Thread: Resturcturing Current Bears Contracts

that's why we badly need to find a way to get Melton signed longterm or have him traded. He can't stay playing with the Tag. Peppers should be gone after this upcoming season with his Cap Hit.

that's some bad news... it really is. I feel like this offseason will not be as good as expected.

rebuild with Cuter, Forte, Marshall, Briggs, Tillman, Melton & Jennings on the Roster and 2 yound DEs that seem to be good enough. Lose those players for nothing? Lose Cutler for nothing after what we gave up for him?

no, we are not rebuilding soon. We want to win soon and be good year in year out. Can't allow to tank.

Originally Posted by JustAnotherBearsFan99

Madness. Team-killer madness.

We'd end up with over $30-million dollars a year invested into 2 dlinemen. That's a quick way to go from 3rd place in the NFC-N (now) to the basement 4th place in the NFC-N. Only a crazy team would do such a thing.

Not really. If you do the restructure the way it's suggested you'd pretty much be accepting that he'll play both this year and next but in 2015 you pick up close to $10 mil in cap space if you release him or if he retires. There's also the possibility that if his play or the number of snaps declines that you might negotiate a lower base salary for 2014 and/or 2015.

You gotta admit that a DLineman go Pep is pretty much at the top of the food chain but those salaries are high even for a guy like him and most likely anticipated higher increases in the salary cap than have been experienced. Some players are realizing this and reducing their pay accordingly so their teams aren't hamstrung as far as signing new players.

In this case I don't think it's as much of a problem to kick the "can down the street" as it may seem. If we can restructure his deal and one or two more we could possibly free up another $15 mil or more in cap space and buy ourselves another year or two to restock the team. We've been forecast to have a bigger excess in 2014 and in 2015 when the TV contract $$$ kicks in the cap should expand significantly so these moves buy us time now.

Remember of that 2015 $23.350 mil cap number $6.85 is a pro-rata bonus so if he's released you no longer have his $16.5 salary. Subtract the remaining $6.85 from that and the cap savings = $9.65 mil. So there is an out if he's no longer productive after 2014.

Originally Posted by GermansbombedPH

that's why we badly need to find a way to get Melton signed longterm or have him traded. He can't stay playing with the Tag. Peppers should be gone after this upcoming season with his Cap Hit.

Melton can and will play under that tag if we don't get a long term deal done but I'm 99% certain they will once the rhetoric stops and reality sets in. He's not gonna be traded G. He's the center piece of the DLine now and virtually irreplaceable.

As for Pep you can read the above analysis. There are ways to gain some cap space now which still leave avenues open to reduce and/or eliminate some of those cap hits in 2014 and 2015. Right now we should be looking to buy some time and push cap obligations into years where they're more affordable and 2014 and 2015 should permit that.