Bears ink Vasher for 5 yr extension :yay: (1 Viewer)

[PsychoMan]

story

The Bears locked up a key member of their defense for the foreseeable future Monday, signing cornerback Nathan Vasher to a five-year contract extension through 2012.

 

[Sigmund Bloom]

That probably means Peanut Tillman hits the open market next year.

 

[Rounders]

Good move for the Bears, I like Vasher. He's a true ball-hawk. Maybe not a true shutdown corner, but he's very solid.

 

[sholditch]

maybe another reason for cutting tank? great to have Vasher locked up though. He's going to get better than he is now.

 

[Southside Stosh]

 

[Butt-Head]

That probably means Peanut Tillman hits the open market next year.

Apparently Schefter reported Peanut Tillman is also in negotiations for an extension.

 

[The Kansas Comet]

Excellent news - Chicago couldn't afford to let him hit the open market.

 

[Sigmund Bloom]

That probably means Peanut Tillman hits the open market next year.

Apparently Schefter reported Peanut Tillman is also in negotiations for an extension.

The Bears are being very aggressive then, trying to get out in front of the salary inflation - I'm impressed with the foresight - Wonder how this affects Briggs future with the team?

 

[The Kansas Comet]

That probably means Peanut Tillman hits the open market next year.

Apparently Schefter reported Peanut Tillman is also in negotiations for an extension.

The Bears are being very aggressive then, trying to get out in front of the salary inflation - I'm impressed with the foresight - Wonder how this affects Briggs future with the team?

Probably makes him more bitter. But I think NFL teams find it more difficult to find good cornerbacks than good linebackers, so Briggs is out of luck there. The Bears had a good amount of cap room (around $15 million back in March), so I don't think signing Vasher and Tillman would preclude a deal for Briggs.

 

[Sigmund Bloom]

That probably means Peanut Tillman hits the open market next year.

Apparently Schefter reported Peanut Tillman is also in negotiations for an extension.

The Bears are being very aggressive then, trying to get out in front of the salary inflation - I'm impressed with the foresight - Wonder how this affects Briggs future with the team?

Probably makes him more bitter. But I think NFL teams find it more difficult to find good cornerbacks than good linebackers, so Briggs is out of luck there. The Bears had a good amount of cap room (around $15 million back in March), so I don't think signing Vasher and Tillman would preclude a deal for Briggs.

They have to leave some room open for Grossman and/or Berrian too, unless the offense gets no extension love.

 

[Butt-Head]

That probably means Peanut Tillman hits the open market next year.

Apparently Schefter reported Peanut Tillman is also in negotiations for an extension.

The Bears are being very aggressive then, trying to get out in front of the salary inflation - I'm impressed with the foresight - Wonder how this affects Briggs future with the team?

Probably makes him more bitter. But I think NFL teams find it more difficult to find good cornerbacks than good linebackers, so Briggs is out of luck there. The Bears had a good amount of cap room (around $15 million back in March), so I don't think signing Vasher and Tillman would preclude a deal for Briggs.

They have to leave some room open for Grossman and/or Berrian too, unless the offense gets no extension love.

You make a good point about getting in front of the salary inflation. I can see Tillman getting done first and then Berrian and Grossman during the season. All of these guys seem to want to play in Chicago. Berrian and Grossman had injury issues the first part of their careers and Chicago will want to see their maturity in the first part of the season. Also if a guy like Mark Bradley comes on strong, it will force Berrian to take a sweetheart deal. Plus a guy like Grossman knows he has to improve his consistency to get his extension. The key thing is these guys all know the organization stood behind them when they had questions coming out of college or injury issues in the pros and they know they are on a team with a window to win.It seems to me Angelo won't be bullied in the Briggs situation. He offered him good money a year ago and didn't take it. He used that money elsewhere. He told Vasher a year he wouldn't talk extension until this year and then he takes care of him. He told Thomas Jones last year he'd accomodate him in 2007, and then he did that. I just don't see a deal in the cards for Briggs. I'll bet J.A. calls the Briggs/Rosenhaus threat and waits for him to come back in week 9 or 10. After that, I hope Briggs gets tagged again next offseason and they get something in return for him then.

