Jerry Angelo Quotations

Until we know for sure all that's out there, we're just not going to jump the gun, and we have to be a little bit more patient and make sure we know what players are out there.

We've always had good working relationship when I was in Tampa and since we've been here I find him to be a very, very good agent and (have) no problems with him at all.

When we drafted Mike we were in a different scheme. We were the antithesis of what we are now. Now is that to exonerate him not playing because of the scheme? No. Part of it, he needed to get better at certain things, but he didn't. He's got the tools. We got into the third year and we didn't see a big advance.

We're going to look. We'll always look until we get that solved.

We're going to look at every possible situation at that position. Always have, always will. We've got to get it right. We know that.

We're going to look at anybody that's out there.

Usually, it takes two years for an offensive lineman to develop. So this would be the time to bring one in.

We feel the history of his position for rookies bodes well.

We feel that the history of (Benson's) position as a rookie bodes well (for learning fast), and that was partly why we did what we did on draft day, too.

We've got as lot of plates in the air.

We've spoken to Lance's agent about doing that. These things take time. We're optimistic, but again, there are always two sides and we're working through it as we speak.

We're happy this process has reached a conclusion and look forward to moving ahead together.

We're going with the hand that we dealt ourselves. It's unfortunate; Rex will be missed.

We've never had a problem with him, going back to when (he was in) Tampa.

We made an investment with Grossman, ... We felt very confident about his leadership abilities. It wasn't a bad decision. It was bad luck.

We made an investment in a player, and I believe you play your investments out. Is that 100 percent sure he's gonna be on our team's opening day roster? I can't guarantee that, either.

Maybe what it all says is that with colleges throwing the ball so much, the running back position has become less important. There's some truth to that, and maybe we're seeing the effects of it in the draft.

Maybe he'll be brand new; we don't know yet. The No. 1 thing is we want to make sure, as he does, that he's healthy and can go on leading a normal life after football. That is first and foremost with his agent, with Jerry and obviously with us.

never, ever in doubt. Eugene assured us throughout the process that Cedric wanted to be a Bear. And I wanted to make sure that when Cedric came in with his adviser, we made that clear as well.

If we're contingent on just one player then obviously we didn't build this team to win. So we feel real good about this football team, but it's a tough blow. I'm not going to sit here and say it isn't.

If we're contingent on just one player, then obviously we didn't build this team to win. It's a tough blow, I'm not going to sit here and say it isn't. ... We'll get through it. I feel good about our locker room, I feel good about our coaches and we're going to move forward.

I didn't like how we ended the '01 season. It made us look weak. I've got that taste in my mouth, still.

I didn't like how we ended that '01 season. We got beat. It made us look weak, and I've got that taste in my mouth still. We just didn't look like we were ready to play. We got beat in our own backyard and got our butts kicked.

I don't buy it, but that will be the logic for the team that picks him, that we have an extra pick to gamble on,

Given Marc's situation he had a horrific (knee) injury for really a good 2½ years, to watch his dedication and his work ethic, there were doubts he would ever play again. So getting him back and going and then obviously having to do what we did (Tuesday) was very, very tough.

Given Marc's situation-he had a horrific injury-for really a good two and a half years, to watch his dedication and his work ethic ... having to do what we did was very, very tough.

We've got to get that quarterback position stabilized. If we don't get that stabilized, it's very hard to play around that.

He's got a strong foundation in terms of his family and very grounded, and we're very happy to have him as our No. 1 draft pick.

He's going to learn another lesson the hard way, but we like Tank; he's a good kid. Wrong place, wrong time. At least he takes ownership for what he did. We respect that about him.

We made our phone calls. We just didn't get any answers.

He just didn't progress the way we thought he would. That's the short of it. I'm sure he's as disappointed as we are.

He'll be fine. The information that we got, we feel very solid about. In the end, everything should work out well.

I thought Day would have gotten drafted and Wallace could have gotten drafted, so we felt in free agency those were probably as good of players as you could get.

