Israel Idonije, who has been a standout special teams player for the past few years, not surprisingly wants an increased role on the defensive line in 2008.  He's been utilized as a defensive end in the past, but in recent practices he's been lining up at DT.  To prepare to play inside, he put on 20 pounds and now plays at 295.

With Idonije expected to see more playing time on defense, his role on special teams likely will be reduced.

“The way I look at it right now is that I feel I have to replace him,” said special teams coordinator Dave Toub. “If I think that way and get him replaced, then it’s a bonus if I get him back.

“I’ve got to think that he’s going to be in the [defensive line] rotation. He’ll probably get a lot of plays defensively, so I’m not going to be able to use him as much. If I use him in any phase, it would be kickoff because he’s a factor. Just having him running down the middle of the field, you have to account for him. You have to use two guys on him, so that frees up somebody else.”

Despite what Toub thinks, Idonije will likely split time with Dusty Dvoracek and rookie Marcus Harrison in the preseason, but I would expect they'll win the job over him and go into a starting rotation to start the season, and Idonije will slide back into his special teams role.

 

While earlier reports suggested that Benson simply didn't show up for Monday's OTA, now it seems that Benson did show up, but Lovie Smith turned him away at the door .

Cedric Benson showed up for work this morning at Halas Hall and was told to go home by coach Lovie Smith.

That’s what Benson’s attorney Sam Bassett said.

``I know that he went to practice today and Lovie told him to go home," said Bassett, based in Austin, Texas. ``I don’t know if it’s because of the publicity or because it’s a distraction, or if the Bears are trying to decide what to do. He’s just kind of waiting to see what they tell him and what they are going to require of him.

``His agent and business manager are doing some stuff with the Bears that I am not privy to. He knows the Bears may release him. He hopes they don't. He knows he screwed up."

Benson released a statement, admitting to drinking and driving, but also saying, "I strongly believe that I am not guilty of any crime."  Maybe the problem is that he truly doesn't realize that drinking and driving/boating is in fact an actual crime?

Jerry Angelo is expected to give a statement of his own, possibly about giving Benson the boot, later this afternoon.

In recent years, it seems that the Bears are one of the first teams to get all of their draft picks signed to contracts in a swift and easy manner.  Two years in a row, the Bears have been the first team to sign all of their draft picks.  This year, though, it’s been very quiet on the rookie contract front.  As Brad Biggs points out, this time last year Chicago had five rookies signed already, while this year we have none under contract so far.  To be fair, it’s been quiet all around the NFL, not just in the Windy City, as Biggs states.

It’s been slow going around the league getting draft picks done, unless you’re the Miami Dolphins with four in hand already, or the Atlanta Falcons with quarterback Matt Ryan on board. You can get any selection signed with a $72 million, six-year contract. What’s the challenge in that negotiation?

There are a few ideas floating around as to why it’s been quiet on this front. One is that the Dolphins did some player-friendly deals earlier this week when they signed running backs Jalen Parmele (6th round, Pick 10, 176 overall), Lex Hilliard (6th round, Pick 38, 204 overall) and defensive lineman Lionel Dotson (7th round, Pick 38, 245 overall). The Dophins had some wiggle room with their rookie pool after signing No. 1 pick Jake Long to a five-year deal instead of a six-year contract, and consequently signed these three late-round picks for a little more than the slots were projected to get.

Agents are going to take these deals and run with them, using them as a basis for their own negotiations with other late-round selections. Hilliard was drafted four slots ahead of Bears’ defensive end Ervin Baldwin. Dotson was selected within three slots either direction of three Bears’ picks—linebacker Joey LaRocque, offensive tackle Kirk Barton and wide receiver Marcus Monk. Eventually the marketplace will be better defined, but it’s going to take a little time.

The general consensus among Windy City Gridiron readers and most Bears fans is that Cedric Benson should be cut for his humiliations both on and off the field.  However, as Brad Biggs of the Chicago Sun-Times points out, sending Benson on the next boat out of Chicago would result in a harsh cap hit for the team.

Benson’s salary-cap figure for 2008 is $3.335 million and if the Bears cut him before June 1 and do not exercise an option to spread the dead money over two seasons, the hit for this year would be roughly $6 million. That would be cutting a sizeable slice into the pie that’s meant to go to Tommie Harris, Devin Hester, Robbie Gould and others in the form of longterm extensions.

