You are kidding right? 5 mil a year for an aged and injury prone, average production LB. He was ranked 29th our of 35 MLB starters last year in tackling efficiency. Because of our cap space, 2 years at 2.5 mil a year is stretching it. Buy a nice poster of Urlacher and lets get a good football player, or a cheap one.

 

 

Agreed. 5 million a year is way too much given our cap space. He has been paid handsomely by the Bears over the years. A hometown discount is not 5 million a year. I would say 2 to 3 million is a hometown discount.

 

Peace

Agreed. 5 million a year is way too much given our cap space. He has been paid handsomely by the Bears over the years. A hometown discount is not 5 million a year. I would say 2 to 3 million is a hometown discount.

 

Peace

This is the Olin Kreutz negotiation all over again. He eventually took less money than we offered to go suck elsewhere. Hopefully the Bears and 54 learned from that.

If that's the case, the ink should be drying shortly. Even if Urlacher's side does budge, that is a reasonable contract for the face of the franchise. He's not trying to break the bank; he's trying to retire a Bear.

 

You are saying we should pay Urlacher 5 million for the next two years each? When we have 3+ available cap space? That's workable, but is this where you want us to focus our free agent funds? He's not trying to break the bank but he's not worth 5 million. Unless you count jersey sales, but if you don't have one already, why would you buy one now?

 

Urlacher was injured at the end of the Seattle game. Our defense didn't look much different without him. Do we beat Green Bay or Minnesota if he's healthy? I'm skeptical.

 

In my garage-slash man-cave I have multiple Urlacher posters. I have "Eye of the Storm," the one where he has his arms extended, and the WBBM 780 poster with Dick Butkus and Singletary over an what appears to be a dead Green Bay Packer player. Hell, I'm looking at my daughter and she's wearing a 54 t-shirt as I'm typing this. I don't want to see Urlacher leave. But I'd rather we win. He sure as hell ain't worth 5 million a season at this point in his career.

 

 

This is the Olin Kreutz negotiation all over again. He eventually took less money than we offered to go suck elsewhere. Hopefully the Bears and 54 learned from that.

 

Precisely. They should have learned...and I don't think Urlacher is that over the hill. He will have a resurgent year this year.

2 yrs at $4 million with some incentives would be decent. It will be interesting to see if he accepts a lower price, because he has set himself up to look like the good guy by giving the Bears an offer first.

 

If he really wants to win a championship with the Bears, he has to take whatever the Bears offer as they are too tight on cap space to give him much more.