Bears show where their priorities are and sign Gould
I guess extending Tommie Harris and Devin Hester on top of placating Brian Urlacher weren't the top goals of the Bears this offseason, as they signed kicker Robbie Gould to a five-year, 15 million dollar deal today. His field goal percentage is awfully good, but that's a lot of money for a guy who can't make a kick over 50 yards. This deal makes him the highest paid kicker in the NFL. He's pretty good, but is he that good? I don't think so. Oh well. It's not a bad deal for the Bears so much as it seems awfully secondary to what should be their priority: sign Tommie Harris.
In other news, the Bears cut Adam Archuleta last week. No shocker there, as he was basically useless last season. As a former All-Pro safety, the one thing I noticed about him in training camp last season was how damn little he was. He seriously was the Rudy of the secondary. After being in the league for five years, though, he lost a step and that single step apparently was the difference between being an All-Pro and, well, Rudy. Rudy got burned a lot, and he stole $8 million dollars from the Bears. Hopefully with Payne healthy and the addition of Steltz, McGowan and the Bears won't miss the little engine that couldn't.
Finally, with each passing day it seems that Cedric Benson was a victim of "aggressive policing" down in Texas last week. Guilty or innocent, it appears the Bears are not going to take any action against Cedric for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. If they end up cutting him, it will because he stunk on the field, not because he stunk of alcohol and mace as the Cops dragged him across the dock. And I agree. As much as I'd like to write off the Benson era and put him in the dustbin of Enis-tory, I want to give him one last chance to earn his keep. He was solid, if injured, during his first two seasons, and I firmly believe the crappy O-line was his major problem last season. That said, crappy line or not, he needs to produce more than 3.4 yards per carry. This year its 4.0 or waivers.