Cedric Benson tried to distance himself from Ricky Williams before the 2005 draft.

However, that hasn't stopped him from wanting to party with Ricky. Ricky Williams told reporters today that Benson called him to ask him to come party on his boat in Lake Travis. Ricky turned him down.

"Instead of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, Williams turned down an invitation to spend the day on the lake a couple of weekends ago with Bears running back Cedric Benson."

The moral of the story is that our own Cedric Benson has worse judgement than Ricky Williams. That's like saying you have less will-power than oprah in a doughnut shop. Or worse public speaking skills than President Bush. Or something.

 

Brad Briggs recently ran an article in his blog about Benson's cap situation making it imposssible for the Bears to cut Benson.

He's wrong.

Here are the true ramifications.  This is a somewhat long explanation, and it involves math, so be warned. But you'll understand the cap and the Benson situaiton better if you read it.

First, you must understand the difference between cap number and cap hit, as well as cap dollars and payroll dollars.

Benson's cap number this year is roughly $3.3M. That is comprised of this year's salary (800k) and the prorated portion of his signing bonus (2.5M). Note that he already has the signing bonus, it is just accounted for this year for bookkeeping purposes. So if he plays for the Bears this year, they'll write him a check for 800k (not 3.3M).

If the Bears cut Benson, they would not have to pay him his salary this year (800k) or next year (1M), AND that money would be removed from Benson's cap number. However, they would still have to account for his prorated signing bonus (2.5M this year and next) for cap purposes.

So, if the Bears cut Benson before June 1st, his cap number would be 3.3M MINUS this year's salary (800k) PLUS next year's portion of his signing bonus (2.5M), for a total of 5M. That is 1.7M more than his current cap number of 3.3M, which means cutting Benson costs the Bears a 1.7M cap hit this year. So if they currently have 16M in cap room, that would shrink down to 14.3M.

HOWEVER!!! and this is important, they would GAIN 3.5M in cap room next year. Because Benson would be officially off the Bears books for 2009, they would not have to account for his singing bonus or salary, which amount to 3.5M next year. 

That's just the cap consequences. Cutting Benson would also save the Bears actual dollars. The salary cap is a managed number, and is often very different than the team's payroll (the checks the team writes out to players that year). If the Bears cut Benson, they wouldn't have to pay him a salary this year or next (a total of 1.8M), and they wouldn't have to potentially pay him any of the escalators in his contract for reaching 700 yards (potentially another 3 or 4M. So cutting Benson would save the team actual dollars, with no penalty.

The last point Briggs makes is that if the Bears cut Benson he could file an injury grievance. I believe this is unlikely for a few reasons. First, they would wait until he could pass a physical to cut him, thereby removing his leverage from the situation. Second, this public incident gives the Bears another reason to give for cutting him. Third, he is too young to retire, and he'd have to retire if he wanted to convince an arbiter that the Bears cut him because he was too injured to play. Lastly, even if the Bears lost the case, they would only be out his salary this year of 800k.

If you were the GM, what would you do with your first 4 picks? You can trade up or down as you like, but trades have to reflect the trade value chart.

1/14:  Jeff Otah
1/25*: Jonathon Stewart
3/70:  Andre' Woodson
3/90:  Jordy Nelson

*Seattle trades 2008 1st (720 pts) for Chicago's 2nd rounder (460 pts), and 2009 3rd rounder (~190 pts) and 2009 4th rounder (70 pts). We will like receive an extra 3rd rounder next year for Berrian departing.

That's my very unrealistic wish list. What's yours?

Given the following first 13 picks, who would you take if you are Jerry Angelo (assuming you can't trade down)? This is obviously a worst-case scenario if you are someone who thinks we should take an OT in the first round, but is a somewhat realistic scenario since everything except the NE pick came straight from draft tek, and NE has been rumored to like Albert.

1  Miami Chris Long DE
2  St Louis Jake Long OT
3  Atlanta Glenn Dorsey DT
4  Oakland Vernon Gholston DE  
5  Kansas City Ryan Clady OT
6  NY Jets Darren McFadden RB
7  New England Branden Albert OG
8  Baltimore Matt Ryan QB
9  Cincinnati Sedrick Ellis DT  
10  New Orleans D Rodgers-Cromartie CB
11  Buffalo Devin Thomas WR
12  Denver Chris Williams OT  
13  Carolina Jeff Otah OT  

Poll

What is your pick?

