Inside the Bears

As much as I love Hester the last thing we need is a d-bag like Sanders acting as his mouth-piece. If Hester can take the next step and become a productive receiver I say a big money contract is in order otherwise let him finish out his contract and then make him an RFA with a high tender offer.

I want to see Hester get paid, but nobody on this team is worth what Berrian signed for. Hester is amazing and he does change games; I just can't see paying someone to just be a return specialist knowing the short-lived success of those who have come before him.

Great...another player wanting top money on a team that still has no future QB. I love Hester, but the Bears have to get their priorities straight.

You know, I love Hester and he makes a great case. Without going into major analysis of last season, can you tell me how many games the Bears would have won without him? Hint, we'd probably be entering the Matt Ryan era. The Bears have far too few talented players and they better start paying the ones who actually prove they're capable of game changing plays, and start cutting loose the ones who don't. Berrian money? Give it to him, he's a bigger game changer than Berrian will ever be.

the windy city flyer is the only game changing player on the entire bears roster.

with that being said, i couldn't agree with you more DC of DC. the bears don't need to give some insane amount of $$ to hester if he can't pick up the receiving aspect of his game. it's very true that return specialists don't last long in the league...

although i never want to see this scenario play out, if hester were on another team he wouldn't have the type of return success he has had. toub is the best special teams coach in the game and i guarantee he can fins a replacement for hester in our return game!

Hester is a one-of-a-kind player. The most thrilling player in the NFL.A Gale Sayers. The Bears have down-played his value. The Bears better be careful, we are so lucky to have him but one injury could change everything. Show him a lot more respect (and give him some more money)!

Hester's great but Sanders is overplaying it. Hester's the best return man ever and he's underpaid. But he's not one of the best football players in the league. A return man simply doesn't get the contract Peyton, Adrian Peterson, or Ray Lewis get. It's absurd. He does need to get paid up though to what he's worth cuz he is underpaid.

He'll never be a reciever. He isn't smart enough to pick up an offensive playbook. He proved it time and time again last year. Even though he ran very few offensive plays, he was lost. I don't see it getting much better.

Hester does have a case and the team is looking at re-doing his contract, but the line has been established, and for people to try and butt the line would create additional havoc for the team. The problem with Chicago players is they let too many outsiders influence their decisions when it comes to $$$,and management (McCaskey's) in the past have proven to be CHEAP...I like the way the team is doing business right now, and I think its time to recognize that the nickels are no longer manhole covers in Chicago, they now are just bricks...Let's see what happens for the offense in the draft, and how many catches Hester makes, but he is a top-line Play-maker no doubt about it, he should not be allowed to walk!

I love Hester as much as anyone. Next to Mike Brown and Urlacher he is one of my favorite Bears. But does anyone think the Colts or the Patriots would pay big bucks for a return specialist/possible receiver? The bottom line is that these Bears can't score and can't stop anyone from scoring, which makes the return game that much more pivotal.If Hester can pick up the slack for Berrian(Berrian?)THEN pay him.

sign Devin Hester NOW, before his value goes up even further!!!
He IS going to get better at the reciever postion AND when that happens his stock is going up,up,up,up!!!!!
DON'T BE STUPID ABOUT THIS!! DEVIN IS THE BEAR'S WHOLE OFFENSE!!
any team would love for Chicago Bears managment to mess this up and have Devin hit the open market. listen up!!!! redo the Windy City Flyer's contract before he blows out of town!!!!!

What? More good news? Ha! Well, I think it's kinda funny how our return guy has had more TDs over the last two seasons than any other player on the Bears' roster. That is really funny! That being said, yeah, he should get "B Scared-to-block-a-linebacker" $ (Berrian). Hester's actually worth it.

Oh yeah, Deion, I know you got a mouth but so does Hester. Let him use it, huh?

Besides Harris, Hester is the only one on our roster that deserves an extension. I'd love to make the man rich but we haven't seen his full potential on offense. I love how Sanders said we got rid of our best receivers but didn't mention Booker can be much more productive than Moose. Berrian went with the better paycheck and Vikings only paid him so much cause the WR market was weak this off season. After the draft, the extension should me a top priority

If Brad Biggs or anyone else would post the actual 2007 salaries paid to the (non-productive) Bears players; such as Adam A. and Cedric B. AND THEN the salary of Devin Hester. WELL, I DON'T THINK THERE WILL BE ANY FURTHER DISCUSSION. END OF BLOG!!!! GO BEAR'S!!!!