If the Bears did a post-June 1 cut, or cut him now and had the money go on the books as a post-June 1 cut, they would still be on the books for more than $2.5 million this season when subtracting out his base pay of $820,000 for 2008.

Biggs goes on to say that even if the Bears release Benson based on his injuries, he would likely file a grievance and win, resulting in effectively paying Benson his salary without him even being on the team.

Like Biggs says, we need all the cap space we can get to lock up Harris and Hester to long-term deals, and Benson's cap hit would definitely complicate things and cause a financial ripple effect that could have a negative impact on signing other players.  So although he'll probably get extremely limited playing time in 2008, we may be stuck with him.

You may not have heard the news, but the Bears didn’t select a quarterback in this year’s draft, despite everyone’s speculation that they would either select one of the top QBs such as Chad Henne or Brian Brohm if they fell to them in the second round, or at least select a project player like Andre Woodson, Josh Johnson, or Kevin O’Connell.  It seems that every Bears fan you speak to would have felt a lot better about the 2008 draft if a signal-caller was selected somewhere in the first 5 rounds.  Even if the guy didn’t pan out as a pro, hey, at least the organization is trying.  But, that didn’t happen, and none of us have any idea why.  The only reasonable explanation is that Jerry, Lovie, and company didn’t believe that any of the QBs in this year’s class were going to amount to anything more than backups, and that the true franchise guy would have to be found at some other point.  Obviously, free agency isn’t the answer this year.  We did sign a couple of undrafted kids, but nobody can honestly expect them to have so much hidden star potential that 32 teams couldn’t see it through 7 rounds. 

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The NFL is rolling out their new logo on draft day.  Among the changes are a more modern font (getting rid of that stupid curly L), darker shades of red and blue, a more "3-D" football, and going to to just 8 stars to represent the 8 divisions.  Supposedly one of the main reasons for the change is that the use of fewer stars on the shield will make it easier for merchandising efforts (i.e., stitching on jerseys).  I personally think it looks a lot better.  What do you think?


Old logo:

New logo:

New logo with better colors:

Poll

Which NFL logo do you prefer?

48%

Old logo

16 votes

51%

New logo

17 votes

33 votes | Poll has closed

Our long-time nemesis Brett Favre gave an exclusive interview to the Chicago Sun-Times in which he said that he has had preliminary discussions with Jerry Angelo to come out of his short-lived retirement and join the Bears.

"I've played against them so many times, I just want to see what it's like on the other side of the fence," Favre said.

League sources say that the Favre signing is "all but a done deal" and that he would step into the starter's role immediately.  Angelo and Lovie Smith would neither confirm nor deny the imminent signing, but rumor has it that the duo will be traveling to Wisconsin today for a lunch meeting with Favre.

The Sun-Times is calling the impending signing a "bold move that has been a long time coming."

Poll

Should the Bears sign Favre?

20%

Who's Brett Favre?

6 votes

46%

Absolutely, he's exactly what we need to get back on track.

14 votes

26%

Never! I hope he rots.

8 votes

6%

I don't care.

2 votes

30 votes | Poll has closed

Bryant Johnson is taking a one-year deal with San Francisco, Michael Smith of ESPN.com reports.

Well, I guess the Bears were never serious at all about Johnson, so some of us got our hopes up for nothing. It seems odd that the deal is only for one year, and that he would accept such a "tryout" deal when he had a couple of other suitors like the Bills and Redskins. This leaves the injury prone DJ Hackett as the only decent receiver left in free agency, but we surely won't be going after him, either.

Lions RB Kevin Jones has stated that a team official told him that he will be released, due to "the injuries and the contract -- business decisions" according to Jones.

This is kind of a surprising move, although Jones has suffered terrible setbacks with first a Lisfranc injury and then a torn ACL, significantly clouding his future and leaving his 2008 season up in the air. I highly doubt the Bears will give him a sniff, since the last thing they need is another RB who can't stay healthy. This raises an interesting issue of what the Lions will be doing in the draft, since they probably don't think Tatum Bell is a feature back (although this is Matt Millen we're talking about here). With just scraps left in free agency, I wouldn't be surprised to see them snatch up Mendenhall with the 15th pick if the Bears pass.