From what I can gather hear at WCG, Lance Briggs has done much to change our opinion of him. We originally thought his greatness was partly because of playing next to Urlacher and to some extent it still may be, but he has played well and hard on his own and still succeeded when Urlacher was out. He now is looking to ruin that by whining and complaining.
In an interview Briggs has asked to either be traded or have the franchise tag rescinded and let him test the open market.
Now I am sure Briggs and his agent fell that when they say things like this:
they feel it is their way of showing good will towards the fans and towards the team in case he has to come back, but it doesn't fool anybody.
You saw Clements and Thomas cash in and you are sore about it. Sorry, dude that is how football works. The franchise tag is worth over 7 million and that ain't all that bad. The Bears still have until mid-July to work you out a long term deal. Despite what the media has been saying about the Bears and their cheapness, they have forked out some good deals for their players. You can sugar coat it all you want, you want the money and you want to be our of Urlacher's shadow.
If some team wants to pony up a couple of first rounders, than I am all for the trade, but if I am not mistaken and please correct me if I am wrong, if we rescind the franchise tag we lose it this year. True, we probably wouldn't use it, but the point is there.