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| Cedric Benson is currently still the Bears' starting running back, according to ChicagoBears.com. Coach Lovie Smith said, "Cedric was our starter last year, and he’s our starter right now. For someone else to be the starter, they’re going to have to beat him out. I’m going to put Adrian Peterson and Garrett Wolfe in there also. We like what Matt Forte brings. When you draft a player that high, you’re expecting him to eventually play and have a role with your team. But Cedric Benson has looked good in workouts out here. I’m hoping that Cedric will get back to form and we see that guy that we know he is."
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| Brian Urlacher may skip the Bears' mandatory minicamp, in protest of his contract situation, according to ProFootballTalk.com. Urlacher said, "I would bet I won't be there. My agents and the team had some good dialogue early on, but nothing’s happened lately. It’s been almost two months since there’s been any action on their end, and it’s a waiting game right now." When asked about missing training camp, Urlacher said he hasn't thought about that, and hopes it doesn't get that far.
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| Robbie Gould has signed a five-year extension that will keep him under contract with the Bears through the 2013 season, according to the AP. Financial terms were not disclosed. Gould said, "I’m really excited. I’m excited to stay in the city of Chicago and to be a Chicago Bear. This is one of those opportunities that’s once-in-a-lifetime and life-changing, and I’m just excited to have it. I’m excited that my hard work has paid off, but I’m definitely not done working hard and making field goals and kicking kickoffs. That’s what I get paid to do. Now it’s just a matter of being able to go out there and have fun, relax and enjoy."
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| Kyle Orton is confident he will be the Bears' starting quarterback in 2008, if given a fair shot to compete for the job, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. Orton said, "All I care about is if I get my chance. If I get my chance, I'm confident that I will win the job and play well. I don't really pay attention to talk of a not-so level playing field. I hear through third parties and all that stuff but it doesn't affect my mind-set or my thoughts as a player or anything like that. That's what you've got to believe. I've been told by the coaches that's how it's going to be, so I think it is. I think I've earned that chance to have a fair competition. It's the most excited I've been going into a season. I've put in a lot of work in the offseason and I'm just really excited where my game is at. I'm throwing the football really well. I haven't really asked how the competition will break down. I'm assuming it's going to be 50-50 and we'll go from there."
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| Bears owner Jerry Angelo confirms the club is not planning to release Cedric Benson despite his recent arrest. "The thing that I am most disappointed in is the fact that he put himself in a position to be the victim," Angelo tells the Chicago Sun-Times. "He's done a real fine job in the offseason. Obviously, this makes big story lines. That's not good for business." |
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| John Clayton of ESPN stated that it is "now clear" that Cedric Benson will go to training camp with the Bears. |
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| Cedric Benson continues to take an aggressive approach to defending himself against charges of boating while intoxicated and resisting arrest, by hiring a new lawyer, who is considered to be one of Austin's finest, according to the Chicago Tribune. Lawyer Sam Bassett has already interviewed 10 people who were on Benson's boat Saturday night when Benson was arrested on Lake Travis, outside Austin, and described, according to a Lower Colorado River Authority police report, as being cocky, combative and smelling of alcohol. Bassett has scheduled additional interviews. Bassett stated, "I do not believe that Cedric was intoxicated when his boat was boarded by the LCRA officers for a safety inspection. I also am concerned that the force used by the LCRA officers, particularly the use of pepper spray, was not necessary under the circumstances." Another eyewitness has emerged to support Benson's claim that he was mistreated. Toby Patch was at nearby Emerald Point Marina on Saturday night when he states he saw police "manhandling" Benson after taking the running back off the boat and heading to a squad car. Patch was not one of the 15 people on the boat, but commented, "As they were taking him up the dock, they stopped, he said, 'I am fine, I can continue walking,' and they put their legs behind his knees and knocked him over his knees and started hog-carrying him. They ended up, I don't know why, but laid him on his back, I heard him say, 'Please don't pepper spray me, please don't pepper spray me. It was uncalled for, it was ludicrous, no point for it."
