Thread: Bears say they're still evaluating Brian Urlacher

Originally Posted by omc1969

I know that this is the SLOW time of the off-season and everyone wants to hear something but we all need to take a deep breath and not fly off the handle here. Management has said NOTHING about ANY player / FA's no should they yet. I'm sure that Cliff Stein is working on restructuring contracts and when that gets settled we will know more about the cap situation and resigning our own FA's as well. It won't be until AFTER the combine at the soonest. Then the REAL conversations can begin.


Edit: Not saying that You are flying off the handle here German but some posts here suggest that some think that the sky is falling. JMHO though.

Emery said yesterday that they want to keep Scott, Izzy and Roach. That's why I'm asking when we would hear something new about them

Originally Posted by GermansbombedPH

Emery said yesterday that they want to keep Scott, Izzy and Roach. That's why I'm asking when we would hear something new about them

I'm sure that Emery DOES want to keep the core of good players but we just won't hear any details for a few weeks yet. It's frustrating but true.

OMC is right, patience is warranted here.

IF we had not just gone through a coaching purge, there is a chance that some of these players would have already been extended, but we did go through a coaching purge, and these guys have a TON of research to do on the current players on the roster, cap hits, available FA's and the upcoming draft. They do not want to just throw a contract out there for some of these guys until they are confident they fit in the system and a cost/benefit analysis for each has been considered and they are confident they can't find better options elsewhere.

Some of them may be allowed to test the market first, and some, or even all may be signed on the eve of FA. Ultimately, some may be allowed to walk if the numbers don't work, but it is in the best interest of the team to take as much time as they need to review everyone relative to the system they will be asked to play in.

Originally Posted by 4DaBERS

OMC is right, patience is warranted here.

IF we had not just gone through a coaching purge, there is a chance that some of these players would have already been extended, but we did go through a coaching purge, and these guys have a TON of research to do on the current players on the roster, cap hits, available FA's and the upcoming draft. They do not want to just throw a contract out there for some of these guys until they are confident they fit in the system and a cost/benefit analysis for each has been considered and they are confident they can't find better options elsewhere.

Some of them may be allowed to test the market first, and some, or even all may be signed on the eve of FA. Ultimately, some may be allowed to walk if the numbers don't work, but it is in the best interest of the team to take as much time as they need to review everyone relative to the system they will be asked to play in.

I totally agree.

I've been thinking about this too. One of the sports writers (an idiot) wrote a few days ago about how upset he was with the new regime because the sports media wasn't getting a detailed explanation about everything Emery, Trestman & coaches were planning. As if this was nothing more than "business as usual" and some minor changes.

People like this are delusional.

This is a HUGE change that is being undertaken, and there is a MOUNTAIN of work to be done - right now. You can bet that Trestman (being the "detailed" guy that he is) and his new staff, are working pretty much around the clock pulling together new playbooks for all three phases of the game, evaluating players we have, ones we must keep, holes that MUST be filled, how we plan on filling them, and with who, and this all has to be within a budget/cap that is not that generous right now when you think this thing through.

It's a big deal.

And if it's not ALL done with surgical precision, then they could screw up the team for multiple YEARS. Reality check here. As Mike Ditka would say "It ain't tiddly winks"

Originally Posted by BearStuff

Bottom line......How much money will it take to sign him for another year or two? If it's workable, he will be re-signed, if not he won't be a Bear.

Bingo. That is the bottom line. Emery said that he's been in contact with his agent so they're in the process of feeling one another out and it's not being ignored. Brian needs to play cheaper than he ever has before but what's the breaking point? What's his "minimum wage scale".

Originally Posted by GermansbombedPH

when will we hear anything about Scott, Izzy or Roach? Emery has interest to keep them. When can we expect that they signed back with us?

I posted an article on it this AM. Emery says he'd like to have Scott and Izzy back along with Louis. Roach's name didn't come up so there was no comment about him.

With some of the younger guys like Roach we may need to let FA set their market value and then decide what to do. I see him a little like Manning. Worth having if the price is right. Maybe they shoot him an offer like they did with Manning but if someone is willing to better it then he goes elsewhere.

We have a guy like JT Thomas who could move up to that spot and I think that in addition to OLineman the position Emery and Tucker will be looking at most closely at the Combine is LB. If guys like Minter or Brown fall into the 2nd round I could see us taking one of those two.

Both guys seem to fit as the type of all around LB we tend to favor. Brown is a little smaller than ideal for MLB but he's the same size as Roach and could easily fit at SAM for now. Minter has more of the size you'd like but he may be picked sooner because of it whereas Brown's size may cause him to drop.

We need some youth at LB and much like he did with Jeffery last year if there's a guy with a whole lot of value still sitting there he may ignore another spot and take the best overall player still on his board. Of course this somewhat depends on what starting spot he can fill in the 1st round.