azbearsfan Posted April 3, 2009 Report Share Posted April 3, 2009 Had to go through hell for the last several years before I decided to move on and divorce my wife. My son and I are living together and his mom is still working on staying sane/sober. The energy one expends in these circumstances is unreal. But everything was final in February and my son is doing great in school and is otherwise a very well adjusted 10 year old. Life is good. I'm sorry about the rough patch and I'm glad things are better now. Hopefully, things will continue on the upward stride. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrackerDog Posted April 3, 2009 Report Share Posted April 3, 2009 Crack, sorry to hear that. Sincerely. Glass half full. Hardest parts are over. You are with your son. Your son is doing well, as well as can be expected. Oh yea, and there has been a change in the whitehouse Thanks man. One correction: The glass is nearly completely full. Life goes on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nfoligno Posted April 3, 2009 Author Report Share Posted April 3, 2009 I am not sure how thrilled Cutler would be to hear we want him to prove himself for a year, but that aside, regarding what we should do w/ this years cap space. We really do not have any veterans we need to extend. If we did as you talked about, I think we might be better off using LTBE's to push our cap space next year (assuming there is a cap) high so we can then re-sign Cutler. Honestly though, we have already made our bed giving up all the picks and orton. Now we need to take the next step and re-sign him long term. When you make deal like this, you do it all the way. You don't let the stud come to Chicago only to make him wonder "what the hell" when he gets paid minimal. Besides, I just want to see the McCaskey's write a check for $30m Couldn't agree more. But the question was what are the ramifications and at this point, there aren't any. And I'm not sure they'll want to go out there and extend him with a big deal right away. Too many guys have disappeared after getting the big check... I'd say you sit down with him, be very honest, and tell him you'll do a deal with him in one year. That means with 2 left on his contract which is very fair. I'd then use the cap space we have available now to bring in a Marvin Harrison and front load other contracts for vets we want to extend today. Leaving ample space in next year's cap. (Note: I'm assuming above there won't be an uncapped year. I believe both sides will get a deal done in collective bargaining. Now is not the time, with the economy being what it is, for either side to chance killing this golden goose.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nfoligno Posted April 3, 2009 Author Report Share Posted April 3, 2009 Half full for me is overflowing for others:) Thanks man. One correction: The glass is nearly completely full. Life goes on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
selection7 Posted April 3, 2009 Report Share Posted April 3, 2009 Cutler has what you would call very likely to be earned incentives (like 70% snaps and top5 QB in any category) that make his contract thus: 7.6M-2009, 7.9M-2010, 16.3M-2011 7.6M is pretty good for a guy who's proved very little and still well in the middle of his rookie contract. If we like how Cutler adjusts to the Bears, I'm ok with a new contract just as long as Cutler understands it's like refinancing your morgage. You can get a better deal, but considering they've already got you, you've got to give something up (a fee in that case, in Cutler's case, a much lower contract than he'd get if he were a true free agent). Cutler gets more money sooner; the Bears get Cutler at a cut rate and sewn up for longer. As I put in another post, the 2010 deal looks especially beneficial to the Bears so don't expect the bears to renegotiate without Cutler giving up something serious in return. The last year was just padding. Cutler's agent probably never expected he'd get paid that, but I guess with the new collective bargaining agreement approaching you never know. JA's comment that a new deal is unnecessary probably suggests that Cutler understood before he signed on that wasn't allowed to be a dealbreaker. Unnecessary, of course, doesn't mean it won't happen anyway if both parties want it to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LT2_3 Posted April 4, 2009 Report Share Posted April 4, 2009 LT, do you have a rough estimate as to where the Bears now stand in terms of CAP room this year. Gracias We should still have well over $20 mil in cap space. