adam

He played really well in the rotation. The only issue is his suspension to start the season.

The Bears can free up about $25M+ more with Fuller (restructure), Hicks (extend/restructure/cut/trade), Robinson (extend), Quinn (restructure), Graham (extend/cut) and potentially Leno (restructure/cut/trade). That would give them around $30M for free agency or a QB trade.

All expected and those guys are now clearly not being traded.

Based on Fuller's contract, his seemed like the easiest to restructure, so it is odd that he was not the first one done. This leads to some speculation that he would be part of a trade package if one was brewing because that would allow the new team to benefit from his contract and the Bears wouldn't incur more dead money. Fuller+Miller+several picks for QB?

The same rules apply, but you can't designate someone as a June 1st trade prior to June 1st like you can with cuts. If the actual trade occurs after June 1st you get that benefit:

June 1st designations are only for cuts so you can apply some of the dead money to next year's cap. You can designate up to 2 players as a June 1st cut to spread any remaining guaranteed money over this year and next year, instead of having to apply the entire thing to this year's cap. I'm not aware of an option when it involves a trade.

The Bears were about $20M over after the Santos and O'Donnell deals. So the new conversions only get them $3M under the cap which is not even enough for the rookie pool ($4M). So we should expect more. Graham, Hicks, and Fuller are the prime candidates for restructures, trades, or cuts.

I was close, so Mack, Jackson and Whitehair are clearing $23M in cap space, nothing about Fuller makes me think he may be part of an impending trade.

This may be a precursor to a bigger move, maybe at QB. If they are trying to squeeze every ounce out of the cap, they can bring a guy in for league minimum and get league average results. How many touchbacks did CPat take out of the end zone. Kickoff chances are becoming less and less likely so I am ok with this. I liked him better as a person and social media personality than a player. He is definitely a top 5 returner as only 4 players had over a 26 yd return average and a TD last year with CPat being one of them. However, the other 3 were: Brandon Wilson, Devin Duvernay, and Isaiah Rodgers. I have no clue what teams those players are on. Also, as good as he was in the return game, Nagy got too cute with him on offense and more times than not it would end in a negative play. I am good with more reps for Monty, and with Cohen back, it's hard to imagine Patterson getting as many touches this year. For how explosive he was supposed to be, he only averaged 3.6 yds per carry and 6.3 yds per reception. In terms of scoring, he only accounted for a single TD on offense, and that was with Cohen out for most of the season.

Megapunt for another year. Hopefully not for too much, I am sure they wanted some continuity in their kicking game.

Hmmm

I guess Wilson would cost the Seahawks $30M+ in dead money but if they were moving on from him, I don't know how competitive they would be anyway, so would it matter?

That is too creative for me, saw it on Twitter.

We had 4 years between Gould's last year and Santos in 2020. So I am glad this position is locked up and won't be something that needs attention for the foreseeable future. Gould signed a 4-yr/$19M deal in 2019 (at 37), so this is a very solid deal for a 29-yr old kicker.

Huge need filled. Now let's address QB.

Hmm Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone,?? How many verses can you spell Chicago with?

So my math has the Bears having the following picks: 1-20 2-52 3-84 5-165 6-204 6-221 (comp) 6-228 (comp) 7-246 (from MIA)

It is a trade-off. He is almost non-existent between the 20s, where most of the game is played. If you had to only keep one of ARob or Graham, it is a no-brainer. However, if he was willing to add an extra year to his deal and knock off a couple of mil on his current cap hit, I wouldn't be opposed to that. I think it still comes back to who the QB is going to be. They would have to clear a ton of space to bring in someone like Wilson or Watson, which seems highly unlikely unless the team traded away players with a minimal dead cap with high cap hits (Hicks is only one that fits that bill).

He restructures Leno.

To summarize, Restructure Fuller, Mack, Jackson, and Whitehair = save $20M Cut Leno and Graham = save $16M Extend ARob = save $1-2M That would give the Bears $18-22M in cap space for free agency and rookie pool.

Yeah, me either, GB did that crazy deal with all the front end money, which now makes him a prime candidate for a restructure with low risk.

So between Fuller, Mack, Jackson, and Whitehair, the Bears could potentially save around $20M in cap with somewhat safe restructures.

For Mack, it looks like they can push back about $4M without too much risk. Jackson's deal is actually pretty good for the Bears. He only has $10M guaranteed remaining on his deal (all this year), and nothing afterwards. So the Bears could save a couple of million and give him a little more guaranteed by converting salary to bonus. It looks like they can save $2-3M with a restructure. Whitehair can save about $1M this year without much risk. So with these 3, I can see no more than $8M in savings.

His is really easy as long as he is willing to do it. He has 3 years left on his deal, $20M this year, then only $1.5M left each of the next two years. Thanks GB. So the Bears can convert most of it into a signing bonus (convert $18M to bonus, w/$2M base), then spread the hit over the next 3 years, converting the cap hits into $8M in 2021, $7.5M in 2022, and $7.5M in 2023. That saves $12M right there and doesn't really cost the Bears anything.

If they extend Robinson and cut his cap hit down a few, plus cut Leno and Graham, they would be under the cap, but not able to sign any FAs or their rookies. So they will have to do some work with Mack, Fuller, Hicks, Jackson, and Whitehair to free up some additional cap for some free agents and rookies.