A Kyle Fuller franchise tag situation looked almost inevitable in the eyes of most Chicago Bears fans. The cornerback is coming off the best season of his career. He posted two interceptions, 22 passes defended and were among the team leaders in tackles. He was one of their best players in 2017 and definitely earned a new contract.
This is a business though. GM Ryan Pace must tread carefully in this situation. Fuller was playing in a contract year. Everybody knows those moments tend to bring out the highest effort from players. Then once they get their money far too many regress back to being disappointments. Perhaps it’d be best if the Bears postponed the idea of a long-term extension in favor of a one-year trial run.
That is where the franchise tag comes in. Fuller gets paid top five money for 2018. If he reproduces similar results to last season, then the Bears are more assured he’s turned the corner and can give him that big deal. Except it doesn’t look like they’re wild about that idea.
Kyle Fuller franchise tag is looking more and more unlikely
Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune sent out feelers to sources around the league upon arrival of the scouting combine in Indianapolis. The responses he got back regarding Fuller and the tag painted a pretty clear picture of what to expect.
Prevailing thinking of those polled Tuesday is the Bears will not use the franchise tag on Fuller, which would come at an estimated price tag of more than $15 million. The deadline to use the tag is 3 p.m. Tuesday and it will be interesting if Pace leans either direction or sits squarely on the fence when asked about it.
“He won’t get tagged,” texted one source not affiliated with the Bears.
“I don’t think they will use the tag,” said a personnel director for another club in the market for cornerbacks. “It’s a deep corner class in free agency.”
There are a few reasons this may be the case. As stated above the free agency class this year is quite rich in talent. Pro Bowler Malcolm Butler headlines the group along with Trumaine Johnson, Aaron Colvin, Rashaan Melvin and E.J. Gaines among others. Then there’s the fact that Fuller is not a Pace guy. Don’t forget he was drafted by Phil Emery back in 2014. Pace hasn’t been shy about either removing or letting walk most of the talent his predecessor acquired over the past few years.
There is one other possibility though. The Bears might be confident they can lock him up without having to use the tag at all.
With two weeks left talks are headed in positive direction
I reached out to a source to see if they could elaborate any on the situation. Details remain hard to come by, but I did get back one interesting note.
“Looks as if right now there will be no tag. The talks are positive.”
Now it’s important not to be too hasty. Positive talks can be oversold a bit too much at times. Still, this is at least an indication the Bears are in constant communication with Fuller. It would be far worse if the two sides weren’t talking. This might hint that the reason there will be no tag is that they’re confident a long-term deal can get done before that.
Some might find that hard to believe, but they shouldn’t. Keep in mind what the previous sources said. It’s a rich cornerback market. That may be good for the teams, but it’s not necessarily good for Fuller. That means his services won’t be as high in demand than if he were one of the few proven starters on the market.
With so much talent to compete with, it might be hard to get the maximum payday he’s seeking. My source said it’s somewhere in the five-year, $50-60 million range. That would put him on par with the likes of Darius Slay and Janoris Jenkins. It’s not too expensive. The Bears, with over $62 million in cap space as of now, can more than afford it.
It comes back to whether Pace believes he’s worth it. If the talks are positive, that’s a favorable sign. We’ll see if things change.
