Football operations assistant Jeremy Snyder was the turk for the last four seasons, summoning players who were being let go to bring their playbook and head upstairs.

Snyder has moved on to a promotion with the Philadelphia Eagles where he might not have to be the bearer of bad news to so many. He has joined the Eagles as a pro scout making him the second front office member to depart. Assistant director of pro personnel Morocco Brown departed for a job with another NFC East club already. He’s become the director of pro personnel for the Washington Redskins.

Check back later for more details.

Good enough that you can forget about the possibility of the club pursuing any free agents like Shaun Alexander, Kevin Jones, Ron Dayne or anyone else. That’s what coach Lovie Smith said Wednesday after the club wrapped up its offseason program at Halas Hall minus linebacker Brian Urlacher, who was not in attendance.

Benson's fate in with law enforcement officials in Austin, Texas, remains very much up in the air.

He's dealing with his boating arrest from May 3, when he was charged with drunk boating and resisting arrest, and then he was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving Saturday. That led to his release.

Benson's Austin, Texas-based attorney Sam Bassett says he has viewed a tape of the field sobriety tests Benson was given in the crowded downtown party district.

Well, maybe not the latest. We’re simpy going to try to tie a bow on this one and be done with it as efficiently as we can.

While it’s been suggested at least in some places that Benson will count $3.5 million vs. the Bears’ salary cap this season, that’s not accurate. Benson will not be owed his base salary of $820,000, and the only thing left on his contract to figure is the $4 million signing bonus he received in 2005 and the $7.1 million option bonus the contract included.

Using those figures he will count $2.575 million against the cap this year and again in 2009. It actually represents a savings for this year and that’s hardly a burdensome figure in terms of dead money for ’09. This is all provided Benson, who was placed on waivers, is not claimed. If he’s claimed, there will be acceleration and the Bears will be looking at a different scenario. It’s doubtful anyone will claim the troubled former fourth overall pick.

The Bears have renamed their fan convention the Bears Expo and moved it from the Hilton and Towers to Soldier Field.

It takes place Saturday and Sunday and offers fans some new opportunities, including the chance to tour the home locker room, kick a field goal and run through drills on the field.

More than 55 current and former players are scheduled to attend, including the entire 2008 draft class, Hall of Famers Gale Sayers and Mike Singletary, Super Bowl XX MVP RIchard Dent, and current players with Pro Bowl experience including Marty Booker, Lance Briggs, Robbie Gould, Tommie Harris and Nathan Vasher.

He's been cleared for a full return and looked like his old self, stepping in front of a hot read for Rashied Davis and picking off a Kyle Orton pass in team drills. Brown was off to the races for an imaginary touchdown to the delight of teammates.

He struggled in Saturday's practice and was outperformed by Zac Atterberry, the Lindenwood pickup.

If Atterberry does well he could be kept for training camp but with reduced rosters now (from 86 to 80) keeping specialty players is not going to be as common. Teams will use the depth for linemen.

Boy, did it.

The Bears also came to agreement with all five of the club’s seventh-round picks on contracts Friday night.

Defensive lineman Israel Idonije, who is expected to move inside on a more permanent basis, is listed at 297 pounds, up 22 from last year. It’s by far the biggest change on the roster.

Idonije was doing some work at defensive end during OTA’s when the media was allowed in last week as Alex Brown (hamstring) was sidelined. The Bears certainly don’t want anyone playing outside at that size, but the feeling was Idonije could add the weight and remain as quick. It will be interesting to get his take as well as that of special teams coordinator Dave Toub on the change because he’s such a valuable contributor on special teams.

No, defensive tackle Tommie Harris has not signed a contract extension, but you can bet that was one of the issues the sides discussed.

Tight end Kellen Davis, the fifth-round draft pick from Michigan State, has agreed to a four-year contract. The news was first reported in profootballtalk.com, and Rosenhaus confirmed it.

So with that in mind—and a desire to focus on something else—we turn to some other issues worth watching at minicamp this weekend.

Six topics worth discussing:

1. What’s up with contracts for Tommie Harris and Devin Hester? Coming to an accord with Urlacher won’t put an end to the financial wheeling and dealings going on. Harris’ situation takes on the most significance because he is due to be an unrestricted free agent following the 2008 season.

The middle linebacker, according to an Internet report, will show up at Halas Hall after making strong statements suggesting he wouldn’t be seen earlier this month.

If Urlacher was going to find a resolution to his contract dispute, he wasn’t going to do it by staying away from the club. The Bears have a pretty straightforward policy of negotiating with players who are not present.

Barring an unforeseen breakthrough between the six-time Pro Bowl linebacker and the Bears, we’ll get a better idea what that new contract is worth to Urlacher come Friday when the mandatory minicamp opens at Halas Hall.

If Urlacher boycotts the event—as he told our pal Mike Silver at Yahoo! Sports he was likely to do earlier this month—he puts in jeopardy a portion of the $13 million signing bonus he received in 2003. Urlacher, who turned 30 Sunday and has skipped the voluntary offseason workout program to date, could risk losing money in his bid to earn more money.

At issue would be signing bonus forfeiture language in Urlacher’s contract, a standard part of virtually all NFL contracts. If he’s in default on his contract—and missing a mandatory team activity would qualify—the Bears could choose to pursue a pro-rated portion of that signing bonus. Just five years into the $56.65 million, nine-year contract, at stake would be $5,777,777 (the remaining pro-rated portion of the signing bonus).

They'll handle a myriad of topics, several non-Bears related, but we'll see what shakes out.

I'd expect him to fully support Brian Urlacher's drive for more dough.

Stay tuned.