adam Posted March 1, 2015 Report Share Posted March 1, 2015 According to Overthecap.com the Bears have approximately $29 million in cap space going into Free Agency. If the Bears plan to stick with Cutler, and want to make a big splash in free agency, wouldn't it make sense to convert some of his 2015 salary into a signing bonus so the hit is spread out over multiple years? If I am reading everything correctly, we could free up around $5 million in cap space this year by converting $6 mil into a signing bonus, then we would carry an extra $1 mil hit per year for the next 5. With the cap increasing basically every year, $1 mil will not be that big of a deal if we had to cut Cutler. However, $5 mil freed this year could bring in another impact free agent. What do you think? Work with what we have or reduce and add another free agent? With Allen dropping off the books after this year, and other contracts expiring (Forte), we are going to have a ton of cap space in 2016. So we could essentially re-work Cutler's contract now to bring in someone this year without having to worry about a crunch next year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mongo3451 Posted March 1, 2015 Report Share Posted March 1, 2015 According to Overthecap.com the Bears have approximately $29 million in cap space going into Free Agency. If the Bears plan to stick with Cutler, and want to make a big splash in free agency, wouldn't it make sense to convert some of his 2015 salary into a signing bonus so the hit is spread out over multiple years? If I am reading everything correctly, we could free up around $5 million in cap space this year by converting $6 mil into a signing bonus, then we would carry an extra $1 mil hit per year for the next 5. With the cap increasing basically every year, $1 mil will not be that big of a deal if we had to cut Cutler. However, $5 mil freed this year could bring in another impact free agent. What do you think? Work with what we have or reduce and add another free agent? With Allen dropping off the books after this year, and other contracts expiring (Forte), we are going to have a ton of cap space in 2016. So we could essentially re-work Cutler's contract now to bring in someone this year without having to worry about a crunch next year. Mr. Cutler needs tear his contract up and renegotiate at a lower rate. Our only leverage is threatening to cut him. Then someone will sign him much less. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ASHKUM BEAR Posted March 1, 2015 Report Share Posted March 1, 2015 According to Overthecap.com the Bears have approximately $29 million in cap space going into Free Agency. If the Bears plan to stick with Cutler, and want to make a big splash in free agency, wouldn't it make sense to convert some of his 2015 salary into a signing bonus so the hit is spread out over multiple years? If I am reading everything correctly, we could free up around $5 million in cap space this year by converting $6 mil into a signing bonus, then we would carry an extra $1 mil hit per year for the next 5. With the cap increasing basically every year, $1 mil will not be that big of a deal if we had to cut Cutler. However, $5 mil freed this year could bring in another impact free agent. What do you think? Work with what we have or reduce and add another free agent? With Allen dropping off the books after this year, and other contracts expiring (Forte), we are going to have a ton of cap space in 2016. So we could essentially re-work Cutler's contract now to bring in someone this year without having to worry about a crunch next year. I would be careful about dipping into the Jay pool. It would be tempting, but signing fa's doesn't always turn out. We dipped last year to bring in Allen and now were thinking how he will free up a lot of space next season by cutting him. Let's see what Fox can do with the parts he has. Use the current cap to fill the positions that look bare in the draft, like safety or ILB and draft well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bradjock Posted March 1, 2015 Report Share Posted March 1, 2015 According to Overthecap.com the Bears have approximately $29 million in cap space going into Free Agency. If the Bears plan to stick with Cutler, and want to make a big splash in free agency, wouldn't it make sense to convert some of his 2015 salary into a signing bonus so the hit is spread out over multiple years? If I am reading everything correctly, we could free up around $5 million in cap space this year by converting $6 mil into a signing bonus, then we would carry an extra $1 mil hit per year for the next 5. With the cap increasing basically every year, $1 mil will not be that big of a deal if we had to cut Cutler. However, $5 mil freed this year could bring in another impact free agent. What do you think? Work with what we have or reduce and add another free agent? With Allen dropping off the books after this year, and other contracts expiring (Forte), we are going to have a ton of cap space in 2016. So we could essentially re-work Cutler's contract now to bring in someone this year without having to worry about a crunch next year. I don't think we want to do anything that would make it more difficult to get rid of Cutler in the future. Lets say we decide to cut him after this year, we want to be as free and clear as possible. We don't want for him to count against us for years to come, even if it is just one million. Teams that do that quickly find themselves in cap hell. