Mike Brown, who was an indisputably great player for most of his career, will find a job elsewhere if he wants one, no doubt. Unfortunately, the Bears really can't afford the salaries or the roster spots for solid backups when they don't even have solid starters. The team is unbalanced enough as it is. More than half the starting defense has made the Pro Bowl, yet there's huge question marks at FS, RT, and WR, and it's in the near future, the same will be said about (at the very least) RG, C, and MLB. On top of all that, there's already doubts at DT, QB, LT and OLB. In today's NFL, a team that went 9-7 in any given season could have just as easily have gone 6-10 or worse. The Bears know that, regardless of any sentimental value fans might have towards whoever, a lot of the older players are in decline and unfortunately, players like John Tait and Mike Brown probably weren't going to be around next time the team made the Super Bowl anyway. In the meantime, the team would be doing a disservice to everyone involved - from the owners to the players to the fans - to not allow the future stars (or at least starters) of this team to emerge. What's going to put this team over the top one day is not injury-prone veterans - in all likelihood, it's players no one has even heard of yet.