2014 Chicago Bears Offseason Thread

[WrigleyField 22]

Marshall only has one year left, fwiw.

 

 

Question for anyone here, as I'm trying to find an answer on Twitter, to no avail yet. If we(example) decided to turn Jay's entire 2014 salary into a signing bonus and give him a minimum salary(715k), we would pro-rate the rest over the entire 7 years of his deal. This would add over 3 mill towards his cap number for the length of the deal, correct? Which therefore, would give him 3+ mill of dead money in each of the final 4 years, where now there is none, correct? Does it do anything else to those years cap numbers or is that it? It seems as if that IS it, but it also seems a bit too good to be true, in a way. As in , why aren't all teams operating like this?

 

Now, I get that year 2 the cap number jumps a ton, but again, with this clause, it's able to be done again. So, why wouldn't we just continue to turn his cap number into a signing bonus each year? Yes, by doing this, we'd see his 4-7 years cap number start to jump up, but the salary cap as a whole, should be increasing as well.

 

I'm much more interested in doing all we can over the 1st portion of his deal anyway, as its at least likely once he's gone, we'll take a step backwards for a year or two anyway.

 

In a way, I guess this is taking the "Hendry approach", but longterm NFL deals are easier to get out from under of and you can turn your fortunes around by good drafting much quicker than in baseball obviously. So doesn't it make sense to take this approach and do everything humanly possible to give him the absolute best chance to win over the first 3 years or so of the deal, even if conceivably you take this approach for 3 straight years and after that he has a 10 mill cap hit or so, if you decide to cut him? And may have a year or two of cap problems from him and others you've signed during the first 3 years?

I think there is only a certain portion of his salary, which is the 54 guarantee that can be continually rolled into a pro-rated signing bonus like that. Of course that wouldn't stop future re-negotiations in future years.

[CubColtPacer]

Marshall only has one year left, fwiw.

 

 

Question for anyone here, as I'm trying to find an answer on Twitter, to no avail yet. If we(example) decided to turn Jay's entire 2014 salary into a signing bonus and give him a minimum salary(715k), we would pro-rate the rest over the entire 7 years of his deal. This would add over 3 mill towards his cap number for the length of the deal, correct? Which therefore, would give him 3+ mill of dead money in each of the final 4 years, where now there is none, correct? Does it do anything else to those years cap numbers or is that it? It seems as if that IS it, but it also seems a bit too good to be true, in a way. As in , why aren't all teams operating like this?

 

Now, I get that year 2 the cap number jumps a ton, but again, with this clause, it's able to be done again. So, why wouldn't we just continue to turn his cap number into a signing bonus each year? Yes, by doing this, we'd see his 4-7 years cap number start to jump up, but the salary cap as a whole, should be increasing as well.

 

I'm much more interested in doing all we can over the 1st portion of his deal anyway, as its at least likely once he's gone, we'll take a step backwards for a year or two anyway.

 

In a way, I guess this is taking the "Hendry approach", but longterm NFL deals are easier to get out from under of and you can turn your fortunes around by good drafting much quicker than in baseball obviously. So doesn't it make sense to take this approach and do everything humanly possible to give him the absolute best chance to win over the first 3 years or so of the deal, even if conceivably you take this approach for 3 straight years and after that he has a 10 mill cap hit or so, if you decide to cut him? And may have a year or two of cap problems from him and others you've signed during the first 3 years?

 

I'm not sure exactly what you're asking, but yes it is standard procedure to backload deals, but there is a limit.

 

When you cut somebody, all the cap money accelerates onto one year (unless after June 1st, in which it's split in half for the next two years). Let's say the Bears converted Cutler's salary for the next 3 years into signing bonuses. It works out that with the different prorations that his cap hits for each of the first three years would be around 4 million apiece.

 

If they kept Cutler for year 4 in that scenario, his cap hit would be 21.5 million (with the years after that being even higher than that). If they cut him, his cap hit would be 35.9 million in dead money! If Cutler starts to struggle (say he puts up a season similar to Eli this year in year 3) the Bears would have a tough decision. They couldn't afford to cut him and take all that dead money, but they don't really want to keep paying him 20+ million to keep him either. That's the other danger in backloading besides of course just running out of money by backloading too many players.

 

Of course hopefully Cutler doesn't struggle like that, but the Bears seemed to want to protect themselves long-term which is why they structured the deal the way they did. They have minimized the risk by giving him so many team options at the end of his deal, and if they end up converting some of it into signing bonus that will still mostly be the case. I think they gave themselves both options. They can hopefully keep this unique contract, but if they convert a modest amount into a signing bonus it will end up looking more like a regular contract.

 

Some teams have taken this approach of loading up for a few years and then just blow up the team, but it's not usually the way teams like to operate. When the Colts for example lost Manning, they cut a bunch of other veterans and took 40 million of dead money in one year. The Raiders did the same thing this year and have even more dead money.

 

I wouldn't necessarily assume the cap will keep increasing, at least not very much. After this year, it will have only gone up 3 million in the last 5 years. Most of the explosion in money has already happened for the NFL, and I think most expect only small increases in the cap in the years ahead.

 

That might have confused rather than helped, so feel free to ask more!

[davell]

No, this is great. So, if we went crazy in FA this year and converted Jay's entire 22.5 into a signing bonus, it gives him a 4 mill or so cap number for 2014. What would it do to years 2-7 in that scenario and if you did turn the entire salary in year 1 to the bonus, does it take away the option to do it again, without basically re-doing the entire deal? And if you did do that, what kind of penalties would occur?

[davell]

Forgot this: Total example, lets say instead of cutting Peppers, we re-sign him to a 2 year deal for 14 mill. What happens to his cap number in this type of situation, as his current hit is a tad over 18 mill, with a bit over 8 of it as dead money.

