First Round Draft Party – Thursday April 26

I will be in Chicago for the first round of the NFL Draft in April. At that party, we shall:

• We’ll give away a pair of Chicago Bears tickets for a game in 2012. By that point I’ll have selected which game (it will be the game I also attend next season and you’ll be seated with me). The seats will be good. Very good.
• I’ll be courting some sponsors to give away a few other cool prizes for some sillier contests.
• Most of my updates regarding the party and the contest will come on Twitter. You can follow DaBearsBlog on Twitter by CLICKING HERE.
• You have to attend the party to qualify for the ticket giveaway.

Backup Quarterback to Be Bears Priority
Lovie Smith made it clear with his statements at the Combine that the Bears will be targeting a backup quarterback in the coming weeks. From the Trib story:

“First off, each year you learn something,” Smith said. “We thought we had a better plan at the quarterback position. I knew how valuable Jay was to us and that won’t change, but we do need to get ourselves in a better position at that backup quarterback position.

“So you start from that. There are a lot of options out there. I think this is an attractive place for a quarterback and we’re going to look at people. I’m talking Caleb (Hanie), Josh (McCown) and of course free-agent quarterbacks out there. I just feel like we’ll be able to strengthen that position more than we were this past year.”

Here’s how I’d rank the available quarterbacks to fill this positions: (1) Kyle Orton (2) Rex Grossman (3) Chad Henne (4) Jason Campbell. All four of those guys would provide the Bears a capable, winning player behind Jay Cutler.

Chargers Considering Franchise Tag for Vincent Jackson?

Until today I hadn’t heard many speculate that VJax was returning to San Diego. Jason La Canfora changed all that with one Tweet. CLICK HERE to read his entire blog post. Here is the start of the piece:

When it’s all said and done, and the franchise-tag deadline arrives March 5, I can’t help but think that wide receiver Vincent Jackson isn’t leaving the Chargers.

Chargers head coach Norv Turner told me the team is considering all of its options with regard to Jackson, who is scheduled to become a free agent.

People close to Jackson tell me they’re convinced that he will ultimately be franchised, despite reports that the team won’t apply the tag. It would cost around $14 million for the Chargers to use the tag for a second straight year on the receiver.

This is disappointing, to say the least. Jackson was set to be the most talented wide receiver on the open market and would have been a surefire Bears target.