He arrived as a member of a trio of Day One free-agency signings, throwing Adam Schefter’s tongue into knots as ESPN’s day-to-day info whiz tried like hell to spit out the name properly.
Brandon Manumaleuna.
Grossly overpaid (in our view) by the Bears because he fits the Mike Martz offensive scheme, Manumaleuna quietly has been absent for all of the team’s on-field offseason practices, after undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery a week before the draft.
Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune reports that Manumaleuna expects to be back in action by the start of training camp.
“It’s frustrating because it’s a new team,” Manumaleuna said. “You want to win the trust of your teammates. So it is frustrating not to be out there with them trying to grow with the offense. But it’s just one of the things you’ve got to deal with.”
The bigger question is whether the Bears fully understood when handing Manumaleuna a bag of moolah that he’d soon be having his knee pierced open and surgically repaired. At a minimum, that should have driven down the price tag a bit.
But, hey, when you’re desperate to win games and save jobs, details like impending medical procedures often can get overlooked.