[Banedon]

PFF says Brandon Marshall finished the year with a +17 run blocking grade. The next closest WR was +6.2.

[Banedon]

There's lots of reasons to dislike bleacher report...here's another.

 

For some reason they list Lance Briggs as a free agent.

 

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1913532-nfl-free-agency-2014-an-early-look-at-this-years-strongest-weakest-positions/page/4

[Sammy Sofa]

PFF says Brandon Marshall finished the year with a +17 run blocking grade. The next closest WR was +6.2.

 

Such a diva.

[minnesotacubsfan]

#mentalhealthawareness

[UMFan83]

There's lots of reasons to dislike bleacher report...here's another.

 

For some reason they list Lance Briggs as a free agent.

 

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1913532-nfl-free-agency-2014-an-early-look-at-this-years-strongest-weakest-positions/page/4

 

If for some reason Briggs gets cut in the offseason, they will probably claim they broke the news.

[scarey]

PFF says Brandon Marshall finished the year with a +17 run blocking grade. The next closest WR was +6.2.

 

Where did Jeffery finish?

[Banedon]

PFF says Brandon Marshall finished the year with a +17 run blocking grade. The next closest WR was +6.2.

 

Where did Jeffery finish?

 

Dunno...it was thrown in the article about their all-pro selections. I don't have access to the full list.

[Banedon]

Marshall and Urlacher on Fox.

 

http://www.chicagotribune.com/videogallery/78810713/Video-Marshall-Urlacher-on-Bears-season

[UMFan83]

PFF says Brandon Marshall finished the year with a +17 run blocking grade. The next closest WR was +6.2.

 

Where did Jeffery finish?

 

Dunno...it was thrown in the article about their all-pro selections. I don't have access to the full list.

 

IIRC, he was somewhere in the top 15 within the last few weeks of the season. Earl Bennett I believe was higher than Jeffery too. As a whole the Bears got fantastic blocking from their WRs

[rawaction]

PFF says Brandon Marshall finished the year with a +17 run blocking grade. The next closest WR was +6.2.

 

Where did Jeffery finish?

 

Dunno...it was thrown in the article about their all-pro selections. I don't have access to the full list.

 

IIRC, he was somewhere in the top 15 within the last few weeks of the season. Earl Bennett I believe was higher than Jeffery too. As a whole the Bears got fantastic blocking from their WRs

 

Yeah, Marshall, Bennett and Jeffery were 1, 4, and 9 respectively.

[Banedon]

Regarding Hard Knocks:

 

If no team volunteers, then the league will appoint one to be on the show using three criteria.

 

1. The team doesn't have a new head coach.

2. Hasn't made the playoffs in the last two seasons.

3. Hasn't been on the show in the last 10 years.

 

The Rams are one of eight teams that could be forced by the NFL to do Hard Knocks. The others are: Bills, Bears, Cardinals, Jaguars, Raiders & Steelers.

[rawaction]

Regarding Hard Knocks:

 

If no team volunteers, then the league will appoint one to be on the show using three criteria.

 

1. The team doesn't have a new head coach.

2. Hasn't made the playoffs in the last two seasons.

3. Hasn't been on the show in the last 10 years.

 

The Rams are one of eight teams that could be forced by the NFL to do Hard Knocks. The others are: Bills, Bears, Cardinals, Jaguars, Raiders & Steelers.

 

Steelers have the least new coach. Probably will be most interesting of those teams. They're a shoe-in if no volunteers.

[Banedon]

Regarding Hard Knocks:

 

If no team volunteers, then the league will appoint one to be on the show using three criteria.

 

1. The team doesn't have a new head coach.

2. Hasn't made the playoffs in the last two seasons.

3. Hasn't been on the show in the last 10 years.

 

The Rams are one of eight teams that could be forced by the NFL to do Hard Knocks. The others are: Bills, Bears, Cardinals, Jaguars, Raiders & Steelers.

 

Steelers have the least new coach. Probably will be most interesting of those teams. They're a shoe-in if no volunteers.

 

I disagree they're a shoe-in, but I think it'd definitely be between them, NY and Chicago.

[RynoRules]

Eh? What NY?

 

I'd say the order of most to least likely is:

 

1. Pitt

2. Oakland

3. Chicago

[Guest]

Oakland is totally boring and the Bears have the most big names of any of those teams.

 

That said, I'd still put the Steelers 1st...then the Bears a close 2nd.

[RynoRules]

Oakland is totally boring and the Bears have the most big names of any of those teams.

 

That said, I'd still put the Steelers 1st...then the Bears a close 2nd.

 

Oakland could wind up with Clowney or Manziel, and they are a usually disfunctional mess. Makes for good tv.

[Butterscup1679666578]

Put the bears on hard knocks, i dont care.

[Banedon]

Eh? What NY?

 

I'd say the order of most to least likely is:

 

1. Pitt

2. Oakland

3. Chicago

 

Sorry, I pasted from one site, but saw the Giants listed on another...

 

Arizona Cardinals

Buffalo Bills

Jacksonville Jaguars

Pittsburgh Steelers

St. Louis Rams

Oakland Raiders

New York Giants

Chicago Bears

[scarey]

I would think HBO would like to avoid the Bears. I think Trestman would be a hard sell to a large viewing audience if they're wanting an interesting coach.

[Banedon]

Kyle Long is on the PFF All-Rookie team.

 

https://www.profootballfocus.com/blog/2014/01/08/2013-pff-all-rookie-team/

[ctcf]

I'd love to see the Bears on Hard Knocks. The Cutler footage alone would make it worthwhile.

 

Also, are there any rumblings of Tucker getting fired or is it looking like he might stay?