More Off-Season Action

In spite of the verbal diarrhea spewing forth from the mouths of the national sports media, the Bears have actuall done alright so far this off-season. Last time I wrote, I mentioned the releases of Darwin Walker, Fred Miller, and Me-hsin Muhammad.

Since then, the Bears have re-signed Rex Grossman to a 1 year deal (good because there was no one available who is any better), given Kyle Orton a 1 year extension and a well-deserved chance at competing for the starting job, and released Brian Griese (basically dead cap weight for a player who didn't fit into their plans). While I don't think this necessarily makes the team stronger at the QB position in 2008, as Griese is better equipped in the short term than a rookie, it does open up an opporunity for 3 young guys to compete for the starting job, and hopefully create some chance for long term stability.

We allowed Ruben Brown & Brendan Ayanbadejo to walk..both ok moves. Brown was simply too old & banged up. Ayanbadejo didn't play defense, and we have enough good special teams guys that we will still be a top 5 unit in the league.

The Viqueens grossly overpaid for Bernard Berrian (enjoy the 60 catches for 700 yards and 4 TDs for 7 mil a year), and a market for linebackers never materialized, paving the way for Lance Briggs to re-sign to basically the same deal we offered him from the beginning. Not only do we keep an All-Pro linebacker (and BY FAR the best free agent we stood to lose), but we do so at an extremely comfortbale price. Tip o' the cap to you, Mr. Angelo.

All that said, the 2 most important positions to solidify heading into this off-season were received and o-line. The Bears made a somewhat unheralded, but very important, move today in re-signing Marty Booker to a 2 year deal. Moss to the Patriots, this ain't, but it does provide a solid veteran presence, as well as a productive player. Compared to Muhammad, Booker played on a worse team in 2006, with worse quarterbacks and a worse o-line, and still managed to out-perform him in every major statistical category. Throw in the fact that he's 3 years younger, infinitely less unselfish, and a fan favorite in Chicago, and you've got yourself an upgrade.

We still need to draft a tall, fast playmaker type receiver on the 1st day, and we need to draft at least 2 o-lineman in our 1st 5 picks (we have 1 1st, 1 2nd, 2 3rd, and 1 4th round pick). I'd like to see a free agent brough in as well, but at this point I'm not sure what to expect. I do expect our defense and special teams to both be top 5 units if healthy this year, and the offense to take a major step forward if we can stabilize the o-line, bring in 1 more good receiving threat (don't forget we have a great tight end tandem), and get decent play from the QB position.