| If only the Bears had checked the right box,
they would never have been in the predicament that unfolded yesterday, when the Bears
matched the Vikings’ three-year, $2.85 million offer sheet for WR D’Wayne Bates,
only to waive him hours later and stir up angst among team veterans. With the missing
stroke of a pen, a simple mistake, Bates’ fortunes drastically improved this
offseason. Until the bizarre sequence of events the past two days, Bates was in line to
make $1.1 million this year with the Vikings, including a $550,000 roster bonus and a
$450,000 base salary. There’s another $100,000 in bonus money coming too.
Compare that payday to the Rams’ recent signing of 12-year veteran Ricky Proehl,
who has excelled in St. Louis as a third or fourth receiver, runs picture-perfect routes
and makes the tough catches. Proehl signed a one-year deal worth $775,000 after catching
40 passes for 563 yards and five touchdowns last season — better numbers than Bates
has in his entire career.
The Bears had to match Minnesota’s offer for two reasons.
First, they couldn’t let a player go to a division rival without a fight,
especially a player who would have ample opportunity to succeed with his new team. The
Vikings are desperate for a No. 2 receiver opposite Randy Moss, and Bates, who has
excellent size and athletic ability, showed enough promise late last season to potentially
earn that spot.
Second, had the Bears not matched Minnesota’s offer, they would have received no
compensation in return. Normally, if a team loses a restricted free agent, that team is
granted a draft pick equal to the round in which the player was selected. In this case,
the Bears would have received a third-round pick since Bates was drafted with a
third-round pick in 1999.
The Vikings would have never made the offer in exchange for a future third-round draft
pick, not for a receiver who has recorded just 15 receptions for 221 yards and one
touchdown in three seasons. But the Vikings saw an opportunity to capitalize on the
Bears’ mistake, a chance to strip a division rival of its great depth at the WR
position and demoralize a peaking club.
The Bears knew they were in a vulnerable position but weren’t going to swallow
their pride without a fight. The price tag the Vikings assigned to Bates was too high.
Bears general manager Jerry Angelo said the team tried to renegotiate Bates’
contract, but his efforts were never aimed at keeping Bates in Chicago.
If the Bears had truly been interested in the receiver, they wouldn’t have played
the waiting game, waiting for another team to set the bar for Bates’ services. They
would have proactively signed him earlier in the offseason. Or they could have offered to
change Bates’ roster bonus, which will count against the cap in full this season, to
a signing bonus, to be prorated over the length of the contract. That was never an option,
according to Bates’ agent, Ben Dogra.
"The renegotiation of the contract from their standpoint was an effort to move or
delay the bonus payment," Dogra said. "They wanted to buy time in an effort to
move him. Everything was predicated on moving the $550,000 roster bonus from April 5th
to a later date, perhaps a week. And we rejected that because that didn’t improve his
position. So I think their clear intent was not to have him in Chicago. I think their
intent was to make sure he didn’t go to Minnesota."
The Bears hoped the Texans, who are looking for more targets for QB David Carr, would
claim Bates before the Vikings got a chance. Or that perhaps Carolina, Detroit, Buffalo,
San Diego or Dallas would claim him before the Vikings gained rights to him.
Unless the Bears have made a deal Dogra doesn’t know about, it is not going to
happen. Denver was the only team to express any interest in Bates before he visited the
Vikings, and a source close to the negotiations said Houston has expressed interest in
Bates but will not bite.
Score one for the Vikings, who put the Bears in this position by giving Bates an offer
sheet to begin with. The Vikings gave the Bears an opportunity to recoup their losses
yesterday, offering the Bears a chance to move up 20 or so positions in a draft-pick
exchange. They also offered one of three veterans from the bottom of their roster. But,
according to one source, the Bears wanted a seventh-round draft pick.
The Vikings tried to be kind, but they know the Bears weren’t entitled to
anything. They have already spoken to Bates and again expressed their interest in signing
him. Now they will patiently sit through the 72-hour waiting period and hope to claim him
off waivers.
If he does not land in Minnesota, don’t be surprised if his teammate LB Warrick
Holdman does. The Bears will lose a potential fourth-round pick if Holdman signs with
another team because of the same clerical error that has dragged Bates through an ugly
situation. The Vikings would be wise to extend Holdman an offer to further expose the
negligent action made by the Bears’ front office, subtract a vital piece of the
Bears’ defense and divide the defending NFC Central champion.
PFW senior editor Jeff Agrest contributed to this report. |
