Safety McGowan signs one-year tender offer

Three-year veteran safety Brandon McGowan, a restricted free agent, signed his one-year, $927,000 tender offer from the Bears on Tuesday to remain with the team.

McGowan, originally signed by the Bears as an undrafted free agent from Maine in 2005, started a career-high nine contests in 2007 and played in 14 games.

He was sixth on the team with 80 tackles (52 solos) and tied for third with the first 2 interceptions of his career.

The 5-foot-11, 207-pound McGowan took the full-time strong safety job for the final five games of the season when Adam Archuleta was benched.

McGowan is expected to contend for significant playing time this season, but the Bears' situation at safety is unsettled, and that may be a position they address in the draft.

Mike Brown has missed 43 of the last 64 games because of various injuries, Archuleta's status is uncertain, and Kevin Payne showed promise as a rookie last year but suffered a season-ending arm injury in Week 4.

"There's more concern there because they're younger players," general manager Jerry Angelo said. "But we feel good about the players we have, and we feel good that we can win with these players even if we didn't do anything outside of what we have on the present roster."