A lot of you guys worshipped each and every move that Emery and Trestman made from the moment they came onboard. You guys got the Cutler contract you wanted, you got rid of Urlacher, you got rid of Hester, it was offense offense and more offense, and look where it got us. Suddenly you hated management and Cutler when we were 5-11, maybe a few games sooner.
Along comes John Fox who understands exactly what went on here. Briggs didn't fuck over this organization, it fucked over him by bringing in morons to run the team. Fox wants to "fix" what the Bears did to Urlacher. Many of you loved what the Bears did to Urlacher and still don't think anything was wrong. My guess is Fox will also want to fix things with Briggs.
You may not like it, you may not like me for that matter, but things are going to swing back to a place that many of you are not going to like. It sucked for me for the last few years, watching these guys ruin this team. My guess is you guys aren't going to like a lot of things in the months ahead. But, its for the benefit of the team.
You are practicing revisionist history. Did not Lance Briggs do a bunch of selfish 'me first' things?
Regardless of what happened with prior regimes/etc. Let's focus on the player and what he would bring to the table.
- The player in question will be 35 years old.
- The player in question came back from an injury during the 2013 season slow and out of shape.
- The player in question arrived at training camp in 2014 overweight and out of shape.
- The player in question was overweight, slow and out of shape the entire season.
- The player in question made little to no impact on the field during the 2014 season.
- The player in question had a phantom injury that no one can really quantify that kept him out of multiple games during the 2014 season.
- The player in question finished the 2014 on IR.
- The player in question played 8 games in 2014 and had 24 tackles. He was on pace for 48. That is 35 tackles below his career average. This would rank him approximately #58 for all LB in the NFL.
And no one 'got rid' of Brian Urlacher. He, like Briggs was a shell of his former self, 35 years old and coming off of two sub par seasons with season ending injuries.
And no one 'got rid' of Devin Hester. He was a one trick pony who had lost much of his effectiveness who commanded more money than the Bears could afford for a return guy. He was a luxury they could not afford in a salary cap era with so many other, more critical areas to fix. Devin Hester is someone that Falcons fans would like to see go to free up needed salary cap money to fix more critical areas of their underproducing team.
And no, they would not be 'getting rid of' Lance Briggs.
All 3 players were aging free agents. Briggs and Urlacher in particular, are/were 35 years old. LBs don't play in today's NFL after the age of 35. You'll probably bring up Ray Lewis. Ray Lewis retired at 37. When he did, he was a slow ineffective shadow of his former self. He effectively served as team cheerleader. That said, he's also arguably one of the greatest ever to play his position.
Stop living in the past. Lance Briggs was a good player in an era where the Bears had a chance to do something good and they didn't. That era is over. He's a free agent. No other team in the NFL will want him - an out of shape, oft injured, ineffective 35 year old player. The Bears shouldn't either.
