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Mike Mulligan, an Inside the Bears confidant, takes a comprehensive look at the Bears’ draft results in the Jerry Angelo era in today’s edition, paying particular attention to what he turned up on offense.

While the organization has been successful identifying defensive players—Lance Briggs, Tommie Harris and Nathan Vasher have all been to Pro Bowls—the results on offense have been less inspiring. The Bears opened last season with just three Angelo draft picks starting on offense—quarterback Rex Grossman, running back Cedric Benson and wide receiver Bernard Berrian. Grossman will be locked in a training camp battle with another draft pick in Kyle Orton this summer. Berrian will start for Minnesota and Benson’s future is iffy.

Mulligan turned to the analysis created by Inside the Bears last October that evaluated how the club’s draft picks have been allocated. The primary question was has the team been better with defensive draft picks because it drafts more defense?

In part, yes. But the results might be closer than you think. In six drafts, Angelo has had 19 picks in the top three rounds. Eight have been used on offense—Marc Colombo and Terrence Metcalf (2002), Grossman (2003), Berrian (2004), Benson and Mark Bradley (2005), Greg Olsen and Garrett Wolfe (2007).

Filtering through the notebook from Tuesday’s pre-draft session at Halas Hall ...

Maybe the most interesting nugget that didn’t involve a smokescreen was when special teams coordinator Dave Toub said he didn’t expect Devin Hester’s role to be reduced on special teams this season. Fact is, that mirrors what coach Lovie Smith said earlier in the month at the owners meetings in Florida. Smith said he would never take a player away from doing what he’s best at, and clearly being the game’s most dominant return man is Hester’s strength at this point.

The goal is for him to develop as a top receiver but that’s a work in progress.

“I’ve talked to Devin and I’ve talked to Lovie about it,’’ Toub said. ``Just having him line up on kickoff returns changes the mind set of the other team. I don’t think we’re going to see a situation where he’s not in there.

“If he’s a No. 1 receiver now, we’re projecting a lot of things, but if he is that guy then you’re going to look at it. But is he going to be that guy right now? I don't see that happening this year. That’s my personal view of it. Maybe down the road.’’

General manager Jerry Angelo said safety Mike Brown (ACL, knee) and runing back Cedric Benson ( broken leg/ankle) should be "up and going with no restrictions" by the end of May.

Angelo said all players under contract should be cleared for participation by then.

Check back soon for more.

Would the Bears grab Arkansas running back Darren McFadden if he falls on Saturday?

Would they consider dealing up to grab him?

Consensus is the Bears will seek an offensive tackle, preferably someone who can play on the left side, with the 14th pick in the draft.

But general manager Jerry Angelo revealed today he believes McFadden is the best player in the draft. He also listed LSU defensive tackle Glenn Dorsey and Boston College quarterback Matt Ryan as the top players available.

Sometimes players will not be happy with their contracts.

That’s what general manager Jerry Angelo said Tuesday.

He didn’t need to address Brian Urlacher specifically to get his point across when discussing the team’s goal of rewarding its own, including defensive tackle Tommie Harris, returner Devin Hester and kicker Robbie Gould.

``It is what it is,’’ Angelo said. ``Players have feelings. You’re not going to have one big happy family, it just doesn’t happen that way.’’

Matt Maiocco provides some more compelling reading on Briggsgate, which unfortunately now that it’s over has proven to be not nearly as salacious as Spygate. Nonetheless, I am informing the boss there may be a person of interest for this story residing in Hawaii and it’s quite possible he has evidence and is itching to tell all.

According to Maiocco’s report in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, the only evidence against the San Francisco 49ers in the tampering case initiated by the Bears was two very short phone calls, 20 seconds in length.

Now, agent Drew Rosenhaus is skilled in the art of the deal but it’s hard to imagine what kind of tampering can be accomplished in 40 seconds. From my perspective, there has to be more ot the story. Whether it's hearsay or more, who knows?

Picked up an interesting point courtesy of ESPN’s John Clayton earlier tonight regarding Briggsgate.

When you analyze one of the draft pick value charts used to assess trades, the Bears gain 25 points by moving from the 12th pick in the third round (75th overall) to the seventh pick in the third round (70th overall) following commissioner Roger Goodell’s ruling.

It doesn’t sound like a lot. But 25 points on the chart is equivalent to a high sixth-round pick. So you can look at it like the Bears gained a sixth-round pick. On the other side of things, San Francisco was stripped of a fifth-round pick by Goodell and loses the equivalent of a sixth rounder by moving into the Bears spot at No. 12 in Round 3. All for some shenanigans involving linebacker Lance Briggs, a player Matt Maiocco of the Santa Rose Press Democrat doesn’t believe really fits what the Niners are doing, not with the emergence of Patrick Willis.

Marty Booker arrives in town Monday to take a physical and officially sign the $3.5 million, two-year contract he agreed to last week.

A little more than two weeks after general manager Jerry Angelo talked about the ``transition’’ the Bears offense is going through, we’ve got a better idea what’s going on.

They are hoping a short-term solution at quarterback—a competition between Rex Grossman and Kyle Orton—provides a longterm answer. They’ve added some bargain buys in Booker and Brandon Lloyd at wide receiver in a market that has seen huge money thrown at Bernard Berrian, who has yet to have a 1,000-yard season, and Javon Walker, who has been healthy once in the last three years. And the Bears have continued down the path of locking up their own, extending tight end Desmond Clark and laying the groundwork for extensions with kicker Robbie Gould, defensive tackle Tommie Harris and wide receiver Devin Hester.

INDIANAPOLIS—General manager Jerry Angelo took time out in between his schedule of meeting with agents and Bears personnel to assess the contract agreement in place for quarterback Rex Grossman Saturday afternoon, as well as other semi-related topics.

The transcript from the press conference:

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON RE-SIGNING REX?

JA: “We’re real happy about it. As I said when we last talked, that we felt this was the best place for Rex, and in talking to Rex’s agent, they felt that too, given that they bantered some other things back and forth, but in the end they felt like we did: This is the best place for him. It gives him the best chance to do the things that he wants to do. We decided on a one-year deal. It served everybody’s best interest. Certainly he’s looking at the monetary value.”

“We felt as he did that would be in his best interest. I know that the monetary part of it as I said played a role into this. We thought that this would serve in that best interest. He really wanted to come back here and do the things that he set out to do, and we were happy to hear that. And as I said to you before, we wanted Rex back because Rex wanted to be back, and by coming back before free agency started, that this is the place where he wanted to be. So good news and we’re real happy that we were able to get it done as quickly as we did.”

When Jerry Angelo finally emerged to discuss the season that disappointed him to the point of making him scarce for a few months, at least the Bears general manager stood and talked for a solid half-hour.

What he actually revealed was very little as he prepares for organizational meetings that will chart a course for the coming months. Sure, he shared his disdain for the state of the offense, but those expecting a bold proclamation were not entering Thursday’s press conference realistically. The nucleus for a top 10 defense remains in place and Angelo likes some of the pieces on offense.

We’ll run down some of the highlights from the session:

Q: Will you explore opportunities to upgrade at the quarterback position?
A: We’ll look at anything. I know that sounds cliché-ish but we will. We’ll look at anything that we feel that will be able to upgrade our roster. But we also have to be pragmatic about it as well. So I’m not going to rule anything out at this point. We were a 7-9 football team. Obviously we have things that need to be corrected and fixed and we have to be honest in our evaluation and we will be honest in our evaluation. And once we determine what our needs are then we’ll address those first and go from there.