Tag: Bears 2021 salary cap

Here is the Chicago Bears’ salary cap position heading into training camp

The Bears enter training camp with a decent salary cap situation following news of one prominent defensive player opting out of the season.

The Chicago Bears enter training camp with a decent salary cap situation, especially following news of one prominent defensive player opting out of the 2020 season.

The biggest storyline from the start of camp last week was nose tackle Eddie Goldman choosing to opt out of the 2020 season due to health and safety concerns amid the COVID-19 pandemic. While Goldman’s loss is a brutal blow to Chicago’s defense, it also impacts the team’s salary cap situation in 2020.

With Goldman off the books for the 2020 season, that freed up roughly $3.2 million giving the Bears roughly $18.8 million in salary cap space, according to Over The Cap.

Which should help given Chicago’s current situation at nose tackle. John Jenkins, who was the in-house favorite to take over for Goldman this season, was placed on the reserve/COVID-19 list, which puts his status up in the air and leaves the Bears without a true nose tackle on the roster.

With roughly $18 million in cap space, general manager Ryan Pace could turn to free agency to sign someone like Damon Harrison or Mike Daniels to a one-year deal for insurance on the defensive line.

The Bears also have questions at running back, as they don’t have a proven backup to David Montgomery. Right now Ryan Nall is the presumptive third running back on the 53-man roster, but the Bears have some money if they’d like to bring in a proven veteran, such as Devonta Freeman or Lamar Miller, to join Montgomery and Tarik Cohen.

Although the Bears need to be careful with their cap space given the potential impact in 2021. The salary cap in 2021 could be reduced as much as $23 million due to potential revenue losses from minimal attendance at games with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Still, the Bears are in a good position with roughly $18 million in cap space. Although wide receiver Allen Robinson is due a worthy extension as he enters the final year of his three-year contract with the Bears.

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How proposed $175M salary cap in 2021 would affect the Bears

If the NFLPA agrees to the NFL’s proposed $175M salary cap in 2021, it wouldn’t be pretty for the Bears. But still better than some teams.

As the NFL and NFLPA continue negotiations, one of the economic proposals on the table relates to the salary cap. While the 2020 salary cap would remain unchanged, it could definitely be affected next year.

In the NFL’s latest proposal, they’ve asked players to accept a $175 million salary cap in 2021, unless the financial drop-off isn’t as severe as expected. While the salary cap could be higher than that next season, $175 million is the floor at this point. By comparison, the salary cap in 2020 is $198.2 million, which would be a significant cut.

While it has to be agreed upon, how would a $175 million salary cap affect the Bears?

It wouldn’t be pretty, but it also could be worse than other teams around the league, including NFC North foes the Green Bay Packers and Minnesota Vikings. According to Over The Cap, the Bears would have roughly $10 million in cap space in 2021.

Although OTC is quick to point out that their estimates don’t include “the cap charges for unsigned rookies and don’t adjust the carryover numbers for the change from the top 51 to to the regular season accounting numbers.” So that would make that number even less.

The average salary cap room next year would be around $15 million, says OTC, which is a far cry from the $30-$40 million average cap room over the last few years.

Here’s what OTC’s Jason Fitzgerald had to say about the potential effect on a group of veterans.

If they agree to this I would expect a number of mid level veterans to feel the brunt of this during this summer and next winter. Rookies, especially 1st round picks, may see their extension talks get pushed for a year. The other way teams will deal with this is likely to push money into the future via restructures with their secured veteran players who have high base salaries and use those 2022 and 2023 years as ways to “buy on credit” in 2021. Free agency would also be interesting as players and teams could opt for cheaper short term deals to bide time until the money gets higher in the future.

Bears general manager Ryan Pace has always been good at making cap room with restructured contracts, but it would be interesting to see how this pans out with a salary cap roughly $23 million less in 2021.

OTC says that a smaller group of veteran players will most likely take the brunt of this potential cap hit. Superstars and rookies are cut-proof and minimum salary vets can’t make any less, it leaves about 10-15% of veterans that will likely feel the ramifications if this comes to pass.

Then again, if there aren’t any significant revenue losses this season, this won’t be as big of an issue.

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