Bears Blitz

Published by Wes O'Donnell on January 19, 2012
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Chicago Bears

The Chicago Bears have to find a new general manager this offseason.

Whoever that is would be insane to force star running back Matt Forte into a holdout.

The Bears are expected to franchise tag the fourth-year man out of Tulane, and he accepts that. But, as he told ESPN 100 radio, the new GM better have the right intentions:

A lot of teams franchise guys so that they can get a deal done or negotiate a deal. It just depends on what the motive of that is.

And his thoughts on an ill-perceived motive, “I wouldn’t say holdout, but people probably wouldn’t know where I was.”

Again, whoever the Bears hire as GM would have to literally be out of his mind to force their best offensive player into hiding.

In his four years in the NFL, Forte has averaged 1,554.5 total yards per season on an average of 309 touches.

Players of similar importance, age and total touches  Adrian Peterson and Chris Johnson – have already been paid and Ray Rice is up for a contract this year as well.

You can be damn sure that the Baltimore Ravens aren’t about to let him get away or even think about a holdout. Why the Bears are comfortable with that notion is beyond anyone’s wildest thoughts.

It is tough to judge just how much his loss hurt this team this season because Jay Cutler was out as well, but even when No. 6 was on the field slinging the rock, Forte was still his go-to guy.

The running back missed basically 4.75 games this season and was still the team’s leading receiver and the most targeted.

In his absence, the Bears’ season was basically fumbled away by Marion Barber. They have nobody else they can lean on and there is certainly isn’t anybody they’ll be able to land via free agency that can replace him.

Chicago needs a lot of skill position help as it is. Pushing away Matt Forte by playing hardball is a terrible decision and, although it hardly matters in this business, a completely unjust decision at that.

His biggest fears were realized this season when he went down with injury. He only has one shot at landing a big contract as running back because the position’s shelf life is the shortest in the league. For him to risk his health again and go all-out for a team that inexplicably won’t commit to him would actually be foolish on his part.

The Bears don’t have to strike a long-term deal immediately, but using the franchise tagged season as a judgement of how much to pay him is a complete joke. They need to use the tag as an extended opportunity to get a long-term deal done.

If Matt Forte disappears and holds out, the Bears will have nobody to blame but themselves.

Always chuckin’ the rock on Twitter too.

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