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Florio: Bears Can Benefit From Effects Of Lockout

(WSCR) When the lockout threatened the 2011-12 football season, most players were unable to lock up the multi-year deals they were looking for.

Players were forced to sign one-year deals given the frenzy of free agency that took place after the lockout ended last summer. Now, however, teams such as the Bears, who have roughly $20 million in cap space, can be the beneficiaries of the lockout.

"There are so many guys who took one-year contracts last July and August because they didn't get the big money they thought they were going to get once the lockout ended," Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk told The McNeil and Spiegel Show. "You've got a flood of veterans becoming free agents again on top of the guys whose contracts are otherwise expiring. ... If you've got the cap space, it's going to be a good year to go out and get some veteran players."

LISTEN: Mike Florio on The McNeil and Spiegel Show

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One of the Bears' most pressing needs figures to be the wide receiver spot. Florio said to keep an eye on one receiver from New Orleans.

"(Marques) Colston is going to hit the market," Florio said. "When people realize what he's done over the past couple of years in comparison to other top receivers, he's going to be in line to get a lot of money. He's kind of been forgotten or at least diluted by the fact that he's on a team where a lot of guys generate big numbers. His numbers stack up pretty well with some of the best receivers in the game. I think he's going to be available, and it's going to be a buyer's market for receivers this year."

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