People might be underestimating how much this Chicago Bears roster is about to change. GM Ryan Pace may have been the architect of it. That much is true. However, he did so in concert with former head coach John Fox. With Fox gone the time is coming for Matt Nagy to put his own vision into practice. It’s Pace’s job to help him with that.
This could mean that the roster fans have grown familiar with in the past couple years may be about to undergo some significant changes. This is not to say a full-on demolition is looming. There’s no reason. The Bears have much more young talent in place than they did in 2015. This “purge” will be more about shuffling out some veterans who may have grown too expensive.
I spoke with a source who explained that no action should be expected from the team over the next few weeks. However, once the final games are in the rear view mirror the action should really start to pick up.
“Bears will now kick back and relax and wait out the Super Bowl. Expect them to be active and start the releases After. Several names will be cut. A lot of the higher price players.”
Chicago Bears roster doesn’t feature a ton of “safe” high-priced names
The fact is the Bears are already in a healthy salary cap situation. According to overthecap.com they could have upwards of $41 million in salary cap space as is. That would change drastically if they were to unload some of their top contracts. Many of them don’t have a lot of dead money in terms of guarantees were they removed.
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Looking over the top 20 names on the Bears payroll going into 2018, there are perhaps eight who can be considered a lock to be the team. The rest are in various shades of gray.
- Mike Glennon
- Akiem Hicks*
- Kyle Long*
- Josh Sitton
- Pernell McPhee
- Danny Trevathan*
- Mitchell Trubisky*
- Dion Sims
- Bobby Massie
- Charles Leno Jr.*
- Markus Wheaton
- Marcus Cooper
- Willie Young
- Kevin White
- Leonard Floyd*
- Jerrell Freeman
- Quintin Demps
- Eddie Goldman*
- Eric Kush
- Adam Shaheen*
In fact if the Bears were to cut just Glennon, Sitton, McPhee, Sims and Massie? Their cap would jump by another $39 million. GM Ryan Pace would have all the flexibility in the world both to retain in-house free agents and go shopping for upgrades on the market if he wished. If all the names not market by an asterisk were cut? The Bears would have $103 million in cap space.
Odds are the purge won’t run entirely that deep but it stands to reason a number of the older players are likely out. Young, McPhee, Demps, Freeman and Sitton have breached the 30-year old barrier. Pace has shown he doesn’t hang on to such types long if they aren’t producing. Glennon also should be considered gone since he holds the most expensive contract and is no longer the starting quarterback.
Either way expect a lot of movement in the next 30 days.
