--Wide receiver Marty Booker was released by the Bears. He caught just 14 passes for 211 yards and two touchdowns while battling a knee injury after being signed last offseason. Booker, who also played his first five seasons with the Bears, is the franchise's third all-time leading receiver with 329 receptions.
--Richard Dent's fifth time as a finalist for the Pro Football Hall of Fame was no different than the previous four. Dent was again denied admission.
Dent's sack numbers compare to many players already in the Hall of Fame. But with elite pass rushers like Smith and Thomas getting in this year, Dent and others, like Vikings defensive tackle John Randle, were passed over.
Despite being an eighth-round draft pick out of Tennessee State, Dent played in every game as a Bears rookie, and the next year began a 10-year stretch as one of the most dangerous pass rushers in NFL history.
In 1984, just his second season, the 6-foot-5, 265-pound Dent racked up a Bears-record and NFC-best 17 1/2 sacks, as coordinator Buddy Ryan's defense emerged as the league's best, headlined by middle linebacker Mike Singletary, defensive lineman Dan Hampton, both of whom are already in the Hall of Fame, and Dent.
The next season Dent had an NFL-best 17 sacks, plus 1 1/2 more in the 46-10 victory over the Patriots in Super Bowl XX, when Dent also forced 2 fumbles and was chosen as the game's MVP. In the two playoff games leading up to the Super Bowl, victories over the Giants and Rams, Dent had 4.5 sacks, giving him a combined 23 for the season.
Those two seasons started a decade of dominance for Dent, who had double-digit sacks eight times, missing only in 1989, when he had 9, and in '92, when he had 81/2.
--The possibility of Charles Tillman moving from cornerback to safety has been discussed since the day the Bears drafted him in the second round out of Louisiana-Lafayette in 2003.
The 6-foot-1, 198-pound Tillman has more than enough size and toughness to handle a move to free safety, and his willingness to help out in run support has often been more impressive than his ability to shadow elite wide receivers one on one. But, until the Bears acquire a better cornerback than Tillman, they will resist moving him, even though Mike Brown was released.
For right now, that's a big "but," because "starting" cornerback Nate Vasher has not played anywhere close to the five-year, $28 million contract extension he signed on June 29, 2007, and he could soon be a salary cap casualty. And Vasher has missed 20 games over the past two seasons with groin and hand injuries.
CBs Corey Graham, a fifth-round pick in 2007; and Trumaine McBride, a seventh-rounder in the same draft, have shown promise, but the Bears aren't ready to go into a season with those two as their starting corners, even though Graham started nine games last season.
The Bears could use their first-round pick (18th overall) for a cornerback capable of starting right away. But Ohio State's Malcolm Jenkins, the safest bet, will probably be a top-10 pick. Illinois junior Vontae Davis is also a top-10 talent but comes with lots of baggage.
--It's impossible not to notice the swelling numbers of NFL coaches who played for the Bears, especially in the 1980s.
The irony is that none of them coach for the Bears.
Titans head coach Jeff Fisher was a Bears cornerback and punt returner from 1981-84. He spent the '85 season on injured reserve and served as an unofficial Bears assistant coach. Mike Singletary, the 49er's head coach, a Hall of Fame middle linebacker, was with the Bears from 1981-92. Saints head coach Sean Payton was a quarterback on the "Spare Bears" team that played three games when the NFL Players Association went on strike in 1987.
Bears linebacker Ron Rivera (1984-92), the Chargers' defensive coordinator, was a Bears coach until he was shown the door at Halas Hall after helping the team get to Super Bowl XLI as its defensive coordinator. Leslie Frazier, the Viking's defensive coordinator, was a Bears cornerback from 1981-85. Center Jerry Fontenot (1989-96) is the Packers' assistant offensive line coach, and Mark Carrier, the Ravens' defensive backs coach, was a Bears safety from 1990-96.
Most recently, Doug Plank was added to the Jets' staff of new head coach Rex Ryan, one of the twin sons of Buddy Ryan, the Bears' defensive coordinator from 1978-85. Plank was a Bears safety from 1975-82. And Al Harris, a Bears defensive end from 1979-84, was tabbed by Singletary to be the Niners' pass-rush specialist coach.
Keith Burns, a Bears linebacker in 1999, has been the Broncos assistant special teams coach the past two seasons. Howard Mudd, a Bears offensive lineman from 1969-71, is the Colts' offensive line coach, and Andy Heck, the Bears' offensive left tackle from 1994-98, is the Seahawks' offensive line coach.
For the past three seasons, Bryan Cox (Bears linebacker 1996-97) was the Jets assistant defensive line coach.
--The Bears have decided to move their full-squad minicamp up two months from late May to March 17-19.
That will give coaches, especially new staff members Rod Marinelli and Jon Hoke, scouts and other personnel evaluators a last look at the current talent in advance of the April 25-26 draft. The rookie minicamp will still be one week after the draft, the 10-week off-season program will again begin in April and most OTA practices will be in June.
QUOTE TO NOTE: "Our fans are passionate, and frankly I like that. They rally around us when we play well, and with that comes high expectations (and) frustration when we don't play as well. If we play well and we make the playoffs, we don't have to worry about that frustration on the fans' part." -- Bears president and CEO Ted Phillips on fans' dissatisfaction with coach Lovie Smith and his team after a 9-7 season that did not include a trip to the playoffs.
