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Free Agency Preview: Centers
Bears free agency preview: Center
February, 12, 2013 Feb 12
2:08
PM CT
By Michael C. Wright | ESPNChicago.com
ESPNChicago examines unrestricted free agents by position that might interest the Bears.
FA previews: RB | S | CB | DT | DE | G | WR | TE | QB | LB | OT »
Roberto Garza enters the final season of a two-year extension signed in November of 2011. But he'll be 34 in March, leaving the Chicago Bears to ponder the possibility of life after the center, who played well enough in 2012 to be considered one of the most underrated performers on the club's wildly inconsistent offensive line.
The new coaching staff plans to clean up issues up front through a combination of tightening up technique and new additions. Garza certainly gives the Bears a strong foundation on which to build in 2013, but the team needs to acquire his eventual successor.
Based on the current free agent market, the best way to do that will be through the draft or by sifting through the current roster, which includes candidates such as Edwin Williams, Lance Louis and pending free agent Chris Spencer, who played center for most of his career before switching to guard with the Bears.
Garza graded negatively in five of the 16 games, and according to Pro Football Focus, gave up five sacks, one quarterback hit, and eight pressures in 1,071 snaps. Not exactly an all-Pro performance, but the Bears can win with that if they can get Garza's level of consistency from all five players on the offensive line.
The Bears list Williams as the backup to Garza on their unofficial depth chart. Williams played six games in 2012, and started two at left guard. Spencer, who at this point appears to be on the way out, is a former first-round pick who started in 60 games at center over a six-year span in Seattle before joining the Bears and moving over to guard.
Louis, meanwhile, possesses the skills to play center in a pinch. But Louis' niche is at right guard, where he was arguably the club's best offensive lineman through the first 11 games, before a knee injury knocked him out for the final five outings.
A free agent likely to be a one of the club's priorities this offseason, Louis appears to be the long-term starter at right guard if he can return without a hitch from knee surgery.
So at this point, Garza is definitely the most logical option to anchor the rebuilding effort in 2013 for the Bears, who might need to draft his eventual successor sometime this spring because three of the top potential fits for the club are restricted free agents while for more are 30 or older.
Here's the top five listed alphabetically:
Phil Costa, Dallas Cowboys: He's somewhat of an unknown because he became the starter due to injuries, but only played approximately a game and a half before going on the injured reserve. A restricted free agent, Costa isn't a dominating player, but he's young (rising third-year veteran), smart and versatile. It's an unlikely scenario, but Cowboys may not be inclined to tender him, which means there's a chance -- albeit small -- Costa could come at somewhat of a bargain and be groomed to eventually start.
Brian De La Puente, New Orleans Saints: Played in a whopping 1,134 snaps in 2012, which ranked as the fourth-most in the NFL. Yet he allowed just two sacks, in addition to four quarterback hits and 10 pressures for New Orleans' pass-happy offense, according to Pro Football Focus. At 27, De La Puente is entering the prime of his career. But he's a restricted free agent. So landing him wouldn't be easy for the Bears.
Dan Koppen, Denver Broncos: A longtime starter for the New England Patriots, Koppen joined the Broncos last season and didn't log his first start until Oct. 7. In 14 games (counting the playoffs), Koppen gave up only one sack. A two-time Super Bowl winner, Koppen has worked with Tom Brady and Peyton Manning. But he also turns 34 in September.
Todd McClure, Atlanta Falcons: He's got familiarity with general manager Phil Emery, but McClure is also 35 years old, and we all know this is a young man's game. Besides that, McClure doesn't represent a real upgrade at the position. He allowed five sacks in 2012, along with five quarterback hits and 14 hurries.
Fernando Velasco, Tennessee Titans: Another restricted free agent, Velasco will be 28 this month. Velasco put together a shaky performance in Week 2 at San Diego, but rebounded to play solid ball the rest of the season. Velasco didn't allow a sack all season, but he did surrender nine pressures.
I'm getting to that age where a lifetime warranty just doesn't mean as much to me anymore as an afternoon nap. 
Honey Badger Don't Care. Honey Badger Don't Give a Shit.
