Phil Emery is currently the Kansas City Chiefs' director of college scouting, while Jason Licht is director of pro scouting for the Super Bowl-bound New England Patriots. more ›

The Bears may have to look outside the organization for an offensive play caller, as the Oakland Raiders want to talk to offensive coordinator Mike Tice about their head coaching vacancy. more ›

So what did we learn from yesterday's press conference with Bears President Ted Phillips and Chairman George McCaskey that addressed their firing of Jerry Angelo? more ›

Angelo, who addressed rumors of his job status by saying he was "whistling 'Dixie'," leaves after 11 years with a 95-81 record, four division titles, an NFC championship and a loss in Super Bowl XLI, will be better remembered for his poor drafting and talent evaluation skills. more ›

As expected, the Bears began the process of distancing themselves from receiver Sam Hurd by placing him on waivers this afternoon. more ›

With the Bears in their bye week and their season nearly half-complete, we figured now was a good time to look back on the season so far as well as their remaining schedule. more ›

Lance Briggs' six-year, $36 million contract he signed three years ago looks like a bargain compared to the contracts of younger, less proven linebackers. But he wants to keep up with them in salary. more ›

The Bears traded Greg Olsen to Carolina late yesterday afternoon, completing a purge of the tight ends on their roster. more ›

This week's crisp morning air is a gentle reminder that football season is once more upon us. With the Bears opener just days away, just how will our team do in 2010? This is a make or break year for many in the organization -- most notably head coach Lovie Smith. While many on his coaching staff lost their jobs after last season's 7-9 campaign, Smith was retained. Another year without making the playoffs and he'll be looking for work. So, too, will GM Jerry Angelo after bringing the likes of Julius Peppers and Jay Cutler to the Bears in recent off-seasons. Despite a miserly reputation, the Bears have spent lavishly on players yet have not made the postseason since their Super Bowl XLI appearance. more ›

While the NFL draft's new three day format meant that the Bears sat at home for the first night, they finally got to join the action well into Friday night when they made their first selection during the draft's third round. Four more picks came during Saturday's final session. By the time the league was done allocating it new players, the Bears had added five to their roster and Bears personnel were pleased with their ability to find value and fill the team's needs given their lack of early round picks: more ›

With the Bears done for the season at 7-9 and missing the playoffs for a third straight year, the team took out a full page ad in today's Tribune and Sun-Times apologizing to fans for their underachievement. Meanwhile, fans await actions, not words. And while Coach Lovie Smith didn't appear before the media today as he usually does the day after a game, he's still owed $11 million over the next two years which means it might cost the Bears a pretty penny to fire him. On the other hand, team GM Jerry Angelo promised money would not be a factor in the decision to fire or retain Smith. more ›

Conventional wisdom was that Bears head coach Lovie Smith's job is secure, at least through next season, for no other reason than that the McCaskey clan wouldn't want to pay Smith and his staff while also paying a new coach and his staff. Smith has two years and $11 million remaining on his current deal. Never mind that the Bears now hold a 4-6 record in spite of adding supposed franchise QB Jay Cutler, who Ron Turner has managed to turn into the second coming of Rex Grossman, and in spite of Lovie personally taking over the defensive play calling. The media and fans alike have been imploring the Bears ownership to eat those contracts and make a coaching change. Turner is also the subject of speculation as a source has told the Sun-Times that Mike Martz has been targeted to take over the offense. more ›

Just five games into his tenure, Bears GM Jerry Angelo rewarded quarterback Jay Cutler with a two-year, $30 million contract extension. The deal includes about $20 million in guaranteed money. Already under contact through 2011, the team now holds Cutler's rights through 2013. The Bears stopped short, however, of ensuring Cutler will retire a Bear -- he'll still be just 30 years old when his new deal expires. While his deal is nowhere near the six-year deals pushing $100 million that other young franchise QBs have received, if Cutler continues to put up numbers like he has so far, we have a feeling Angelo and Cutler will be making more deals in the future. more ›

The NFL held its annual draft this weekend, but for Bears fans it was a real snoozer. The Bears didn't even make a selection until the draft's second day, when most of the players selected are known only to the NFL scouts and fans of their particular schools. Having already traded away their first round pick to the Denver Broncos as part of the Jay Cutler trade, they shipped their second round selection to Seattle on Saturday in return for a third round pick and a sixth rounder after unsuccessfully trying to trade for Arizona wide receiver Anquan Boldin. more ›

