pick your free agent

[cubzzzfanincali]

OK, so let's try a little exercise. The Bears currently are about $10 million under the cap. Assume they cut Peppers, and you have about $19 million in space. You've got to save $5 million for the draft, and figure $4 million for misc backups. You have $10 million left. Go ahead and tell us your free agency strategy.

 

[leomaz]

I'm thinking quantity without losing too much quality.....a hatd thing to do but not impossible......I have a lot of free agents I would like including all the best ones but that seemsto be unattainable this offseason butmaybe notentirely impossible. I copied a post I made while I do some more research.....

Johnson(27) from cincy is going to get overpaid and he only had 3.5 sacks. He couldn't handle the double teaming he got after Smith went out...........we need to get better but not at the risk of having a bunch of dead money around like with Julius. A safety would be nice but as we all know free agents are almost always overpayed. A lot of good to above average players will be avaliable in the coming weeks. Melton(28) would be wise to come back to the Bears, take a pay cut and prove himself over again. The list of DT's and DE's is amazing.......of course it would be nice to get all the top players but that just isn't going to happen. Emery need to concentrate on getting bodies in here that want to compete...a mix of young and veteran players becase you can't get too young....veteran leadership is always needed. How about Louis Delmas(26) as a safety? He has had some injuries but at least he can play and is young...plus we keep him from the Lions. I wonder how Justin Tuck(31)would be as a situational pass rusher. Linval Joseph(25) is an intriging name. Run stoppers are a need on this team. Anthony Spencer(30) is a name to think about. A veteran center would be nice someone who has 3-5 year starting experience. Ryan Wendell(28) comes to mind.Evan Detrich-Smith(28) we can steal him from the packers. Everson Griffith(26) will probably be a tad cheaper than Johnson(27) and we take him from the Vikings. How about LaGarrette Blount(27) as a back up rb? Pat McAfee(27)is an avalable punter. A lot of good names out there..this is going to be a telling off seson for the man who put a lot of stock in one year contracts. We have 29(?) players signed as f today. We need a lot of players. Trading down to get extra picks wouldn't be a bad idea......#14 is valued at 1100. Trade down around 25-28 and get a an extra 2nd and 3rd......this is going to get I teresting to say the least.

 

[leomaz]

Of course with the signng of garza along with others it changes somewhat what we are gonna do in free agency.....and we can frget about getting a center

 

[63bears40]

Love to get DE & a safety.
I like the Delmas idea. Wouldn't mind adding a Roman Harper, if a DE is unavailable.
At least we fix 3/4s of the back end. I thought Bowman played ok, would have looked better w/good safety play.
That would mean the D-line gets fixed in the draft. A lot of bodies needed there.

 

[NCChiFan]

Love to get DE & a safety.
I like the Delmas idea. Wouldn't mind adding a Roman Harper, if a DE is unavailable.
At least we fix 3/4s of the back end. I thought Bowman played ok, would have looked better w/good safety play.
That would mean the D-line gets fixed in the draft. A lot of bodies needed there.

F/A DE's are getting scarce. It is looking more and more like Seattle has the funds to keep Bennett locked up, which leaves only Orakpo, who's had injury issues and is better suited in a 3-4, but he has played in a 4-3 at DE. Orakpo might actually suit a situation where the Bears play a hybrid type system.

My thought is keep Peppers (restructure?) but move him to the Left End spot, pick up Orakpo play him a RE/OLB. But, he's going to command a lot of $$$, $9-11mil per, which would require some restructuring of some deals.

That would leave the Bears free to pick up some DT help in the draft along with Safety/CB help, all three of which should be fairly attainable.

 

[cubzzzfanincali]

F/A DE's are getting scarce. It is looking more and more like Seattle has the funds to keep Bennett locked up, which leaves only Orakpo, who's had injury issues and is better suited in a 3-4, but he has played in a 4-3 at DE. Orakpo might actually suit a situation where the Bears play a hybrid type system.

My thought is keep Peppers (restructure?) but move him to the Left End spot, pick up Orakpo play him a RE/OLB. But, he's going to command a lot of $$$, $9-11mil per, which would require some restructuring of some deals.

