Resturcturing Current Bears Contracts

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Originally Posted by WindyCity

We are going to have to do something.

Between Melton and the rookie pool we have almost no money left. Some people are going to need to be restructured and some released so we can resign guys like Louis, Izzy and Roach.

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Remember, the rookies don't count until they're signed which means we have until May, June or even July to clear cap space for that. The idea now should be to clear enough space to re-sign our own and add some starting help or depth in FA.

There isn't anyone better at arranging player contracts than Cliff Stein so I'm not sweating it. The Bears have always been very tight lipped about stuff and under Emery they seem to be even more so. Just because we haven't seen anything in print doesn't mean things aren't happening. There's still a week to go until FA begins and in some cases maybe they want a few players to test the waters so their market value can be established.

Right now it has to be "In Phil We Trust".

I think now that Bowe is done that Marshall can be extended and I am hoping Tillman gets extended 2 years.

Those 2 seem like no brainers and could recoup close to 10 million.

Obvious cuts, Hester, Davis, Spaeth get you 6 million more.

I also think we pay the piper with Peppers this season. If we don't touch his contract and we release him in 2014 we owe him 6 million and we save 11 million. Any movement for this year gets added directly to the dead money next season when we need to resign Cutler, Wootton and Wright.

those cuts there can land us Cook assuming trestman wants a te

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Originally Posted by WindyCity

I think now that Bowe is done that Marshall can be extended and I am hoping Tillman gets extended 2 years.

Those 2 seem like no brainers and could recoup close to 10 million.

Obvious cuts, Hester, Davis, Spaeth get you 6 million more.

I also think we pay the piper with Peppers this season. If we don't touch his contract and we release him in 2014 we owe him 6 million and we save 11 million. Any movement for this year gets added directly to the dead money next season when we need to resign Cutler, Wootton and Wright.

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Ah yes but we're supposed to have far more cap space next year.

I'd dump Davis now but you'd still be using his cap $$$ to replace him unless Trestman has other ideas and he may. Hester and Spaeth would both need to be replaced as well so we won't gain full value of those cuts. Maybe a guy like Eldridge will prove to be a much cheaper alternative than Spaeth but if whoever we replace those guys with isn't already on the team some of that money is gonna get recycled into their replacements.

Personally I think Pep is still good enough for two more years so I'd go ahead and push it out into 2014 and 2015 and then look at possibly negotiating some salary reductions. After this year we'll have covered his guaranteed monies and if by chance we do release him next year it's about a break even and in 2015 we gain close to $10 mil. He's another guy you don't want to let go while he's still productive for you.

If we could redo Marshall, Tillman, and Jennings deals too I'd be a happy camper.

I'd say pepp will be here 1 more year, then emery better had been right about shea.

I would think we keep Pep at least 2 more seasons. This is probably Izzy's last year and will need to draft to replace him (holding my breath for Wootton). I can't see why Davis and/or Spaeth can't go bye-bye, Peanut and Jennings get reworked, and we gain either a TE or OL in FA. We're not the Jets for pity's sake.

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Originally Posted by soulman

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.

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I have a problem with that... Melton is not worth a 8.5 million next year for us. He is not the guy we should spend THAT MUCH money on for next year. The bigger problem I have is that Melton is not a DT you should have as your best DLineman. He is not dominating others like Harris did for us or others can do. He is no Smith or Wilfork or even Suh (when he actually shows up every now and then).

It's true that he is important to us, but having him playing under the Cap would be waste of resurces like Cap Space that I see as important resurce while our O is fucking bad. As of now, we can't even sign all of our own Free Agents. As of now, I start to doubt Emery. His Drafting hasn't set the world on fire and impressed - small sample size I know. The contracts he handed out are not what I thought would be good for us - Forte and so far he hasn't restructured/extended the contracts I want to be done yester yester yesterday. If all we do is keeping the team the way it was for 1 more year and just change coaching, we are not committed to winning the SB as soon as next season. Keep what we have + #20 & #50 overall is not going to win us the SB. If it does, we have big problems with fitting Cutler in and his new contract. He'd be a SB QB and they will get paid. Could get him for much less now. It's either we fail and miss the POs which would bring up more and more Emery doubters while going into a rebuild and wasting away the good years of Forte, Melton and Marshall or we end up paying much much more than we would have paid now. We won't change the QB anytime soon and we shouldn't doubt Cutler. Why wait?

