Best Article on the Reasons to Re-Sign Urlacker Yet............

Chicago Bears Rumors: Re-Signing Brian Urlacher At A Discount Should Be No-Brainer


BY thaddeus.novak | February 03 2013 3:59 PM







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The [COLOR=blue !important][COLOR=blue !important]Chicago [COLOR=blue !important]Bears[/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR] face a host of decisions about re-signing potential free agents this offseason, none bigger than the question of what to do about Brian Urlacher. The career Bear and eight-time Pro Bowler will turn 35 in May, and a series of injuries have raised serious questions about how much he has left in the tank.




Unlike many aging stars, though, Urlacher appears to recognize that he’s no longer the player who recorded 93 tackles and three interceptions in his last All-Pro season in 2006. As reported by the Chicago Tribune, Urlacher acknowledged in a radio interview “when you look at my age and everything, it’s going to be hard not to give [the Bears] a discount. I’m not going to make what I was making in the past.”


Urlacher also commented “Chicago is my home…So I want to be there and hopefully we can work something out.”


Had Urlacher insisted on another contract pegged to the value of the player he used to be, the Bears would’ve had little choice but to cut him loose. Given his willingness to take a pay cut, though, it’s hard to see a reason for Chicago not to re-sign him.


The most obvious objection would be that, with Urlacher’s history of injuries, he can’t be counted on for anything resembling 16 games anymore. However, 10 or 12 games of Brian Urlacher is still better than what the Bears would be likely to get from any other affordable middle [COLOR=blue !important]linebacker[/COLOR] in the free-agent market.


Urlacher knows Chicago’s defense inside and out, and the likelihood is that new coordinator Mel Tucker isn’t going to mess with the part of this team that isn’t broken. The 13-year vet is also an unparalleled leader, not to mention being better in pass coverage than most middle ‘backers of any age.


Chicago absolutely needs to groom a replacement for the aging star, but that’s much easier done with Urlacher around as a mentor. If the Bears can find a promising candidate in this spring’s draft, so much the better, but by retaining Urlacher, they avoid forcing themselves to acquire a game-ready successor this offseason.


As another, not inconsiderable, bonus to keeping Urlacher in the fold, the Bears would score some points with frequently-disgruntled Lance Briggs. Unlike Urlacher, Briggs is still a [COLOR=blue !important][COLOR=blue !important]Pro [COLOR=blue !important]Bowl[/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR] contributor on the field, and he’s expressed a strong preference for keeping his long-time running mate in the lineup.

Brian Urlacher isn’t going to make the difference between missing the playoffs and going to the [COLOR=blue !important]Super Bowl[/COLOR], but neither is any other potential middle linebacker the Bears might start in 2013. With a reasonable price tag, Urlacher (even with his injury history) is the right man for the job in the immediate future.

A good common sense layout of why it just makes good business sense to bring Urlacher back. I think his two strongest points besides the monetary issues are;

1) Nobody plays pass coverage from MLB any better than Brian does.

2) Even 12-14 games of Urlacher at 80%-90% of what he use to be is better than all 16 games of someone else.

I believe these are the two biggest football reasons you bring him back.

I'll share one of my biggest concerns about bringing Brian back, and it may sound kinda crazy; I'm beginning to wonder if his attitude is a bit of a problem. He dissed the fans at the end of this season, but that wasn't the first time. If you go back over the last couple of years, he has had that kind of attitude and done so before. Given that observation, one has to ask, "so what, why should we care?" That's a valid question. Ultimately we really shouldn't and there are many players who probably think the same way, but don't have the guts to say it. The problem is, it perpetuates the "Us vs Them" attitude that can sometimes work for you, but sometimes work against you. Brian won't be around much longer, so his attitude isn't the direct problem, but the indirect problem becomes his influence on younger players that come in to replace him or play with him that still get jacked up by the crowd noise and adulation from the fans. I'm convinced part of Devin Hester's problem is that he didn't like being booed and he's not mature enough to get passed it. Football is the ultimate emotional sport, and it shows in the quality of play. You can tell a difference between the players that are emotionally jacked and the players that have lost the fire, and as "professional" as these guys all claim to be, you know they still want the glory of the fans cheering for them. The egos these guys have are enormous and they need to be fed.

With all that speculation thrown out there, if Brian wants to come back for another season, I'm game as long as he's "all in". I still think he can provide a great deal of quality play, and if his attitude is appropriately directed, he can be a great role model for the younger players, but because of his star power, he can also easily sour those around him.

I truly believe that he wants to come back and play for the Bears and I also believe he'll invest time and effort into helping whoever we have in mind to replace him eventually in the same way that Marshall is helping Jeffery.

I think his comments last season about the fans were off base too but I can understand his defense of his coach. To those of us his words about fans lack of knowledge don't apply I'd simply ignore it. I don't consider that it was directed at me.

The bottom line as the article points out is that the benefits of having him play outweigh any detraction's. There's not just his abilities as a player but also his leadership and a "keep peace in the family" kind of thing going on there too.

Just like Ray Lewis he needs to have a shot at a ring and it's not impossible that this year or next this team may be good enough to win one for themselves. I don't think the McCaskey's want to see him play elsewhere either. Bears legends retire as Bears.

Wow. Just wow.

The Bears ran less Cover 2 this year partly because Urlacher couldn't cover the deep middle any longer. So take that off the list.

80-90%? More like 60%. And that's when he was healthy. Add another year and it's worse. He never did adjust to his diminished speed as evidenced by his horrible pursuit angles. And taking on blocks head on has never been his strong point. It's worse now. He got trucked in the second level many times last year.

The rest of the reasons seem to be based on sentimental nonsense (who cares if Briggs is happy???). The author (and many fans) seem to be grasping at reasons to keep him here.

