To me, picking up McQuarters would afford us the opportunity to dump Reggie Howard, which we were looking at possibly doing anyway before Poole hurt his ACL.
McQuarters is fast and he's pretty decent. In 2005 he's due a salary of $3.05 million, and in 2006 he is due a salary of $3.45 million. That is the end of his contract.
If you want a one year Reggie Howard solution to a problem presented by Poole's injury, McQuarters represents exactly that. Don't pay attention to his 2006 salary, because we could cut him after 2005 and not have any penalties. Basically, it would be like paying a 7th round pick, and $3 million of 2005 salary cap space (which we have in abundance), for a temporary solution that would allow us to fix a long-term problem, the problem being that Reggie Howard was signed by a previous regime to a pretty sizable contract that he likely does not deserve.
The only reason I would not do this would be if we really want to get Randy McMichael signed to a long term deal and would like to use our 2005 salary cap space to make the future years of the deal more palatable (ie. 2005 roster bonus instead of signing bonus). But, what I am hearing is that the coaching staff wants to let Randy play out his deal, and then franchise him next offseason. So, given that, I would be all over McQuarters.
And btw the Bears just have too much invested in the CB position to keep paying R.W. these high salaries. That is why they are getting rid of him. They already have Charles Tillman and Jerry Azumah, both of which are worthy of starting and are actually very good starters, and Nathan Vasher has shown a heck of a lot of promise and may end up better than all of them, so they would like to move him up the depth chart to nickel back. They have guys like Todd McMillon and Alphonso Marshall capable of filling in for dime duties.
