| Today is
2007 Bears Camp Dates
      |
August 1, 2007 Walker, Bears reach long-term agreement
ssoucie@daily-journal.com The Chicago Bears gave to veteran defensive tackle Darwin Walker what Buffalo was reluctant to give. Walker and the Bears agreed in principle to a five-year, $25 million contract on Tuesday, putting a end to a scenario that had him prepared to holdout from the Bills unless the team renegotiated the remaining two years of his contract. The Bears dealt a conditional fifth-round pick to the Bills for Walker but the team initially intended to work out a one-year deal and see where the situation went in terms of a long-term arrangement. However, both the Bears and Walker quickly agreed that a long-term deal was to everyone's liking. "We had just a short-term thing set up, but it didn't take long to see that this was someone that we wanted to have around for a while," Chicago Bears coach Lovie Smith said. "So we are excited about it. This was his first day seeing a lot of action and I thought he did great." Walker, understandably, was more than pleased with the way things went. "This has been an ongoing thing with us for about eight months." Walker said. "I'm happy that the team felt the way that they did about me. I'm excited and I just want to go out there and play well and I'm looking forward to the opportunity. This is great. I'm just excited to be a Bear. And looking forward to trying to get to the Super Bowl." * * * The Bears maxed out their training camp roster with the addition of tight end Brett Pierce. Pierce has spent the last three seasons with the Dallas Cowboys, but spent the entire 2006 NFL campaign on injured reserve with a torn knee ligament. Pierce did catch two passes for 15 yards in 2005, appearing in 10 games. He is expected to participate in camp on Wednesday. Wide receiver Clinton Solomon was also added to the roster on Tuesday. With those additions, the Bears must waive or put players on injured reserve to make room for any addition players. * * * Several more players missed practice on Tuesday evening including second-round draft pick Dan Bazuin and third-rounder running back Garrett Wolfe. Wolfe has missed several practices as of late with what Smith referred to as a hamstring issue. and stated that Wolfe was being looked at on a day-to-day basis. "He's shown us some things," Smith said of Wolfe. "But we'd like to see a little more." His quarterback isn't worried that Wolfe is missing these workouts -- yet. "We've still got a couple of weeks, and when he gets back, he'll get plenty of reps," Grossman said. "But until he does, we're not entirely sure what we've got." * * * The kickers often test their accuracy by heading to the sidelines and aiming directly at the goal posts. It doesn't look particularly easy but Robbie Gould made it look like child's play on Tuesday, repeatedly drilling the posts to illicit several cheers from the crowd. Gould also looked good in the two-minute drill, as he drilled a pair of long field goals for the offense. |
Check out the Weather!!
| |||||||||