Wow. more ›

Jay Cutler, the Denver Broncos quarterback that the team was quietly shopping before they declared him their quarterback who was not on the market, is now officially on the market. Team owner Pat Bowlen issued a statement announcing that, due to irreconcilable differences, the Broncos were looking to trade Cutler. more ›

Any time a halfway competent starting quarterback hits the market, or rumors that one might be on the move pop up, local sports fans and sports media alike begin fantasizing about what that guy might look like in blue and orange. Only weeks ago, Kurt Warner was all the rage. This time, it's no different -- well, except that the guy in question is used to sporting blue and orange. more ›

The Bears went into this weekend's draft with lots of holes to fill, particularly on offense. They drafted ten new players to fill those needs and improve the team. So were they successful? more ›

Was it really only a year ago that the Bears were coming off a Super Bowl appearance and looking toward the draft simply to shore up some depth at a couple spots and add some minor components that'd help them go all the way? more ›

Bears quarterbacks Rex Grossman and Kyle Orton can be forgiven if they have a extra pint tonight -- or some fruity cocktail in Orton's case, since he's on his honeymoon in Hawaii -- because the Bears finally got them some help at wide receiver. more ›

Chicagoist hopes that IDOT has placed their orders for reinforced guard rails and extra sign posts because Lance Briggs will be remaining with the Bears after signing a 6-year, $36 million deal over the weekend. more ›

The Bears announced what Chicagoist suspected when we saw Cedric Benson remain on the ground following a 21 -ard run in the second quarter of Sunday's game: the injury will cut his season short. Benson will undergo surgery on his ankle that will shelve the Bears running back until next year. The Bears running game was a major area of concern even before the injury. The Bears are averaging only 85.3 yards/game -- third worst... more ›

When we saw Mike Brown leave the game with an injury, Chicagoist feared the worst. Once again, one of the Bears' best defensive players and leaders on the field has a great game going and then has to leave the game prematurely. And the tears in the locker room after the game certainly didn't make us any less worried. Monday evening, our fears were confirmed when the Bears announced that Mike Brown had blown out... more ›

Following his arrest early Friday morning on suspicion of DUI, the Bears waived Tank Johnson on Monday. In the team's release to the media, GM Jerry Angelo said, "We are upset and embarrassed by Tank's actions last week. He compromised the credibility of our organization." So what great crime ultimately lead to Tank's dismissal from the Bears? He was stopped for driving 40 mph in a 25mph zone at 3:30am in Gilbert, Arizona and cited... more ›

The NFL held its annual draft this past weekend, and the Bears attempted to fill the holes on their roster in the hopes of building a team that can return to the Super Bowl next season. On Friday, we outlined what we felt were the biggest needs for the Bears. How'd they do in filling those areas? In the first round, with the 31st overall pick, the Bears filled their need for a tight end... more ›

Just as the local sporting goods stores have finally moved out the last of their Bears NFC Champions merchandise, it's time for the Bears and the NFL teams to restock their roster during the NFL draft, which takes place Saturday and Sunday in New York. The draft begins at 11:00 am on Saturday, but there's no need to get up early to watch. The Bears don't draft until the 31st pick in the first round,... more ›

The name Drew Rosenhaus sends shivers down the spines of football executives -- he's known to be quite the difficult agent to deal with. And he happens to represent the Bears' Lance Briggs, which certainly isn't making the situation between him and the Bears any easier. Briggs had remained fairly quite in recent weeks, following his trade demands and promise to hold out the entire 2007 season. He did meet with Bears officials on Monday,... more ›

Just days after Bears management redeemed themselves by locking up Lovie Smith for the next five years, they once again have us scratching our heads. They traded Thomas Jones, the team's starting running back, to the New York Jets along with their late second-round pick for an early second-round draft pick. Are we missing something? Jones ran for over 1,200 yards in 2006, carrying the ball 296 times and averaging 4.1 yards a carry. He... more ›

When we heard that Bears president Ted Phillips planned to meet face-to-face with head coach Lovie Smith this afternoon, we had a bad feeling. We feared that a bad situation over Lovie's contract extension would only deteriorate. These types of meetings have a way of getting too personal. What could be said that would make things better? Either Phillips would make up excuses about why the Bears couldn't offer more as much as they really... more ›

Chicagoist has lost a lot of respect for Bears management this week. They talked a tough game, but when push came to shove they backed down. At a Tuesday afternoon press conference, Bears GM Jerry Angelo announced that the Bears will suspend Tank Johnson for one game for "conduct detrimental to the team." ONE GAME!?!?! Talk about caving to the pressure to win at all costs. After serving his suspension, he'll be eligible to return... more ›