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| Cedric Benson's friend apparently was very concerned for his safety during his arrest over the weekend, according to Arizona Central. "I called my dad and told him, Call 911, my Black friend is getting beaten up by police on Lake Travis,' " said Elizabeth Cartwright, a friend from the University of Texas. "It's more what I heard than what I saw. I have never heard or seen Cedric that scared." |
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| Running back Cedric Benson showed up at Chicago headquarters Tuesday and met with team officials, according to ESPN. John Clayton reports now that the hoopla surrounding his boating incident has calmed down a bit, the Bears sound like an organization that might let him stay on the roster, because it will probably cost more to replace Benson than the $820,000 salary he’s scheduled to make this year. |
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| A woman who was a passenger in Cedric Benson's boat when he was pepper-sprayed and arrested Saturday night said the Chicago Bears running back did not seem intoxicated and did not resist arrest, according to ESPN. Elizabeth Cartwright, 22, a senior at the University of Texas and a friend of Benson, said she called her father and asked him to call police over the way Benson was treated by officers of the Lower Colorado River Authority, which patrols Lake Travis, a man-made lake northwest of Austin, Texas. Cartwright said she is willing to present her account of events as evidence. She also said her fiancée took photographs of the incident that help back up her claims. |
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| The Bears released Adam Archuleta on Tuesday, ESPN.com confirms. |
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| Cedric Benson met with team officials at Halas Hall on Tuesday, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. |
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| Cedric Benson appeared drunk when an officer stopped him while boating last weekend, with bloodshot eyes, a "strong" alcohol odor and slurred speech, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. Sgt. Leonard Snyder, who pepper-sprayed and arrested the Chicago Bears running back on Lake Travis near Austin, Texas, said he surmised Benson was intoxicated because he was "combative," "cocky," "insulting," and used "profanity." At times, he was "crying" and "cooperative," Snyder wrote. |
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| Cedric Benson believes police officers used excessive force against him and he plans to fight charges he operated a boat while intoxicated and resisted arrest on a Texas lake over the weekend, according to the AP. Attorney Brian Carney said, "He denies that he was intoxicated. He denies that he resisted arrest." Benson failed a sobriety test while operating a 30-foot boat on Lake Travis near Austin and resisted arrest before being hit with pepper spray, Travis County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Roger Wade said on Sunday.
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| Cedric Benson's recent run-in with law enforcement could be the final straw for him in Chicago, according to ESPN. Per John Clayton, the former first-round pick started walking the plank when the Bears selected Matt Forte in the second round. And the Bears aren't too tolerant of players with off-the-field issues. To make matters worse for Benson, Forte was the star of Bears rookie camp. Benson plans to attend voluntary workouts Tuesday but knows management won't be happy to see him. |
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| Cedric Benson is offering a different view of Saturday's events. The running back tells NBC5.com that he wasn't drunk, his boat passed all tests, and he didn't have trouble with the sobriety tests. Benson says he counted forward and backward "at least 20 times." He adds that he never cursed or yelled, but the officer suddenly pepper-sprayed him. Benson explains that he was only dragged to the squad car because his feet were kicked out from under him. "I did nothing wrong; I didn't resist arrest, didn't curse and wasn't drunk," he notes. Benson is threatening a lawsuit. |
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| Running back Matt Forte may have been the Bears most impressive player during the team's rookie minicamp. "Matt Forte, since Day 1, since the first practice, stood out," head coach Lovie Smith tells the team's official web site. "You noticed him catching the ball and running. It looked like it wasn’t too big for him. It looked like he’s been here before and that’s what you want to see." |
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| Cedric Benson was charged with boating while intoxicated and resisting arrest, according to the Chicago Tribune. The police reportedly pepper sprayed Benson to get him down on the ground.
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| Cedric Benson has reportedly been arrested early this morning by the Travis County Sheriff’s department, according to ProFootballTalk. The report does not give a reason for the arrest, but does say Benson is out on bond.
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| Reports indicate the Chicago Bears are likely to put two undrafted rookie QBs, Nick Hill of Southern Illinois and Caleb Hanie from Colorado State, into battle to compete for the team's QB3 spot on the depth chart, according to Pro Football Weekly. |
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| Contrary to what many team observers have gone out on a limb to suggest recently, the Chicago Bears second-round pick, Tulane running back Matt Forte, is far from a lock to replace the beleaguered Cedric Benson as the team’s featured back from the get-go, according to Pro Football Weekly. “It’s obvious this guy is not a complementary, change-of-pace back to Benson,” one team insider told PFW. “He looks more like a replacement. Forte just seems like a much more complete three-down back than Benson. I can easily see him becoming the starter, with Benson being used in the same kind of role he had behind Thomas Jones in the Bears’ Super Bowl year.” |
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