| INDIANAPOLIS — Dinner at St. Elmo’s Steakhouse is a Combine
ritual that never gets old. Not only do you get to eat the best steaks and shrimp
cocktails and drink the best martinis available anywhere in the Midwest.
The people-watching is the best — at least if you’re a pro football writer.
Friday night was no exception. Accompanied by fellow Pro Football Weekly editors
Andy Hanacek, Jeff Reynolds and Nolan Nawrocki and Chicago Bears lead radio announcer Jeff
Joniak, I watched heavy-duty NFL news unfold right before my bloodshot eyes.
At more than a few tables, NFL deals were being cut faster than the restaurant’s
32-ounce porterhouses.
In addition, the reaction by customers to NFL stories unfolding in other restaurants
and hotel lobbies around town was just as fascinating.
A great case in point was the Bears’ late-night re-signing of QB Jim Miller to a
five-year, $12 million deal with a $2 million signing bonus — a transaction that will
now set the barometer for the other notable signalcallers currently testing the market.
A few hours after we settled in at our table, another party of Chicagoans entered St.
Elmo’s, all of whom were Bears beat guys for daily papers. We had planned on getting
together with them after dinner and hitting some nightspots, but when we walked over to
their table to nail down a place and time to meet, we could tell something was up.
It was the Miller deal — a heavy-duty development that meant their plans would
definitely be changing.
All four of them were talking into cell phones, collecting details for the stories they
would now have to write on a tight deadline instead of downing cold ones well into the
evening.
Suffice it to say, they were not happy campers, but that’s the risk one takes in
this profession.
Especially at a Combine that opened for business on the same day as this
offseason’s free-agent period.
Another Bears move created an interesting sidebar — the revelation that they would
not be receiving any compensation for LB Warrick Holdman or WR D’Wayne Bates should
either of these restricted free agents sign an offer sheet with another team and the Bears
decide not to match the offer.
The rules dictate that Bates and Holdman should have been worthy of third- and
fourth-round draft picks, respectively, in such a case. But because a Bears official
accidentally checked the wrong box in the paperwork accompanying the team’s tender
offers, both players could be signed without the Bears getting anything in exchange.
Oops!
The disclosure of this gaffe by a few NFL player agents sitting at a nearby table
triggered a lively discussion.
Holdman, in a lot of people’s minds, including yours truly, is worthy of the
highest tender for a restricted free agent, which normally results in a first-round pick
as compensation. Before being told by the agents about the Bears’ clerical error, we
all agreed over dinner that the team was playing with fire by giving Holdman a more
moderate tender offer.
More than a few teams, we reasoned, would be wise to take a hard look at Holdman, who
could be had for a most reasonable price.
Learning they would get nothing for Holdman if he leaves really got our juices flowing.
Venturing out on the streets without our distraught pals from Chicago, we continued to
stumble into NFL news in the making.
While sipping on after-dinner drinks in the lobby of the Westin hotel, we instantly
knew a free-agent maneuver could be in the works between the Packers and Colts when
Packers GM Mark Hatley arrived on the scene. Hatley made a beeline in the direction of Tim
Irwin, a former NFL player who now represents Colts OG Steve McKinney, considered one of
the more reputable players available at his position.
Don’t be surprised if you read about the Packers obtaining McKinney before the
weekend runs its course.
Before returning to our hotel rooms for the evening, we made one last pit stop at the
Crowne Plaza at Union Station, the longstanding hub of Combine activity. I happened to
notice a lot of 49ers front-office people standing around with smiling faces.
It turns out, one of the reasons they were so happy was the imminent signing in the wee
hours this morning of C Jeremy Newberry, the 49ers’ top re-signing priority.
Such is life at the Combine, where every meal, every walk is accompanied by an NFL
nugget of some sort.
Hey, it’s a tough job. But somebody has to do it, right?
Now if you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll go warm up my leftover piece of
porterhouse.
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