Bernard Berrian "Less Than Thrilled" By Bears Offer

From the Chicago Sun-Times, an item about the Bears‘ quest to rebuild their receiver corps.  The pertinent bit for us concerns Bernard Berrian:

"Emerging from the fallout of Black Monday, when the Bears parted ways with three veteran starters, is the pressing need for the team to overhaul its wide receiver corps.Of course, there’s also the matter of who will be throwing the ball to the receivers in 2008, but finding players to catch those passes is a top priority and one of the reasons the Bears offered a contract to Bernard Berrian — a proposal he’s said to be less than thrilled with as free agency looms."

Sounds to me like Bernard is going to be hitting the open market.  Unless the Bears suddenly become big-spenders and hit him with an offer he can’t refuse.

If Berrian does become available, he should be the Vikings‘ number 1 free agent target.  They need nothing so desperately as a fast, field-stretching wide-out.  Everyone seems to think they’re going to go wide receiver first in the draft, but I’m thinking defensive end, especially now that Kenechi Udeze’s career is up in the air.  There are better receiver options available in free agency than there are defensive end ones, and the receiver options available in the first round of the draft are frankly not that enticing.  The Vikes can sign a receiver, draft a defensive end, and still get a pretty good receiver in the second round if they think they need another.

Back to Berrian…he and his agent Drew Rosenhaus know there’s a big offer waiting out there for Bernard.  Forget the logic that the Bears have to sign Berrian now that they’ve cut Mushin Muhammad – the issue with Berrian isn’t whether he’s a good player, it’s whether the cheapskate Bears think they can afford him.  They weren’t clearing money for Berrian by cutting Moose – they cut Moose because he’s old and expensive, and there’s no guarantee that money was meant to be shifted to Berrian.

If the Vikings don’t offer Berrian a lucrative contract within ten seconds of the start of free agency, something is very wrong.