Bears Add Archuleta

Yesterday, the Redskins traded Strong Safety Adam Archuleta to the Bears in exchange for a sixth round pick in next month's draft. Lovie Smith, who was Archuleta's defensive coordinator in St. Louis, has been trying to acquire the safety since becoming the head coach in Chicago. To complete this complicated deal, the Bears had to rework Archuleta's contract. He had a guaranteed $5 million option bonus due last week, but with hopes of getting a trade, Archuleta delayed the execution of that payout until Wednesday. The Bears were looking for a playmaker at the safety position. Smith created defenses involving Archuleta when they were in St. Louis. In Chicago, Archuleta will have more opportunities to make plays at the line of scrimmage.

What a great move for the Bears. In my "offseason needs" post I said that the team should add a hard-hitting, run-stuffing safety which is the definition of Archuleta's game. Not only did this fill a need in the secondary but it also kept the Bears out of the over-inflated free agent market. Signing someone like Ken Hamlin of Seattle would have cost over $30 million but the Bears get Archuleta for only $2.7 million a year.

Now, with Tommie Harris, Mike Brown, and Dusty Davorek returning from injury, in combination with the addition of Archuleta and the inevitable softened stance of Lance Briggs, the Bears' defense looks even better than it did at the beginning of last year. The Bears can now package the 31st and 37th picks to move up to make sure that TE Greg Olsen is still available, if they so choose. In my opinion, the team team has improved themselves mainly by not diving head-first into free agency this winter where the majority of the available players were average, role-playing backups at best. There were only two winners this offseason, New England and Denver, but with the draft coming up, it's now safe to put the Bears on that list.

As for future moves, look for Angelo to resign Rueben Brown and Ian Scott.


Headlines...

• I want to start a petition to have Steve Rosenbloom fired from writing his blog for Chicagosports.com. Not only did he take another writer's material without posting a link to the Boston Globe as he should have, but when he does come up with an original idea, it's entirely idiotic and so far in left field that you wonder how he even got the job in the first place
• The Bears resigned 8 coaches including Ron Turner. Wasn't his brother available this offseason? Signing Norv Turner would have put the Bears over the top. I still believe that when Grossman struggled last season it had something to do with Turner's poor offensive gameplans.
• Ronny Cedeno has earned a roster spot because of his improved defense. Wasn't the whole scouting report when he came up from the minors that his best asset was his glove? Anyway, I think he could be a good fill-in/late-game defensive substitute or pinch runner. Talk about an over-hyped prospect.
• Scott Skiles decided to give his team the day off after back-to-back losses to sub .500 teams. Ben Gordon and Luol Deng look dead at this point which is not a good sign going into the postseason. The Bulls had two days off before their loss to Memphis so I don't know how much one day off is going to help. Gordon just looks as if he's lost his explosiveness when driving to the basket and Deng has no spring to his jumper causing his shots to fall short and look flat. And, boy, does the team miss Andres Nocioni. The Bulls have to go 9-4 the rest of the way to accomplish their goal: 50 wins. When you look at their schedule I don't see why not, but this team tends to play down to their competition so who knows.
• Violet Palmer is officially the worst NBA ref...ever. If you watched the first quarter of tonight's game against the Nuggets you know what I mean. And if you watched the second quarter, maybe I ought to take back what I said about Loul Deng.
• The more I see Chinese NBA prospect Yi JianLian in video clips the more I want the Bulls to take him in the upcoming draft. Yao Ming compares the 7-footer's game to Amare Stoudemire. Not too shabby. If you don't believe Yao, take a look for your self.
• Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa was arrested for driving while under the influence. Apparently he fell asleep at the wheel with his car in the middle of an intersection. I'm sure that's going to go over well with a blue collar city like St. Louis. But if I managed a team with the Cardinals' rotation, I would drink too.
• In less than a month, the NHL has had three career-threatening incidents. The latest was in the Rangers-Flyers game last night when New York's Colton Orr knocked out Philadelphia's Todd Fedoruk during a fight just 21 seconds into the first period. But the NHL says that fighting actually protects the players because it keeps them from hitting each other with their sticks. You mean like this? Whether it's airing the all-star game on a wednesday night on OLN, a station no one has ever heard of, or using an "unbalanced" schedule that doesn't allow for the league's young stars to visit every city, the NHL is becoming more of a joke every day.