Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

The Chicago Bears have done two things. The first, and most obvious, is that they’ve fired long tenured head coach Lovie Smith after yet another season without a playoff berth. But the other things they’ve demonstrated is they like to dip into the Bucs camp and root around, seeing if there’s anything they want.

Of course, Brian Price and Amobi Okoye weren’t mainstays in Tampa, but they both managed to end up with the Chicago Bears. Mike Sullivan is on his way to being a mainstay, but the Bears may want to pluck him before that happens.

Per the Chicago Sun-Times, the Bears are expected to interview Mike Sullivan to possibly fill their head coaching void left by the firing of Lovie Smith.

#Bears expected to interview Bucs O-C Mike Sullivan, league source tells me. Sullivan earned rep working w/ Eli Manning — Sean Jensen (@seankjensen) December 31, 2012

With the struggles on offense this year and in years past for the Bears, they’ll be looking for an offensive minded head coach. One of the reasons Lovie Smith was canned was because he was viewed as a coach who only thought there was one side of the ball. Smith went threw a slew of offensive coordinators during he tenure and none stuck long enough to have any other impact than a negative one.

Sullivan, who turned around Eli Manning and started to sort of turn around Josh Freeman, is being viewed as a quarterback guru who can take Jay Cutler to the next level and sustain him there.

Chicago is also interviewing Denver Broncos offensive coordinator Mike McCoy as well.

Mandatory Credit: Howard Smith-US PRESSWIRE

Before the season started, actually in the offseason to be exact, I mentioned on the radio show that it would be a good idea for the Bucs to take a look at Amobi Okoye. Nothing convinced me more-so that someone in the Glazer household heard me more than the fact that the Bucs signed Okoye and then promptly cut him and he signed with Chicago.

Now don’t confuse Amobi Okoye with Brian Price who was also shipped out of Tampa in the preseason, but his trip to Chicago (while also short) was by way of a trade. Both left under not so good circumstances with the Bucs.

Needless to say, a promising idea in Okoye underwhelmed and hardly impressed the brass in Tampa.

But it’s not just Tampa that can find a place for Okoye, the Chicago Bears have announced that they’ve waived the former first round pick to make room for another offensive lineman on a line that has been both no good and recently ravaged by injury.

This means that Okoye is free to sign anywhere he wants, assuming he clears waivers which he no doubt will. That Bears defense as been ferocious this year but Okoye has had no part in that. But the question now is, should the Bucs take another chance on Okoye at a deeply discounted five game price?

The defensive line in Tampa isn’t the line that is on thin ice, but it’s not walking on iceberg thick slates either. Gerald McCoy gets his name called on a regular basis but other than him there is hardly depth. Roy Miller is there but behind him there’s nothing of real value.

And again, we’re talking about a team that just needs to get by, as clearly this offense is a juggernaut that can carry the team the way the defense did back in 2002. Okoye may not be a lights out option, but for five games and a reasonable price he may be worth a look to see if he could be used down the road, or if the Bucs are better off with other options such as Miller or another guy by way of free agency or the draft next season.

No contact has been made between the Bucs and Okoye’s agent, as the defensive tackle has yet to clear waivers. If the Bucs were going to go with a guy off waivers, they’re much better off trying to place a claim on Jonathan Babin.

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