Bears have $5.45M in cap space available

I'm not sure how it all comes out in the wash but it does seem to me that $8-$10 mil more on top of what we have gets the job done now and gets us through the season. We need to keep a few mil of cap space for contingencies too.

I don't know that we get an acceptable #2 QB for only $1 mil though unless they figure they can live with McCown who'll actually count even less than his vet minimum as far as his cap cost goes. Cutler likes him around so we'll see. They may not have another choice. Most of the rest will cost us around $2 mil or more.

Melton's deal will cost them far more than just $10 mil in guaranteed monies but you could possibly offer that upfront and pay him a minimum salary of $715k and his 2013 cap hit would only be $3.215 mil which puts him in the same range as what we did with Bushrod. That gives us another mil or so to work with now.

If we go to school on what he did with Collins and Toe we can see that right now every dollar and every dime counts even if it's saving a few hundred thousand. Rinse and repeat a few times and you come up with that $2 mil you need for a key signing. I see the possibility of more guys being asked to take a salary cut or be released following the draft and that's where some of that signing money may come from.

So right now even doing nothing he can spend enough to lock up Urlacher is they can come to an agreement. That should take anywhere from $2-$3 mil depending on whether it's a one or two year deal. Next you have Izzy and Louis. I'm thinking he'd like Louis for a year at the minimum which is $715k so he can see how well he recovers from that injury. They could add some bonus money to that which won't count against this years cap if he becomes a full time starter again.

Izzy is a little more problematic. A cut from $2.5 mil to a vet mini at $940 with a $25k signing bonus is one hell of a hair cut to ask the guy to take after that year he had in 2012 but it may allow them to only count about $550k of that against the cap and it frees up some money. It seems like nickels and dimes but this year we need those nickels and dimes to fill out the team and upgrade.

Just keep the money.

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Originally Posted by soulman

I'm not sure how it all comes out in the wash but it does seem to me that $8-$10 mil more on top of what we have gets the job done now and gets us through the season. We need to keep a few mil of cap space for contingencies too.

I don't know that we get an acceptable #2 QB for only $1 mil though unless they figure they can live with McCown who'll actually count even less than his vet minimum as far as his cap cost goes. Cutler likes him around so we'll see. They may not have another choice. Most of the rest will cost us around $2 mil or more.

Melton's deal will cost them far more than just $10 mil in guaranteed monies but you could possibly offer that upfront and pay him a minimum salary of $715k and his 2013 cap hit would only be $3.215 mil which puts him in the same range as what we did with Bushrod. That gives us another mil or so to work with now.

If we go to school on what he did with Collins and Toe we can see that right now every dollar and every dime counts even if it's saving a few hundred thousand. Rinse and repeat a few times and you come up with that $2 mil you need for a key signing. I see the possibility of more guys being asked to take a salary cut or be released following the draft and that's where some of that signing money may come from.

So right now even doing nothing he can spend enough to lock up Urlacher is they can come to an agreement. That should take anywhere from $2-$3 mil depending on whether it's a one or two year deal. Next you have Izzy and Louis. I'm thinking he'd like Louis for a year at the minimum which is $715k so he can see how well he recovers from that injury. They could add some bonus money to that which won't count against this years cap if he becomes a full time starter again.

Izzy is a little more problematic. A cut from $2.5 mil to a vet mini at $940 with a $25k signing bonus is one hell of a hair cut to ask the guy to take after that year he had in 2012 but it may allow them to only count about $550k of that against the cap and it frees up some money. It seems like nickels and dimes but this year we need those nickels and dimes to fill out the team and upgrade.

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Bold1: Maybe I'm nuts here, but doesn't it sound excessive to pay (Colts/Hasselback) a 37 yo backup QB $4m a year? And whatever (undoubtedly more) the Titans just paid for Fitzpatrick? No thank you for us I hope.

