Mike Mulligan: Brian Urlacher is threatening to retire again. Actually, Urlacher apparently was joking Monday when he brought up the subject with Michael Silver of Yahoo! Sports while talking about media reaction to his demand for a contract extension.
If your cup is half full, you could look at Cedric Benson's arrest Saturday in Texas as a positive sign for the 2008 Bears. Benson is recovering from a fracture just above his left ankle that required a plate and screws to hold the bone together. As the team wonders how much speed the injury will cost him, it can take heart in the fact that he apparently has found his sea legs.
If your cup is half full of it, you could look at Cedric Benson's Saturday arrest in Texas as a positive sign for the 2008 Bears. The player is recovering from a fracture just above his left ankle that required a plate and screws be inserted to hold the bone together and as the team wonders how much speed the injury will cost him it can take heart in the fact that he's apparently found his sea legs.
Mike Mulligan: Watching the first minicamp practice of the eager army known as the Class of 2008, you couldn't help but want to fast-forward three years to know exactly what the future has in store for Chris Williams, Matt Forte and Co. They say it takes at least that amount of time to evaluate a draft effectively. Minicamp practices are a futile exercise in terms of evaluating talent. The idea isn't so much for players to act like they've been there before as it is to look like they belong.
It all got so very confusing on Sunday during an endless final day of the 2008 draft.
Mike Mulligan: Cedric Benson famously wept on draft day back in 2005 when the Bears selected him with the No. 4 overall pick. Now he really has a reason to cry. If Benson wasn't already a bona fide bust before Saturday, the Bears declared him thus by using their second-round pick, No. 44 overall, to select his replacement, Tulane running back Matt Forte.
1. CHIEFS They struck gold on both sides of the line with DT Glenn Dorsey and G Branden Albert and also got a potential starter in second-rounder Brandon Flowers.
Mike Mulligan: Like a broken clock, our mock draft promises to be right at least twice Saturday. Check that; it will be right once and not wrong again later. The Miami Dolphins already have signed Michigan offensive tackle Jake Long and announced he will be the No. 1 pick.
It might sound like an immodest goal, what Bears general manager Jerry Angelo is hoping to achieve early in this weekend's draft, but he has done it once before.
This a very good class of wide receivers with excellent depth, including a dozen players who leave college as their school's all-time leading receiver. It would be a great class if there was one dominant, complete, elite player to top the board, but there isn't. In fact, teams may have vast differences of opinion on which player should go where.
Mike Mulligan: When Bears general manager Jerry Angelo was asked at the end of last season about building blocks on offense, he said something about having a ''formidable'' offensive line. It was a confusing statement even before the team cut Fred Miller, opted not to re-sign Ruben Brown and said it planned to move John Tait from left tackle to the right side depending on what happens in the draft.
If NFL teams were allowed to redo the 2007 draft, there's little doubt running back Adrian Peterson would be long gone by the time the Minnesota Vikings made their pick at No. 7.
Much like the wide receiver position, there just isn't an elite talent in this year's class that would raise the overall grade of the group. No Vernon Davis or Kellen Winslow Jr. to grab with a No. 6 overall pick as San Francisco did in 2006 and Cleveland in 2004, respectively.
Mike Mulligan: If even half the rumors swirling around the NFL about Brian Urlacher's negotiation tactics are true, then maybe the Bears ought to reconsider their offense-building pledge for the draft and take a hard look at the middle linebacker class.
It's a great year for pass rushers with eight defensive linemen projected in the first round and some depth on the edge. The problem is at tackle, where the drop after Glenn Dorsey and Sedrick Ellis is off a cliff. Given the leaguewide need at the position, plenty of players will be selected and some might work out well, but all of them have blemishes.
