Thread: Brian Price released by Chicago Bears

Does this mean Nate Collins is staying with the Bears?

Originally Posted by bearsinhouston

I really like Okoye and he is young, but I really thought that Price > Okoye

IMO if Okoye is healthy he is better than what I've seen of Price. If Price is gone that might mean Okoye's knee is in decent shape. I wonder what Collins situation is as well.

Keep in mind that if the bears keep Price, they owe the Tampa Bay a seventh round draft pick next year. So if Price isn't ready it's actually better to cut him. If you put him (Price) on injured reserve, then you have to pay him ( salary cap) and owe the late round pick. (I may be wrong about this)

If i didn't think Price was going to be ready I'd take him aside, tell him that we were going to cut him, but if nobody picks him up the bears will find something for him to do for a year (assistant to an assistant coach maybe?) while he improves his conditioning, and next year, he will get another shot with the bears. This is assuming that the bears think he has the talent...

Probably a little shady, but nothing shady ever happens in professional sports (sarcasm).

Originally Posted by Zelezo Vlk

I think Price > Okoye in time. Give him more time to recover and I'm sure the Bears will be calling his number.

This is what I think too. He was just in bad shape physically and not able to play at his highest level. That will happen if he keeps focused and on track..

Originally Posted by little bear

Does this mean Nate Collins is staying with the Bears?

Originally Posted by short faced bear

IMO if Okoye is healthy he is better than what I've seen of Price. If Price is gone that might mean Okoye's knee is in decent shape. I wonder what Collins situation is as well.

Collins locked himself in as Melton's primary backup at UT. He has to serve that one game suspension but he'll play in the Packer game.

Price was playing NT and once Paea returns that starting spot will be his. Toe is starting in the meantime. So unless we were planning on releasing Toe, Price would have been #3 at NT.

Okoye can play either DT position so in that regard he's a little more versatile that Price is right now. I think he's also more of a known quantity and he did a nice job pass rushing in 2011. As long as his knee is sound he was probably the safer choice of the two right now.

Part of the problem with Price was that he came into the TB camp way over his usual playing weight and just not in the shape he needed to be in. He was still going through a little of the same when he first arrived in the Bears camp but he was getting better. Then he gets that head injury. We still don't know how severe that was but if it was a concussion that would cause him to miss more time all that would do is set him back even more.

Hopefully the kid will get picked up by someone and if not I wouldn't be surprised if the Bears gave him a call if anyone of the DTs goes down. He's had a tough go of it and maybe he just needs a little more time to get his game back together. Unfortunately we couldn't give that to him right now.