That would leave the Bears free to pick up some DT help in the draft along with Safety/CB help, all three of which should be fairly attainable.

First of all thanks for posting something specific instead of just a wish list. Obviously the trick here is what specific moves you would make, not just saying "here's what I'd love" without some details.

As you can see, it's tough to actually do and have work. First of all, after signing picks and the scrub backups to fill a roster, which will run $9 million or so, WE HAVE NO CAP SPACE LEFT. Chicago Bears Salary Cap - 2014 Breakdown

Let that sink in. The total cap space we are going to have this year comes from cuts, which is mainly going to be Peppers (up to $10 million).

You can forget about Orakpo. He will sign for more than $10 million, so even if we dump Julius, there isn't enough for Orakpo.

If they restructure Peppers, I'd think it's unlikely Julius will accept more than, say, $4 or $5 million. So if we keep him, you now have only that much to fill whatever starters you can with that money. Not much. That's why I see him getting cut outright.

You can't sign both Delmas and Harper. That would chew all the Julius money up and you would have literally one starting grade D lineman on the entire roster. I actually like signing one free agent safety...safety is the cheapest, easiest, least important position to find on the defense (that's why it has the lowest franchise tag number by far), and ideally you use free agency to fix the cheap positions and the draft to fill the expensive positions. So conceptually, I'd think we will sign one safety. Probably a lower-grade on than these two guys, but it's not out of the question that we'd sign one.
But not two. The Bears are simply way too thin on the front to sign ZERO starting-grade free agent D linemen.

I'm going to post my suggested plan a little later, but I don't want to spoil it, I want to see what other ideas you guys have come in first. I hope this will help us focus on precisely how challenging this is going to be for Emery.

 

[leomaz]

Sorry Cali until you know what these free agents actually want its all fantasy........you can assume all you want about who wants what but only the player and agent know what they are going to ask for........ the players I would sign would have to be cheaper free agents. Until you get your own teams situated and realize what cap space you have its all speculation and fantasy........so if you are saying we have no cap space left what's the point except to have fun with it.......when you give me a hard number to work with then it will be more realistic

 

[cubzzzfanincali]

Sorry Cali until you know what these free agents actually want its all fantasy........you can assume all you want about who wants what but only the player and agent know what they are going to ask for........ the players I would sign would have to be cheaper free agents. Until you get your own teams situated and realize what cap space you have its all speculation and fantasy........so if you are saying we have no cap space left what's the point except to have fun with it.......when you give me a hard number to work with then it will be more realistic

I gave you very specific hard numbers.

 

[leomaz]

I'll take..

Lival Joeseph...........DE.......4 years 10million............4.5 mil signing bonus
Taylor Mays..............S.........4 years 8 million............ 4.0 mil signing bonus
Danny Aiken..............LS.......4 years 3 million.............750k signing bonus

 

[NCChiFan]

The way the Bears have structured recent contracts, they can be rolled over making cap room. We could have as much as 20 million in additional CAP if the Bears choose to roll over some of Cutler, Goulds, etc money. Of course what you don't pay now, you will owe on the back end.

 

[richig07]

The way the Bears have structured recent contracts, they can be rolled over making cap room. We could have as much as 20 million in additional CAP if the Bears choose to roll over some of Cutler, Goulds, etc money. Of course what you don't pay now, you will owe on the back end.

Again... if the Bears were going to roll over some of Cutler's contract, they wouldn't have just signed him to the deal they did. That's not a realistic possibility.

 

[nebearsfan70]

I'll take..

Lival Joeseph...........DE.......4 years 10million............4.5 mil signing bonus
Taylor Mays..............S.........4 years 8 million............ 4.0 mil signing bonus
Danny Aiken..............LS.......4 years 3 million.............750k signing bonus

Great posts Leo! I absolutely agree with you.

 

[cubzzzfanincali]

The way the Bears have structured recent contracts, they can be rolled over making cap room. We could have as much as 20 million in additional CAP if the Bears choose to roll over some of Cutler, Goulds, etc money. Of course what you don't pay now, you will owe on the back end.