I forget. Is it Parker or Sanders that's Hester's agent? I don't recall Sanders possessing the credentials, nor the linguistic skills to place such a judgement on the topic of contracts. These NFL persoanlities, really should stick to anaylizing the games rather than providing a non-credible aspect to a persons future, regardless how close they are to the person. Hester's a big boy, and I'm confident the administration, though cheap is not THAT foolish to let the man go.

I think many of you are missing the point.

Neon Deon is a clown first of all, secondly, Hester never came out publicly and said he was unhappy with his deal. He did say publicly that he loves Chicago and would love to remain a Bear for his entire career and his agent is actively working with the Bears on an extension.

This announcement is just sport talk blabber. Hester is and will go down as the greatest RETURN SPECIALIST in NFL history. Not the greatest football player like Neon Moron put it......

He may actualy pan out to be a good WR with some more reps and experience, but, it would be a mistake to tear up his comntract now because the media say's so.. The Bears are onre of the best franchise in the league at rewarding and retaining their own talent. Every team in the NFL losses players or cuts high priced players to get cap friendly but the Bears have made it a point to take care of as many of their own, core, FA players as possible. Berrian was just way overpaid by Minnissota and I would be first in line to bash the Bears if they signe bernard for that rediculous amount of money.

Hester has 2008 and 2009 left on his current contract, that's half of his rookie deal to play through. If by some weird act of fate the Bears and Hester's (people) can't agree on an extension before Feruary of 2010 then the Bears still control his rights by virtue of Hester being a RFA. They can tender Devin an offer and let the market dictate what he is worth or they could Franchise tag him for a few years.

Either way, it is WAY too early to get all worked up over this now. Tommie Harris, Devin, Goulde and Urlacher all have been approached already about contract extensions so let the Bean counters do their thing !!!!

Hester will get his money, maybe this year, maybe next year but he will get paid as will Harris and even grumpy urlacher.....

The best kicker in the NFL is only worth so much. The same can be said for the top return man. Yes, Hester “is” a game changer, but not a starter on offense. Being only a return man, they seem to have short careers in the NFL. Why invest heavily in someone that looks to be here short term. If he develops this year into a starting WR that makes plays, Pay him, if not, trade him at the end of the season if he’s still unhappy.

You got two big problems here.

1. Sanders is speaking for Hester. Has anyone ever seen what happens when a not so bright guy with a world of talent gets involved with someone like PrimeTime, it's usually a train wreck.

2. A return man isn't worth the Money BB got however lets say Hester takes to being a WR really well and Puts up 1200 and 8 TD's, plus he still impacts the return game, then how much do you pay him. I will tell you this he will cost more than Barrian and he will have the Bears over a Barrel.

Between him and Harris the 16 mil is gone, plus a mid first round draft pick is gonna cost some and Lach wants a raise. Oh and lets not forget the Kicker. This organization is maxing out it's payrole on a 7 and 9 team. I got an Idea you want to save some money cut Benson. Dieon was right about one thing we have no WR on this team, and we have one offensive impact player and he is a special teamer, not to mention a major problem at QB, Oline and RB that all need to be addressed. No wonder they don't want to give Brian a raise, they can't afford it.

Personally I think it would better for the Bears to go into full rebuild mode instead of this half @$$ed job they are doing.

If they want to save a little money here are some players they may think of doing something about.

Benson Made 7.5 million in 06 Pathetic.

Olin Kreutz Made 9 mil in 06 Not worth it for a 10 year vet

Metcalf MADE 4 MIL IN 06 For real. This has to be a joke.

Hunter Made 5 mil in 06, Im sorry, he is decent but that is over paid.

Archuleta 5.6 million in 06,

Mike Brown 2.5 mil. to do nothing.

Urlacher 4 mil. Thats less than Hunter?????
Ricky Manning Jr. 6.5, no way is he worth that.

This was in 06 and I can only assume most Salries have gone up or are relativly close to what you see this year.

I know Till and Vash got new paydays and the Bears got good deals for them and Brown got a decent payday and again it was a good deal, Harris wants to be the highest paid Defensive lineman in the League and Hester wants money big money too.

The Bears have some strange Contracts on the Books.

