Posts tagged DevinHester at FanHouse - AOL Sports Blog

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Most maligned offense in the league, even after the departure of Cedric Benson. Over the past two to three seasons it has become so popular to hate on Rex Grossman even my mother-in-law knows who he is. Kyle Orton backs up Rexy, and he's awful. The receiving corps was decimated in the off-season with the departures of Muhsin Muhammed and Bernard Berrian while being replaced with uninspired choices Marty Booker and Brandon Lloyd. The team was also criticized -- in addition to not drafting a QB -- for passing on Rashard Mendenhall in the first round of the draft and instead settling on a 2nd rounder to replace push Benson before his arrest(s). The offensive line was pathetic last year, and minimal work was done to repair it in the off-season (though getting rid of Fred Miller within itself should vastly improve things). About the only part not under scrutiny is tight end, with Greg Olsen and Desmond Clark.

The Bears wrapped up their offseason activities this afternoon and will scatter to the winds until they reconvene for training camp next month. They've got no shortage of questions to answer in that time. Will Brian Urlacher get a new contract? Are they going to sign another running back to fill in for Cedric Benson? How many children will Lance Briggs conceive?

All that can wait, though, and the Bears had a little fun before breaking camp. Players traded jerseys and switched positions in a practice that the Bears website describes as having a "last day of school" feel. One notable switch involved Rex Grossman donning Devin Hester's #23 while the returner/receiver/great hope of Chicago's offense took a snap from center.

"That was just for you guys," offensive coordinator Ron Turner said to reporters. "I said, 'Hey, he's in an 8 jersey, we might as well put him back there.' I'm sure [Hester] will be lobbying [to play quarterback in the future]."

Hey, Ron, after about three quarters of watching the winner of the epic Grossman-Kyle Orton duel, Hester may not be the only one lobbying for him to see more time under center. It's so crazy it just might work. 10 blockers and a direct snap to Hester is better than anything the offense came up with last season.

It looks like the Chicago Bears are counting on Devin Hester doing a lot more than just transitioning into a regular role in the team's offense. Offensive coordinator Ron Turner said at the end of last season that Hester had the ability to become the lead wideout on the team if he was willing to work hard enough to do it. Now, after a handful of OTAs and minicamps, Hester appears to be on track to make it happen.

"He's accepted all that, and so far through the minicamp and the OTAs, he's done a great job of learning the position and going out every day and learning all the little intricacies of playing the position. It's one thing to know your assignment. It's another thing to be able to line up and play and adjust to cover-two, cover-three, to press coverage, to the blitz; all the different things you have to do, and so far Devin has stepped up and is doing a great job of that."

Turner said the team plans on playing him up to 35 snaps per game, more than three times his usage last year. That's a steep learning curve for a guy who would look like a world beater on one play and like he didn't know the play on the next. There's no doubt about his athletic ability but force feeding him such a heavy role could backfire.

The Bears' top receivers last year were Bernard Berrian and Muhsin Muhammad. Both are now gone.

So why on earth would Chicago wide receivers coach Darryl Drake say he thinks the team is in better shape at receiver this year than last year? That's what he suggested in talking to the Chicago Sun-Times.

But when you also consider that he said his best receiver right now is Rashied Davis, you realize that the team is sorely lacking in experienced wide receivers. Yes, Davis and Devin Hester and Brandon Lloyd and Mark Bradley and Earl Bennett all have talent, but Marty Booker is the only guy on the roster who has accomplished much of anything as an NFL wide receiver.

Although the Bears' quarterback controversy will be the talk of training camp, the wide receiver situation may be the team's biggest question mark. Neither Rex Grossman nor Kyle Orton can be confident that he'll have any good receivers catching his passes.

Everyone agrees that Chicago Bears kick return man extraordinaire Devin Hester has outplayed his rookie contract, but no one is quite sure how much money he deserves. There's just no precedent for paying a player like Hester because there's never been a player like Hester, who may be the best kick returner in the history of the game but doesn't contribute much of anything on offense or defense.

How much Hester is worth makes for an interesting debate among sports fans, but it's not just a debate among sports fans -- it's an internal obsession inside Hester's head:

"I would be lying to you if I said it was easy. It's not easy," he said. "Sometimes you wish it wouldn't even come up, but right now, unfortunately, you're in a position where you can get a new contract and it goes through your mind every day. Each and every day I wake up I think about it. What's going on?"

The problem for Hester is that he doesn't have much leverage in his negotiations. Even after back-to-back record-breaking seasons, Hester will probably have to wait at least another year before the Bears feel any urgency about giving him a new deal.

Yesterday's decision by the NFL owners to opt-out of the CBA was, hopefully, a move made with the intention of negotiating a deal that forestalls possibilities like work stoppages and uncapped seasons. The spectre of the latter, though, will likely have a big impact on the way teams deal with contract negotiations in the present.

That's not good news for players like Devin Hester. If 2010 should come to be played without a cap, players like Hester would be affected the most. His contract runs out in 2009 but, because of a clause in the CBA, players will need six years of service time, not four, to become unrestricted free agents. Hester would have four years at that point and, thus, wouldn't be as free as he'd like.

