I'm already up two DJ Moore puns and the season hasn't started. God help us all.
The full details of DJ Moore's new contract recently broke and what stunned me along with many other Bears fans was the structure of his 2024 salary. Most of his base salary was converted into a signing bonus. This frees up a lot of cap space for the bears to make more signings before the season begins. I've read conflicting reports but we do know that it freed up somewhere between $7-9M USD and has increased cap space to about $21M for the Bears. That is some serious cash that Ryan Poles can spend.
Given the incredible amount of work that goes into creating and negotiating NFL contracts, let alone one that is quite team friendly instead of player friendly, it would be easy to assume that General Manager Ryan Poles has a few more signings up his sleeve. I do not see the Bears using this money to sign any more O-Line players. The easiest cut to this department would be Nate Davis who has missed multiple practices and is not performing well, but, we would owe Nate Davis $12.5M if we cut him. I do not think the Bears are serious about our O-Line and I think it would take a lot of money and time to fix it. I think that they are overly confident in Caleb's ability with an (on paper) over powered offense and there are other additions to the team that would be easier to make. Besides, his O-Line at USC was bad - he'll manage. I could see the Bears using this new cap space to sign someone on the defensive side of the ball.
There are not many rumors as to what Ryan and the Bears will do with this $21M in cap space. Before I comment any further I would like to clarify that I do not know much about NFL contracts. Please feel free to correct me in the comments. Firstly I think we use some of this money to sign Collin Johnson. He played lights out in the HOF game and I think he will continue to play well. Recent reports form training camp have wide receiver Velus Jones Jr (who Johnson would be competing with for a roster spot) practicing as a running back. The reports are positive, but when you performed like Jones Jr did last year I would hope reports are now positive. This could mean a spot for Collin Johnson and a running back room consisting of - wait. I should hold off on giving my RB roster cuts. I didn't have enough material to write with yesterday. The Bear Claw running back room analysis to be released at a later date.
The bulk of this $21M is going to be spent on the defense. I'm going to double down on my previous take that we should sign Tyus Bowser. I will however retract my opinion on Yannick Ngakoue. I previously said he was too expensive, but here we are with a pile of money. These are my opinions. Realistically? I think Ryan Poles re-signs Yannick then waits for NFL roster cuts to sign someone else. Or maybe we use a chunk of the money to lock down Keenan Allen for longer? I'm not too sure about that one given his age... Yeah, I think Ryan Poles uses the money for the defense but I think he waits a while to use it.
What are you cooking up Ryan Poles...
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