With the AFC and NFC Championship games coming up this weekend, the Chicago Bears are still hard at work remaking their team, and in this Friday edition of Bears Bites, we take a look at some of the steps that the team is (or could be) taking to improve the roster.
- Earlier this week, Dan Durkin had an interesting piece to recap the salary cap situation that the Bears find themselves in as they try to save money in certain places and spend money to shore up their defensive positions. [CBS Chicago]
- Reports surfaced on Thursday (but weren’t confirmed by the team or other media outlets) that the Bears had hired former UCONN head coach Paul Pasqualoni to be their new linebackers coach, replacing Tim Tibesar. While John Mullin doesn’t report on any news there, he does have some interesting thoughts on why the Bears let Tibesar go, and what they’re looking for in a replacement. [CSN Chicago]
- 10 Bears players participated in an ESPN NFL Nation survey, and with three votes, Lions WR Calvin Johnson is the one that majority of the votes as to which NFL player the participating Bears would choose to build a team around. [ESPN Chicago]
- Earlier this week, a federal judge rejected a $765 million settlement between the NFL and former players and their families, saying that she was concerned that the league wouldn’t pay out new claims to players who will retire in the near future. According to Rick Telander, the brain injury issue is one that won’t go away any time soon. [Chicago Sun-Times]
- All week, the Professional Football Writers of America have been voting on their various awards, and Carolina Panthers head coach (and former Bears defensive coordinator) Ron Rivera was named Coach of the Year. [Chicago Tribune]
- Finally, we’ll go away from the Bears a bit and focus on some comments about another legendary franchise in the league. Washington Redskins CB DeAngelo Hall said this week that he feels that the team probably should change their nickname. [Shutdown Corner]