If he's willing to sign a one year, incentive laden, cap friendly contract to be a stop gap until they can find a replacement, great. I think he'll find an Olin Kreutz-like demand for his services on the open market.

Hope you're right soul, because I have this feeling he will be back. Trackguy also makes some good points, but lets hope (if he comes back) that much of his handicap this year was due to a knee that will be better next year and not worse. I frankly see pluses and minuses on both sides, but no one really knows for sure what we'll get from another year of Brian.

I'd like to see Brian come back for a year. But like TG said he hasn't adjusted to his lack of speed by his angles. There is PLENTY of other leadership on D w/this team like Pep, Peanut, and Briggs. The whole leadership thing at times is overblown vs. production (see Kreutz). If Brian's leadership is so vast then he should consider retiring now and becoming a quality control assistant coach where he can mentor his replacement even more effectively.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by trackguy

Wow. Just wow.

The Bears ran less Cover 2 this year partly because Urlacher couldn't cover the deep middle any longer. So take that off the list.

80-90%? More like 60%. And that's when he was healthy. Add another year and it's worse. He never did adjust to his diminished speed as evidenced by his horrible pursuit angles. And taking on blocks head on has never been his strong point. It's worse now. He got trucked in the second level many times last year.

The rest of the reasons seem to be based on sentimental nonsense (who cares if Briggs is happy???). The author (and many fans) seem to be grasping at reasons to keep him here.

If he's willing to sign a one year, incentive laden, cap friendly contract to be a stop gap until they can find a replacement, great. I think he'll find an Olin Kreutz-like demand for his services on the open market.

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The guy spent the offseason dealing with that knee injury from the bonehead play Major Wright pulled off that caused it then had surgery right before the season began and you actually thought he'd be playing health even after he told people his knee was still giving him problems?

Wow just Wow, weren't you listening or did you listen and just not believe.

The author presents a whole lot of good reasons for keeping here some of which have less to do with his play than his leadership and ability to marshal the defense when he's on the field. You think he can only play at 60% even when he's healthy great just go on thinking that way but I don't agree and this has nothing to do with sentiment. That's just the bonus of letting the guy retire honorably as a Bear.

Why don't we wait and see what a year off to get healthy again does for him. If he was only at 60% and his numbers last year were as good as his number were in 2011 when he should have been 100% I think there's a good chance he'll do alright next year too even at 80%. There's no doubt that his play is declining but we don't really have better to replace him with so why not bring him back?

I think the day Brian Urlacher knows that he can't do it any longer he'll hang it up. It's no longer about the money and I think he's making that clear. The guy want to play football and if he wants to play then play him and let him help coach the guys who'll take his place. It's time to find that guy. That much I agree on but it's not quite time to put Urlacher out to pasture. He's still got some football left in him.

Given all of the other transitions taking place and the fact that we're not in a total rebuild mode why wouldn't you bring back you defensive leader if he can still play? It would be pretty foolish not to unless you had his replacement ready to go and I don't see that yet.

I was very critical of Urlacher's play this season, until I stepped back and thought about the fact that the injury prevented him from having a training camp & he was out of shape (couldn't work out).

When Urlacher received the injury late in 2011, he had been playing about as well as I can remember in recent years. He was having a solid season. Then he goes into this past season out of shape due to the injury, and he also had to miss most of training camp.

That's a killer combination to overcome.

It looked to me, like he was steadily getting better with each game this season. Obviously he didn't look like his old self. But that is understandable. He now has an entire off-season, where he is healthy & can get back to where he was pre-injury. He should hit training camp in excellent shape, and motivated to the max, to prove he still can play at a high level. He won't want to be remembered as the player we saw in 2012.

One other thought. After Urlacher missed most of the season in 2009 (the wrist injury). He came back in 2010 and 2011 looking really solid. He was shedding blocks, moving and getting to the football - like he had when he was much younger. It was like he realized you don't go on forever in the NFL. He was like a man possessed. I wouldn't be surprised if we see something like that this season. The man realizes this is probably his last, or next to last, season in the NFL. He could be in for a GREAT season.

Just a gut feeling.

p.s. I still think we need to identify his eventual replacement. Then we can have a youngster learning his craft, as Brian's eventual replacement.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by soulman

The guy spent the offseason dealing with that knee injury from the bonehead play Major Wright pulled off that caused it then had surgery right before the season began and you actually thought he'd be playing health even after he told people his knee was still giving him problems?

Wow just Wow, weren't you listening or did you listen and just not believe.

The author presents a whole lot of good reasons for keeping here some of which have less to do with his play than his leadership and ability to marshal the defense when he's on the field. You think he can only play at 60% even when he's healthy great just go on thinking that way but I don't agree and this has nothing to do with sentiment. That's just the bonus of letting the guy retire honorably as a Bear.

Why don't we wait and see what a year off to get healthy again does for him. If he was only at 60% and his numbers last year were as good as his number were in 2011 when he should have been 100% I think there's a good chance he'll do alright next year too even at 80%. There's no doubt that his play is declining but we don't really have better to replace him with so why not bring him back?

I think the day Brian Urlacher knows that he can't do it any longer he'll hang it up. It's no longer about the money and I think he's making that clear. The guy want to play football and if he wants to play then play him and let him help coach the guys who'll take his place. It's time to find that guy. That much I agree on but it's not quite time to put Urlacher out to pasture. He's still got some football left in him.

Given all of the other transitions taking place and the fact that we're not in a total rebuild mode why wouldn't you bring back you defensive leader if he can still play? It would be pretty foolish not to unless you had his replacement ready to go and I don't see that yet.

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Very good points all.