Thread: Bears have $5.45M in cap space available

Originally Posted by BearStuff

I believe that we will need $4 million to sign draft picks (give or take). That means that we are looking to the restructured contracts to make anything possible.

That's the way I'm seeing it to so in reality to bring in anyone who isn't playing for a minimum salary I can't see anyway to do it without recapturing some cap space by getting a deal with Melton done which could save around $4 mil and extending some other contracts such as Peanuts or Marshalls either to gain another $4 mil or so.

dabears

I tend to think this figure is definitely with the rookie contracts built in. As has been mentioned a few times in other threads signing Melton long term will reduce his CAP hit this year especially if he gets a nice signing bonus to be pro-rated over 4-5 years (Depending on the length of the contract). I am still hopeful Emery will also play his extend card on Peanut for another 2-3 years and reduce that CAP hit. If we can save 4 million out of Melton's FT number (8.45 million) and cut Peanut's CAP hit in half we have another 8 million to apply towards a decent guard like Moore and Lach (Should they choose to bring him back).


In a perfect world what dabears suggests along with bringing Izzy back is what I'd like to see happen. As it stands today I can't see how we can avoid coming to an agreement of some kind with Urlacher. Even at 80% he's still a better option than any alternative I can see who'd play for less. I just think we need to arrange it so his cap number is somehow manageable whether that means a one year deal or a two year deal. Izzy is a valuable core player in that rotation as well and deserves at least some of the same respect that Urlacher is entitled to. The problem there is that we want to sign him for less than the $2.5 mil he got in 2012 when he probably deserves that much or more.

To me Moore is the last piece of the puzzle as far as the line goes. Even though I believe we'll be able to bring back Louis on a shorter term deal signing Moore gives us a vet depth at OG we badly need and provides the ultimate flexibility in the draft next month if we truly want to go a BPA route or trade picks. To get any of this done we need to free up cap space and other than working out contract extensions and getting a long term deal for Melton done I don't know where else the cap space would come from.

Originally Posted by misfit138

Extending Cutty is a bad idea right now. If he doesn't step his game up A LOT in 2013, we're going to have to part ways with the guy. Look, I'm a Cutler fan and supporter, and I want to believe he's the guy who'll bring us a ring....but it's not gonna happen with the guy averaging 20 TD passes per season. I know he's made something outta NOTHING for us a lot of times, but we need a guy who can take us to the next level. If Jay steps it up this season and makes strides with this new offense (seems as if he's had about 6 new offenses to "learn in his career now)....I'm all for throwing the check book at him. If he doesn't, and it's another mediocre season....we gotta move on. It sucks, but that's just the way it is. All that potential is going to have to translate into success.....N-O-W!!!!!!!!

I'm not sure it means we'll part ways with him since we still don't have another prospect of any kind even close to waiting in the wings but when it comes time to talk about a new contract how he plays this year will have a huge effect on that. I still think it's more about how much money he gets as opposed to whether we give him a new deal or not.

Obviously I'm a Cutler supporter because I also have the advantage of seeing what he did here in Denver when he had the right offensive personnel surrounding him and a coach with a similar offensive genius to Trestman. He was a Pro Bowler his first year as a full time starter and he's more than capable of doing it again. The talent is unquestionably there.

If we avoid injuries this year he'll have 5 top pass catchers at starting WR, TE and RB and decent backups to those so Emery has surrounded him with as much talent at skill positions as any other team in the NFL but we still have to get a line who can block consistently in front of him. Hopefully with Kromer and Myers working that end of the street and some additional upgrades other than Bushrod they'll be able to get that done.

The offensive table is pretty close to being set. It needs a little more tweaking but we'd all have to admit that it looks one hell of a lot better than it did before Emery took over.

Originally Posted by lklrlolnlilklsox

Still have to fill out the remainder of the roster with that money too, but I do think there is some artificial deflation of available funds on the Bears' part there. I see a handful of small moves in FA plus Urlacher. We're going to have to count on filling a couple starter roles through the draft, regardless, so it's going to come down to which of the spots have the most affordable quality talent for depth and competition. There's an awful lot of CBs out there, so I hope that position falls into the latter group.

Agreed and what happens between now and then should pretty much dictate how Emery is gonna draft. Assuming Urlacher is re-signed, and I still believe that's reasonable assumption, we still have starting spots to fill at LG, SLB, NB and a NT for the rotation. Because there are quite a few CBs out there hopefully we can fill that NB spot in FA which leaves the other three for the draft.

I don't know about any artificial deflation as far as cap space goes. As hard as I tried when I was charting it I could still only be sure within about a mil or two but even if that current figure is on the conservative side it's not all that far off and leaves no room for much of anything but backup depth at a minimum salary. I think there's a better chance Emery and Stein have pushed the pencil on some extensions and have some offers ready to present when the time is right.

It looks to me like they're working on a cash and carry basis and not freeing up excess cap space until they have an agreement from a player or players they intend to use it on. Emery is crafty. He doesn't show his hand as far as his FA or draft targets and so far has surprised people with his moves so it's unlikely player agents are gonna know just what he will or won't do to free cap space. He doesn't seem to like moving money from savings to checking before he's ready to buy and he's cautious about future time payments as well.

Originally Posted by jackiejokeman

Interesting Soul, one Moore could be on the way in and another Moore could be on the way out ... D.J. Moore that is.

We seem to like having multiple players with the same last name though. I think it's a tradition.