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scs787 Posted March 1, 2015 Report Share Posted March 1, 2015 If they find themselves in discusions with a guy like Justin Houston or Devin McCourty, and end up needing more money, then absolutely. An extra 1M in dead cap for a few year isn't gonna put them in cap hell. If we go after mid tier guys then 29M should be more than enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stinger226 Posted March 1, 2015 Report Share Posted March 1, 2015 If they find themselves in discusions with a guy like Justin Houston or Devin McCourty, and end up needing more money, then absolutely. An extra 1M in dead cap for a few year isn't gonna put them in cap hell. If we go after mid tier guys then 29M should be more than enough. I think both of those players will be tagged, after the tags are applied the market will get thinner. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scs787 Posted March 1, 2015 Report Share Posted March 1, 2015 I think both of those players will be tagged, after the tags are applied the market will get thinner. I can agree with this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bradjock Posted March 1, 2015 Report Share Posted March 1, 2015 If they find themselves in discusions with a guy like Justin Houston or Devin McCourty, and end up needing more money, then absolutely. An extra 1M in dead cap for a few year isn't gonna put them in cap hell. If we go after mid tier guys then 29M should be more than enough. We can be creative with the cap in signing big-time free agents without further tethering ourselves to Cutler. Like with Jared Allen who only counted something like 2-3 million against the cap last year but counts for 12+ this year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stinger226 Posted March 1, 2015 Report Share Posted March 1, 2015 We can be creative with the cap in signing big-time free agents without further tethering ourselves to Cutler. Like with Jared Allen who only counted something like 2-3 million against the cap last year but counts for 12+ this year. We have to quit that shit and build for a continued winner and that may take a few years but lets be like GB and hone our own draftees and cut back on the fix this year player. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mongo3451 Posted March 1, 2015 Report Share Posted March 1, 2015 I think you all misread what I wrote. I want Cutler to take a pay cut for no other reason than we just over pay. In no way do I want to be tethered to him deeper than we already are, in any fashion. I'm also of the mindset to not make any blockbuster signings, but we do need to hit on a few solid vets while trying to get younger. If we give Cutler a pay cut, trade Marshall and Forte, we have extra picks and a ton of cap space allowing the new brass power and freedom to do a lot of turd cutting... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AZ54 Posted March 1, 2015 Report Share Posted March 1, 2015 We have to quit that shit and build for a continued winner and that may take a few years but lets be like GB and hone our own draftees and cut back on the fix this year player. I always laugh at this when I think of how Green Bay's poor drafting causing them to have a $12mil cap hit for Julius Peppers this year. If we want to be like Green Bay we need to draft a top 5 QB. That covers up a lot of mistakes they've made. I still say Baltimore, with a "good" QB is the standard when it comes to reloading through the draft. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ASHKUM BEAR Posted March 1, 2015 Report Share Posted March 1, 2015 I think both of those players will be tagged, after the tags are applied the market will get thinner. NE will have to make some cuts to tag McCourty. Cutting Revis alone will put them at the cap limit since they are well over. Or cut Wilfork and save 8 million. If NE decides to keep McCourty, It will hellp them to get it on a long term deal. If he hits the FA, offer him a 4 yr 40 mil 12 guaranteed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stinger226 Posted March 1, 2015 Report Share Posted March 1, 2015 I always laugh at this when I think of how Green Bay's poor drafting causing them to have a $12mil cap hit for Julius Peppers this year. If we want to be like Green Bay we need to draft a top 5 QB. That covers up a lot of mistakes they've made. I still say Baltimore, with a "good" QB is the standard when it comes to reloading through the draft. There are 3 teams that draft well year in and year out, Balt,NE and GB. Anybody want to go back and re think HaHa Dix? