $20 mil deals to compare it with except Gore and that was $21 mil added to what he was already getting and about $26 mil total. Then you have Lynch who got 4yrs/$31 mil and MJD who got 5yrs/$31 mil with $17-$17.5 mil guaranteed.

FA $$$ would be those $40 mil/$20+ mil guaranteed deals that Foster and DWill got and the non-FA $$$ compares more to Lynch and MJD and the lowball that JA began with may have been Gore with just $13.5 mil of his $26 mil guaranteed. So there's the comps and just like real estate his value must fall in there somewhere. I'll eat my hat if what they put on the table isn't somewhere in the neighborhood of what Lynch and MJD got and my sox too if what Forte is asking for isn't what DWill and Foster got.

Once you move away from the Gore deal, which I think we can all agree was an opening bid, where else is there to go if you intend to put a competitive offer on the table? And what else could Forte be expecting once you eliminate CJ's 6yrs/$55mil/$30 guaranteed and AP's 7yr/$96mil/$36 guaranteed extension?

Once you bracket it the pieces kind or fall into place. If you have to pay him $17 mil to tag him for two years why not just put that on the table as the guarantee for a longer term deal? I can't see where anything else makes much logical sense and I believe when you sort it out that's about where they're at. Make sense?

Originally Posted by Riczaj01

I still think if the team had been better around him AT would have been a great 3rd or 4th weapon option; but those teams were just awful; and his career suffered b/c of it.

I think it does for the team; but does it for Forte? Should he take a 4 yr 17mil deal(guaranteed only btw) when he can do that for 2 years? Obviously there is a injury risk there. He gets hurt this year, no way they franchise him and he loses any real chance of getting a 10 mil deal next year. But if he stays healthy(and w/athletes you know they think they will) He can then walk into FA and possibly get 1 more decent contract. And do you really think w/the Cap issues the Bears have w/Cut's and a few others they can afford to hit him a 2nd time w/that Tag? He might think he'll walk next year.

Either way I think it sucks we may lose him. I just hope that if he does look around next year in the FA field, it's a Briggs situation and the Bears are the best offer. He could be on a short list of great Bears RB's if he sticks around.

Should he take a 4yr/$30mil/$17 guaranteed deal or thereabouts? I don't know but it's not an unfair offer in comparison to other backs with a similar status to his. Will he? Well that's still to be determined. Will the Bears tag him twice? That depends on what happens this year but they can and if he's productive as he can be they may. The $$$ is the same it's just the cap accounting that's not in their favor but that's the trade off for not risking more than they're willing to risk.

For Matt the deal he has to look at is this. Right now he's at his peak and he wants peak money. Next year maybe not so peak because not only does he risk injury and another years wear and tear but undoubtedly his production will drop now that the Bears have added so many more weapons to the passing game. It has to. So he no longer has the bargaining chip of a back who is 40% plus of his teams offense. Certainly he knows this and so does his agent and in two more years he may be on the leading edge of decline. So this is where he needs to bargain hard for every dollar. It won't necessarily get better from here on out.

He's one of the few standout players out there drafted in the 2nd round who didn't get that big contract when they were still handing them out and he needs to realize that he'll never make that up. He also has to consider that the cost of rookie contracts is dropping significantly and that those two RB's drafted at the end of the first round this year will end up with deal paying them less over 4 years than he gets for 2012 alone if he signs that tag.

It's not about what he thinks he's worth it's now about what the Bears will pay and that's based on market factors that are beyond his control. So they tag him now but let him walk next year. Whose to say that we can't draft a RB next year in the 1st or 2nd round that will cost us 25% or less of what he will and still go right on winning games? The Packers have done it, the Pats have done it, the Giants are doing it by letting Jacobs go.

I love Matt Forte as a player but as a holdout, if that's what he turns out to be, not so much. Maybe it's the simple feeling that he's being foolish if he doesn't recognize all of the factors involved. It's complex I agree but not so much so that he and his agent can't reason it out just like I have. If we could have traded him for good value we may have done that but for all intents and purposes unless someone comes along now with a player trade that can help both teams this year it won't get done and that isn't likely to happen.

So where does it go from here? I don't see the Bears raising the ante anymore than they have so if Matt wants to join the party then he need to either agree to the tag, get his ass into the OTA's and keep negotiating or keep standing there with his arms folded and if he holdouts out get nothing. Ric I just don't see where he has much leverage.