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In thought it might be worthwhile to look at positions where the Bears need to upgrade or get younger through FA or the draft and with Garza now approaching age 34 the time to do this is now. Saying that he was "considered one of the most underrated performers on the Bears wildly inconsistent line" is another one of those "tallest dwarf" kind of statements. He may not suck but he's also not all that good either.
If we're going to find an upgrade it sure looks like it's not gonna come in free agency. Maybe the best of that group is the guy Aaron Kromer made a productive player out of in NOLA but Brian de la Puente is a RFA and it's almost certain that the Saints will place a high enough tender on him to preclude a trade. So we might as well take his name off the board.
Their are two other RFAs that offer little if anything better than what we have and the UFA are also no better than Garza and of a similar age. So it looks like any upgrading will either have to come from within or from the draft. These are the three top draft prospects and only Jones carries a 1st round grade but his Lis Franc injury also makes him a somewhat risky pick for us at #20. Frederick and Holmes currently rank as mid round picks and are probably not first year starters over a vet like Garza or even EWill as his backup.
Kind of slim pickings in the OC market this year all around which tells me that unless the Bears are satisfied that Jones injury won't affect his play in 2013 this may not be the best year to replace Garza unless EWill wins that position outright in preseason. I guess it could happen but at least for one more year we may need to be content with the ageless but mediocre vet as our OC.
I'm getting to that age where a lifetime warranty just doesn't mean as much to me anymore as an afternoon nap. Honey Badger Don't Care. Honey Badger Don't Give a Shit.
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great, list the free agents and only come with 1 UFA 
He just could have said "go with Garza, I like him"
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Originally Posted by
GermansbombedPH 
great, list the free agents and only come with 1 UFA
He just could have said "go with Garza, I like him"
Well like it or not these are issues that all GMs face when it comes to upgrading their team. It much easier for us to sit back and criticize the lack of attention paid to what we perceive to be a problem position but as I said in another post before you release someone you better have an idea of how you propose to replace him with someone who's better. That's not always as easy as it may seem.
The lack to top talent at this position this year tells me that the best will be sought after and more expensive than usual. The laws of supply and demand seem to work pretty efficiently in the NFL ever since FA began. So much like our decisions regarding a replacement for Webb somebody has to make the call as to whether we get anymore for the money spent out of another vet player than we would out of Garza.
I don't see us giving up any picks we don't have to burn for a RFA like de la Puente and aside from Jones the draft isn't flush with top OC prospects either. So maybe we stick with Garza or EWill and either draft a kid later on or find a good UDFA prospect and let Kromer work with him like he did with de la Puente and in another year or two at most we have our new OC. Plug and play guys are in short supply this year.
I'm getting to that age where a lifetime warranty just doesn't mean as much to me anymore as an afternoon nap. Honey Badger Don't Care. Honey Badger Don't Give a Shit.
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I'd love to see us draft a sold center. I firmly believe that the draft is our best resource for getting solid interior linemen. If we do this, then it will be a move that pays great dividends for many years to come. It will make our entire offense better.
We don't need to go to FA for a center. Stupid move. We'd just overpay for a guy, at a position where we can better fix through the draft. My hope is that we draft 2 interior linemen VERY high in the draft this year. In fact, I'd be fine if we went OL in both the first AND the second round. Or I could live with 1st and 4th round, or at worst 2nd and 4th round. One of those two players should be a center.
Use that precious FA money to bring in a tackle. Something we can't fix very easily through the draft. And if we bring in a young kid at center, maybe we use Garza or E.Will at center this year, and let the kid learn his craft as a guard this year (if he's starter quality). If he's not starter quality this year, then let him be a #2 at center. I'm OK with that.
Trestman - Kromer - Tucker - DeCamillis
I'm looking forward to seeing these guys coach. Hope they're good.
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High Fives / Like - 2 BEAR DOWN!, 0 Dislikes
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Seemingly you can build yourself or develop a good OC out of a guy who's smart and athletic. If you surround him with good OGs who can help taking on these mammoth NTs he doesn't even need to be all that big but he does need to be athletic and agile in pass blocking.
We've actually done pretty well with UDFAs and mid to lower round picks over the years and I think many other teams have done the same. There never seems to be an overabundance of top OCs in the draft. It's not a glamour position, it doesn't pay that well, and you get the snot beat out of you a lot. LOL I think it takes a certain kind of mentality to succeed there. Playing with a chip on your shoulder seems to help and I think Olin had that whereas Garza doesn't. EWill is supposed to have more of that nasty to him as well so we'll see if he steps it up this year.
