Chicago Bears and Brian Urlacher Must Reach an Agreement

So far it’s been a pretty quiet day for Chicago Bears news. There are reports that the Bears are interested in Kansas City Chiefs TE, Steve Maneri. He’d likely be a replacement for the departed, Matt Spaeth. Nothing else of note other than the same old middle linebacker question.

The Brian Urlacher talks, or lack there of, are getting stranger by the day. It’s clear Urlacher would like to continue to play football. It is rumored that he only wants to play for the Bears as well.  The question of the day remains why haven’t they worked out a deal yet?

The answer is money. Urlacher appears to want just a million or two more than the Bears can offer. BearReport.com has the price tag at $11 million for two seasons.  The contract is relatively fair for a healthy Urlacher who has played 13 seasons, but what about an Urlacher who could only play at half speed?

The opinions of Bears fans everywhere are mixed. Personally, I want the guy back.  Half speed Urlacher is better than anyone on the roster currently, other than perhaps Lance Briggs. You could argue with me all day about Urlacher not being better than Briggs, but the overwhelming point I’m trying to make is that the Bears don’t have any other options right now.

Sure, there is the upcoming draft.  But do the Bears go linebacker,linebacker, linebacker in the first, second and third rounds respectively?  They need linebackers!  They might strike gold with Kevin Minter or Alec Ogletree and that would be great, but it’s only great if Urlacher is there too. The odds of landing two, instant starting caliber linebackers in the upcoming draft aren’t good unless the Bears do what I jokingly already brought up. Let’s hope that’s not what General Manager, Phil Emery has in mind!

I’ve mentioned the current roster in two previous posts. There’s no one there to do the job as of 2:14pm today.  So the Bears head into the draft and land one linebacker to start?  Great!  Where’s the other starter coming from?

I still think the Bears have a few more signings up their sleeves, but if it’s $11 million for two seasons Urlacher wants, I say pay the man.  Until there are other options, the Bears have no choice. Urlacher won’t be playing for anyone else or he’d have already signed.  Why not offer the guy a one year deal and be done with it?

I understand the Bears are saying there is no money left for Brian at the level of pay he wants.  I understand there are now 16 roster spots to be filled and it appears that the only way to fix the problem is to cut off some additional dead weight. I say get to cutting Bears. It’s not quite time to move on just yet.