Thread: Bears have $5.45M in cap space available

Originally Posted by soulman

Well the first goal is to win your division so what we do should be done with winning the NFC North first and that's not getting any easier. The divisional strength is evening up all the way around.

Exactly. It seems like a lot of fans fail to realize we're bottom-feeders with Detroit right now in the NFCN. The season before last, Detroit actually finished ahead of us too.

Just because Lovie is gone, doesn't automatically mean we're just some pixie dust away from clawing our way past the Packers to win the division this year. Emery and Trestman have their work cut out for them. I know. Folks will say "but we're a 10 win team" and "the defense is still great"......but all that was last year. Just because we won 10 games last year, doesn't mean Trestman automatically wins more games THIS year.

I'm hoping for the best, but also realizing the NFC-N crown is not a gimmee.

Originally Posted by MPBears68

When Emery was first brought in the catch phrase used was "closing the talent gap" in the division. Whether or not it was mentioned specifically (I don't recall), everyone understood that to mean the talent gap with Green Bay. The offensive gap in particular which was huge at the time. In only 1 1/2 offseasons, Emery has done a remarkable job on this front. The gap may not be fully "closed" (hard to do that with Rodgers over there) but at least it's not the Grand Canyon anymore. It's reasonably close and our D is better than theirs by a significant margin. Still preliminary, but Detroit doesn't look all that scary to me. Their OL and D has taken some pretty serious hits lately. Minnesota finished ahead of us in the division but with the same record (split the season series). I agree they're much improved over 2 years ago. A lot will depend on them reconstructing their WR corps and how much Ponder progresses. Can't expect AP to rush for 2k and win MVP every year. Bottom line, you'd still put your money on GB to finish on top but we are much more competitive in the NFCN than we were just a short while ago.

If this cap number is accurate, we have left pretty much exactly what the rookie pool + emergency fund requires (something like $3.5m & $2m respectively). That's it. So Emery's talk about "being tight against the cap" is both accurate and bullshit at the same time. In static terms, it's dead on. But anyone that can do 5th grade math knows that SOME type of cap-clearing move(s) will have to be made and eventually WILL BE MADE. There's no way to sign any FAs (our own or others) without it. And there will be more signings, lower-level stuff that's well under $5m/yr. Emery is going with "cash and carry" accounting as Soul puts it, I assume to maintain negotiating leverage and to minimize tinkering with existing contracts. But, unless there's some surprise cuts coming none of us foresee, there's zero chance that $5.45m cap space number is the "final number" or that new space won't be later freed up via at least one extension + a long term deal with Melton. My best guess...

I agree. And surely Emery will sign some 2nd tier (or even 3rd tier) FA players between now and training camp. Not just for training camp fodder, but people who could help us. The roster is a "work in progress" until at least training camp opens. And you hit the nail on the head. The money situation isn't static. Emery will have the money to do this.

Originally Posted by MPBears68

Yeah, Emery is a shrewd poker player and generally keeps his mouth shut on specifics. But I did roll my eyes at him a bit when he made his "tight cap" comments. Sort of like the guy who makes more than you at work crying poverty a little when the bar bill comes. The cap number isn't static and there's no way more space won't eventually be freed up in some (judicious) way. It will have to be done whether Emery publicly acknowledges it or not.

Very amateur ballpark guess on my part:

We still have to re-sign Urlacher + maybe Izzy & Louis. - Between 4 & 5 Million (2.0 salary for BU plus incentives CAP Hit 3 million, 1 million each for Izzy and LL on one year contracts) = total 5 million CAP hit
We still have to find a bargain or two among UFAs (LB, CB, OG) for depth 1 million for LB and 1.5 million for OG = 2.5 million CAP hit
We still have to sign SOMEONE to be QB2 = 1 million CAP hit

Possible total = 8.5 million CAP hit

Resign Melton for 2 million base salary this year and 10 million signing bonus over 4 years = 4.5 CAP HIT = 4 million CAP space
Extend Peanut for 3 years from 8 million to 1.5 million base salary plus 9 million signing bonus = 4.5 CAP HIT = 3.5 million CAP space

That creates 8 million CAP space and now you only need to find 500K CAP.

So I take the current number with a grain of salt. It's not nearly as final or firm as Phil tried to make it sound politically.

He is going "cash and carry" and his moves to release Davis, Speath and Toe to clear the space he needed for Bushrod and Bennett are pretty much proof of that but you're right MP there still some money in the cap bank. It's just that he has it in the savings account and he's not moving it to his checking account until he's ready to buy.

The Finance Manager at the car dealership can look up your credit rating and find out how much credit you can afford but he has no idea how much of it you're willing to spend until the deal is cut. That's the salesman's job to find out. Player agents for aging vets are like used car salesman this year and the market is pretty well flooded with them so it's a buyers market, teams know this and soon many players who'd hoped for better will accept it too. That's when the second phase signings will start.

Emery is also being very cautious about not mortgaging his future in more than one way. Not moving to restructure his biggest "cap eater", Pep's deal, says he doesn't want that to become an even bigger problem if he can avoid it and I believe he intends to. Peanut and Jennings he could probably feel safe in extending but not until he knows what he needs to settle other deals. BMarsh's deal is all salary so he's got that to look at too but then he has to offer guarantees that aren't there now so it's back burner thing IMO.

He's also put Cutler on hold for now because I don't think he want the headache of dealing with two franchise type players at the same time. Once he gets Melton done he'll have a clearer path to what else needs work and I think he'll try to push forward with that when he can. Remember last year after they tagged Forte they came out with what Phillips called "a strong offer" and I expect then to do something similar with Melton then leave it on the table just like they did with Forte. Since his agreeing to it may not happen until after the draft that may be cap money Phil is looking for to sign the rookies later this spring which means he can use about $4-$5 mil now if he chooses too.

It's a poker game alright and so far Emery is playing most of the winning hands and folding those that aren't. He's good, very good.

Originally Posted by soulman

He is going "cash and carry" and his moves to release Davis, Speath and Toe to clear the space he needed for Bushrod and Bennett are pretty much proof of that but you're right MP there still some money in the cap bank. It's just that he has it in the savings account and he's not moving it to his checking account until he's ready to buy.

The Finance Manager at the car dealership can look up your credit rating and find out how much credit you can afford but he has no idea how much of it you're willing to spend until the deal is cut. That's the salesman's job to find out. Player agents for aging vets are like used car salesman this year and the market is pretty well flooded with them so it's a buyers market, teams know this and soon many players who'd hoped for better will accept it too. That's when the second phase signings will start.

Emery is also being very cautious about not mortgaging his future in more than one way. Not moving to restructure his biggest "cap eater", Pep's deal, says he doesn't want that to become an even bigger problem if he can avoid it and I believe he intends to. Peanut and Jennings he could probably feel safe in extending but not until he knows what he needs to settle other deals. BMarsh's deal is all salary so he's got that to look at too but then he has to offer guarantees that aren't there now so it's back burner thing IMO.

He's also put Cutler on hold for now because I don't think he want the headache of dealing with two franchise type players at the same time. Once he gets Melton done he'll have a clearer path to what else needs work and I think he'll try to push forward with that when he can. Remember last year after they tagged Forte they came out with what Phillips called "a strong offer" and I expect then to do something similar with Melton then leave it on the table just like they did with Forte. Since his agreeing to it may not happen until after the draft that may be cap money Phil is looking for to sign the rookies later this spring which means he can use about $4-$5 mil now if he chooses too.

It's a poker game alright and so far Emery is playing most of the winning hands and folding those that aren't. He's good, very good.

As ole' dbears54 would say, you're "spot on"

And "spot" says thank you!