Angelo confident Urlacher will be ready for season

INDIANAPOLIS -- Brian Urlacher's neck surgery caught Jerry Angelo by surprise, but the Bears' general manager is confident the six-time Pro Bowl player will be fine.

"Brian's doing well," Angelo said. "He's rehabbing in Phoenix under our direction. Everything we've heard has been positive based on the surgery. It did come up unexpectedly. It wasn't anything that we (knew about in advance) as in most surgeries.

"But he's feeling a lot better, and we are very optimistic. What he's going to do in the off-season program and how that's all going to work out, I don't know that yet."

Angelo said Urlacher's recent injury history won't influence the team's approach to re-signing Pro Bowl weak-side linebacker Lance Briggs, an unrestricted free agent as of Feb. 29. Angelo added that Briggs' recent off-the-field problems with paternity and driving won't make the Bears shy away.

"Are those issues that we've talked about internally?" Angelo said. "We have. But we're OK with Lance. We've had Lance for a long time, and we know him. In terms of what he does at Halas Hall, he has been exemplary -- his durability, his practice habits.

"Everything that we do or ask him to do, he's been great for business. Certainly, we're always concerned about the citizenship, but a lot of that ties into his own personal life. We're comfortable with him, and hopefully we'll be able to get a good resolution."

By any other name: Even with the possibility of starters Lance Briggs, Bernard Berrian and Rex Grossman leaving in free agency, and the release earlier in the week of starters Muhsin Muhammad, Fred Miller and Darwin Walker, Jerry Angelo doesn't consider his team in a rebuilding phase.

"I don't know if the right word is rebuilding because we like to think that the players that we have (stepping) in there are going to be quality players," he said. "They might be new, but they're going to have the traits that we look for. There's going to be some growing pains. I don't necessarily say it would be rebuilding."

Price of mediocrity: The Bears announced all ticket categories at Soldier Field will increase for the 2008 season.

All non-club seats will have a $3 or $4 increase. Club seats will be raised by $10 per ticket. The Bears' non-club ticket prices range from $68-$108 and account for approximately 86 percent of the seating at Soldier Field. Invoices to season-ticket holders are scheduled to be mailed Friday, March 7.