Chicago Bears: Free Agent Pushing for Ryan Pace Reunion
By Erik Lambert
Free agency is a two-way street, contrary to popular belief. The Chicago Bears aren’t just pursuing players. Some players might be pursuing them.
Every year there’s often a healthy crop of veteran players, many of them quite notable who are eager to find a new home an NFL roster. Given the desire for youth movements today, it’s proving a greater challenge than ever before. That’s why certain players have to keep their name out there in the media. If they slip into the realm of forgotten, the odds of them being signed again diminish.
This is especially difficult for older players who have a history of both injuries and off-the-field problems. Such is the quicksand that Junior Galette has walked into this year. The former Washington Redskins outside linebacker is 30-years old and only just managed to play his first full season since 2014. He missed both 2015 and 2016 with back-to-back Achilles injuries, along with a two-game suspension mixed in for good measure.
He managed three sacks last year in a reserve role. Some wonder if he has any juice left from the player he was before leaving New Orleans. A player that had 22 sacks in a two-year span. Galette seems to think so, and he’s willing to let every team he can know that, including the Bears.
Galette trying subtle tactics to lure Bears’ interest
Doing something as quiet as liking tweets mentioning your connection to a team might seem pointless, but it certainly gets attention. Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune sent out requests for his latest mailbag. One fan asked about the possibility of signing Galette givens the Bears’ clear need for more help at edge rusher. The veteran defender made sure to let people know he noticed and was interested.
Should the bears look into signing a couple of the remaining FA, like Jonathan Hankins and or Junior Galette, i think both could be helpfull this season?
— Larry Wirth (@unclelar76) May 8, 2018
#Bears pic.twitter.com/NCcBzXzt34
— NFL Mocks (@NFLMocks) May 9, 2018
Galette may have some wiggle room here. The Bears need depth at outside linebacker. They can almost certainly get him for cheap. To top it off he has a connection to GM Ryan Pace. He was a front office member when the Saints drafted him back in 2010. The difficult part is the character question marks. New Orleans was forced to dump Galette because he couldn’t stay out of trouble. He was arrested on domestic violence charges back then. Though they were dropped, a video then surfaced that appeared to show him hitting two women.
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How much is true remains a bit unclear but this doesn’t feel like the type of player the Bears are keen on bringing in. Connections to the GM or not.