DeAngelo Williams, Brian Dawkins, and Robbie Gould were named the NFC Players of the Month for December. Williams joins Drew Brees, Clinton Portis, and Eli Manning as the recipient of the offensive honor. Dawkins joins Charles Woodson, Jon Beason, and Julius Peppers to be recognized defensively this year. Gould is added to Sav Rocca, Josh Brown ,and Clifton Smith as a special teams honoree.

The Bears have already begun making player personnel decisions for next season as quarterback Kyle Orton has been proclaimed the incumbent starter heading into training camp. "All players will have competition," Bears' Coach Lovie Smith said, according to Chicago media outlets. "Everybody's in the same group. But Kyle is our quarterback. He has done a lot of good things for us this year, but we all start from scratch and go from there."

The Bears have lost free safety Mike Brown for the season after he was placed on the injured reserve with a calf injury. Brown suffered a calf injury during Monday night's overtime victory over the Packers and finished the season with 73 tackles and two interceptions.

Robbie Gould kicked a 38-yard field goal in overtime and the Bears overcame frigid conditions and the Packers for a 20-17 win Monday night to stay in the running for the playoffs, as reported by the Associated Press. Chicago?s Alex Brown blocked Mason Crosby?s 38-yard field-goal attempt with 18 seconds left in regulation to send the game into overtime.

Bears' linebacker Brian Urlacher isn't upset about not making this year's Pro Bowl and claims that the whole ordeal is a popularity contest. "If people like you, they're going to vote for you," Urlacher said. "That's all there is to it. As a player, I vote for guys I like, not necessarily guys who have good years. If there's a center who's going to keep Olin Kreutz out of the Pro Bowl, I won't vote for him. I don't know if all teams do that, but that's the way I do it."

Claude Harriott, the 2004 fifth-round draft pick of the Chicago Bears signed a contract extension through 2010 with the Toronto Argonauts on Tuesday and said he's happy to be wanted. "This is a blessing," said the 27-year-old native of Jamaica, who was the final cut in three NFL training camps before landing in Toronto. "To finally find somebody who says, `You're what we're looking for,' gives me motivation to make sure I don't let this team down." After being the final cut of the Detroit Lions in training camp, Harriott landed in Toronto at mid-season and made an immediate impact. Despite having never even seen a CFL game, Harriott impressed everyone with his high-energy pass rushing.

Chicago defensive end Adewale Ogunleye has made his feelings towards the rival Packers rather clear. "I think you [have to hate them] because if you don't, the fans won't like you," Ogunleye said. "So I hate the Packers. All the Bears fans know I hate the Packers. It's a big rivalry. Actually, losing the way we did up there (37-3 on Nov. 16) makes it even more of a heated battle. ... I can't wait. I really, really want to try to settle the score."

Robbie Gould connected from 35 yards on Chicago?s first possession of overtime, lifting the Bears to a 27-24 victory over the Saints on Thursday night that boosted their playoff hopes, as reported by the Associated Press.

During the 2006 NFC championship game, Reggie Bush pointed at Brian Urlacher before doing a flip into the end zone to celebrate an 88-yard touchdown reception off a screen pass. "I think we won that game, right?" asked Urlacher. "Honestly, to me, that other stuff was so blown out of proportion," Urlacher said. "I don't think Reggie directed that toward me. "I don't even think about it until somebody brings it up. He was excited about his play and turned around and pointed, I guess. And I was the guy right there. He's lucky I didn't catch him. If I was running at full speed, I would have."

Using my custom position-by-position Field Impact Counter (FIC), we can safely and accurately rank quarterbacks, running backs, wide receivers, and tight ends by an objective statistical measurement. The importance placed on specific positions is far different in football than it is in basketball, baseball, and hockey. Because of this, we have separated salaries by position instead of having a single common pool. Quarterbacks are compared to quarterbacks. Running backs are compared to running backs. Wide receivers are compared to wide receivers. There are only four positions on the football field where we can truly use statistics to rank a player?s performance in the same ways we can for the other three major sports. Intangibles such as how a running back picks up the blitz or how well a wide receiver blocks for his downfield runners do not appear on stat sheets and in order to get a truly objective statistical ranking, these elements are unfortunately overlooked. Players are ranked from highest to lowest by the total FIC for the season, not per game because players only give contribute to a team when they are playing. * More information about the FIC at the bottom of this article. Beside each player?s actual salary, we slide in raw cap value figures of the position, ranked top to bottom, which determines their ?deserved? salary. The player who has the highest FIC receives the highest ?deserved? salary. The player with the second highest FIC receives the second highest salary. The player with the hundredth highest FIC receives the hundredth highest salary. We then calculate the percentage increase or decrease from the actual and deserved and that figure becomes their Reina Value. The Reina Value is a valuation system that quickly determines how players perform in relation to their contracts or in the case of the NFL, their cap value. - Kurt Warner, Drew Brees and Jay Cutler have all benefited from extremely heavy use, as each has thrown more than 440 times this season. While Warner and Brees both have passer ratings over 95, Cutler's is 87.8, good for 12th amongst QBs and behind Matt Ryan, Matt Schaub, Brett Favre and Jason Campbell. - Tony Romo has the best passer rating with 103.2. Romo has been even better in the 4th quarter, posting a 133.8 rating. Philip Rivers is the only other QB with a rating of at least 100. - Which quarterback has scored more TDs than any other? Aaron Rodgers. - Matt Cassel has been sacked 39 times, which leads the NFL. - Eli Manning hasn't been especially excellent on what has been a very successful Giants team, but he has a 101.7 rating in the 4th quarter, which is third in the NFL. - Matt Forte as the top ranked running back may have felt like a stretch a week ago, but after the way he caught a 2-yard pass from Kyle Orton to put the Bears within three points. Forte has four touchdowns receiving and six on the ground. - Michael Turner has 33 rushes for more than 10 yards, first in the NFL ahead of Adrian Peterson. - The 2008 season has been a disappointment for Tomlinson in many ways, but he has been excellent on 3rd and short. - Kevin Faulk is averaging 8.1 yards per carry in the 4th quarter. - Roddy White has been Matt Ryan's saving grace on 3rd and long, with 13 catches for a first down. - Half of Calvin Johnson's eight TDs have been in the fourth quarter (garbage time). - As has been widely reported, Braylon Edwards leads the NFL in drops with 16. - Vince Jackson has caught a first down pass in 35 of his 39 receptions, which leads the NFL in first down percentage. - Tony Gonzalez is leading tight ends in receptions, yards and touchdowns. - Antonio Gates is tied with Gonzalez for the TD lead with six. - Eleven of Zach Miller's 37 catches have been for at least 20 yards, including the 63-yard TD against the Chargers.