With just two days to go before the i94 baseball teams take the diamond, my mind is still on football, and with good reason. No its not the combine, where many players who couldn't play on Saturday are rising in the draft because they can jump high and just as many who could play on Saturday are falling because they can't, it's because at midnight on Thursday, the NFL free agency scramble begins.

The Bears have been involved in a lot of the pre-free-agent discussions, and again with good reason. This is a team that has no chance of building through the draft, and with a couple of key players likely waiting for pay days, the Bears will need to get busy fast. With an uncapped year ahead the Bears are in a unique position. Because the Bears were not a top eight team, the are able to spend as much money as they want with no restrictions. It is only a matter of how much payroll ownership wants to take on. (For a good description of the free-agency restricitons click here)

The names have been discussed, and I already gave my thoughts on Julius Peppers and Antrel Rolle, two guys that the Bears will make a priority.

There has also been some discussion on the idea of trading Greg Olsen in order to free up some space for a more physical blocking tight end, someone like Brandon Manumaleuna, who would probably be a better fit in the new Mike Martz offense. In an interview with ChicagoBears.com, GM Jerry Angelo discussed this,

"A name was brought up to me [recently] about a potential player that might not be a real good fit -- his name's been bantered around ... But we're in the business to keep our good players. We're in the business to make sure that our schemes facilitate our better players. That to me is what good coaching is about. So for me to see us trading somebody away at this point, I really don't see that happening."

Is that the smartest thing you've ever heard Angelo say? The answer is yes.

Trading Olsen isn't the worst idea that has ever been proposed to the Bears, but does it make much sense to trade away such a young talented player to fit a scheme that might only be around for one or two seasons? What about the rapport that Olsen has with Jay Cutler? Cutler targeted Olsen 108 times in 2009, 17 more times than Devin Hester who was second on the team.

It's no secret that Olsen isn't the greatest blocking TE in the NFL, and it's also no secret that Martz doesn't exactly utilize the TE in his offense (if I have to see one more graph of TE's performances under Martz...), but it might be time for Mikey to adapt a little. That may be asking for a lot, especially from a hard headed coach like Mike Martz, but the Bears brass should put their foot down on this one and force him to mix Olsen into the offense a tad more than tight ends he has worked with in the past.

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