I think the problem here is that a lot of fans - many on this thread - still think in terms of marketability rather than worth. Hester is marketable. Let's face it, the guy is the most electric player in the NFL. However, he's a draw, an attraction. He is not the Bears. Throwing money at him makes little business sense. I want the guy to be happy, healthy and rich, but giving him Berrian-like money would be plain dumb. Anyone who thinks this a wise decision is thinking with their navy and orange heart not their brain. So what if we wait a year - he's got two years left on his rookie contract - and sign him AFTER he's become a stud, #1 wide receiver. We have to pay more? WHO CARES, we have a bonafide #1 stud receiver!!! But if we give him big-time money now and he never pans out, we're left with an overpaid return specialist and nothing more. With a salary cap of $108 million, would you allocate nearly 10% of that for one player who can't even crack the lineup in this pathetic WR corp?

A.) Deion is not an agent! B.)If Hester want's big $$ he should be a big enough man to speak on his own behalf. C.) There are TWO years left on this contract. Both parties would benefit to see if Hester can become an effective WR. Hester might be short-changing himself taking a re-write now if he goes on to become a quality receiver along with his special team talents, or the Bears might end up being forced to overpay for a potential that will never become realized. Someone tell Deion to "shut up and sit down". There in no, reapet "NO" urgency here now, and nothing positive will benefit either side from fabricating one.

WE NEED HESTER!!!!! As a great movie character once said "that's all I got to say about that."

Plain and simple - update his current contract with plenty of performance bonuses for playing offense (and why not - return touchdowns). If he can play receiver, he'll be paid generously. If he's stuck doing return duties, then he'll be paid for being a returner.

No reason to pay him for a WR position where he's untested, but I can't see why he shouldn't be getting bonus money for some of the great things he's done to keep the Bears alive.

We are getting ALOT of negative publicity from ourselves (the fans) and our Players. With that being said, why would anyone be excited about coming to the Bears? We are cheap, our own players complain on what seems to be a year to year basis and it seems to be more and more true that the famed super bowl run was a fluke. We are weak or considered lowest in the league in some of the most important positions QB,OL,RB,WR. ANYONE who complains about a 6-10 prediction is an idiot. I think 6-10 is a bit generous. I mean seriously take a look at those positions listed above and then realize that we are also garbage at Safety. I am die hard Bears as any of you, I fly from California to Chicago at least twice a year for games and I for one am tired of a horrible front office and BAD BAD BAD BAD coaching. Anyone who does not believe QB is PRIORITY #1 IS STUPID. Even when Rex,Orton or Griese had time they still all looked like trash. WE DO NOT HAVE ANY QB ON OUR ROSTER WHO IS CAPABLE. How do they not realize this?

Deion is right, Hester deserves a raise to be paid as the best special teams guy, but as a receiver, put down the pipe!! At this point, Hester runs a go and that's it. His wide open drop cost against the Vikes, but he made up for it against the Broncos (but then that's why he's out there). Sanders is best leaving ploys like this to Drew Hosenhouse.

Sorry, Deion but Hester is headed for the "franchise" tag. This is the smartest move the Bears can make. The tag pays him comparable to his proven skills as a return specialist & his unproven skills as a WR.

Bradley will be a better receiver than Berrian, Hester IS better than Berrian, and Booker is better than Moose. Before Bradley's injury, he was on his way to having a great year for the Bears. By losing Berrian, Hester will have a lot more opportunities to touch the ball, and I like that idea alot. Hester will command the kind of attention that Berrian will NEVER draw. Let's see what Hester's ALL PURPOSE YARDS are at the end of the season and pay him accordingly.

Rex will get a second full year to start and make a lot of people look foolish in their judgement of him as a QB (i.e. Eli Manning). If Rex gets the same amount of time to start as Eli did in his developement, the Bears will be fine at that position.

They better get an O-line and give Wolfe an HONEST chance to play RB. At least he's WILLING to block, and is a good receiver out of the backfield.

Ron Turner needs to commit to all the things he TALKS about doing, but seems to forget...you know...the TIGHT ENDS. Work in some roll out plays away from the pass rush, draw up some 'empty backfield' plays, put Hester and Wolfe in a T formation and make the defenses cover the whole width of the field. Both of them can make tacklers miss. I would PAY the Bears to let me call the offensive plays.

They may already have the weapons they need at WR,RB and QB. Until they give a fair shot to those players THEY drafted, we'll never no. Maybe that's why they didn't have a lot of activity in the offseason. Maybe they know something the armchair GM's don't.

I can't wait to see!

GO BEARS!

