Bears To Trade Marshall, Part Ways With Briggs

By Rob Winn in News on Mar 6, 2015 5:30PM

Image credits: David Banks/Getty Images (Marshall); Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images (Briggs)

The Lance Briggs era has come to a close. Comcast SportsNet Chicago reported Thursday the Chicago Bears informed Briggs he will not be offered a contract by the team for the upcoming season. It has also just been reported by 670 The Score that star wide receiver Brandon Marshall will be traded to the New York Jets, pending a physical.

The end of Briggs' tenure with the Bears has been speculated since he suffered a second consecutive season-ending injury in 2014. Those rumors were all but confirmed when new head coach John Fox announced the team would be switching to a 3-4 defense, leaving Briggs without a position.

While recent years have been speckled with injuries and controversy, Briggs should be remembered as a highly reliable player who was a stalwart on the stellar Bears defenses during the mid-2000s.

Briggs was drafted in 2003 out of the University of Arizona. Even if Briggs revitalizes his career with another team, he'll always be remembered as a Bear who spent his best years playing alongside running mate Brian Urlacher. Briggs finishes his Bears career with 936 tackles, voted to the Pro Bowl seven times and a first team All-Pro in in 2005 who twice recorded over 100 tackles in a single season. He also forced 16 career fumbles and scored five touchdowns. He undoubtedly ranks right alongside Wilber Marshall and Otis Wilson as one of the best outside linebackers in Bears history.

If the report is accurate, it should be noted that new general manager Ryan Pace is taking a much more tactful approach to moving on from members of the Lovie Smith era than former general manager Phil Emery, who famously bungled dismissing Brian Urlacher. That situation lead to years of hard feelings between Urlacher and front office.

After turning in extremely productive seasons in 2012 and 2013, Marshall came under fire during the 2014 season for a number of reasons. He decided to travel during his off day to tape Showtime's Inside the NFL, held an ill-advised, rambling news conference denying domestic assault accusations and wasat the center of reports about combativeness with teammates in the locker room. When you combine that with diminishing returns because of injury, the new Bears front office apparently decided to move on from arguable the best wide receiver the Bears have seen in the modern era.

The details of the trade have yet to be published and won't be made official until the NFL's free agency period opens 3 p.m. Tuesday.