LAKE FOREST, Ill. -- The Chicago Bears are holding on to wide receiver D'Wayne Bates.

	Bates

The Bears on Wednesday matched a three-year, $2.85 million offer sheet made last week by the Minnesota Vikings. The deal will cost Chicago $1.1 million against the salary cap this year, though general manager Jerry Angelo said there could be further negotiations with Bates.

"We can, and still want, to still explore options within the contract," Angelo said. "We have the right to continue to negotiate. The only way we could do that was by matching the deal today."

A standout at Northwestern, Bates was a third-round pick of the Bears in 1999. But he played sparingly his first three seasons, catching just 15 passes for 221 yards and one touchdown. He had a career-high nine receptions for 160 yards and a score last year.

Chicago should have been entitled to a compensatory draft pick if it hadn't matched Minnesota's offer sheet. But the Bears made a clerical error when they filed the paperwork accompanying their tender offer earlier in the offseason, so they wouldn't have gotten anything if they'd let Bates go.

But Angelo said that didn't play into the decision.

"The only thing worse than making a mistake is trying to justify it. Really, that had nothing to do with it," Angelo said. "We know D'Wayne is a good football player."

The Vikings are scrambling to find wide receivers in anticipation of Cris Carter's departure. He is yet to sign with anyone, but it's unlikely he'll return to Minnesota.

Chicago has two of the league's top young receivers in Dez White and David Terrell, their No. 1 pick last season. But Bates gives the Bears some insurance in case Marcus Robinson is slow to return to form from a serious knee injury. Robinson, who led Chicago in receiving in 1999 and 2000, tore two ligaments in his left knee and missed the final 11 games of last season.

The Bears could ask Robinson to take a pay cut, but Angelo said any discussions on that will wait until after the NFL draft later this month.

"There's no sense of urgency," Angelo said. "We very much look at him as a Bear and want his future to be that and to be that for a long time."