GM Ryan Pace has gotten a ton of flak over the past week for his free agency decisions thus far. It started with the signing of Andy Dalton. He is projected to be the Chicago Bears’ starting quarterback in 2021. In the minds of many, that isn’t an upgrade over Mitch Trubisky or Nick Foles. However, things really got bad when the team was forced to release two-time Pro Bowl cornerback Kyle Fuller.
Fans are blaming Pace for this debacle unfolding. Having to let go of a still very good corner because of dumb financial decisions he made back in 2018. First accepting a backloaded deal via the transition tag, then inflating the future cap hit with restructures. Pace dug his own grave and deserves all the hate he gets, right?
In the interest of fairness, no he doesn’t.
Anybody who says Pace should’ve foreseen all of this coming is operating with the benefit of hindsight. For the past 10 years, the NFL salary cap had been on a steady rise every single offseason. The Bears GM was operating under the belief, rightfully so, that it would continue to do that. Nobody predicted that in 2020 a world-altering pandemic would hit and that it would deal a nasty blow to the league’s finances, causing a $16 million drop in the salary cap.
Rest assured, if things had continued along their normal trajectory? Fuller would still be a Bear right now. Blaming Pace for a situation that he never could’ve anticipated is short-sighted and wrong. Yet that isn’t the end of it. Some feel Chicago should’ve kept the cornerback regardless and instead gotten their salary cap relief elsewhere. Most notably by cutting Akiem Hicks instead. Hicks is two years older than Fuller and the difference in cap relief was minimal ($11 million to $10.5 million).
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Even here though Ryan Pace made the correct decision
Simply moving on from a good player is only part of the equation. People tend to forget this. Another key factor in such a decision is the availability of replacements. Can the team be relatively confident they can fill the void if said player is released? In regards to Fuller, that answer is yes. Chicago signed former Pro Bowler Desmond Trufant last week. Other former Pro Bowlers like Richard Sherman, Malcolm Butler, and Casey Heyward remain available at the time of writing this.
If that weren’t enough, the upcoming NFL draft class appears strong at cornerback as well. Current projections see four going in the 1st round and as many as eight going in the first two rounds. The same can not be said of the defensive line crop this year. Both free agency and the draft are considered weak.
Combine this with the presence of promising youngster Jaylon Johnson already on the roster? It shouldn’t have been a surprise Ryan Pace and the Bears moved on from Fuller. Though painful, it was the correct business decision.
Will his absence hurt? Yes, in the short-term anyway.
Trufant is a good player himself but has struggled with injuries the past two years. There is no guarantee he can make it through a full season. That said, it’s important to remember Fuller was 29-years old. He was reaching that point in his career where a downturn in effectiveness can occur at any time. Better to get out a year early than a year late in such circumstances. The Bears didn’t make the easy decision, but they made the right one.