Skip navigation

Bears avoid defensive worry, sign Briggs

Pro Bowl LB threatened to hold out, but agrees to 1-year, $7.2 million deal

Image: Lance Briggs
Bears linebacker Lance Briggs was a Pro Bowl selection last season.
Nam Y. Huh / AP file
Video: Football from NBC Sports
Sunday night showdown
Nov. 11: Rodney Harrison believes containing Indy's Peyton Manning and Dallas Clark are two of the keys for New England on Sunday night.

Slideshow
Image: Green Bay Packers v Tampa Bay Buccaneers
  Sideline support
Check out some of the NFL cheerleaders from across the league.

more photos

Slide show
Image: AEK Athens' Nemeth reacts after a Europa League soccer match against BATE Borisov in Athens
  Week in Sports Pictures
Flying on the hardwood, racing on the rink, getting physical on the gridiron, and much more.

more photos

updated 5:58 p.m. ET July 25, 2007

LAKE FOREST, Ill. - Pro Bowl linebacker Lance Briggs, who’d threatened to sit out the season, agreed Wednesday to a one-year, $7.2 million deal with the Chicago Bears as the team’s franchise player.

Briggs, who helped the Bears make the Super Bowl last season for the first time since 1985, had been unhappy when Chicago designated him as its franchise player. It meant he would get the average of the top five salaries at his position but restricted his ability to explore free agency because the Bears could match any offer.

Briggs earned $721,600 in the final season of his first NFL contract after he reportedly rejected a six-year, $33 million offer last spring.

Story continues below ↓
advertisement | your ad here

At one point in the offseason Briggs told the Bears to remove the tag or trade him. A potential deal with the Redskins didn’t materialize.

“I’ve played my last snap for them. I’ll never play another down for Chicago again,” Briggs said during the offseason.

Now, he will.

The Bears report to training camp Thursday at Olivet Nazarene University in Bourbonnais, about 60 miles south of Chicago. The first practice is Friday and it wasn’t clear Wednesday if Briggs would be present at the first workout.

Briggs skipped the team’s offseason workouts and minicamp, but he was still on his teammates’ minds. On the final day of drills this spring as players swapped numbers, teammate Brian Urlacher donned Briggs’ No. 55.

Briggs made the Pro Bowl for a second time last season, recording a career-high 176 tackles with two interceptions and a fumble recovery while starting all 16 games for a third straight season. He had 117 solo tackles.

In March, the Bears tagged Briggs as their franchise player, prompting him to threaten a holdout, at first for the entire season and then for 10 games.

The 6-foot-1, 240-pound Briggs was the team’s third-round draft choice out of Arizona in 2003 and has blossomed in coach Lovie Smith’s version of the Cover 2 defense alongside Urlacher.

© 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Sponsored links