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The Free Agency period is rapidly approaching the NFL Landscape, and two interesting names have been thrown back into the market, in Thomas Jones and Orlando Pace. What makes them interesting, is they are both former Jerry Angelo gambles that ended up being significant losing bets for good old, nautical referencing Big Jer. Most importantly though, both decisions drastically altered and diminished the Chicago Bears chances of postseason success since Super Bowl XLI.

Angelo (with the help of Lovie Smith) bet the farm that Cedric Benson was going to be a better fit as the franchise running back for the Chicago Bears than Thomas Jones in 2005. Jerry still believed this to be the case in 2007, despite obvious overwhelming evidence that Jones was a far superior fit (ran for 1335 yards in 2005, 1210 in 2006, and led the team to the Super Bowl) than Benson. Now Jones after rushing for 3,833 yards and 28 TD's in 3 seasons including a career high of 1,402 yards plus 14 touchdowns last season, finds himself released by the New York Jets after refusing to take a paycut. It would never happen, but ask yourself this Bears fans, which available free agent running back would you pay $5 million for right now? Washed up Ladainian Tomlinson, washed up Jamal Lewis, concussion case Brian Westbrook, or the pride of Big Stone Gap, Virginia who showed he's still plenty effective at 32 years old in Thomas Jones?

On the other side of the coin is the release of Orlando Pace. Angelo signed the veteran left tackle the same day of the Jay Cutler trade (btw I'm still waiting for that "winner" Kyle Orton's playoff game to start? When is that supposed to happen? He's a proven winner right so shouldn't his team have played in the playoffs this past season?), and the results were not pretty. Pace was a shadow of himself the entire season, both in pass and run blocking to the point where he was demoted to a reserve in favor of second year player Chris Williams. What's even more interesting about this move is that Pace initially was thought to be returning to the Bears with the hire of offensive line coach Mike Tice. There was also talk about Pace retiring as well. Neither of these scenario's happened however, as the Bears gave Pace the "see ya later".

It's pointless to ponder what could have been since the past is for "...cowards and losers." Still it does make Bears fans uneasy about the decision making process heading into this Free Agency period., It's even more disheartening when Jerry Angelo still hasn't hired his buddy Tim Ruskell as Bobby DePaul's replacement.