66%

Rashard Mendenhall RB

45 votes

10%

Jonathon Stewart RB

7 votes

0%

Felix Jones RB

0 votes

7%

Brian Brohm QB

5 votes

1%

Joe Flacco QB

1 votes

1%

Chad Henne QB

1 votes

1%

Limas Sweed WR

1 votes

1%

Desean Jackson WR

1 votes

7%

Gosder Cherilus OT

5 votes

2%

Kenny Phillips FS

2 votes

68 votes | Poll has closed

While I think our best move would be to trade our first and (second) third picks to Buffalo for their first (number 11 overall) if Clady is there, Dallas is another option.

Dallas seems to want a RB, and probably does not want to give up the three picks (both their firsts and a second) to get into the top 5 and take McFadden. The other option for them would be to send their two firsts (22 and 28) for our first and second (or both thirds).

Why do this? For them, they could get in front of Detroit and take Mendenhall. For us, this would allow us to get two first round talents on an offense that badly needs an infusion of top-end talent. Another way to look at it is this: would you rather have Otah and Ray Rice or Cherilus/Williams and Jonathon Stewart? Would you rather have Otah and Henne or Williams and Brohm? Would you rather have Otah and Andre Caldwell or Williams and Limas Sweed?

And keep in mind, while Branden Albert is surging up mock drafts, that does not neccessarily mean he won't be there. A lot of pre-draft information becomes fact by virtue of being repeated so frequently. Everyone thought Brady Quinn was a lock for the top 5 or 10 picks last year, but everyone was wrong. We could trade down with Dallas and still end up with Albert at 22.

I think if we were purely looking for depth, we wouldn't want to trade down. But we're looking for starters, and I think the way to do that is to get more first round picks.

Buffalo is known to want a reciever, but doesn't feel their is value at pick 11: http://buffalonews.typepad.com/billboard/2008/04/mock-take-3.html

The Bears need a sure-fire LT, but presumably would prefer Clady to some of the flawed, second-tier guys like Otah (too slow) or Williams (not strong enough). Clady is unlikelt to fall past the Broncos at 12, so the Bears would have to move up to get him.

Angelo generally is not one to trade up in the first, but trading from 15 to 11 isn't going to cost a tremendous amount either in picks (likely either their late third or fourth rounder) or contract. If Clady is still their at 11, I think Angelo should consider moving up.

Word is he's coming in for a visit. Probably not surprising that he is brought it as the "competition" for Benson since:

1. He's cheap
   
2. He'll take a short contract that won't interfere with the rebuilding.
   
3. Angelo tried to get him last year.

This would eliminate any chance of taking a RB in the 1st round or anywhere else, since Chris Brown would be the 4th RB on the roster.

To me, this is about as exciting as our new WR corps of Booker and Lloyd. If this lackluster off-season continues at this rate, we'll sign George Foster to be our OT of the future and we'll draft a small-college offensive guard with our first pick.

This has to be the most frustrating off-season ever.

Dallas is known to like McFadden, and is more in need of an impact player than to fill mutiple holes. We have multiple holes to fill.

If Dallas sent their 1st (number 29), 2nd a a fifth to us for the 15th pick, that would work out close on the trade value chart. If they combined the 15th pick with the 22nd (they have 2 first round picks currently), they could get into the top 5 and snag McFadden.

Why would the Bears do this? So that they can plug more holes. Perhaps with a later first and two seconds, they could draft Branden Albert (the top guard in the draft--who can also play tackle), Limas Sweed AND Joe Flacco. Sign a free agent tackle such as Flozelle Adams.

I woul prefer this over signing best available tackle with our first, Flacco in the second and giving a 32 year old Faneca Steve Hutchinson money.

Rumor has it we pick 15th. Coulda cracked the top 10 if we lost today. Hope all that "momentum" is worth losing out on a blue chip prospect.

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Pure conjecture here, but Mike Martz is on his way out of Detroit. He and Lovie worked together (albeit in an opposite coach/coordinator relationship) in St Louis. Ron Turner is rumored to be on his way out. Maybe that paves the way for Mike Martz to come to Chicago as a assistant HC/OC.

The problems with this:

1. The McCaskeys aren't likely to pay an OC big money, especially when they just coughed up a ton for Lovie.
   
2. Martz might not want to come into a situation without a lot of talent on O, since he probably wants a stepping stone to another HC role.
   
3. Martz is not exactly a "come off the bus running" kind of guy.
   
4. He might not want to be under one of his former coordinators.

Still, it would be intriguing to bring in an aggressive OC who would probably convince Angelo to bring in a solid crop of receivers. Plus he might be the one OC who could make do with our crappy RB crew.