 

[Sigmund Bloom]

adding to pasquarelli, this spending spree is not going to extend to Briggs, if it'll be anyone on the D after the corners are locked up, it'll be Harris:

Link

It's not a sign of things to come, however, for disgruntled Lance Briggs, the two-time Pro Bowl weakside linebacker who has been designated as a franchise player, but who is still unsigned and has stayed away from all of the Bears' offseason workouts.

Although the Bears signed Vasher to a five-year deal through 2012 that included $14 million in guaranteed money, and are believed to have proposed a similar extension to Tillman, who is entering the final year of his contract, the negotiating stance toward Briggs is unchanged. Chicago has remained intransigent in its proposal to Briggs, not budging from a one-year qualifying offer for a franchise linebacker, a tender that carries a price tag of $7.206 million.

There have been no substantive negotiations with Briggs and agent Drew Rosenhaus on a multiyear contract. And the long-term deal for Vasher, and possibility of one for Tillman, might mean Chicago is even less inclined to modify its Briggs strategy.

For his part, Briggs continues to insist that he wants a long-term contract and that, in lieu of one, he will wait until the 10th game of the season to report. That would allow the four-year veteran to play the minimum number of games required to earn an accrued season toward his league pension and to perhaps become an unrestricted free agent next spring.

In March, when the Bears were involved in the Rosenhaus-instigated trade discussions with the Redskins, Briggs essentially agreed in principle with Washington on a deal that would have guaranteed him $20 million. So while the $14 million in guarantees Chicago awarded Vasher is a huge payday, it falls well shy of Briggs' expectations in terms of upfront money.

And there are these elements as well: The Chicago organization doesn't feel at all compelled to lay out $20 million for Briggs, doesn't consider him worth that kind of money, and seems confident it has young linebackers with whom to replace him in a unit that statistically rated No. 5 in the league a year ago.

Posturing or not, the coaches claim to be impressed with second-year pro Jamar Williams and rookie Michael Okwo, fourth- and third-round picks, respectively, and certainly have hinted that they consider both as viable contingencies should Briggs not report. Reports are that the two have similar athletic skills to those Briggs possesses.

Chicago is already paying five-time Pro Bowl middle linebacker Brian Urlacher more than $6 million per year, and management doesn't think it's especially prudent to have another big-money player at the position.

A much more pressing priority for Chicago is a long-term extension for Tommie Harris, the standout defensive tackle who has two seasons remaining on the rookie deal he signed as a first-round pick in 2004. Harris is only 24 years old, has been named to a pair of Pro Bowl games, and is viewed as essential to a defense that has been decimated at tackle this spring by free agency defections and the Monday release of Tank Johnson.

Look for Harris, who seems to be well on his way to a full recovery from the hamstring surgery that ended his 2006 season after a dozen games, to be the next target of the Bears' front office for a long-term extension.

For most Tampa 2 defenses, the weakside linebacker position manned by Briggs is a high-premium one, and some franchises that employ the mostly-zone scheme attempt to get by with more modestly paid cornerbacks. But Vasher and Tillman are not typical Tampa-2 cornerbacks, and Chicago is miscast as a Tampa-2 team.

Over the second half of the 2006 season, the Bears played about 40 percent in man-to-man coverage. Vasher has 16 interceptions in three seasons, and Tillman has 14 pickoffs in four years, and both are more adept at single coverage than most Tampa 2 cornerbacks.

Also, the Bears don't have as many contingencies at cornerback as they do at weakside linebacker. If the team failed to keep Tillman and he eventually left as an unrestricted free agent next spring, it might mean switching second-year veteran free safety Danieal Manning to cornerback.

So, while the Bears are well on their way to resolving a potential crisis at cornerback, the team's largesse on defense means little to Briggs' future with the franchise.

 

[benson_will_lead_the_way]

Three vets that will be gone next offseason due to salary are Moose, Fred Miller, and Adeywale Ogenlye.

 

[PsychoMan]

i could care less about briggs in comparison to locking up both of these corners and hopefully tommie harris. i think jamar and okwo will do fine replacing him.

 

[Workhorse]

The Vasher contract makes Asante Samuel look like a greedy pig. They are very comperable talent wise, with similar career arcs. The Patriots have offered Samuel deals similar to Vasher and Dre Bly and Samuel's agent wants Nate Clements type money.