Bearstalk

Players are dropping like flies, but fortunately not people we were chasing. We need to add a free safety even if we draft one in the first three rounds. We have no depth there. Phillips is still out there, the best rated among the free agent safeties. Also Sean Jones has got some good reviews which has to be better than what we have. Phillips has been a SS but has played the free safety when he first got in the league. The problem is these guys will be gone if Jerry GM is waiting to get a good money deal from them two. Also do you think we could bring some CBs in and move them or Graham to FS? Bodden/Lions, Bartell/Rams or McFadden/Pitsb are still out there to be had. …

I thought it would be fun to do a weekly or bi-weekly draft poll. I used Walterfootball.com to give us a choice of where they have them ranked. Walterfootball has decent rankings and they update every Thursday. Tomorrows version should be interesting to see where players shift to since the combine. I might post Talk Bears Mock version II over the weekend once the mock draft web pages all get updated. My votes as of today: Michael Johnson DE, Brian Robiskie WR, Donald Brown RB b/c they all were awesome at the combine. (Jarius Byrd was very close, but I hope David Bruton FS Notre Dame is there w/ the BB comp pick)

Could the Chicago Bears gain from Tampa Bay's losses? By Vaughn McClure Looks like firing Jon Gruden wasn't the only house-cleaning going down in Tampa Bay. The Buccaneers released five veterans, including star linebacker Derrick Brooks. Remember, Lovie Smith used to coach the linebackers in Tampa Bay and Brooks was one of his favorities. More intriguing are two Bucs set to becomes free agents at 11:01 p.m. on Thursday: receiver Michael Clayton and safety Jermaine Phillips. Both are far away in contract talks and would upgrade the Bears at their respective positions. The Bears seem content with what they have, but a tweak here and there sure wouldn't h…

Interesting, semi-humorous article about the Bad-Rex portion of Rex Grossman. Good Bye Bad Rex

I don't know if they are any good or even whether or not they would fit our system but they are being talked about. They are much bigger than our deffensive ends. Canty, Chris DE UFA 6-7 304 4th Season DAL Olshansky, Igor DE UFA 6-6 309 5th Season SD Babin, Jason DE UFA 6-3 267 5th Season KC TBD

Since we now have another body to add to the mix. I think we should still resign St Clair and still draft a OT in the first round. We need as many bodies as possibe since we arent even sure Williams can play yet. So could this be our ofensive line? Williams, St. Clair, Keuntz, Buening, Oher with Omiyale, Beekman, and Garza backing them up. We cut Metcalfs ass.

Please add any free agent updates here unless you'd like to have a broad discussion on a certain player.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3939011 Didnt this guy just a few years removed try to rip off another guys head with his cleat? 115 MILLION??????? Tommie Harris was a steal!

KFFL says that the Lions are interested in Rex. Or vice versa? Now wouldn't that be interesting?

Buried in a piece about the Bengals possibly signing Housh is this nugget: http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20090226/SPT02/302260058 "The Bengals decided not to place the franchise tag on Houshmandzadeh, which would’ve been for $9.88 million. It is believed that he is looking for a deal upwards of $10 million per season. As many as eight teams could be in the T.J. Derby starting Friday, but the favorites remain the Eagles, Giants and Bears." This is the first i've ever heard of the Bears being linked to Housh outside of the blogosphere. He is certainly the style of WR we could use, and he could teach Earl Bennet (since Earl is of that mold as well), but…

Sign Michael Huff- 1 year, $3 million. Sign JP Losman- 2 years, $8 million. Bears trade 18th pick to NYJ for their 1st round pick next year, their 2nd this year, and their 5th this year. Buh-bye to: Tait, Hillenmeyer, McKie, and Miller. Re-sign Idonije (3 years, 10 million) and St. Clair (3 years, 14 million). 2. Jarius Byrd, CB, Oregon 2. Laurence Sidbury, DE, Richmond 3. Juaquin Iglesias, WR, Oklahoma 3. Jason Williams, OLB, Western Illinois 4. Lydon Murtha, OT, Nebraska 5. Louis Vazquez, OG, Texas Tech 5. Chris Baker, DT, Hampton 6. Tony Fiammetta, FB, Syracuse 7. Kory Sheets, RB, Purdue 7. Andrew Means, WR, Indiana UDFA: Louis We…

Looking at CNNSI's mock draft, by Don Banks Just for the record, he has us drafting OT Eban Britton, and provides the following comments, John Tait's retirement puts the Bears in the market for another offensive tackle, and while the higher-rated Michael Oher remains on the board, the word is he started taking on water at the combine and will continue to sink as the scouting process continues. Teams just don't have as much patience for draft prospects with character issues as they did in the pre-Roger Goodell days. He also previously stated, Teams aren't as willing as they once were to look the other way for a player who has either character or medic…

The Trib is speculating that the Bears should go after either Fred Taylor, salary cap casualty of the Jacksonville Jaguars or Duece McAllister who was released by the Saints. The Trib says that McAllister is a higher risk with his injuries that he has had since his 1,000+ yards rushing in 2006. Would it make sense to sign either Taylor or McAllister as a compliment to Forte' at this point or do you see someone else out there that is a possible free agent or someone that we may be able to draft in a later round as a compliment to Forte". I kind of like the idea of either one of these proven backs who would probably be able to mentor Forte' a bit more on the fundamentals…

Hey guys. A guy just got fired here at the job and the boss is going through his stuff. He found a box of old baseball and football cards including Mike Ditka's rookie card. They all have the plastic covers and are in good shape. Any idea how much it is worth?

The motto of the offseason is "Get Younger & Get Better." Sign WR Reggie Williams - Still young with a great skill set, just hasn't lived up to the hype. Given the Bears desperate need for a big WR, I'm willing to give him a shot. Sign WR David Patten - Still has good hands and knows how to get open, and he doesn't seem to be the kind of player to pout if he doesn't get PT at this point in his career. I think Hester could learn a ton from him, at the very least, and he could be a nice "go-to" guy on third down if he can stay healthy. Sign OT Ray Willis - Player RG and RT in Seattle last year. Pencil him in at RT unless a stud we draft is clearly ready, …

I realize many were disappointed when Gross and Carey re-signed, not to mention Starks getting tagged, but it seems like the pool of FA OL is not bad at all. I see quality at both OG and OT. PFW just came out w/ their list of top 100 FAs (though they include restricted and tagged players). I was surprised to see how many OL were on the list. Not only that, but we are seeing more veterans getting cut for cap reasons than expected, and they have not even made the list yet, like Brandon Moore. 11. Jason Brown - C-OG / Baltimore Ravens - Age 26 / FA Type: Unrestricted The marquee Ravens free agent whom no one seems to be talking about, Brown is set to cash …

The Sun Times and Tribune both had articles in today's paper talking about our secondary. Three things that were news: 1. Peanut Tillman is staying at cornerback (Not exactly breaking news, but it stops the rumors of him going to fs) 2. Danieal Manning is staying at nickel-back, not free safety (this is different then what Smith had said before) 3. Craig Steltz is penciled in as the starter at free safety with Payne at SS. First, this tells me our cornerback position is pretty damn strong. D Manning looked really good at nickel-back. We're hoping Vasher can return to form, and he'll be battling with Corey Graham who was pretty damn good last year. T…

The Bills are cutting ties with OG Derrick Dockery, who they signed to a $49 million deal with $18.5 guaranteed only 2 years ago. The last contract he signed was, at the time, the biggest contract a Guard had gotten (pretty sure Faneca passed him).

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writ...ock2/index.html

Thoughts? http://www.suntimes.com/sports/football/be...-bear24.article Peace