Meatballs, Phil Emery, the Chicago Bears and NFL Free Agency
Published by Timothy Hockemeyer on March 9, 2012
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Chicago Bears
Ladies and gentlemen, we are officially just four days away from the start of NFL free agency, and the Second City Meatball Jug Band Orchestra are tuning up already for the newest chorus of their rousing operatic performance of “Our GM Still Sucks!”
“Oh, but Emery is new and we don’t know what he will do! How can you say that?”
Easily, that’s how.
Newly coronated general manager Phil Emery faces an uphill battle. There are plenty of targets for the Bears to zero in on, and the Bears have a lot of cap space that they must spend, yet Emery will not likely be able to do enough to satisfy those callers on the Score, to be sure.
Emery may land corner help by way of someone like Cortland Finnegan or left tackle help in Demetrius Bell or even receiver help by way of Mario Manningham, but the likelihood is that top free agents Mario Williams, Vincent Jackson and Marques Colston will land somewhere other than O’Hare come the 13th of March.
Why? Because the Bears have more vacancies to fill than most fans realize and there are a lot of teams out there with more money to spend than Chicago. That combination will likely price Williams, Jackson and Colston right out of Chicago.
That doesn’t mean Chicago can’t sign a few free agents, but it does mean they will likely be second-tier players who won’t have the star power to satisfy the Meatballs, even as those same second-tier players improve the team and narrow the gap between the Bears and their division rivals.
It is possible that the Bears land a top-tier free agent, but the likelihood is that Bears fans will have to settle for a few slightly lesser players.
Is that a bad thing?
In fact, it may be the better scenario. If the Bears end up winning a bidding war for Mario Williams, they have far less left of the money pie to use to deal with every other gaping hole. This means that the Bears would greatly (and I mean greatly) improve one position but would leave the rest treading water.
But the Bears could afford to bring in all three of the players I listed above and a couple of others to boot, improving a few positions rather than just one and thus improving the team more on an overall level.
So, after the free-agency dust settles and the Meatballs are calling in to the Score pontificating on the Bears being better off with Angelo because at least Jerry at least could get the Bears the top defensive end when he was available, remember that the Bears nabbing even one the three top free agents was an uphill battle that the Bears may be better off losing.
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