Bears Poor Handling Of Chester Taylor Another Sign Of Organizational Dysfunction?

Brad Biggs of the National Football Post reports that Chicago Bears are currently shopping RB Chester Taylor but will “most certainly” cut him if they’re unable to find any teams interested in making a deal.

This situation has basically spun out of control as it was first reported that they Bears informed him of his release but later refuted that by mentioning that they planned on having him return to practice. Now he’s on the trading block and will be released if no one’s willing trade for him.

The Chicago Bears front office has basically botched the entire season up to this point. Starting with the draft debacle with the Ravens, to turning veteran players against them by their unwillingness to renegotiate. Olin Kreutz, Matt Forte and Lance Briggs have had issues dealing with the teams front office and it’s starting to effect more than just them.

David Haugh of the Chicago Tribune discusses how Lance Briggs’s possible trade demands could be impacting other players perceptions of the organization.

“Fair or not, Briggs believes he represented a growing number of teammates unhappy with the way the Bears organization deals with players,” Haugh writes. “To hear some insiders other than Briggs describe morale at various times this preseason, the Bears could become the first NFL team to use the Disenfranchised Tag for players.”

The criticism doesn’t end there as Melissa Isaacson of ESPNChicago.com writes that it’s easy to see the Bears as a “dysfunctional embarrassment.”

The amount of negative press could be enough to push the team to make changes throughout the organization. I can’t remember a team coming off an appearance in the Conference Championship garnering this much negative press.

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So it appears that the Bears have not cut RB Chester Taylor despite several reports suggesting that this was the case.

Taylor’s agent Ken Sarnoff tweets that “Here’s a first for me – the Bears just called me and said they have NOT released Chester. He did talk with Lovie though…misunderstanding?

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ESPN’s John Clayton tweets that the Detroit Lions could be interested in signing him because of his physical running style.

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Sean Jensen of the Chicago Sun-Times reports that the Chicago Bears will in fact be releasing RB Chester Taylor today.

Obviously the Bears feel that Marion Barber and Kahlil Bell will be a more effective group of running backs. Taylor’s time in Chicago was largely disappointing but I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Vikings show some interest in him considering their current backup running back situation.

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It’s hasn’t exactly been a successful partnership for the Chicago Bears and RB Chester Taylor. The idea was for him to split carries with Matt Forte but Taylor has been unable to sustain the kind of success that he’s had in his previous years with the Vikings and Ravens.

Now the Bears have seen Forte turn into a legitimate featured back and have added Marion Barber as their bruising back. Taylor not only has struggled again during the preseason but he’s seen his playing time cut in recent weeks. Following the teams loss to the Tennessee Titans, Taylor expressed his frustrations about not playing in the game to Vaughn McClure of the Chicago Tribune. 

“My running backs coach [Tim Spencer] told me after I came out for pregame that I wasn’t playing,” Taylor said. “He didn’t give me no reason or no excuse or nothing.”

As of now Taylor is competing with the before mentioned Barber and Kahlil Bell but has received fewer carries and less playing time which has left him with an obvious disadvant

“It’s hard to get three carries in a preseason game and the other players are getting 13, 14 carries,” Taylor said. “That’s not comparing anything. It’s not from production and play.”

“Yeah, I’m disappointed,” Taylor said. “I’m practicing all week thinking I’m going to play. Just for them to come out of the blue and say that, yeah, I’m disappointed.”

Taylor’s production with the Bears has been miserable to say the least. The guy averaged 2.4 yards a carry for the team last season and considering that the team has paid him $12.5 million for this kind of production, it’s actually surprising that he’s still on the team. Sometimes players just don’t fit into the other teams scheme and Taylor has been a perfect example of this.