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Urlacher Signs


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PFT is reporting:

BEARS, URLACHER AGREE TO NEW DEAL

Posted by Michael David Smith on July 21, 2008, 5:25 p.m.

Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher appears ready to report to training camp happily after reaching an agreement on a one-year contract extension.

 

Michael Smith of ESPN reports that Urlacher and the Bears have agreed to a contract extension that will give Urlacher a $6 million signing bonus and a $1 million bump in salary each of the next four years. One more year has been added to Urlacher’s deal, and the final year of Urlacher’s new contract will be the 2012 season.

 

His base salary in 2012 will be $7.5 million. Throw in a $500,000 workout bonus in 2012, and that’s $18 million in new money for Urlacher, although at age 30 there’s no guarantee that Urlacher will still be playing through the 2012 season.

 

Urlacher had four years and $25.5 million remaining on his existing contract, and he skipped voluntary off-season workouts in part because he was unhappy with his deal. He is expected to sign the new contract tomorrow when the Bears open training camp.

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Details of the signing:

 

9 million in new money

 

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3499320

 

Excellent!!! Although the deal sounds pretty close to what the Bears offered him originally. I just hope we've made our future HOF'er happy & he'll continue to play at a high level and knock all his stupid crap off.

 

Now if we can get Hester extended, we'll be in damn good shape.

 

What players are becoming free agents after this season? Rex, Lloyd, Kevin Jones, Bradley . . . is there anybody else who's significant?

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According to sources, Urlacher and the Bears have come to terms on a revised contract, which includes a one-year extension, thus ending their offseason contract squabble.Urlacher, 30, had four years and approximately $25.5 million remaining on his contract. Under the terms of the upgraded deal, Urlacher will receive a $6 million signing bonus along with a $1 million bump in salary each of the next four years. The sides also have agreed to extend the pact into 2012, at a salary of $7.5 million. Urlacher can earn an additional $500,000 in a workout bonus in 2012.

 

That's a total of roughly $43.5 million over the next five years, with $18 million in new money for the six-time Pro Bowler and four-time All Pro.

Its outstanding that we can now put this behind us. The next thing on the burner has to be Chris Williams, whom I'm guessing signs within the next 24 hours (definitely by Wednesday). After that I think the Bears will work early in training camp on getting Hester happy and if they do that you can honestly say they accomplished a hell of a lot this off-season with the only major mistake being related to not franchising Bernard Berrian.

 

Thats not to say that this team doesn't have serious question-marks, but overall I was quite pleased with the draft and off-season (aside from Benson being an idiot).

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FWIW, prior to this signing, Peter King put up a chart showing which teams had enough cap room to grab Favre...so here's a little ditty about how much cap room the Bears have left this season prior to this extension, if his numbers are accurate.

 

Chicago $13.2 million

 

So, prior to the Urlacher signing, that's how much you have to work with on this year's bonus for Hester.

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Thats a whole lot of cap room to still have available. I'm assuming Williams signing will take up a solid chunk of that available cap room because I don't think the Urlacher deal will have a significant impact on that. This also means the Bears will have a significant amount to throw towards Hester or anyone else that they are interested in extending (while using this years portion of the cap).

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If I am not mistaken Bill Johnson, Urlacher's agent, is also Chris Williams agent. Is it possible this is what was holding things up? If BJ is Williams' agent, then he may sign very very soon, like tonight or tomorrow.

 

Great to get Urlacher happy, IMO he deserved the extension. Now Williams and Hester and I defy anyone to say the Bears are cheap or that they did not kick ass this off season!

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Thats a whole lot of cap room to still have available. I'm assuming Williams signing will take up a solid chunk of that available cap room because I don't think the Urlacher deal will have a significant impact on that. This also means the Bears will have a significant amount to throw towards Hester or anyone else that they are interested in extending (while using this years portion of the cap).

You can never know exactly how the numbers are crunched on any of these...but I would expect that some chunk of Williams's contract for this year is covered out of the draft-related cap holds, and I believe that there is a limit to how much of a rookie salary you can put on the cap their first year, right?

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FWIW, prior to this signing, Peter King put up a chart showing which teams had enough cap room to grab Favre...so here's a little ditty about how much cap room the Bears have left this season prior to this extension, if his numbers are accurate.

 

Chicago $13.2 million

 

So, prior to the Urlacher signing, that's how much you have to work with on this year's bonus for Hester.

I think King's numbers are waaaaay too high. The amateur cap guy on the big board has the Bears under $4M left before Urlacher's deal. He isn't the sharpest crayon in the box, but his numbers usually are reasonably close. JMO

 

.

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Thats a whole lot of cap room to still have available. I'm assuming Williams signing will take up a solid chunk of that available cap room because I don't think the Urlacher deal will have a significant impact on that. This also means the Bears will have a significant amount to throw towards Hester or anyone else that they are interested in extending (while using this years portion of the cap).

 

 

Remember that all draft picks have a set cap prior to the main salary cap being announced. I am glad that this got done and hopefully Brian will get back to what he does best and lead the way on defense. Now all we need is to get Williams signed and into camp before the first practice on Wednesday.

