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A little more on the new $91.5 million dollar man($42M guaranteed) that  the Bears signed on Friday. Over at the Bear Report on scout.com, they go through his strengths and weaknesses (subscription required).

- Strengths: Tremendous strength and quickness, underrated run defender

- Weaknesses: Takes plays off, saves his best for weaker teams

You can see where he gets that strength and quickness from this video clip that jumbo posted in the comments.

Believe it or not, The Bear Truth is still up and running, but with baseball season getting under way, my attentions have been elsewehere. It'll continue to be slow through the offseason, but I'll chime in when something worth chiming in comes up.

The big news is that free agency began at Midnight EST on Friday and it looks like the Bears are gonna be one of the few teams ready to spend. Nothing like the inevitably of getting fired with another bad season to get Jerry Angelo's butt in gear.

The biggest name on the market is defensive end Julius Peppers and according to his agent, it's the Bears "deal to lose". Kaplan even floats a rumor that a press conference could happen by Friday afternoon. Huzzah!

With Rod Marinelli taking over defensive playcalling duties and Lovie still the head coach, the Tampa-2 will stick around and that means they need pressure by the front four. None better than a guy who has had over 10 sacks in six of his eight NFL seasons. Peppers will turn 30 next season and you may be worried about aging, but it seems pass rushers can sustain their success in their later years.

"Great seats!Huh buddy?"

Mike Martz named new offensive coordinator for Bears.

Ugh.

Vice Presidential candidates took less time to vet than the Bears did to find their offensive coordinator. Yet, the Bears have finally made a decision, and hired Mike Martz to take over playcalling duties.

You'll remember Martz from such powerhouse offenses like the 2006-2007 Lions (ranked 21st and 16th in points) and the 2008 49ers (ranked 22nd in points). Feel the excitement...

Martz of course made his name being the coordinator and head coach for the "Greatest Show on Turf" with the Rams in the late 90's, and early 00's. And we all know his connection with Lovie Smith by this point, as Smith was hired as defensive coordinator in 2001 and the two led the Rams to the wrong end of one of the biggest Super Bowl upsets in history.

Did the Bears even have a plan B? Because Perry Fewell is going to take the defensive coordinator job with the New York Giants. Considering he was just going to run the same Tampa-2 scheme that we've all grown to hate, I'm not terribly upset by the news, but that's probably gonna be the case with any of the candidates.

Scout.com suggests the Bears are having troubles finding coordinators because there are concerns this could be Lovie's last season and at least in the cases of Fewell and Bates, there was more job security in Seattle and New York under Peter Carroll and Tom Coughlin.

I never got around to doing a round of playoff guesses. Had I, you would have learned that I know nothing. This would have been my bracket.

Well Plan A can be scratched, as Jeremy Bates has decided to take the offensive coordinator job at Seattle under Pete Carroll.

Weis

Bates

Jim Chaney - Tennessee offensive coordinator

Mike Martz - will be angling for head coaching job if he gets it...

Are there any other intriguing names out there?

As mentioned yesterday, Jeremy Bates - USC offensive coordinator and former QB coach of Jay Cutler - is on the Bears radar for offensive coordinator according to Scout.com.

Charlie Weis unfortunately looks to be heading to Kansas City to join his old friends Romeo Crennel and GM Scott Pioli. Damn.

On the defensive side, Perry Fewell is the first defensive coordinator name we've heard. He took over as coach of the Buffalo Bills after Dick Jauron got fired and was the defensive backs coach for the Bears and Lovie in 2005 before moving to defensive coordinator for the Bills. So it doesn't look like much is going to change scheme-wise on the defense.

The Bears made the dreams of at least one little boy come true today by firing offensive coordinator Ron Turner.

(If Turner calls a fullback dive one more time I'm throwing this ball at his nuts.)

I posted this a couple weeks ago in the comments, and have updated it to include a comparison to a top notch frachise that builds through the draft, the Indianapolis Colts.  Read on for the gory details...