Is bears’ inactivity due to economics?

BasX · Mar 11, 2009

The Chicago Bears have been nearly dormant in free agency, and former NFL executive Pat Kirwan hinted that Bears General Manager Jerry Angelo is operating under tough financial restrictions.

According to Brad Biggs of the Chicago Sun-Times, Kirwan said on Sirius NFL Radio that the Bears’ lack of free agent activity is due to ecomomic constraints.

“This is not exactly the most generous spending team in the history of football,” Kirwan said. “So he’s got restrictions and restraints, and he’s not going to [say], ‘Hey, I’m trying to sign this guy, but my owners won’t let me.’ So he is a little bit bound to his draft picks, where you’ve got to exhaust every opportunity to make that guy work before you surrender and try something else.

“He’s got too many issues where he can’t expose what he wants to do. And I’m not going to cite the one that we had a conversation with him about, but he was absolutely sick to his stomach that something might be going on that he couldn’t control because he didn’t have the cash to do it.”

Angelo declined to comment, and a team source told the Sun-Times that restrictions on spending haven’t stopped the Bears from participating in free agency.

During a recent interview with the Bears’ official Web site, Angelo explained why the Bears didn’t go after wide receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh.

“Would we have entertained him?” Angeo said. “Yes, but we wanted to see what his marketplace was. In this case, we felt like [the $40 million contract with $15 million guaranteed that Houshmandzadeh received from Seattle] was an exorbitant amount of money. Remember, he was a No.2 in Cincinnati.

“He’s going to be 32 in ‘09, and the price that you’re paying for that receiver we felt was very high. You have to look at economics when you look at players. Who doesn’t want Houshmandzadeh? But you have to look at the economics: What are the implications to the cap going forward, and what does that prevent us from doing in other areas within our team or free agency?”
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http://www.profootballtalk.com/2009/03/11/is-bears-inactivity-due-to-economics/

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Is bears’ inactivity due to economics?

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