This could get interesting, because I remember after Nathan Vashers 2nd season he wanted to get paid also and Angelo made him wait till after his third season. Angelo has some policy about players being in there third season to get more money that I kind of agree with. It gives the players a couple seasons to prove there worth. In Hester case I wouldn't pay him as high of a deal that Berrian got till Hester proved he can play receiver better and more consistent. Hester can do this in the upcoming season, if he does come on at receiver the Bears should give him his pay day, if not pay him as much as the highest paid return guy is getting. I however think this is more Deion than Devin, Sanders has a habit of running his mouth, like I said let Hester prove he can play receiver in the upcoming season then pay him, if the Bears pay him now it might not bold well with some of the other veterans like Vasher and I don't want to see any unneeded friction created in the locker room that isn't needed GO BEARS!!

With so many needs to fill on offense and two stars let go for money (ayebendajho & berrian) Hester, Harris, and Urlacher want to gobble up the money the bears have under the cap. we need some money flexibilaty to add training camp cuts from other teams after the pre-season and these players should keep in mind contracts depreciate every year but pitchman money from being on a superbowl team can last a lifetime. Come to camp urlacher and be a team first player. Endorsements will follow. If not how abought a trade of Hester for Chad JOhnson? With chad we'd get a legitimate polished receiver who gives you a couple T.D.s a game!

Benson Made 7.5 million in 06 Pathetic.

Olin Kreutz Made 9 mil in 06 Not worth it for a 10 year vet

Metcalf MADE 4 MIL IN 06 For real. This has to be a joke.

Hunter Made 5 mil in 06, Im sorry, he is decent but that is over paid.

Archuleta 5.6 million in 06,

Mike Brown 2.5 mil. to do nothing.

Urlacher 4 mil. Thats less than Hunter?????
Ricky Manning Jr. 6.5, no way is he worth that.

This was in 06 and I can only assume most Salries have gone up or are relativly close to what you see this year.

I know Till and Vash got new paydays and the Bears got good deals for them and Brown got a decent payday and again it was a good deal, Harris wants to be the highest paid Defensive lineman in the League and Hester wants money big money too.

The Bears have some strange Contracts on the Books.

You'r kinda of looking at it the wrong way. Many of these contracts were back loaded, Urlacher already cashed in almost $35 million of his extension dollars and that is why Hunter earned more last year then Urlacher. Ditto for Kruetz, Benson, Ricky and Archuletta. Arch got most of his dough last season, he is on the books for 2008 to the tune of the league Veteran minnimum of $750,000. If my memmory serves me correctly I beleive BUMSON is only going to cost $3.5 million in 2008. Ricky will cost around $4 Million.

I would definetly try and trade or just cut Benson, Ricky Manning jr. and Metcalf, they are not worth the money now and we have Ricky's replacement on the roster already in Trumaine McBride. Metcalf just sucks bad and he needs to go.... Benson will be even slower if that is even possible with those screws still in his ankle....

We are kind of stuck with Olin since he is the best O-lineman we have and with potentially (2) rookies starting on our revamped Line this year, we need all the Veteran leadership we have left to help these youngsters out.

Lots of interesting things in store for us these next (5) month's. Should be a wild ride and hopefully Jerry has a sure fire plan for this looming draft !!!

What I don't understand is why we the fans are allowing a simpleton like Sanders perform such trechory on us. I feel like I'm watching these news organizations that take such things as Obam's "bitter" statement out of utter context and letting the flame blow out of control. Yes we should keep hester, but we also must stop allowing people like Sanders get into our heads through his deliberate manipulative tactics. If it is true and Hester wants to remain a Bear, then a deal will be done, but it should be between the Organization and Hester and Parker. NOT SANDERS!!!! We as the fans are smarter than to let a single person who does not even have media credentials nor agent representative credentials cause such ulcers in our systems. Let the organization deal with this. They know the importance of Devin and his desire to remain. GO BEARS.

