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Bears Want Briggs, but Not a Long Contract
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The standoff between Lance Briggs and the Chicago Bears took another turn after General Manager Jerry Angelo said he wants Briggs, a Pro Bowl linebacker, to come back next season but that a multiyear contract is unlikely.
"I'm not ruling it out 100 percent, but in all probability, that's not likely to happen," Angelo said during the team's fan convention in Chicago.
The Bears and Briggs have been at odds since the team slapped the franchise player tag on him in mid-February.
Briggs threatened to sit out the season. Then agent Drew Rosenhaus said his client would sit out the first 10 games and report for the final six to qualify as serving one year as a franchise player.
Meantime, the Washington Redskins offered the sixth pick in the draft for Briggs and the Bears' No. 31 selection.
"We'll digest what they offered Monday and we'll go from there," Angelo said, adding that no other team has made an offer.
Chicago would owe Briggs about $7.2 million next season -- the average of the top five salaries at his position and approximately 10 times what he earned in 2006. But the franchise player tag makes it difficult for Briggs to market himself to other teams. Briggs made it clear in early March that he was unhappy with the label. Angelo believes Briggs really feels that way and isn't being put up to it by Rosenhaus. . . .
Dan Wilkinson failed to report to the Denver Broncos, so the trade with the Miami Dolphins was declared void. The Broncos sent a sixth-round pick to the Dolphins on March 2 for Wilkinson, a 14-year veteran defensive tackle.
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Afterward, he was typically unsentimental, saying he was just slightly better through the most difficult part of what he described as a relatively unchallenging course.
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