Is Gabe Carimi making a mistake missing OTAs?

Was it really just a month ago when I wrote; Now please repeat after me, 'Gabe Carimi is not a bust.'?

My next line was; 'Not yet anyway', but it seems as though Gabe Carimi is self-sabotaging his chances to make the Chicago Bears roster and inch his Bears career ever closer to the dreaded "bust" label.

Carimi was at the Bears first workout session, but when it concluded he returned home to work out and to make sure his knee was right for the season. He's electing to stay away from Halas Hall, missing this latest voluntary OTA. He is the only eligible player that could be there, that isn't. It's voluntary in a sense that the Bears can't fine players for missing, but you can be sure someone is taking attendance, and Carimi's absence is being talked about.

Since last year the Bears have signed a 48 game starter at guard, Matt Slauson. They signed a former 2nd round draft pick with 30 combined starts at both tackle and guard in Eben Britton. They spent their #1 draft pick on guard Kyle Long. They drafted Jordan Mills who is a right tackle, that could project to guard. They gave big money to a left tackle, Jermon Bushrod, that prompted the J'Marcus Webb flip to the right side.

That's a lot of competition for a guy that is tied to the former general manager.

But what about the salary cap ramifications...

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>if (key word) the <a href="https://twitter.com/search/%23bears">#bears</a> were to cut gabe carimi, it would be a $900K hit against the 2013 salary cap.</p>&mdash; dan durkin (@djdurkin) <a href="https://twitter.com/djdurkin/status/334318960503836673">May 14, 2013</a></blockquote>
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Cutting Carimi wouldn't break the bank, but that's still a hefty chunk of change to make a decision on. Playing both right tackle and guard will help the case to keep him around, but only if he can out play the other players that can fill his role. The Bears may only keep 2 of the following players on the 53 man roster; Briton, Mills, James Brown, whom ever loses the starting RT battle between Webb or Jonathan Scott, and Carimi.

Gabe Carimi will have to find a way to stand out from all those players listed above, and being the only Bear not around Halas Hall isn't the best way to do that.

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