Thread: Dickerson - Bears have not talked to any of their UFA's

Originally Posted by WindyCity

It doesn't really bother me, none of them are very good.

I would like Louis, Urlacher and Izzy back, but the Bears may want to get some new blood and there guys in.

Originally Posted by Coolhandluke

from what dickerson said earlier, they will all be on 1 year deals. In izzys case it will be less then last year, Louis has no leverage and urlacher will come crawling back.

Yep all three are guys we can use and should be brought back and it may be the length of the deal offered that's as much of a sticking point as the amount although if there aren't any signing dollars included it won't make much difference. They can still let them go after a year without a cap hit. That may be the other sticking point. If I'm Izzy or Brian I'd like some guaranteed or incentive $$$ in there if I take a low base salary. Let's look at all three.

Louis should be the easiest to sign for one year or two at most. In fact if I'm Louis I don't really want to negotiate anything longer than this year coming off that injury. If he plays his way back into the starting lineup and continues to improve he'll be in a much better position to negotiate for a long term deal next year especially if he can move to LG. Him I could see there whereas Carimi I can't.

Izzy deserves a raise but we're not well equipt to give him one. Hopefully we can bring him back for around what he got last year and he's satisfied with that. Even at his age based on his play he's not a guy we should low ball with an insulting offer. He wants to stay in Chicago so I would think he'll be patient enough to let Emery get other needs met and rearrange the cap so that he can sign his own FAs. I don't see him leaving because for a whole lot of reasons I don't believe he wants to play elsewhere.

Brian Urlacher is the tougher one of this bunch. I think his proposal for at least two more years at $5 mil per made them gulp a little and it's why there's a hesitation. I don't think Emery wants to go that high or for that long but maybe they're in a quandary as to how to counter it. I think they may be willing to pay him market value or close to it but what is that figure exactly? Without allowing him to troll for some serious offers from others it's hard to say. He wants what Lewis and Fletcher got and if he wasn't coming off those injuries it would have been easier to agree to that but he is and that's at least a cause for some concern.

If Urlacher isn't a priority right now then it's because they probably have some kind of an understanding that they will do what they can to either get him what he's asking for or offer a fair compromise. I really don't have a problem with him getting a two year deal provided there are incentives based on playing time and he doesn't become a cap liability if his injuries force his retirement. We really need him playing in order to ease this transition and we don't have his replacement yet. Roach would be OK short term but it's no better than 50/50 he'll be back and he's not the long term solution anyway.

If we can hold signing Urlacher off long enough to see if we can bring in just one more lineman to play inside then I think we sign him, let Roach go, and draft a kid like Ogletree at #20 and play him at SAM with the thought of moving him to MLB after Brian hangs it up. So I'm gonna watch for one more FA signing to see if that's how Emery approaches it.