The Chicago Bears have always placed a premium on having our players in camp on time. The failure to reach an agreement on a fair and reasonable contract has been a huge disappointment. |
The decision was very difficult, |
The failure to reach an agreement on a fair and reasonable contract has been a huge disappointment. |
The fourth round is a good opportunity to get a steal. You get about 12 hours, that entire night, to review the players who are left at the top of your [draft] board. You can go over all the different scenarios that will unfold starting off that second day. |
The one position I think ? not think, but know ? has been undervalued with free agency and expansion with 32 teams now is the offensive line. The colleges just aren't generating enough offensive linemen to facilitate all 32 football teams. |
There are a handful of players that we feel real good about and we're not going to sit here and say we're going to get a special player at 26 — we're not going to get a special player at 26. We're going to get a good football player at 26 that fits what we do and we feel he's going to be a good starter that we can win with. |
There are always a few guys that you think are going to get drafted, and somehow they don't. They looked at our situation, and they jumped on it. We were real happy to get both of them signed. |
There probably could be two tight ends that go in the first round — for sure one — we know that. You're going to see probably a pretty good run in the second and obviously the third round. I think the bulk of them will be gone by then. And there will be a few if they fit with what you want scheme-wise that you may like in the fourth. |
There wasn't a filter that a lot of us who maybe coached or played college football identify with. Maybe we aren't as objective as we should be. |
There will be a few teams that'll come out (fast). I know I've heard of some things going on right now. So there will be some pretty big deals that will come out like in normal years. |
There's absolutely no misunderstanding. We made that very clear. He understands the dynamics of it, and now it's just a matter of whether this is as good a fit for him as it is for us. |
These things take time. There are always two sides, and we're working through it as we speak. We've talked about proposals, and I'll leave it at that. |
This did take a lot longer than what we had anticipated, ... We never really found that common ground. Usually, you find that common ground at some point the first couple weeks. We didn't really find anything that we agreed upon for quite some time. That created the long holdout. |
To get valued players you have to be willing to give value. |
Tomlinson had to hit the ground running. That's not our situation. |