Chester Taylor [Signed with Bears]

[barrett]

Originally Posted by nunusguy

Barrett are you at all confidant that Slaton will be back this year, healthy and fit, or are you more of the mind that the best we can do is adopt a wait and see attitiude about his availability which is highly uncertain at this point ?

Not confident really. But enough so that I don't want to spend money on a guy who is old AND a 3rd down back.

Because in that scenario the best we can hope for is that Slaton is healthy and Taylor is still in his prime, and we are still looking for a feature back and are doubled up on 3rd down.

[nunusguy]

Originally Posted by barrett

we are still looking for a feature back

So you're of the "feature back" school of thought where a relatively large investment is made in single player (high Draft pick like first or second round) who's dominant even though he'd of course have some backup support vs an approach of dual backs who are roughly equivalent in terms of importance in the offense.

[barrett]

No.

I am of the opinion that you have to have a guy (or two), who can carry it effectively on 1st and 2nd down. A guy you can feature in your offense.

Slaton already had injury concerns and then he had his vertebrae surgically fused. He doesn't need to be putting his head down and churning out yards on 1st and 10. He needs to be catching screens, splitting out wide, and running draws. I doubt Slaton ever runs the same in traffic again. Knowing that putting your head down could mean another neck injury will do that to you. So keep him in space and let him be a matchup problem.

But we still need a guy (or two) to carry it between the tackles on 1st and 2nd down. Chester Taylor is not that guy.

[kravix]

Looks like he went to the Bears. 4year 12M.

[WMH]

Originally Posted by kravix

Looks like he went to the Bears. 4year 12M.

Yepper, from PFT:

Chester Taylor is a Chicago Bear
Posted by Gregg Rosenthal on March 5, 2010 2:05 PM ET
Chester Taylor will stay in the NFC North.

The former Viking agreed to a four-year, $12 million contract with Chicago, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN. $7 million is guaranteed in the first year.

The Bears are just getting their checkbook warmed up, with a deal for Julius Peppers on the way shortly.

Taylor's contract, like the one for Kyle Vanden Bosch, includes a lot of front-loaded money in the uncapped year. Look for Taylor and Matt Forte to split up the workload in Chicago next season.

[Keith]

Originally Posted by WMH

$7 million is guaranteed in the first year.

This reminds me of an internet cliche: Wow, just wow.

Glad the Texans passed on that.

[edo783]

Originally Posted by Keith

This reminds me of an internet cliche: Wow, just wow.

Glad the Texans passed on that.

True, but they also gave Peppers $41 mill guaranteed. A 30 year old, six year deal with big guaranteed money at a position that relies on the speed from his legs. There needs to be some sort of front office drug testing program. Between the Bears and the Falcons....... I think there is some very heavy drug use going on.