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Some disparity in the number but here's Biggs estimate.
Bears operating with $11 million in cap room
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By Brad Biggs, Tribune reporter 9:21 p.m. CST, February 19, 2013
The easiest way for the Bears to create significant room under the salary cap before the March 12 opening of free agency is to restructure the contract of eight-time Pro Bowl defensive end Julius Peppers.
The Bears did so two years ago with a move in February 2011 that cleared $8.4 million in cap savings, a year after he signed an $84 million, six-year contract, the largest in franchise history. Peppers is due a base salary of $12.9 million in 2013 and has a cap number of $16,383,333 -- about 13 percent of the entire team's cap.
By converting a portion of Peppers' base salary to bonus money, the Bears could spread out the cap hit over this year and the remaining two seasons of the deal through 2015 and give themselves some more operating room with NFL shopping season fast approaching. For example, if the Bears converted $9 million of his base salary to a bonus payment, they could reduce his cap hit for this season by $6 million.
The NFL has not set its salary cap for 2013 yet. It was $120.6 million in 2012 and ProFootballTalk.com reported Monday that it is expected to move up to at least $122 million. Using $122 million as a benchmark, the Bears have roughly $11 million in cap space. That means if the team were to place the franchise tag on Pro Bowl defensive tackle Henry Melton at $8.3 million, it would exhaust most of the available space.
In 2011, the Bears converted a $10.5 million roster bonus to a signing bonus, dropping Peppers' cap number for that season to $4,383,333 and creating the savings of $8.4 million. Of course, that move bumped up Peppers' cap number in subsequent years and is one reason why it is so large this season.
A restructuring for Peppers, who has 301/2 sacks, two interceptions, seven forced fumbles and six fumble recoveries in three seasons with the team, isn't the only way to clear cap space. The Bears also could sign cornerback Charles Tillman to a multi-year extension. He is set to earn $8 million in the final year of his current contract and his cap number of $8 million is the fourth-largest on the roster behind Peppers, quarterback Jay Cutler and wide receiver Brandon Marshall. As reported last week, if the Bears place the franchise tag on Melton and do not restructure Peppers or Tillman, the club will have more than $40 million in cap space tied up in those three defenders and linebacker Lance Briggs.
The salary cap is expected to remain mostly flat through 2014 before getting a considerable bump in 2015. Teams may anticipate that to help ease cap issues this year and next.
bmbiggs@tribune.com
Twitter @BradBiggs
I'm getting to that age where a lifetime warranty just doesn't mean as much to me anymore as an afternoon nap. 
Honey Badger Don't Care. Honey Badger Don't Give a Shit.
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Peppers restructure doesn't make that much sense. Savings aren't that great
Restructure/Extend Tillman, Cutler and Marshall and you could save up to 14 Million for next year while having them on the team for a longer time.
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Originally Posted by
soulman 
around my asshole would be grinning too.
Soul, as truly impressive as that might be - and make no mistake a grinning asshole would be one of the seven wonders - it still is not impressive enough for me to want to see it.
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High Fives / Like - 1 BEAR DOWN!, 0 Dislikes
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Originally Posted by
GermansbombedPH Peppers restructure doesn't make that much sense. Savings aren't that great
Restructure/Extend Tillman, Cutler and Marshall and you could save up to 14 Million for next year while having them on the team for a longer time.
What, $6 mil or so give or take a mil isn't much???? Inflation hit the Deutschmark again? Pep takes up a little over $16 mil in cap space himself whereas together Marshall and Cutler only take up $19.7 and about $2 mil of that you couldn't alter anyway.
Tillman is a prime candidate for an extension and along with Pep between the two you could probably squeeze out about $10 mil of added space. These two should be relatively easy to do because at their age they're better off with the Bears than elsewhere. No matter how you slice is there's some chance we end up with some dead cap space for them eventually but that's the trade off for getting more freedom now.
Marshall and Cutler will be a little trickier to do especially Cutler because of what other QBs are getting. Until Emery gets an eye for what Trestman can do for him I think that ones on hold for now. They're each getting about $9 mil in salary this year which is a fair bargain as far as their positions are concerned. It would be great if we could extend then now but I'm not sure Emery is ready to tackle those negotiations just yet.
