How the Bears Grabbed this Monster
For weeks now people had wondered, why in the world would the Green Bay Packers cut Josh Sitton? Here is a multiple Pro Bowl guard that they released with just a couple of weeks left in the preseason – this just doesn’t happen.
Once he was released there were several teams that jumped on the opportunity to sign him. The Chicago Bears had swooped in and signed Josh to a three-year $21 Million deal. Sitton helped solidify a makeshift offensive line, and allowed Kyle Long to return to right guard.
This was and is great news for the Bears – but just why was he available in the first place?
Well news leaking from Green Bay this morning is, he was becoming a cancer in the locker room. According to Pete Dougherty of the Green Bay Press-Gazette, the Packers felt that he could become disgruntled and his behavior was rubbing off on younger players.
This had all stemmed from the Packers unwillingness to work on a contract extension for the three-time Pro Bowl guard. When he was certain there would not be extension talks, sources tell Dougherty that he was “brash and highly opinionated,” and would “openly disparaged personnel moves, coaching decisions and his teammates ‘abilities.”
Knowing this, and knowing that pro football teams hate any sort of distraction, big or small, the Packers decided to cut Sitton instead of trying to get one more Pro Bowl season out of him.
Now, why wouldn’t the Packers go into extension talks with Josh? Well there have been concerns about some lingering back issues which caused him to lose weight in the offseason in hopes of relieving some of the pressure he puts on it. He is also 30 years old, and the Packers have notoriously withheld from signing players as they reach their thirties. Now perhaps they’ve also known that his attitude could become toxic. While he hasn’t really been a loud voice in the Green Bay locker room, from all we can tell at this point is, when it is heard it might not always have been a positive comment which benefited the team or organization.
Will he be a toxic voice in Chicago? Not entirely sure. After watching anyone that rushed Jay Cutler in the second half of the Bears and Houston Texans game on Sunday, perhaps he can aim some of his comments towards some of his new linemates.
