Thread: Bears Free Agent News/Rumors

Originally Posted by WindyCity

Levitre is a good investment if it does not hurt us.

I have no idea what the Bears can afford or not afford. I have a good idea of the money they have and the options that they have, but with Emery's secrecy and Stiens magic who knows if signing Levitre hurts them.

All I know is the Bears spend a criminally low amount on their OL, I think their starting group week 1 made 9 million combined, and it will be less this season with Spencer gone if no one is added.

The Bears OL needs resources and if we can afford it I would get the best.
Again the key phrase is if we can afford it.

Exactly! As I said somewhere else, lol, I'll believe it when I see it! I was ready for a winston/schwartz type of signing. This is hells bells going for it much like the BM trade last year.

Originally Posted by Coolhandluke

Not quite. if he's 5/35 with a 10mi sb and lets say 1mil 2013 base salary, then that means the bears paid him 11mil out of the 35mil leaving 24mil over the remaining 4 years. So averaging the 24mil in base salary plus the 2mil sb protated over the remaining 4 years he would recieve 6mil base salary with 2mil sb = 8 mil cap hit the remaining 4 years - on average.

At least know how signing bonuses work if you're going to take it to pretend contract speculation land. Signing bonii are prorated throughout the contract and count toward the cap hit and moneys owed, as such. You don't just magically pay the guy all the money up front from the bonus and not see it on the cap hit down the road. You would still have to have MASSIVE base salaries and roster bonii along with the prorated SB in following years to make up for such a low first-season cap hit.

Also, he'll be getting much more than that $10M bonus that you pulled out of your ass, too.

Originally Posted by lklrlolnlilklsox

What you conveniently left out is the fact that Grubbs will be making cap hits of 9.1, 9.6 and 10.3 each of the next three seasons after 2013. You don't just escape from the $11M you paid him up front, you still owe $32M over the remaining years through base salaries and bonii.

Now, people may just go with the "Then we cut him" after two years route, but fake contracts are bullshit and are not something I want from the Bears.

You do not cut him, but paying an OLmen 9 million dollars is not a bad thing. Many of the great teams pay OLmen that much, and the fact that the Bears do not is not an excuse to avoid it.

And if we are going with the New Orleans protection model then we may pay our OGs more than our OTs. The Saints have no issue paying their OGs 7-10 million. It is a divergence from the traditional thinking that your highest paid OLmen has to be your LT. LGs make almost as much as LTs these days.

We pay 1 DLmen 16 million and another 8 million so having 1 8 million dollar OLmen is not a big deal to me.

Realistically here is my best guess,

Logan Mankins got 6 years 51 million/30 guaranteed/20 signing bonus.

I am going to say that Levitre gets a little less lets say 6 years 48 million/25 guaranteed/18 signing bonus

Year 1: 2 million salary/3 million signing bonus [5]
Year 2: 2 million salary/3 million signing bonus/1 million roster bonus [6]
Year 3: 3 million salary/3 million signing bonus/2 million roster bonus [8] Peppers Gone and Cap Increase
Year 4: 4 million salary/3 million signing bonus/2 million roster bonus [9]
Year 5: 5 million salary/3 million signing bonus/2 million roster bonus [9]
Year 6: 7 million salary/3 million signing bonus [10] Will never see this year and will be extended or cut.

Originally Posted by lklrlolnlilklsox

Paying an OG that much money is too hard to justify when our OTs and edges accounted for the lion's share and a half of the pressure and 42 sacks Jay faced this season. To call LG our weakest spot when Carimi and Scott played RT like they did last year is an iffy proposition at best. We need one tackle and we need two interior players, paying Levitre thta kind of dough isn't conducive to achieving that with anything other than the Rachal special.

The wildcard is we do not have the financials.

LG was our worst position and we simply have nothing there, RT was a huge problem and also needs to be fixed, but John Scott was better than Spencer/Rachal.

But you say "paying an OG" and my argument is that under this leadership I doubt they have that attitude about the OG position. The New Orleans system that Kromer has been coaching in puts a huge amount of responsibility on the OGs and requires dominant OG play to go along with average OT play. Now that may be because Brees is short, but many coach believe that pressure up the middle is what destroys plays and Cutler has echoed the same thing. My experience with Trestman is that he also believes that you need to protect from the inside out.

Ben Grubbs [5 years 36 million]
Jahri Evans [7 years 57 million]

We could see a situation where the Bears pay their OGs more money to get dominant performers and pay the tackles to be average as they do in New Orleans.

You can pay Jake Long 8-9 million or Levitre 8-9 million it all depends on what you value more. Traditionally it has been OT, but with the proliferation of the pass rushing DT [Melton, Atkins, Smith], the amount of blitzing that goes on, and the quick timing passing offense the OG position is becoming more and more important and it is reflected in the huge contracts that they are being given.

I understand your concern that if you sign Levitre and that is all you can do, or it means that you lose a number of your guys then I would not do it, but if you can sign him and still add players then I think he is a great move.

The argument is do we want 2 average players like Brandon Moore and Gosder Cherilus or do we want 1 elite player like Levitre.

I do not think either is a mistake.

Originally Posted by WindyCity

LG was our worst position and we simply have nothing there, RT was a huge problem and also needs to be fixed.

Now, I'm not in front of statistics right now, but I would put vast amounts of money on the fact that Jay faced somewhere in the area of 2^2079460347:1 times more dangerous pressure from Carimi and Scott than he did our motley crew of LGs. LG sucked balls and our interiors utter lack of movement in the ground game was a problem with even Louis, but man was that outside pressure constantly getting to him from both ends right out of the gate.

edit: and just to clarify, I do get the importance of the OG position, I just got into this argument a week ago here with someone who was saying an OG wasn't worth the 20th pick.