Last edited by soulman; 02-20-2013 at 09:28 AM.
I'm getting to that age where a lifetime warranty just doesn't mean as much to me anymore as an afternoon nap. Honey Badger Don't Care. Honey Badger Don't Give a Shit.
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I'm getting to that age where a lifetime warranty just doesn't mean as much to me anymore as an afternoon nap. Honey Badger Don't Care. Honey Badger Don't Give a Shit.
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problem with a peppers restructure is that he would eat up lots of money when he will get cut. I doubt he will be worth the money he would end up with in 2-3 years. I don't think the savings now would help us that much looking at the future. I think that Cliff Stein knows better about this and if Emery tells him to restructure his contract, he will find a way.
still think Tillman, Cuter & Marshall alone would be more than enough along with cutting Davis and Hester.
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Originally Posted by
GermansbombedPH problem with a peppers restructure is that he would eat up lots of money when he will get cut. I doubt he will be worth the money he would end up with in 2-3 years. I don't think the savings now would help us that much looking at the future. I think that Cliff Stein knows better about this and if Emery tells him to restructure his contract, he will find a way.
still think Tillman, Cuter & Marshall alone would be more than enough along with cutting Davis and Hester.
Davis yes but Hester I'm not so sure about. If he doesn't change his attitude yes of course but if he does he's worth what we're paying him if he returns to form. At the very least I'd wait to see what the draft brings us in terms of a potential replacement. As it stands we don't have one for him.
Like I said Cutler and Marshall are tough deals to do right now unless you offer them extensions and that takes some negotiation to pull off. You can't gain much of anything with Marshall if you don't and with Cutler nothing at all.
It may be worth looking at it with Marshall but one of the great advantages of that trade was his non-guaranteed contract. If you extend him you need to put some guarantees back in so you can defer some of the cap hit. If all we did was bonus some of this years deal without and extension all we pick up is $2 or $3 mil which may be OK but then end up with 100% of that savings hitting us next year and it strengthens his bargaining position. I don't know if they want to do that.
In Cutler's case we may be looking at around a $14-$15 mil per year commitment on a new deal. That's in the neighborhood of a 240%-250% raise over his previous deal. Is Emery ready to make that kind of an offer right now? I'm not so sure he is before he sees what Trestman can do with him as far as getting him to the top of his game. If he can do it then he's worth that but if not that number will be much less. So the jury is still out.
I see where you're coming from but it's a little more complex than it may seem.
I'm getting to that age where a lifetime warranty just doesn't mean as much to me anymore as an afternoon nap. Honey Badger Don't Care. Honey Badger Don't Give a Shit.
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Originally Posted by
GermansbombedPH problem with a peppers restructure is that he would eat up lots of money when he will get cut. I doubt he will be worth the money he would end up with in 2-3 years. I don't think the savings now would help us that much looking at the future. I think that Cliff Stein knows better about this and if Emery tells him to restructure his contract, he will find a way.
still think Tillman, Cuter & Marshall alone would be more than enough along with cutting Davis and Hester.
Here's what Pep's deal looks like so let's take a look.
Julius Peppers
Defensive End Tweet
Players: Experience: 11 years
Drafted:Round 1 (#2 overall), 2002
College: North Carolina
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Current Salary Information
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| Contract: 6 yr(s) / $84,000,000 | Signing Bonus $6,500,000 | Average Salary $14,000,000 | End Year: 2015 | Free Agent: 2016 / Unrestricted |
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| 2010 | 900,000 | 1,083,000 | 12,800,000 | 14,783,000 | | 2011 | 900,000 | 3,183,000 | 100,000 | 4,183,000 | | 2012 | 8,900,000 | 3,183,000 | 100,000 | 12,183,000 | | 2013 | 12,900,000 | 3,183,000 | 100,000 | 16,183,000 | | 2014 | 13,900,000 | 3,183,000 | 100,000 | 17,183,000 | | 2015 | 16,500,000 | 3,183,000 | - | 19,683,000 | | 2016 | UFA | - $42 million guaranteed
- Signing Bonus: $6.5 million
- Annual Workout Bonus: $100,000
- 2010 Roster Bonus: $12.5 million
- 2011 Option Bonus: $10.5 million
- Incentives: $7.5 million
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Even if you chop $6 mil out of his salary this year and add it to the next two years we still save a lot of money over and above his cap cost in each of those years if he's released. About $5 mil in 2014 and about $13.5 in 2015.
