Bears To Franchise Berrian?

by Adam T on Feb 19, 2008 11:03 PM CST in News

This bit of news is a bit confusing or John Clayton is just late to the ball game. Clayton seems to think that the Bears recent moves were for the purpose of laying the franchise tag on Berrian.

Bears make space: Clearing $10.4 million worth of cap room with the release of wide receiver Muhsin Muhammad, right tackle Fred Miller and defensive tackle Darwin Walker strongly suggests the Bears might franchise receiver Bernard Berrian. Next to Randy Moss, Berrian is perhaps the most explosive receiver available in free agency. With close to $30 million in cap room, it would seem silly for the Bears not to protect one of their best young offensive players even though the franchise number is $7.848 million.

In the end maybe the Bears do slap him with the franchise tag, but we didn't exactly let go of Pro Bowl caliber players. We let go of three vets who were costing money and weren't getting the job done. The Bears do plan to be active in Free Agency with both their own players and some other, so clearing out the trash now is a good thing, but as of early yesterday morning, the Bears have offered Berrian a contract. Sounds like they are more interested in signing him long term, than just going straight for the franchise designation.

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they probably

are most interested in a long term deal, but if thursday morning it doesn't look like one will be finished, they'll probably slap the tag on him and continue to work on the deal rather than have to deal with a bidding war with another team. plus, if they can't work out a deal and someone does want to give him top 5 receiver money, we get some good picks out of it.

by lopey986 on Feb 20, 2008 12:24 AM CST reply actions

Berrian is not worth that much!!!

I have said it before and I will say it again.....Berrian isn't worth top five money. I can name at least 10 other wide receivers that are better than he is. Randy Moss, Chad Johnson, Reggie Wayne, Marvin Harrison, Tory Holt, Anquan Boldin, Larry Fizgerald, T.J. Houshmanzadeh, Roy Williams, Steve Smith, Hines Ward, Andre Johnson, Terrell Ownes, Marques Colston, Donald Driver, Santana Moss, Lee Evans, Derrick Mason, Wes Welker, etc. Ok, well that is 19 that I can think of just off the top of my head, (and they aren't in any particular order) and how many of those are making top five money????? Oh, maybe the top five!!! Just the idea of giving berrian the average of the top 5 money is a ridiculous thought!!! If the bears are looking to give any receiver top five money the receiver should at least be within the top 15. Let him GO!!! Use all the money that the bears are under the cap to trade for a top 5 or 10 receiver, at least they would be worth the money. See, when the bears used the tag on Briggs that was understandable because he was at least a top 10 linebacker, but Berrian isn't even close. Just look at the numbers and the money and if you all don't see it, then you are crazy.

"I have no comments at this time.....well, other than what I just posted."

by diehardbearfan on Feb 20, 2008 1:44 AM CST reply actions

not the point

if we want to franchise him we have to pay him that everyone here knows he isnt worth that but thats the price to keep him

-leopoldjones

by leopoldjones on Feb 20, 2008 2:00 AM CST reply actions

not neccesarily

although most guys want the big money and getting top 5 money while being franchised might sound good to us, but i think this will be a preemptive strike simply to keep him almost off limits to other teams who may throw some money at him. if we franchise him, we get a 1st and 3rd if someone comes in and throws a big deal at him...if we don't franchise him and someone outbids us, we get nothing. i think they'll do this so they can have a chance to work out a deal with him without having to deal with anyone else throwing money at him.

by lopey986 on Feb 20, 2008 4:04 AM CST up reply actions

woops

i forgot to finish touching on my point that the franchise salary may sound good to us and while it is a big number, berrian may be more likely to take a deal like 4 years/24 million. while it is a drop in yearly salary, it will offer a little more long term security, whereas if he gets stuck playing for the franchise tender and blows out a knee in the preaseason he will be forced to play for a lowball contract to try to increase his value again. i think we'll see a decent outcome in this situation...it'll be more like the chris mccallister situation a few years back as opposed to our lance briggs situation.

by lopey986 on Feb 20, 2008 4:07 AM CST up reply actions

LOPEY 986 must be Loopy

Even if the bears tag him he is not going to be a RESTRICTED free agent which would mean that a team would have to give up a 1st and 3rd round to get him, and even if that were the case nobody wants him bad enough to give up a 1st and 3rd rounder to get him and if they did they are dumb because he is not even in the top 15 receiver class. Teams probably wouldn't even give that up for a quote, unquote top QB like Derick Anderson, who wasn't even on the depth chart to be the starter in cleveland, it just so happened that way. You should probably look at the numbers and the stats before you post in a place where most of us are true fans and take this seriously.

"I have no comments at this time.....well, other than what I just posted."

by diehardbearfan on Feb 20, 2008 5:38 AM CST reply actions

maybe i'm not making sense

what i'm saying is...if we DON'T tag him, he WILL be an unrestricted free agent, meaning any team can throw money at him, more money than we want to possibly. by tagging him, the bears can continue to negotiate a long term deal up to a certain date (i'm not sure what date that is) without having to worry about another team trying to outbid us. it is better for us to tag him, we avoid a bidding war and on the off chance that a team really wants berrian and decides to give him a big deal...we get a 1st and 3rd rounder out of it.

by lopey986 on Feb 20, 2008 12:18 PM CST up reply actions

I get what you are going for

I just can't imagine a team would give up draft picks and pay big money for Berrian.

by Adam T on Feb 20, 2008 12:28 PM CST up reply actions

I don't have enough of a grasp...

...of the cap and all that to know about this.

I agree w/ WCG about Clayton's point. Yeah, the guys were released to create cap space and because they weren't "worth it", but unless he has more information, I don't see how this leads to franchising Berrian for sure.

I've said all along that Berrian will get more money than he's "worth", but that sometimes teams have to do that.

Oh, and dhbf is an idiot.

by tyger1147 on Feb 20, 2008 8:45 AM CST reply actions

I can tell you that before the release of the play

the Bears had about 20 million. I think that is enough to offer the contracts we did, but I don't know by how much. We would also need some for new people and for the draft. After the 3 are gone we were at 31.5 million if I read correctly.

by Adam T on Feb 20, 2008 11:20 AM CST up reply actions