Hut: Briggs looks headed for a big payday
http://www.nwherald.com/articles/2006/11/15/sports/columnists/doc455afc58bee46143037846.txt
By Nick Hut
Lance Briggs is the life of the party under any circumstances, but these days he has more reason than ever to flash his wry smile.
The Bears’ success allows the spotlight to shine brightly on more of their players, including the voluble outside linebacker who enjoys the attention almost as much as he enjoys winning.
And Briggs, perhaps the NFL’s best bargain with a 2006 salary of $721,000, is on the verge of what teammate Brian Urlacher called “a nice little payoff.”
Briggs, represented by super-agent Drew Rosenhaus, turned down the Bears’ six-year, $33 million contract offer – which included $10 million up front – during the off-season.
Thus he gambled he would stay healthy in his contract year – avoiding the kind of serious injury that felled Tampa Bay quarterback Chris Simms, another free agent-to-be – and continue playing at a high level.
Both things have happened so far. Briggs has not missed a snap while making 73 tackles, showing why he and Urlacher are considered the NFL’s best linebacker duo.
Not only do they feed off one another’s energy and verve, Urlacher said, but each knows where the other is going to be on every play.
“It’s almost weird,” said Urlacher, who has a team-best 76 tackles.
Their reliance on one another allows both Urlacher and Briggs to take the kind of chances that can backfire, but that define a great defensive player when they work out.
“If I miss a tackle, I know he’s going to be there,” Briggs said. “It’s been a blessing for me to get to play with him these few years.”
Would Briggs be as big a star playing next to an average middle linebacker, rather than a perennial Pro Bowl selection and Defensive Player of the Year candidate? That is the question teams must answer when they decide how hard they want to pursue Briggs.
The consensus answer is the most obvious – Briggs would be good, just not as good.
Briggs: “Playing with a guy like that would make anybody better.”
Urlacher: “Hopefully I have [made him better]. He’s made me better, too, I know that.”
Bears linebackers coach Bob Babich: “Lance has the gifts – the athleticism, range, the instincts for the game – to do well in any circumstance. Whether [offenses] could do a better job scheming for him without Brian and some of our other guys around, that might be the biggest thing he would have to adjust to.”
If Briggs moves elsewhere next season, the onus would not only be on him to live up to a huge new contract. It also would be on Urlacher to demonstrate his true greatness by raising the level of play of, say, new starter Leon Joe.
The Bears could go after a linebacker in free agency or early in the draft, but the odds of finding another Briggs are slim.
“As a middle linebacker, you have the best chance to affect the play of your teammates around you,” NFL analyst and former general manager Charlie Casserly said. “That’s why [Urlacher] would be in a better position to make his teammates better then Briggs [would] as an outside linebacker on a new team.”
Briggs does not like to talk about his future while the Bears make a Super Bowl run, but he knows it is bright.
He is likely to make the Pro Bowl again this season and will be one of the few selections to hit unrestricted free agency next winter. The salary cap will rise from $102 million to $109 million, meaning numerous teams will have the funds to sign Briggs.
The seven-year, $54 million contract that Seattle gave Pro Bowl linebacker Julian Peterson this year might be just the starting point for Briggs’ negotiations.
The Bears do not want to pay that kind of money because it would be a higher annual salary than Urlacher’s. They could keep Briggs by applying the franchise-player tag, but they never have done that under general manager Jerry Angelo.
Thus the odds are at least 50-50 that Briggs will be with another team next season.
“This is a business,” Briggs said, “a business in which you’ve got to deliver. If you do that, if you play well and win games and you’re part of a great defense, then people will want you.”
– Nick Hut is a sportswriter for the Northwest Herald. He can be reached at
[email protected].