first of all packa killa....dont dis olin. he is one of the best lineman this league has to offer and he has unprecidented leadership skills...second off...benson had a bad year, so what...i love walter payton to death but he had 3 seasons where he didn't rush for over 1000 yards and that was with a much better and younger o-line that what benson is faced with. the offense first and formost needs an offensive line...grossman got pressured far to many times for him to drop back and pass...look back to the beginning of the 06 season and how his numbers were compared to the amount of sacks opposing teams had on him...then look at later that season and how the o-line fell apart.
the bears must draft an offensive lineman in both the first and third rounds of this draft and re-negotiate with hester. no dont pay him top dollar simply because he s nothing more that a return man and will never be anything else.
disagree??? feel free to email me, no one i know has any knowledge of football

jmransom803@ameritech.net

Deion? Where did you go with your "I've been saved by Jesus" lie? Shouldn't you let Devon speak for himself? Good God, Hester is a PART TIME PLAYER! He is being paid very well for that. Do me a favor, Devon. Show me you can CATCH A FOOTBALL!!!!!!!! How quickly we forget about when the football thrown by Grossman, you know, the scapegoat that everyone wants to blame for all of this, bounced so easily off your shoulder pad while you 3 yards past the nearest defender, and harmlessly to the ground last year? I WISH ALL NFL PLAYERS WOULD REALIZE THAT THEY ARE GETTING PAID TO PLAY A GAME, AND THEY ARE NOT THE 2ND COMING!!!!

Bill what are you talking about Rex will get a second full year to start and prove us all wrong. If he wins the QB compitition, then it will be his 5th straight year of attempting to start and go a full season. He has 5 seasons under his belt already. He has a carrer qb rating of 70. In his 5 year career he has only thrown 30 td but has 33 int. This is year six for Rex not year two or three. He also has 19 fumbles in 32 games. He has fewer td than games played in and more interceptions than games played in. What guy have you been Watching?

Eli has already played 3 full seasons, in a year less time than Rex he has 25 more games played, thrown for more than 3000 yards 3 times has 77 td to 64 int's. Eli was considered a borderline bust until Shockey went down then all of a sudden he exploded. His career numbers are better than Rex's and he was considered a bust until the second half of last year. Rex has actually been in the league longer. His nubers as a bust where better than Rex's. Eli saved his Job the second half of last year and he did it in style against the best teams under pressure situations. Have youo ever seen Rex react to pressure. It's not pretty, the guy gets geeked out of his mind. His own coach says he gets over excited before every game. It's been 5 years if he could have calmed down he would have. Also unlike Eli Rex has injury issues. Rex was also benched last year after he swore he would play better in 2007. His numbers were not as good as Griese or Orton.

Why compare the two. Last year at the end of the season we saw Eli totally change once Shock Jock was out of the lineup. The Giants are currenty shopping Shockey.

I am a huge Packers fan, but do admire and respect good players from other teams. I know that Hester is good but we have to also mention that is not just him on the field against 11 other opponents. The whole specials teams for the Bears is awesome and something to be afraid of. But let's also be realistic he is not a complete player. Give him another year and if he is able to perform as a receiver and special teams return man, go ahead and give him the money. For now let him prove that he is worth every penny. I hate Dion and his big mouth, in my eyes he was good but not great. So what if he played 2 different sports and was good at both. Maybe he should have just played one and become great at it. Dion stop advising Hester all you are going to do is making quit and send him to another team to become a back up for someone else like many before him.

I just can't stand all the player's in the NFL crying about how little they make campared to so and so. I need to get paid cry, cry. The NFL needs to grows some balls and stop paying the insance numbers and lower the costs so people can actually go to a game. I can go on a 3 day vacation for less then a day at a Bears game.

The rookies first rounders are some of the worst. Rookies should get small contracts and get paid based on performance, with some guaranteed money based on when they are drafted. Have you ever noticed that bad teams don't seem to get better with all the high frist rounders they get?

I have heard some idividuals on the NFL network (I love the sport but damn they are over paid) say how because of the risk of injury they deserve the money. It is not like there aren't a million careers out there that risk there lives every day for a fraction of what these guys get paid without complaining. I that guy working on the high rise was to get paid what they are I really really don't think he would complain. The average joe are the people paying for the tickets, buying the merchandise and basically paying the player's salaries. Can you imagine an electrician stopping work in the middle of your house and saying damn did you see how well I hung that light fixture, I deserve more money. You would tell him to go pound sand.

I am not saying that Hester isn't one of the best returners of all time, if not the best. But I feel they should play for the money they agreed and live up to thier end of the deal and ask for more money when they can show they have earned. AND after the finish the deal they agreed to. I am sure if whey they were signing the contract they weren't saying and after half the term is up I will want more money. No, they were saying damn they are going to pay me how much to play football AND I am gonna be on TV!

Anyway, it just makes me sick hears them cry about how little they are paid. They need to leave the NFL and live like the rest of us to see what real life is like before they cry about thier huge pay checks!