A day after visiting the Arizona Cardinals, now former Oakland Raiders running back Michael Bush continues his free agency tour. NFL Network's Adam Caplan tweeted that Bush is visiting the Chicago Bears on Wednesday and plans to swing over to Cincinnati to visit the Bengals on Thursday. The Bengals have been connected with Bush for several weeks now, while the Bears are a relatively new addition to the conversation.
For the Oakland Raiders, they could be left in a dicey situation if/when Bush walks. They cannot really afford to bring him back, but they need some kind of significant insurance for injury-prone Darren McFadden. While McFadden is one of the most talented running backs in the league, his inability to stay consistently healthy has been a significant headache for the Raiders. The Raiders drafted Taiwan Jones, but it remains to be seen if he can be a sufficient complement to McFadden.
In the meantime, the Raiders continue to sit and spend more time renegotiating with current players, rather than adding new players. GM Reggie McKenzie is cutting through much of the financial excess of the Raiders to clean things up and move forward. Even with all the talent on hand, it could lead to some lean times in 2012 if the Raiders do not fill some holes on both sides of the ball.