[CBFF] Bears cut former free-agent gem

[Phil DeNomme]

Maybe QM had some diamonds in his pocket?

-----Original Message-----
From: cbff-bounces at chicagobearsfanforum.com
[mailto:cbff-bounces at chicagobearsfanforum.com] On Behalf Of Jim Ferolie
Sent: Thursday, July 20, 2006 11:14 PM
To: Bears List
Subject: [CBFF] Bears cut former free-agent gem

He did at one point show some potential and was useful for an undrafted free
agent, but whatever copy editor wrote that headline never saw him false
st... er, play. He tried hard and was a big boy, but a gem? Ummm...

I also don't think it was right to say his play declined. It just failed to
get better. 

Bears cut former free-agent gem

By John Mullin
Tribune staff reporter

July 19, 2006, 9:58 PM CDT


For a while Qasim Mitchell looked like the Bears' discovery of the decade,
an undrafted free agent who emerged as a starting left tackle at the end of
2003 and for the first 14 games in 2004, earning a contract extension
through 2008.

But the clock struck midnight Wednesday for Cinderella when the Bears
released the four-year veteran, who lost his starting job at the end of 2004
and played in only three games last season.
The Bears also released linebacker Stephen Larsen, signed as an undrafted
free agent in 2005.

Mitchell, from North Carolina A&T, came into the NFL with the Cleveland
Browns in 2002 and the Bears signed him after Cleveland released him in
August 2003.

He stepped in at left tackle for injured Mike Gandy late that season and
started the first 14 games the following year, signing a three-year
extension. But his play declined and he was replaced by Marc Colombo for the
final two weeks of 2004. 
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