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ASHKUM BEAR Posted April 4, 2009 Report Share Posted April 4, 2009 We should still have well over $20 mil in cap space. Great news and thanks LT2. Still plenty of $$ to patch up the WR corps and defense. Maybe we sit back for a while now and watch the other teams start sweating as the Bears are looking like they put together a great offseason. Marinelli, Hoke, Cutler, Pace, Shaffer, Omiyale, Bullocks, K. Jones. JA/Bears did a nice job last year tying up core players and now this year he's adding the icing on the cake. I'd be content if we wait until after the draft to spend a few more million on FA's. Honestly, I'm not sure if we drafted 8 players if we'd have room for even half of them on the roster. I can see JA getting creative and maybe trading some of the picks for 2010 picks or moving up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mongo3451 Posted April 4, 2009 Report Share Posted April 4, 2009 So be gooood for goooodness sakes. Whoaaaaa somebody's coming...... Did you use that line because you knew Cutler is from Santa Claus, IN.??? Very nice if so... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mongo3451 Posted April 4, 2009 Report Share Posted April 4, 2009 Couldn't agree more. But the question was what are the ramifications and at this point, there aren't any. And I'm not sure they'll want to go out there and extend him with a big deal right away. Too many guys have disappeared after getting the big check... I'd say you sit down with him, be very honest, and tell him you'll do a deal with him in one year. That means with 2 left on his contract which is very fair. I'd then use the cap space we have available now to bring in a Marvin Harrison and front load other contracts for vets we want to extend today. Leaving ample space in next year's cap. (Note: I'm assuming above there won't be an uncapped year. I believe both sides will get a deal done in collective bargaining. Now is not the time, with the economy being what it is, for either side to chance killing this golden goose.) JA may wait until the season begins before doing a new deal. That way he can hold onto emercency cash and have a better grasp on personnel and ability to frontload. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bowlingtwig Posted April 4, 2009 Report Share Posted April 4, 2009 Did George W Bush assume the Presidency again!?!?! Well Crackerdog, as much as we have disagreed in the past welcome back and hopefully you never have to go through that again. Hopefully everything else is going good for you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bowlingtwig Posted April 4, 2009 Report Share Posted April 4, 2009 Great news and thanks LT2. Still plenty of $$ to patch up the WR corps and defense. Maybe we sit back for a while now and watch the other teams start sweating as the Bears are looking like they put together a great offseason. Marinelli, Hoke, Cutler, Pace, Shaffer, Omiyale, Bullocks, K. Jones. JA/Bears did a nice job last year tying up core players and now this year he's adding the icing on the cake. I'd be content if we wait until after the draft to spend a few more million on FA's. Honestly, I'm not sure if we drafted 8 players if we'd have room for even half of them on the roster. I can see JA getting creative and maybe trading some of the picks for 2010 picks or moving up. I think I read somewhere that the cap space available is something like 22-23 million range but either way we have plenty to go around. Personally I want to see us sign 1 FA WR(Holt preferred) and then with the 2nd pick I go WR unless an OL falls to us and then in that case I would go WR with the 3rd(Barden preferred). I also want JA to wait until the season has at least started before negotiating a new deal for Cutler. Cutler up to this point has never said anything about money it was all about how he was treated by McDaniels and Url even said himself that he would have been pissed to if we tried to trade him without talking to him. I at least hope that we talked to Orton and told him of our intentions. Orton is a class act and hopefully we meet him in the Super Bowl. He always did what was asked of him. He won 10 games his rookie year and then the following year he was 3rd string. Throughout the entire Grossman saga Orton never said anything except the right stuff. My hat is off to him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Hochuli 3:16 Posted April 4, 2009 Report Share Posted April 4, 2009 I'm going to guess that Cutler will be our QB for the rest of his career. Just saying.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bradjock Posted April 4, 2009 Report Share Posted April 4, 2009 Last April Roethlisberger signed an 8 year 102 million $$$ extension with 36 million guaranteed. I'm sure that will be the starting point for what Cutler is looking for. That being said, it wouldn't hurt to wait a year until we start talking about an extension. quote name='nfoligno' date='Apr 2 2009, 07:44 PM' post='61824'] I have to believe we made this deal w/ the intention of keeping him long term, which means a new deal. While he is not due to hit FA for two more years, you gotta bet he wants to be paid. Now we can utilize that huge amount of cap space. It will be very curious to see just how big of a deal he gets, and further will be interesting to see the "bears are cheap" response when we give him a deal for likely $30m guaranteed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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