Urlacher Extension Done!

Well it’s finally over and more than likely most Bears fans will just be happy to stop hearing about it. When Brian Urlacher arrives from training camp (which begins Wednesday) he will sign a deal that will include $6mil signing bonus, add $1mil to his salary for the four years remaining on his original deal (thru 2011), and finally adds the 2012 season to the deal for $7.5mil.

At the end of the day the deal looks an awful lot like what the Bears initially offered ($5mil bonus and an extra $1mil/yr) so a lot of people feel like Urlacher caved. I personally think it’s an extremely fair deal given that Urlacher has some injury concerns at this point, but has also maintained an extremely high level of play while the cap has increased by over $35mil. Unfortunately Jay Marotti wasn’t so kind in his thoughts on the deal. All in all Urlacher got $18mil and a contract level that is more representative of his status as one of the best LBs in the NFL. However, this season will go a long way to determining if the money was worth the PR hit he took in the off-season.

Epsiode 100 of Bearscast will be out later this week to discuss this move and the opening of training camp.