So, Jerry Angelo, which was the most relaxing of the 17 days this month that has constituted the Bears’ off-season?
The one where you did the right thing by sticking a franchise tag on linebacker Lance Briggs but risked setting up a standoff with his agent, Drew Rosenhaus, who wants Brian Urlacher money or else?
Or the one where your head coach flexed his Super Bowl muscle and fired a proven defensive coordinator in Ron Rivera to promote buddy Bob Babich in a move roundly understood and endorsed only by the Tulsa Golden Hurricanes Alumni Club?
To paraphrase that great sports philosopher Oswaldo Jose Guillen, isn’t winning fun?
Less than three weeks after losing Super Bowl XLI, Angelo greets the unofficial beginning of the 2007 season Thursday in Indianapolis for the NFL combine, where the Bears will look for this year’s Devin Hester or Mark Anderson.
Given that Director of College Scouting Greg Gabriel has shown he can find prospects on college football’s equivalent of the side of a milk carton, Angelo has every reason to feel confident the Bears again will add an impact rookie or two.
Drafting 31st, the Bears most need an offensive lineman for depth who eventually could replace an aging Fred Miller or a play-making safety who can take pressure off Danieal Manning–another 2006 draft find. But before getting too immersed in Mel Kiper-speak, Angelo and the Bears have higher priorities. . . .
Briggs hasn’t made himself available to comment publicly, but several sources have related conversations with the Pro Bowl linebacker revealing frustration with the Bears’ decision to use the franchise tag and keep him off the free-agent market. Under a subtle change in the new collective bargaining agreement, Briggs would be guaranteed the $7.206 million upon signing the one-year tender, unlike previous years in which the team didn’t have to pay until the regular season started. But apparently Briggs has mentioned to at least one teammate the possibility of seeking a trade instead of signing the offer–a looming Angelo headache. Reports have said Briggs is seeking a seven-year deal worth in excess of $63.8 million, a bigger financial commitment than the Bears made to Urlacher in 2003. But the Bears have not communicated with Rosenhaus since informing him of their decision to place the franchise tag on Briggs on Friday.
Mentioning a trade could have been Briggs simply reacting emotionally to a friend about losing out on a potential signing bonus two times his proposed salary or it could have been a hint to his off-season strategy. Time tends to lend perspective and perhaps Briggs will realize he can live with a 1,000 percent raise that represents adequate respect and appreciation from the Bears. But with Rosenhaus calling the shots, nothing can be assumed.
Remember, Adewale Ogunleye is a Bear only because Rosenhaus engineered a trade from the Dolphins when Ogunleye held out in 2004 and refused to sign a one-year tender of $1.84 million after the Dolphins wouldn’t meet his long-term demands. From Terrell Owens to Javon Walker, other examples around the league show how steadfast and creative Rosenhaus clients can be when pursuing a better bottom line. Ogunleye once said Rosenhaus does more for players than the league’s union, and he has a $15 million deposit slip from the Bears to prove it. . . .
Speaking of the Rosenhaus stable, running back Thomas Jones will enter this off-season with more leverage than he had a year ago when he pushed for a trade and skipped summer workouts also known as organized team activities. The playoffs illustrated how badly the Bears’ running game relies on Jones and how dangerous it could be to count too heavily on Cedric Benson in clutch situations. Benson’s fumble and knee sprain in the Super Bowl served as reminders of the value of dependability, something Benson hasn’t proved he can provide heading into his third season. No matter how much money the Bears have invested in Benson, putting the running game solely in his hands at the expense of Jones seems too risky for a team that realistically could challenge again for a Super Bowl. Jones, who turns 29 in August, is expected to make $2.25 million in the final year of his deal and could make a valid argument given his last two seasons to add two more years to his contract. It seems unrealistic to expect Rosenhaus to allow Jones to play out the final year of his contract without approaching Angelo. With as much as $16 million left under the salary cap after Briggs’ hit, re-investing in Jones would solidify a position of strength for the Bears. . . .
While rewarding Jones makes sense, so does resisting free-agent quarterback Jeff Garcia. Garcia, who turns 37 Saturday, put together a solid half-season for the Eagles replacing Donovan McNabb. Based on that production, Garcia enters free agency as the favorite to be the Most Likely to be Overpaid. Garcia once was a great NFL quarterback. But at this point of his career he is best in small bursts and would be exposed over the course of a 16-game season. Moreover, financially, why would the Bears get into a multimillion-dollar bidding war for an aging veteran a year after giving $5 million to Brian Griese essentially to hold a clipboard? If the Bears want to provide Rex Grossman real competition heading into training camp, it should come from Griese, who already is paid handsomely and is still a smarter option for the Bears than any quarterback likely to be on the open market–including Garcia. . . .
An outsider’s view: Kevin Fee, the sports editor of the Grand Forks (N.D.) Herald, recently shared his thoughts on the ascension of new Bears defensive coordinator Bob Babich, the head coach at North Dakota State from 1997-2002. On his blog, Fee writes, “Didn’t [University of North Dakota] coaches coach circles around this guy? Hey, Bob. Unbelievable. Fantastic.” Babich actually went 46-22 in his Bison tenure (2-4 against the Fighting Sioux) but apparently didn’t leave much of an impression. One of Fee’s readers responded to the blog comments by saying, “Babich could recruit, but his on-the-field success was obviously nothing special.” Lovie Smith just staked a measure of his reputation believing otherwise about Babich.
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