Bold2: I was thinking about that too, Soul, but who? The obvious fat has been cut already. I do think its silly that we have 2 vet "WRs" on the roster who are pure ST-only guys for all practical purposes but cutting Weems wouldn't save much due to dead cap and DeC reportedly wants to keep Hester around so no potential ~ $2m cap savings can be realized there. The only other place I can see a possibility is at C. IF we draft one to develop, we don't need to keep both Garza and EWill too. EW only nets $715 in savings if released and Garza's hit this year is scheduled to be $2.1m. Maybe he could be a candidate for a pay cut. Hard to justify paying him all that coming off a bad year when your HOF MLB who's just one year older can't even get that on the open FA market. Just a thought...

Whatever happens I would think we sign about 2 more of our guys, gain a few bargains here and there, and perhaps a guy even returns that we didn't foresee. We keep a decent reserve/emergency/contingency fund and without too many restructured contracts are looking good for 2014 and perhaps 2015. The can isn't kicked too far into the near future where further complications can hamper team development.

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Originally Posted by MPBears68

Bold1: Maybe I'm nuts here, but doesn't it sound excessive to pay (Colts/Hasselback) a 37 yo backup QB $4m a year? And whatever (undoubtedly more) the Titans just paid for Fitzpatrick? No thank you for us I hope.

Bold2: I was thinking about that too, Soul, but who? The obvious fat has been cut already. I do think its silly that we have 2 vet "WRs" on the roster who are pure ST-only guys for all practical purposes but cutting Weems wouldn't save much due to dead cap and DeC reportedly wants to keep Hester around so no potential ~ $2m cap savings can be realized there. The only other place I can see a possibility is at C. IF we draft one to develop, we don't need to keep both Garza and EWill too. EW only nets $715 in savings if released and Garza's hit this year is scheduled to be $2.1m. Maybe he could be a candidate for a pay cut. Hard to justify paying him all that coming off a bad year when your HOF MLB who's just one year older can't even get that on the open FA market. Just a thought...

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Bold #1: Yeah I think they're all crazy just like I think some teams are crazy to be drafting marginal QBs in the top ten of the first round but there aren't enough good ones go go around. KC just traded two 2nds for Alex Smith when two years ago SF would have been lucky to get anything at all for him.

I'm about 99.9% certain somebody will bring Campbell in to compete for a starting spot. He's got experience, his career stats are decent, and the draft cupboard is pretty bare. McCown may be the best choice we'll be able to afford.

Bold #2: I haven't looked the whole roster over very carefully but if we draft an OC capable of starting then Garza is vulnerable and we maybe we gain half of what our signing costs are for the draft class if we release him. Tough call there. He's not all the good but he's an iron man and dependable.

Right now it isn't even about eliminating big hits. The only way we can do that is to restructure or extend some deals. Were down to the stems and seeds here and if we can do it $500k at a time well then that's what we do. I think we're gonna see some guys released after the draft too.

Here's the thing. Only the top 51 contracts count against the cap during the offseason so in some cases once we sign a few higher dollar deals guys playing for low minimums don't even count towards the cap and those are guy Emery is gonna load up on looking for less expensive replacements.

Ten year vets can also be signed for the minimum of $940k with a limited sb of $25k and they only count $550k towards the cap. Look for them to use that to their advantage too as in McCown.

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Originally Posted by soulman

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.

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Gotta remember, man. There are 1st day starting QBs in the NFL right now who blow it up. Put it this way. What if there is a remote possibility of us bringing in a guy like Johnny Manziel? I'd seriously consider betting the farm on him much the way Washington bet the farm on RGIII.

This is just hypothetical stuff. I would rather see Cutty blow up and stay a Bear for life. Thing is, you ALWAYS have to keep in consideration the nature of what's happening to our team. We have an entirely new coaching staff AND a new GM. They may not want to build long term around the guy Angelo guy (Cutler). We'll have to sit back and see how it unfolds...

we have 2.5 million to spend and can get 3 starters out of the Draft this year. Could fill one more spot by using Shea as SLB

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Originally Posted by GermansbombedPH

we have 2.5 million to spend

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I wish, but we don't until we restructure some contracts.