It's pretty certain that if McClellin remains at DE then Pep will play less snaps so there may be a possibility of getting him to take a salary cut but the other option would be to guarantee some additional monies now in exchange for moving some of that money out another year without adding much if any new money. That's kind of what we did with Briggs.
We won't release him now but if his playing time becomes less or if his foot problem restricts his snaps then by next year we'd have to be thinking about it. So next year is questionable and 2015 is seriously in doubt and in that case offering to guarantee some of the 2014 money too may be a smart move if we believe he has two more productive years left.
I have to say that his contract has the biggest back end of any deal I've ever seen the Bears offer anyone and this is why you can't have many deals like this one on the books or they'll eat you alive.
I'm getting to that age where a lifetime warranty just doesn't mean as much to me anymore as an afternoon nap. Honey Badger Don't Care. Honey Badger Don't Give a Shit.
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when talking about Cutler and Marshall, it would be an extension. They will and should get it. Why not do it now when you could save money for this year?
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Originally Posted by
GermansbombedPH when talking about Cutler and Marshall, it would be an extension. They will and should get it. Why not do it now when you could save money for this year?
Yeah G and I addressed that or at least I thought I did. I'm not saying it can't or shouldn't be done I just laid out why it's not as simple as it seems. I'll highlight the areas of concern for them.
Like I said Cutler and Marshall are tough deals to do right now unless you offer them extensions and that takes some negotiation to pull off. You can't gain much of anything with Marshall if you don't and with Cutler nothing at all.
It may be worth looking at it with Marshall but one of the great advantages of that trade was his non-guaranteed contract. If you extend him you need to put some guarantees back in so you can defer some of the cap hit. If all we did was bonus some of this years deal without and extension all we pick up is $2 or $3 mil which may be OK but then end up with 100% of that savings hitting us next year and it strengthens his bargaining position. I don't know if they want to do that.
In Cutler's case we may be looking at around a $14-$15 mil per year commitment on a new deal. That's in the neighborhood of a 240%-250% raise over his previous deal. Is Emery ready to make that kind of an offer right now? I'm not so sure he is before he sees what Trestman can do with him as far as getting him to the top of his game. If he can do it then he's worth that but if not that number will be much less. So the jury is still out.
Marshall came to Chicago with a rep for getting into trouble which is why the contract he got from Miami which we assumed had no remaining guaranteed $$$. He's been a model citizen ever since he got here and not only a great performer but one hell of a teammate as well.
I do think he deserves an extension but teams don't normally do that with players who have two years remaining on their existing contract. Despite that if Emery thinks it would be in our best interest to offer him an extension now I'm sure he'll do it. If he and Marshall can come to an agreement on one I'd surely do it now. We might be able to reduce his cap hit by half or more.
Cutler is in the last year of his deal and I know Emery wants to keep him bit the big question is how much is he willing to pay to keep him. As it stands Cutler probably hasn't yet earned the kind of deal he'd probably like to get so both sides may be willing to wait to see how this year plays out. If Emery was all that anxious to get it done I think we'd have heard some rumors about negotiations and so far we haven't.
This will undoubtedly be the biggest contract of his career so I think Jay would like to be in a batter bargaining position than he is right now. He's making around $9 mil this year so he's not underpaid. If they were to bargain right now I think the Bears offer would be in the $10-$11 mil per year range whereas the franchise tag amount is more in the $14-$15 mil per year range and with a really great year and some playoff success he may be able to demand that and get it.
So here too if Emery is ready to make a long term commitment to him he'll make an offer it's just that so far he hasn't which tells me he isn't ready to commit that money just yet.
I'm getting to that age where a lifetime warranty just doesn't mean as much to me anymore as an afternoon nap. Honey Badger Don't Care. Honey Badger Don't Give a Shit.
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