NFL Free Agency Update: Bears Signs Anderson To One-Year Contract, White Meets 49ers Harbaugh
Bears signs Anderson from the Carolina Panthers, according to Larry Myers from the team’s official website. Like D.J. Williams, whom the Chicago Bears signed earlier, Anderson will receive a one-year contract.
The terms of James Anderson’s deal were not immediately available. Williams told USA TODAY Sports that his contract included a $900,000 base salary and up to $85,000 in incentives.
Anderson started 12 games last season, missing the final four with a back injury – the only four games he has missed over the past four seasons. He has set the club’s single-game track record with 20 in a Week 3 loss to the Giants last season, but finished with 84, the third most on the team.
In 2011, Anderson, who was a third-round pick in the 2006 draft, signed a five-year deal worth $22 million, with $8.5 million guaranteed. He was released in March by the Panthers to create salary-cap room. With Jon Beason, Luke Kuechly and Thomas Davis, the Panthers had four linebackers for three spots and made Anderson expendable.
In another development from the world of NFL free agents, the former Miami Dolphins quarterback Pat White will get to show San Francisco 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh that he has the read-option skill-set to fill the 49ers roster opening for a quarterback for the incoming season.
Harbaugh reached out to the former record-setting University of West Virginia Star to set up a workout after White’s relaunch during a private showing for 10 teams on March 14.
The 49ers were among 29 of 32 teams in attendance that day and watched White’s hour-long workout right after the WVU Pro Day.
White told USA TODAY sports “Coach and I had a conversation about me coming in to work out. We haven’t set up a formal date. I’m just going to make sure I keep working hard for when that day come.”
White is the 44th overall pick in the 2009 draft by the Dolphins, but was released at the end of training camp in 2010. He spent a month recently training with quarterback guru George Whitfield Jr. in Southern California for one final shot at the NFL.
Harbaugh said, at the owners’ meeting last week that he is looking for competition to push starting quarterback, Colin Kaepernick.
"We want competition at every position, and the quarterback position is no sacred cow position,'' according to Harbaugh. "It won't be just about Colin. There's a difference knowing that he's the starter and who will get those first-team reps. So now we need to put a little heat on him: Let's go compete with him, make him better."