I thought Day would have gotten drafted and Wallace could have been drafted. They looked at our situation and they jumped on it, so we were real happy to get both of them signed.

It gives us hope, it certainly does. Every player has his own circumstances, and we have to address each and every one individually. But we certainly want Lance here.

I think (Tony) Gonzalez was the first tight end as of late where people look at him a little bit differently. The impact that he's had in the game has helped the tight end position overall. They're looked at as a skill position. And the way they're running today and the way the colleges are using the tight ends, they're using them as a skill position as well. What's gone away from the tight end position is the blocking. Blocking isn't as important with the tight end.

I think the tight end position is probably one of the risky positions in terms of the durability, but that's given the fact of what they're asked to do. It's very hard, very hard to find the perfect tight end and durability is a problem throughout the league. Not just with our team, but a lot of teams.

I said this really the last couple years: Saturdays look like Sundays now, and that's good for football. They truly are training the players the way we want to use them on Sundays.

I said 'Marc, I hope you prove me wrong,' ... And I know like Marc felt like he's still a starter in the league and I hope he can be. But again, it was a decision we felt like was in the best interest of the club and he knew that. We have to think team first.

I think his workout will be a side show. It's not going to show you anything. The injury is what it is. He's not going to get back significantly sooner or later than anybody else with that injury. We really won't know anything until he hits the field again and we see what he can do. But someone will take him pretty high and take the chance.

We've talked to some teams about players. I'm not going to get into the specific names, but it could be something we'll listen to.

We'll be able to go business as usual. Some teams may not be able to do that because of their salary cap situation.

I would like free agency to happen after the draft. The union, obviously, would like free agency to come before the draft.

Mike Brown has been such a catalyst for us emotionally as a leader, anytime you take an emotional leader off the field it impacts you.

We feel good about what we're going to do. We have a plan for free agency.

We were losing, and we weren't creating hope.

We put all the cards out on the table. When we got Chris Chandler, Chris knew he came in to back up Jim Miller. He knew that; he understood it.

We put a cap on what we were going to spend this year. Signing Fred let us move Tait to left side. It was a good fit, especially since we were able to work it out financially.

We have a little bit more latitude this year. We want to stay with the best player available. Everybody says it, but we really want to stay true to that.

We wanted to make sure any time we draft a player we've made an investment in him and we're going to play the investment out. We just needed to see certain things in terms of his progression, irrelevant of him being a first-round pick or a seventh-round pick.

We could have taken a tight end earlier. We want to create competition at that position. There will be some veteran players flushed out, with all the guys who were drafted, and we will look at those.

We just didn't look like we were ready to play. We didn't play well, and we got beat in our backyard. We got our butts kicked. That leaves everybody with a bad taste. You can't have that happen in your backyard.

Under the circumstances as they are now, we may never see another coach win three Super Bowls in our lifetime.

We have not initiated any contact. If you hear someone say they have talked to me, it's because they have my number.

We know some people down there who have been in that conference for a long time. They've had some pretty good players. Those coaches said, 'Jerry, he'll stand with the best of them in terms of his talent.' The talent was easy to see. That just jumps out at you.

Well look, but we're going with the hand that we dealt ourselves. We said that going in, and we're comfortable with it.

We probably will revisit that here in the next few days or week, what course we're going to go into. But we've had some pretty good talks with him and nothing has really come to fruition.

We are happy this process has reached a conclusion and look forward to moving ahead together.

Tomlinson had to hit the ground running. That's not our situation.

Well, that's not a loaded question, so I'll have no problem answering it. I've said that we feel each and every day our fans' passion, and that (question) is a good illustration of what we feel.

We liked this other player better and any time you have an opportunity to upgrade your roster irrelevant to whether he's a backup or a starter, we're going to look at that very seriously and that was the case.

We know that now, and it's just a matter of him doing it.

We can't place too much emphasis on one loss.

We don't want to do what they did in Miami and bounce him around. We want to lock him in on something now.

We do have a plan. But we have a good nucleus, so we're going to be very selective.