The Bears CANNOT roll over Cutler, Gould, or anyone else they have just signed without increasing the cap hits even further unless they do even longer new extensions. I mean, sure, they could in theory extend them even further, but they just got extensions....I'm pretty sure those contract lengths were done for good reasons, and that re-opening contracts when you just got done negotiating them in the first place seems extremely implausible. Why else even bother signing that way? I wouldn't count on any money from that. I would bet heavy money against.

 

[cubzzzfanincali]

I'll take..

Lival Joeseph...........DE.......4 years 10million............4.5 mil signing bonus
Taylor Mays..............S.........4 years 8 million............ 4.0 mil signing bonus
Danny Aiken..............LS.......4 years 3 million.............750k signing bonus

it's unlikely in the extreme you could sign Joseph for $2 million per year plus that (effective) $1.125/year in bonus money. He will probably make triple that amount. Sure, if he wants to take a contract like that, sign him! Can I have a unicorn too?

I actually like the Mays idea, and I don't think that contract is too unrealistic, although I suspect he will get a little more than that (not much though).

 

[richig07]

Hmm... Good thread Cali.

I'll be sure to post my thoughts tomorrow. Right now, I'm on the tail end of a weekend long rum bender. lol, My brain isn't exactly in tip top shape.

 

[cubzzzfanincali]

Hmm... Good thread Cali.

I'll be sure to post my thoughts tomorrow. Right now, I'm on the tail end of a weekend long rum bender. lol, My brain isn't exactly in tip top shape.

oh come on man, that never stopped 6340 before! Weak man, weak.

That's fine...be interested to read your sober thoughts too.

 

[63bears40]

oh come on man, that never stopped 6340 before! Weak man, weak.

That's fine...be interested to read your sober thoughts too.

At least I'll be remembered for something. Thanks Cali.

 

[NCChiFan]

Again... if the Bears were going to roll over some of Cutler's contract, they wouldn't have just signed him to the deal they did. That's not a realistic possibility.

Sure it is, I believe that the Bears set up all of the recent contracts with a flexibility to change the CAP hit on all of them, whenever the organization deems it important enough to do so. The Bears have the ability at their discretion to create $15 - 18 million of cap space whenever they want by simply converting Jay's contracted 22.5 million base salary into a signing bonus. This is true for all of the contracts they've recently entered in to.


Now I'm not saying they will, but the Bears do have this flexibility if they choose to use it.

 

[cubzzzfanincali]

Sure it is, I believe that the Bears set up all of the recent contracts with a flexibility to change the CAP hit on all of them, whenever the organization deems it important enough to do so. The Bears have the ability at their discretion to create $15 - 18 million of cap space whenever they want by simply converting Jay's contracted 22.5 million base salary into a signing bonus. This is true for all of the contracts they've recently entered in to.


Now I'm not saying they will, but the Bears do have this flexibility if they choose to use it.

No, really, it isn't. They already signed Cutler to a 7-year deal, which by any account includes years that are basically "fantasy" years. The teams get those fantasy years - at the expense of what the player wants - by paying guaranteed money. That's NFL contracting 101. So, yeah, in theory, the team could extend the money in Cutler's contract until the year 2100, but the only way on Earth Cutler would agree to that would be in exchange for more guaranteed money, which the Bears obviously did not want to give up in the first place or they would have simply done so.

Extension contracts with bonus money up front are virtually never re-negotiated the same year they get signed. The only reason they usually get negotiated in the same year is when a legitimate reason develops in which the player may get cut. That case does not apply to Jay Cutler.

 

[anotheridiot]

Again... if the Bears were going to roll over some of Cutler's contract, they wouldn't have just signed him to the deal they did. That's not a realistic possibility.

Since you want to bring this into another thread, they did it in case they hit on picks and dont need to sign veterans that are cut by other teams before the season starts. If you are under the 133 million, you dont get that money back to spend next year. They will end up converting money to end up with a comfort few million to sign the ratliffs of next season. Thats why they make is a huge number as soon as possible.

Next year your decisions are Briggs, Alshon and whether or not to resign Marshall and a backup running back. You need to have room next year so you want to get cutler as much of that money as possible because 15 and 16 when its another decision time to keep him, the team around him could be completely different.