The thing everybody expected to happen finally did on Tuesday. Unable to afford the loss of their best offensive player, the Chicago Bears franchise-tagged Allen Robinson. While the wide receiver isn’t happy about it, the Bears did what they had to do. Letting him walk in free agency wasn’t an option. He’ll likely sit out a good chunk of this offseason in protest but the odds are good he won’t turn down $17.98 million guaranteed to play in 2021.
Still, the Bears aren’t out of the woods yet. That number is a heavy weight on their salary cap. The goal for GM Ryan Pace remains to find a way to extend Robinson. Not only to keep the receiver long-term but also to lower his cap hit this season. That would give Chicago much-needed flexibility. Otherwise, they stand to suffer elsewhere on the roster.
One notable problem is already showing up.
What are the Bears doing about Cairo Santos? Fans should remember him. The journeyman kicker stepped up huge in 2020, hitting a team-record 30-of-32 successful field goals. That was good enough for the highest accuracy rate in franchise history. Just an amazing year for the 29-year old. One would think it was all the proof required to earn a long-term extension.
Yet only a week remains until the start of free agency and nothing has materialized. Chicago is projected to be at least $20 million over the cap and maybe as high as $25 million. So they have a ton of work to do just to get under it. Let alone start taking care of certain guys they’d like to keep. Robinson was the big one, but Santos was the second-biggest. Time is running out to make that happen.
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The #Saints have until March 17 to get under the salary cap.
They're currently around $55 million over it.
Other teams over the cap:#Rams – $29M#Eagles $25M#Bears – $20M#Chiefs – $18M#Falcons – $11M#Packers – $5M#Giants – $5M#Vikings – $1M#Bucs – $400,00
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) March 10, 2021
Allen Robinson cap hit makes handling Santos harder
It is looking more and more likely the Bears may have no choice but to let the kicker test the open market. This would be nothing short of a huge disappointment. That position has plagued this team ever since Robbie Gould left in 2016. Now they’ve finally found somebody capable of handling the pressure kicking in the difficult conditions of Soldier Field and now they risk losing him after just one season.
This isn’t the fault of Allen Robinson. That situation played out as expected. It’s just that his inability to reach a long-term agreement with the Bears combined with the drop in the salary cap created this scenario. It would be just their luck to finally settle the most important position on their special teams only to lose him in the space of a few months.
Rest assured. Santos will have a market.
Other teams most definitely saw what he did last year. The demand for capable kickers is always high. What he managed to do, coming in off the street as an emergency option and basically stealing the job from Eddy Pineiro was impressive. Somebody is going to pay him if the Bears don’t. They must find a way to lock him down before time runs out. Seven days remain. The new league year begins on March 17th at 3:00 p.m.
It’s a safe bet he will be looking for at least $4 million per year. Keep that number in mind.
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