We would like to get another corner in here. It doesn't seem like you can have too many corners.

We're not putting any pressure on him to do what LaDainian Tomlinson did. We're going to wean him into the offense.

We had a couple guys in mind. Unfortunately it didn't work out. One went about seven or eight picks before we were prepared to take him.

There are always a few guys that you think are going to get drafted, and somehow they don't. They looked at our situation, and they jumped on it. We were real happy to get both of them signed.

We've been building this team to be a good, stable team for a long time. We didn't have that luxury the last time. We had to make hard decisions on the fly.

We wanted to create more big plays, and obviously that starts with speed, and he gives us that dimension.

We've had some rookies come in and do a good job,

We want to create the best competition we can, really, at every position, but we're going to look hard at the punter this year.

To get valued players you have to be willing to give value.

With Ruben, that was an aberration. Maybe we got a little lucky there.

With Jerry potentially not being with us, we'll be looking at that position very hard.

We're going in with the hand we dealt ourselves. We said that going in and we're comfortable with it. We feel good about our football team. If we're contingent on just one player, then obviously we didn't build this team to win.

We like what we have, but we've got to see it over a period of time. We haven't been able to do that. So my job is to safeguard the position.

Even though there's a guy out there that looks obvious to everybody here, it's not necessarily in his mind his best option. We have to be mindful of that, as well.

Everybody else saw him as a role back. But we saw him as a featured back and our money stood behind that assessment.

At the end of the day when you're making any decision, you wonder whether the rewards are worth the risk. And in this case, they certainly were. We got a quality quarterback that really fits into what we do offensively and makes us better. And that's our job. We feel good. Now time will tell.

It would be something you'd want to think about. We did it in Tampa a couple times. It would be something we'd entertain.

Probably the most impressive guy who I've interviewed.

Orton's got to take another step. He needs to take the experience that he gained as a rookie and take another step. There are areas of his game that he has to improve before I feel really comfortable with him.

The one position I think ? not think, but know ? has been undervalued with free agency and expansion with 32 teams now is the offensive line. The colleges just aren't generating enough offensive linemen to facilitate all 32 football teams.

After missing all of training camp, we want to make it abundantly clear that the Chicago Bears have made their best and final offer to Cedric Benson .

This did take a lot longer than what we had anticipated, ... We never really found that common ground. Usually, you find that common ground at some point the first couple weeks. We didn't really find anything that we agreed upon for quite some time. That created the long holdout.

You can't minimize great quarterback play in great games, so he's probably my personal pick.

There wasn't a filter that a lot of us who maybe coached or played college football identify with. Maybe we aren't as objective as we should be.

There will be a few teams that'll come out (fast). I know I've heard of some things going on right now. So there will be some pretty big deals that will come out like in normal years.

There probably could be two tight ends that go in the first round for sure one we know that. You're going to see probably a pretty good run in the second and obviously the third round. I think the bulk of them will be gone by then. And there will be a few if they fit with what you want scheme-wise that you may like in the fourth.

There's absolutely no misunderstanding. We made that very clear. He understands the dynamics of it, and now it's just a matter of whether this is as good a fit for him as it is for us.

It's just too hard to find a quarterback. When you think you've got one, if there was any ray of hope, we were going to play the string out.

It's a tough position. It's a supply-and-demand business, and the colleges just aren't generating enough of them.

It's the next step on the rung. It's an important one. We're real excited about being in a position to do it, but we've got to go out there and take it.

It's like standing on top of the John Hancock. This is the best we've been.

It's like standing on top of the John Hancock (building). Compared to where it's been, this is the best we've been. ... Rex has got to stay healthy. Brian's got to continue to play at his level. And Kyle has to continue to develop as well. It's a good situation. We like it.

It's really the toughest pick because this is the calling card. This is the message we're sending to our locker room, the type of player we want, not only in talent but in personality and character.

Do I see us doing something with the offensive line on the first day? No, because I like what we have, and for the most part they're all under contract as well for the next few years.

You try to get guys with versatility and that's real important.