Goodbye leverage. Nothing's likely to be settled before the 2008 season begins so it wouldn't make much sense for the Bears to sign a deal this offseason. They won't know just how against the wall their backs will be when Hester's contract runs out and it makes sense to roll the dice since you've got one more full offseason before the final year on Hester's deal.

The news wasn't bad for all Bears.

Back in February, there was quite a disagreement to what position Terrell Suggs plays. The Baltimore Ravens used the franchise tag for a linebacker on Suggs. However, he believed he was a defensive end.

Doesn't seem like a big deal, but it is an $800,000 deal. You see, if you earn the franchise tag you will earn the average of the top five players at your position. Being a defensive end brings in more money for Suggs. He challeged the designation and many were eager to see how this all played out.

Well, we have our verdict.

Thanks to an agreement by the Ravens, Suggs' agent, the Management Council and the NFL Players Association, Suggs gets the best of both worlds. The settlement, which is being finalized by lawyers for the NFLPA and the Management Council, creates a new position in franchise designations -- a defensive end-linebacker. Once the paperwork is completed later this week, Suggs, designated as a franchise linebacker, will be re-designated as a defensive end-linebacker, and his one-year franchise tender will increase from $8.065 million to around $8.5 million.

St. Louis Rams 2008 Draft Picks:

Round 1 (2): Chris Long, DE, Virginia
Round 2 (33): Donnie Avery, WR, Houston
Round 3 (65): John Greco, OT, Toledo
Round 4 (101): Justin King, CB, Penn State
Round 4 (128): Keenan Burton, WR, Kentucky
Round 5 (157): Roy Schuening, OG, Oregon St.
Round 7 (228): Chris Chamberlain, DB, Tulsa
Round 7 (252): David Vobora, OLB, Idaho

The Good: Long is as close to a sure thing as you get and the Rams addressed their greatest need instead of taking Glenn Dorsey. The team got a steal in King, who went about two rounds too late. Likewise, Greco and Schuening are both good values, and both are talented players. Not only did the Rams address their biggest problem, they found good players without spending first-day picks on them.

The Bad: Of course, that doesn't mean anything if the Rams waste those picks anyway. Taking Avery absolutely baffles me. He's fast, and will help in returns, but he's not Devin Hester. You can find a return man later, especially when you need every-down starting receivers and Devin Thomas and James Hardy are available. Even DeSean Jackson was there, and he's the same type of receiver as Avery except better in every way. This is even with the Titans taking Chris Johnson as the worst pick of the draft in my mind. Burton, who has potential, will outperform him.

The Grade: B. The team really improved their two weakest areas from last season -- pass rush and offensive line -- and added a very talented corner who at one point was considered a borderline first-rounder. Still, with the 33rd pick they could have fixed their third biggest need, and blew that opportunity considerably. That's a huge blemish if Torry Holt can't stay healthy this year.

Click here to read other Draft Grades.

On the long list of Bears trying to negotiate new contracts, Devin Hester comes before Brian Urlacher. Hester's agent will meet with the team this week in effort to come to an agreement on a long-term deal. We've discussed the difficulties with this before - Hester's value as a returner is through the roof but he hasn't proven himself in other phases of the game - but he's outperformed his rookie contract and the Bears need to have at least one happy player on their roster.

A bigger issue with the contract, according to the Chicago Sun-Times, could be the way the Bears prefer to extend the deal. Many times, teams tear up the existing contract and replace it with a more lucrative one. The Bears would like to keep the deal Hester has now, paying him $975,000 for the next two years, and then add more years to the end. That's not great for the player as a four-year deal, say, would actually amount to six years.

That issue is also what sunk the negotiations with Tommie Harris. It's a tricky situation. The team shouldn't have to pay the premium of free agency to a player with two years left on his deal but, from the player's perspective, there's little point to a new deal if it isn't, in fact, a new deal. It would also make him a free agent sooner and if he proves himself a capable receiver that amounts to double payday.

Even though one went to Miami and the other to Florida State, Devin Hester and Deion Sanders have forged a friendship based on the bond only elite kick returners can understand. So that's why you've got to take what Sanders said on the NFL Network Tuesday with a slightly smaller grain of salt than many of his rantings and ravings.

Discussing the Bears, Sanders mocked their quarterbacks and receivers and said that they could have a problem brewing with their most exciting player.

"They're looking for tremendous things from this guy, Devin Hester, but Devin Hester isn't happy with his contract and he deserves to be paid amongst the league's best."

There's no player in the NFL with a murkier financial value than Hester. He's the league's best kick returner, by miles, but he hasn't proven to be an every-down, or even every other down, player on offense and that makes it hard to figure out exactly how much he should get paid.

This season will be quite telling. Is he a Sanders-type who contributes on more than just special teams or is he a Dante Hall, whose returns diminish outside of returns? The Bears need to know that before they sink a lot of money into Hester because one is worth a helluva lot more than the other. With two years left on his original deal, the team has time to figure out which and should use it.