Santonio Holmes. Now a Chicago Bear.
It's the kind of mid-August development that moves the needle. An established receiver joining a potent offense in need of additional help. So you can imagine the initial curiosity that accompanied Saturday's news that Holmes and the Bears had agreed on a one-year contract.
In many ways, it was a logical marriage. Holmes needed a job. The Bears need more quality depth at receiver.
And when the 30-year-old veteran shows up to work, he'll do so with intriguing credentials -- 381 career catches, 36 touchdowns, a 1,200-yard outburst in 2009 punctuated by a last-minute Super Bowl-winning tap dance score while with the Steelers.
Mix all that into a receiving corps that already features standouts Brandon Marshall and Alshon Jeffery, and quarterback Jay Cutler should never complain again about a lack of accomplished targets.
But the Holmes signing, as calculated and low-risk as it seems for the Bears, also comes with a plethora of fine-print warnings, the kind usually recited by a speed reader in the final 10 seconds of a pharmaceutical commercial.
Santonio Holmes may be hazardous to team chemistry with volatile behavior that leaves him vulnerable to team and league suspensions. Former teammates have questioned his dedication while former coaches have been irritated by his complaints about too much practice and not enough playing time. Holmes has also missed 17 games the last two years with significant foot and hamstring injuries and has occasionally run astray of the law. If problems persist, seek additional front office advice.
Or to condense all that into an eight-word summary: Holmes is a bit of a character gamble.
So just what does his arrival mean for the Bears with their season opener less than three weeks away?
For starters, it adds a feisty competitor to the receiving competition. And there's little wrong with that as the Bears continue reshuffling after Marquess Wilson suffered a broken collarbone two weeks ago.
There's an opening for a No. 3 receiver -- which will likely turn out to be the Bears' No. 5 pass catcher with Matt Forte and Martellus Bennett factored in. That means Holmes must quickly grasp his place in the pecking order, accepting a role smaller than any he has had in the NFL.
Eric Weems was given the first crack at sliding into Wilson's role as the No. 3 receiver. But he and Cutler were slow to jell, an obvious reality in all three exhibition passes Cutler threw Weems' way -- all incomplete.
Two came Aug. 8 against the Eagles, the first a shot up the left sideline that sailed a good two feet over the 5-foot-9 Weems' reach. Cutler took the blame for that one.
But the Bears quarterback was visibly irritated Thursday against the Jaguars when a third-and-10 pass to Weems skidded incomplete at the Jacksonville 41 with the receiver a full 4 yards deeper on his route.
Classify that one somewhere between simple miscommunication and major annoyance. But it no doubt contributed to Weems' release Saturday.
So consider the Holmes signing Phil Emery's latest push to enhance Cutler's comfort. And if the Bears can discover at least parts of the 2009 Holmes, the one who totaled 79 catches, 1,248 yards and five touchdowns, they may have just acquired another weapon capable of beating single coverage and using his versatility to further stretch defenses thin.
Over the next two weeks of practice, with exhibition games mixed in against the Seahawks and Browns, the Bears can measure Holmes' health, explosiveness and demeanor with little sunk cost if they opt to part ways before final cuts Aug. 30.
Still, it would be reckless for Emery and Coach Marc Trestman to anticipate a drama-free existence for a player with a turbulent past.
Holmes was suspended for four games in 2010, his first season with the Jets, after violating the NFL's substance abuse policy. He missed another game two seasons earlier with the Steelers after being caught by police with marijuana in his car.
Holmes' legal record also includes a domestic violence charge that was later dismissed and a Florida civil suit in which he was accused of throwing a glass at a woman in a nightclub.
And the low point of his four mercurial seasons with the Jets came in the 2011 finale, when a whole throng of teammates sensed Holmes had quit on them during a loss to the Dolphins.
Former league MVP LaDainian Tomlinson became one of the more vocal critics of Holmes' moody body language.
"Not really into the game," Tomlinson said then. "Just feeling like it's over. Feeling sorry for themselves. ... It's tough for guys to follow a captain that kind of behaves in that manner. You're a captain [with] guys looking at you. You've got to lead by example. You've got to play your tail off until the last play. And when that doesn't happen, you will have guys look at you in the way that captains shouldn't be looked at."
Now Holmes enters a new locker room with a new set of expectations. Now he'll be looked to as a role-playing veteran who'll need to be productive and unselfish to stick around.
Sports on 08/19/2014