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adam Posted March 1, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 1, 2015 The idea is the same money is worth more now than it will be if we owe it in 5 years. So $1 mil will not "feel" like $1 mil in 3-4 years. Yet bringing in a impact player with that $5 mil this year vs league minimum player would. Obviously with Cutler owning the biggest cap hit and question marks, makes this a very tough decision. $1 mil a year is really not going to impact us down the road negatively where $5 mil this year could help us a lot. I am just exploring all possibilities. Obviously if Cutler is not in their plans (short or long term), then we would not want to be on the hook for anything beyond the time he is here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chitownhustla Posted March 1, 2015 Report Share Posted March 1, 2015 I always laugh at this when I think of how Green Bay's poor drafting causing them to have a $12mil cap hit for Julius Peppers this year. If we want to be like Green Bay we need to draft a top 5 QB. That covers up a lot of mistakes they've made. I still say Baltimore, with a "good" QB is the standard when it comes to reloading through the draft. You are right about having Rodgers, but they have Peppers at 12 mill and still have a ton of cap space because they draft well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scs787 Posted March 1, 2015 Report Share Posted March 1, 2015 Yeah, having Rodgers, who could go down as the GOAT, certainly makes that team the power it is. You take Rodgers and replace them with say Jay Cutler, or even a guy like say Phillip Rivers who's a damn good QB and that franchise looks completely different. Since 2008, the year Rodgers first became the starter, their defense only ranked in the top 10 twice in those 7 years. And I always hear about how bad their OL has been. Rodgers is what makes that team look good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adam Posted March 2, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 2, 2015 There are 3 teams that draft well year in and year out, Balt,NE and GB. Anybody want to go back and re think HaHa Dix? NE is one of the worst drafting teams in the league over the past decade in regards to efficiency. GB, NE, BAL, PIT, DEN, and IND - all teams in the top 10 over the past decade (in terms of record) are on the bottom half of the league when it comes to draft efficiency. NO is the only good team that has excelled at drafting over the past 10 years (thanks Pace). The Bears are 15th. What makes NE and GB look better is that they have had a lot of extra picks to hit on a good player, but in terms of raw efficiency, they really haven't been that good. Draft Efficiency NE (31st) 17.1/8 GB (18th) 20.0/6 BAL (19th) 19.8/5 PIT (26th) 19.0/5 DEN (16th) 20.7/7 NO (2nd) 26.5/9 IND (20th) 19.5/4 Bears (15th) 21.0/7 Average 21.1/5 *First number is average number of starts per player drafted, and second number is the number of players that made the Pro Bowl at least once. Best team: Chargers Worst team: Redskins Here is the link from 2004-2013: http://www.nationalfootballpost.com/which-...-the-nfl-draft/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stinger226 Posted March 2, 2015 Report Share Posted March 2, 2015 NE is one of the worst drafting teams in the league over the past decade in regards to efficiency. GB, NE, BAL, PIT, DEN, and IND - all teams in the top 10 over the past decade (in terms of record) are on the bottom half of the league when it comes to draft efficiency. NO is the only good team that has excelled at drafting over the past 10 years (thanks Pace). The Bears are 15th. What makes NE and GB look better is that they have had a lot of extra picks to hit on a good player, but in terms of raw efficiency, they really haven't been that good. Draft Efficiency NE (31st) 17.1/8 GB (18th) 20.0/6 BAL (19th) 19.8/5 PIT (26th) 19.0/5 DEN (16th) 20.7/7 NO (2nd) 26.5/9 IND (20th) 19.5/4 Bears (15th) 21.0/7 Average 21.1/5 *First number is average number of starts per player drafted, and second number is the number of players that made the Pro Bowl at least once. Best team: Chargers Worst team: Redskins Here is the link from 2004-2013: http://www.nationalfootballpost.com/which-...-the-nfl-draft/ That is a good point, NE is good because of Brady, and they add so many players they are bound to hit on them. Seattle is another team that has tons of players go thru the door and find gems along the way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
'TD' Posted March 2, 2015 Report Share Posted March 2, 2015 With the cap increasing basically every year, $1 mil will not be that big of a deal if we had to cut Cutler. If you had to cut him after converting money, it will be bigger than $1 million cap hit. The rest of that $6 million would come due, along with the rest of the $5 million from last year, plus whatever is guaranteed. The June first designation could help move that around some. The offset clause in his contract may also help with that, but the details on it is foggy. Was the wording just for the first year, or does it carry on through the remainder of the contract? I don't know, I haven't seen anything in depth on it. It just ties to team to him more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lemonej Posted March 2, 2015 Report Share Posted March 2, 2015 With a decision due on guaranteeing his 2016 salary coming soon you will know if Gase and Fox are willing to tie themselves to Cutler beyond this year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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