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Originally Posted by Coolhandluke

I'd say pepp will be here 1 more year, then emery better had been right about shea.

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It would be foolish to expect McClellin to be anywhere near the same player that Pep is. Guys like him are a once in a decade kind of guy and they're all top five picks like Pep was. To think that a 6'3" guy who goes 250-260lbs is gonna have the physical tools to dominate that position the way a guy like Pep who's 6'7" and 290lbs does is a recipe for a big disappointment. Pep is a freak player.

Shea can be an impact player but he's not ever gonna be a Pep which is why you let Pep play as long as Pep can play. Guys like him hang it up when the can't dominate any longer. They never just fade away and Urlacher won't either. Once Pep is gone RDE will best be served by committee unless we find another dominant DE somewhere down the line but if we do we'll draft one. I don't think you'll ever see Emery hand out a FA contract like that again.

At most we've got two more years with this defense intact and if we expect to get to a SB we'd be better off to keep it intact than not. We have enough other things to fix on the other side of the ball right now. We need at least two more drafts and FA periods to restock that defense.

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Originally Posted by soulman

It would be foolish to expect McClellin to be anywhere near the same player that Pep is. Guys like him are a once in a decade kind of guy and they're all top five picks like Pep was. To think that a 6'3" guy who goes 250-260lbs is gonna have the physical tools to dominate that position the way a guy like Pep who's 6'7" and 290lbs does is a recipe for a big disappointment. Pep is a freak player.

Shea can be an impact player but he's not ever gonna be a Pep which is why you let Pep play as long as Pep can play. Guys like him hang it up when the can't dominate any longer. They never just fade away and Urlacher won't either. Once Pep is gone RDE will best be served by committee unless we find another dominant DE somewhere down the line but if we do we'll draft one. I don't think you'll ever see Emery hand out a FA contract like that again.

At most we've got two more years with this defense intact and if we expect to get to a SB we'd be better off to keep it intact than not. We have enough other things to fix on the other side of the ball right now. We need at least two more drafts and FA periods to restock that defense.

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I dont expect Shea to be anywhere nears pepp, who is? However, Emery did select him over Jones at #19 last year and consistently touts him as an end. The 19th pick s/b your starting DE after 2 years and it s/b his job if they cannot retain pepp due to fiscal constraints. . I'm not advocating getting rid of pepp, but unless they restructure his deal to make it more cap friendly for 2013/14, They cant keep him around with 16/17 mil cap hits. I'm in the "in Phil we trust" club when it comes to drafting, I just have my doubts about him juggling contracts to build a team since he's never done it before.

David Haugh wrote a good piece in the Tribune.

I would link the article but you can no longer access PREMIUM content in Canada.

After applying the franchise tag on defensive tackle Henry Melton, the Bears enter free agency Tuesday with only about $3.55 million left under the salary cap. But the smartest way to create more room isn't by signing Cutler to an extension to ease the burden of his cumbersome $10.37 million cap hit — the second-highest on the payroll. It will take creative cap management if the Bears want to avoid reworking Julius Peppers' contract — which eats up $16.38 million — but they need to find more flexibility before general manager Phil Emery goes shopping.

Priorities begin at offensive tackle, where the Bears owe it to themselves to check out veterans Jake Long and Jermon Bushrod, who played for offensive coordinator Aaron Kromer with the Saints. Proven guards Andy Levitre and Brandon Moore, a former Illini, merit inspection. Tight ends Jared Cook, Dustin Keller and Jermichael Finley, if he's cut, should tempt the Bears, depending how much money remains after they overspend for an offensive lineman.

If someone could link it for me I would appreciate it.