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The amateur cap guy on the big board has the Bears under $4M left before Urlacher's deal. He isn't the sharpest crayon in the box, but his numbers usually are reasonably close. JMO

 

Don't piss off LT!!! His cap analysis is more detailed & better then any I've seen. I'm hoping like hell he comes out with a new one. I love reading that thing.

 

On a side note regarding the cap, how in the HELL did Washington have 8 million available to bring in Jason Taylor AND sign all their draft picks???

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If I am not mistaken Bill Johnson, Urlacher's agent, is also Chris Williams agent. Is it possible this is what was holding things up? If BJ is Williams' agent, then he may sign very very soon, like tonight or tomorrow.

 

Great to get Urlacher happy, IMO he deserved the extension. Now Williams and Hester and I defy anyone to say the Bears are cheap or that they did not kick ass this off season!

 

I didn't realize Urlacher & Williams had the same agent. It might be that a deal is done already on Williams & they're just waiting until after the Urlacher's press conference. Urlacher's deal should be a celebration of a future HOF'er who signed a deal that virtually guarantees he'll finish his career in Chicago. (the exception being if the bottom falls out in Chicago the way it did in Miami or if #54 wants to continue playing when he's 36.)

 

Williams has already been celebrated and his signing should mean, "Get your ass to work rookie."

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Don't piss off LT!!! His cap analysis is more detailed & better then any I've seen. I'm hoping like hell he comes out with a new one. I love reading that thing.

 

On a side note regarding the cap, how in the HELL did Washington have 8 million available to bring in Jason Taylor AND sign all their draft picks???

 

On a side note, I am sure a lot of fans of other teams are wondering the same thing about the Bears, how the hell did they manage to lock up just about every key player on their roster that was worth keeping?

 

We have probably inked more contracts in one off season than any team in the history of the league, with exception of a 1st year expansion team. JA, you da man :notworthy

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With the signing of Urlacher that makes 5 starters (Url, Harris, Briggs, Gould and Clark) we rewarded. Im wondering if anyone is mad now that we didnt chase Faneca or Turner and maybe not have extended one of these guys.

 

It is amazing we were able to hold onto Harris & Briggs and rework Urlacher's contract to boot. These three are outstanding players that I am sure many other teams were hoping we would let hit the market so that they could go after them.

 

I think all 5 of the signings you mentioned, as well as others you did not mention (such as Vasher & Tillman) were all critical to the future success of the team.

 

JA did a great job! I am sure he will try and pull off some more signings before it is over with, including another FA or two. I certainly, to answer your question, have no regrets, none at all.

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It is amazing we were able to hold onto Harris & Briggs and rework Urlacher's contract to boot. These three are outstanding players that I am sure many other teams were hoping we would let hit the market so that they could go after them.

 

I think all 5 of the signings you mentioned, as well as others you did not mention (such as Vasher & Tillman) were all critical to the future success of the team.

 

JA did a great job! I am sure he will try and pull off some more signings before it is over with, including another FA or two. I certainly, to answer your question, have no regrets, none at all.

 

I couldn't agree more Pix. Sure it's upsetting when you hear about Minnesota getting Jared Allen, but it'd have been one helluva a lot worse if we'd lost Tommie Harris. (Was ANYBODY upset we didn't make Bernard Berrian the 2nd highest paid WR in NFL history the way Minny did???)

 

Take care of your own first.

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Don't piss off LT!!! His cap analysis is more detailed & better then any I've seen. I'm hoping like hell he comes out with a new one. I love reading that thing.

 

On a side note regarding the cap, how in the HELL did Washington have 8 million available to bring in Jason Taylor AND sign all their draft picks???

I'm not talking about LT, who has always done a great cap sheet. This is some old fart on the official board, and he does some really stupid stuff with some of the numbers. Still, somehow when he gets done the bottom line is reasonably close. Lt knows who I'm talking about. LOL

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I'm not talking about LT, who has always done a great cap sheet. This is some old fart on the official board, and he does some really stupid stuff with some of the numbers. Still, somehow when he gets done the bottom line is reasonably close. Lt knows who I'm talking about. LOL

 

No worries mates.

 

I'm really busy, and will have a new one before it's needed.

 

We have enough cap room to do anything we need.

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With the signing of Urlacher that makes 5 starters (Url, Harris, Briggs, Gould and Clark) we rewarded. Im wondering if anyone is mad now that we didnt chase Faneca or Turner and maybe not have extended one of these guys.

I love the job JA has done the last couple of years. I don’t think any GM has done a better job keeping his core players and signing picks than Angelo has.

 

Even though we lost Berrian, I do agree with that move, as he was way over priced for his production. Minny will suffer the pain of watching Berrian grow alligator arms when Jackson throws a ball he has to fight for.

 

I still really wish JA would have brought in a quality OG. Faneca would have been my choice to mentor Williams. IMO – Overpaying at that position would have improved the greater good, as Faneca would have upgraded 3 positions with one contract.

 

I would have also liked to see JA package 2 to 3 picks in the draft to get another 2nd rounder to grab Henne or Brohm.

 

Again, aside from those two things JA has really impressed me this year. He may yet have a couple of tricks up his sleeve. I still look for Rueben Brown to sign, if healthy. Or better yet, a younger cap cut from another team. I also look for him to get a good value pick for RMJ in the next couple of weeks. My hat is certainly off to him.

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