Friday, February 22, 2013
Bushrod's future
By Tim Kavanagh
Coming into the offseason, the New Orleans Saints' decision-making process on starting LT (and impending free agent) Jermon Bushrod was expected to be a hot button issue: though not considered amongst the elite players at his position, he's manned the blind-side bookend position on an offensive line that has kept Drew Brees upright and productive for the past few seasons. A player like that would seem to be of great importance to the Saints; if they elect not to re-sign or tag him, he'd certainly draw heavy interest on the open market.
It's not clear whether a long-term deal is in the cards, but ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter has reported that the Saints will not tag Bushrod.
There are plenty of teams that need an upgrade at LT, but the team that will be linked most to Bushrod as a free agent is the Chicago Bears, who brought in former Saints O-line architect Aaron Kromer as their offensive coordinator this offseason. As luck would have it, the Bears are also looking for an upgrade over J'Marcus Webb at LT. That's not to say that Bushrod would definitely wind up in Chicago (the Bears need to clear some cap space to make such a move happen, most likely), but they'd certainly know a great deal about him from Kromer.
