Thread: The Official Matt Forte Thread, Pay Him or Trade Him

Originally Posted by WindyCity

Soul is right the Bears will probably front load the contract in a big way.

If they front load on the contract this year at a 12-14 million dollar hit, how do you think that the Bears are going to be able to operate in free agency?

14/10/10/10/6

This would protect the Bears from the decline that we may face when he hits the final year of the deal, but it hurts our ability to be players in free agency.


We would still have about 16 million to operate with for out own free agents and others.

Not front load Windy. I'm thinking they back-end it to protect themselves. A goodly portion of the deal would be in years 4 and 5 probably in the form of convertible salary and/or roster bonuses. My guess is that 40% -50% pays out salary and bonus in the first three years and 50%-60% in years 4 and 5.

It's too hard to estimate the 2012 cap costs yet but I'd be willing to bet whatever they are it's less than the franchise tag would have costs us. Besides we still won't know if it's a deal until it's announced.

Originally Posted by WindyCity

The same guy and I am not sure how reliable it is.

ChicagoBearsDraftGuy ‏ @BearsDraftGuy

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New Bears/Forte deal will be cap-friendly, with only 6M counting against the cap in years 1-2. Will be announced next week.

Windy, is this your best guess or someone else's guess or is it fairly solid info? It would only make sense that the 2012 cap cost would be less than the cost of the franchise tag. That's the primary reason to get the deal done. It frees up more cap space this year and next.

Originally Posted by VJ18

say wha??? Im not following

so the contract sounds to be back loaded... ehhhhhhh not sounding good

In this case that's a good thing for at least two reasons I can think of. 1) It gives us more cap room to work with this year and next when we have some players who need to be re-signed this year and some extensions to do next. 2) It protects the team against injury or a decline in production and it also give the Bears some options as far as how to treat those $$$ which come later in the form of salary increases.

If the figures we're being told are correct only 36% of this contract is guaranteed. That's lower than DWill's (Forte's benchmark) but if Forte stays healthy and productive and collects all of it it's 20% more in total than DWill's. It's a nice compromise for both sides. He gets some security and the team gets cap flexibility and some degree of protection.

Originally Posted by Papa Bear

Your opinion that opinions aren't wrong is indeed wrong...in my opinion.

That lived in the house that Jack built. There, it needed a poetic ending.

Originally Posted by WindyCity

This is be far the best site to dicuss Bears football.

Soul and I argue all the time, but through that you get great discussion, research and a change of thinking. My goal is to have Soul so in love with 340lbs OGs that we can have our own section of the website dedicated to talking about them all year.

Also it is great to get some new blood in here that are active and interesting. Things got a little sparse last year.

Who has been banned by the ban hammer?

This wasn't by loki's ban hammer, but DB54 got ban hammered by 4th and 26 back in like August or September of last year. 4th and I had a long discussion in the chat room about what all he was doing, and after I had tried to defend DB for weeks leading up to his banning, I couldn't justify defending him anymore after 4th told me about some of the stuff he did to antagonize him and others, as well as his condescending mannerisms.

Originally Posted by Grizzblue

That is a huge contract and frankly he isn't worth it unless he somehow learns how to pick up tough yards.

Hear me out, I like the guy and he's a good player but you have to weigh taking on that commitment against what he is worth. You have to at least evaluate what we could get for him because his stock is higher than what he is worth. Bell has been improving and from what I saw after forte went down him and barber can get it done. Not to go off topic but any hawks fans on here reminded of a guy by the name of Brian Campbell?

this is exactly my thoughts, his value is over inflated and the bears know it, i would love to hear the offers for him, and trade up in the draft with those offers. I think the bears are going to make a biggggg mistake giving him this offer. i think last year teams should have learned from AP, CJ, JC, Williams that when you pay these guys they slump or end up on the IR