I'm getting to that age where a lifetime warranty just doesn't mean as much to me anymore as an afternoon nap. Honey Badger Don't Care. Honey Badger Don't Give a Shit.
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High Fives / Like - 1 BEAR DOWN!, 0 Dislikes
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Originally Posted by
soulman Well like it or not these are issues that all GMs face when it comes to upgrading their team. It much easier for us to sit back and criticize the lack of attention paid to what we perceive to be a problem position but as I said in another post before you release someone you better have an idea of how you propose to replace him with someone who's better. That's not always as easy as it may seem.
The lack to top talent at this position this year tells me that the best will be sought after and more expensive than usual. The laws of supply and demand seem to work pretty efficiently in the NFL ever since FA began. So much like our decisions regarding a replacement for Webb somebody has to make the call as to whether we get anymore for the money spent out of another vet player than we would out of Garza.
I don't see us giving up any picks we don't have to burn for a RFA like de la Puente and aside from Jones the draft isn't flush with top OC prospects either. So maybe we stick with Garza or EWill and either draft a kid later on or find a good UDFA prospect and let Kromer work with him like he did with de la Puente and in another year or two at most we have our new OC. Plug and play guys are in short supply this year.
I understand the difficulties and pitfalls, but I would strongly prefer to not have Garza playing C next year. First of all, he's aging and slipping as we'll all saw. Secondly, he's not that good to begin with. Thirdly, OC isn't even his best position IMHO. He's a better OG than C and would be a valuable vet (either backup or starter competition) there for maybe another season or two.
I'd really want to him supplanted at C this year. And I could be wrong but I don't see EWill as anything more than a 2nd tier backup kinda player. That basically means Barrett Jones folks.
Obviously, he has to check out medically (much like Marshall checked out legally/mentally this time last year). I think it's helpful to keep in mind that his LisFranc was a sprain not a fracture from what I've read and he played on it (WELL, I might add) and then had it fixed immediately after the BCS game to maximize recovery time. Can't say for sure knowing what we know now, but PS is still 6 months away so let's not get too paranoid about this. Schaub came back the following year fine from a LisFranc FRACTURE that knocked him off the field.
It actually may benefit us but pushing Jones down farther than he would otherwise go if he didn't have to miss the Combine and his Pro Day. He may very well be draft-able in the late first or even early second which means trade down possibilities could exist to net us an extra pick (likely a 3rd). Talk about a no-brainer if that scenario pans out...
He can also play OG for a year if need be for whatever reason so keep that in mind too. When it comes to the draft OG, C, & LB look to be our top 3 priorities and IMO the first two are substantially more vital than LB if we retain our own key FAs. How would you like a line like this for Kromer to work with?:
Webb/FA -- Brown/Warford(3rd) -- Jones -- Louis/Garza -- Carimi
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High Fives / Like - 1 BEAR DOWN!, 0 Dislikes
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It will be interesting to see how Jones rates rolling into the draft. As it stands right now he's marginal as a late first round pick but depending on his medical evaluations very unlikely to fall far enough for us to get him in the second or he may move up based on demand.
Cooper is probably the guy you take with that #20 pick and Jones if we trade back or in a trade up in round two. I'd be ecstatic if we could get both but here's where not having that 3rd may hurt.
I'm getting to that age where a lifetime warranty just doesn't mean as much to me anymore as an afternoon nap. Honey Badger Don't Care. Honey Badger Don't Give a Shit.
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I have no problem with Garza/EWill going into next season. Pick up a UDFA and see what you can do with him. Don't waste a 1st on a Center
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Originally Posted by
GermansbombedPH I have no problem with Garza/EWill going into next season. Pick up a UDFA and see what you can do with him. Don't waste a 1st on a Center
I do. Garza isn't a very good C and he's at the tail end of his career. Maybe he's got one more starting year in him. That's pretty much it. I don't see any wise interior OL picks as a "waste" at all just because they're not glamor positions. Our OC and LG positions were pretty much a wasteland last year.
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