By Brad Biggs

 

http://www.chicagobreakingsports.com/2009/...-cap-bears.html

 

 

It is detailed in Sunday's Tribune how the Bears have $4.63 million remaining in available salary-cap room for the final month of the season, space that general manager Jerry Angelo could put to use for next year, in the event the NFL proceeds with a capped system.

 

Salary-cap numbers for individual players do not represent how much money they are earning each year. Rather, they are a reflection of how much room the player takes up under the cap. Think of it as one big pie, the whole of which is $135.9 million for the Bears. Quarterback Jay Curter is the biggest piece in the pie with a cap figure of $11.53 million, a result of his $30 million, two-year contract extension in October.

 

Let's examine the top 10 cap numbers on the roster currently, according to the most recent available information:

 

QB Jay Cutler $11.53 million

 

LB Brian Urlacher $9.68 million

 

DT Tommie Harris $9.09 million

 

WR Devin Hester $6.89 million

 

LB Lance Briggs $6.77 million

 

DE Adewale Ogunleye $6.46 million

 

LT Orlando Pace $5.33 million

 

LG Frank Omiyale $4.95 million

 

CB Nathan Vasher $4.87 million

 

C Olin Kreutz $4.13 million

 

None of the players in that group are having their best seasons. Cutler has already established a career-high for interceptions. Urlacher will miss the final 15 ½ games. Harris' career remains on roller coaster tracks. Hester isn't a No. 1 wide receiver.

 

Briggs could wind up being voted to his fifth straight Pro Bowl, and Ogunleye leads the team with six sacks, but Pace and Omiyale are the left side of a line that hasn't come together. Vasher's Bears' career will likely be capped after four more games. Kreutz is an easy target for the wobbly line because he's a front and center before the media.

 

 

QB Jay Cutler $11.53 million

 

LB Brian Urlacher $9.68 million

 

DT Tommie Harris $9.09 million I would cut and spend this $ to fix OL and WR.

 

WR Devin Hester $6.89 million I like Devin very much but not at the price nor as our number 1 (restructure deal or trade)

 

LB Lance Briggs $6.77 million

 

DE Adewale Ogunleye $6.46 million Keep at the right price

 

LT Orlando Pace $5.33 million ba-bye!

 

LG Frank Omiyale $4.95 million has played out of position with Bears and would at least like to see if he can play RT ?

 

CB Nathan Vasher $4.87 million see yah!

 

C Olin Kreutz $4.13 million getting up there in age and does not control the los like years past; restructure or cut and start Beekman at C

I don't care about the other players' situations, I could go either way, but Omilaye and Pace MUST GO. That's too much salary cap space for two revolving doors.

Vasher and Pace should be cut, and they should let Wale go.

Harris, Ogunleye, Pace GONE

 

Sign Vincent Jackson and get best OL available

By Brad Biggs

 

http://www.chicagobreakingsports.com/2009/...-cap-bears.html

 

 

It is detailed in Sunday's Tribune how the Bears have $4.63 million remaining in available salary-cap room for the final month of the season, space that general manager Jerry Angelo could put to use for next year, in the event the NFL proceeds with a capped system.

 

Salary-cap numbers for individual players do not represent how much money they are earning each year. Rather, they are a reflection of how much room the player takes up under the cap. Think of it as one big pie, the whole of which is $135.9 million for the Bears. Quarterback Jay Curter is the biggest piece in the pie with a cap figure of $11.53 million, a result of his $30 million, two-year contract extension in October.

 

Let's examine the top 10 cap numbers on the roster currently, according to the most recent available information:

 

QB Jay Cutler $11.53 million

 

LB Brian Urlacher $9.68 million

 

DT Tommie Harris $9.09 million

 

WR Devin Hester $6.89 million

 

LB Lance Briggs $6.77 million

 

DE Adewale Ogunleye $6.46 million

 

LT Orlando Pace $5.33 million

 

LG Frank Omiyale $4.95 million

 

CB Nathan Vasher $4.87 million

 

C Olin Kreutz $4.13 million

 

None of the players in that group are having their best seasons. Cutler has already established a career-high for interceptions. Urlacher will miss the final 15 ½ games. Harris' career remains on roller coaster tracks. Hester isn't a No. 1 wide receiver.

 

Briggs could wind up being voted to his fifth straight Pro Bowl, and Ogunleye leads the team with six sacks, but Pace and Omiyale are the left side of a line that hasn't come together. Vasher's Bears' career will likely be capped after four more games. Kreutz is an easy target for the wobbly line because he's a front and center before the media.

It would be nice to be able to get a 2nd for ea of the following: Url, Hester and Harris. At that point I would cut Pace, Omiyale, Kruetz and Vasher. Use those 2nds to draft ROT, ROG and DT. Likely not, but one could dream of a quick OL build.

It would be nice to be able to get a 2nd for ea of the following: Url, Hester and Harris. At that point I would cut Pace, Omiyale, Kruetz and Vasher. Use those 2nds to draft ROT, ROG and DT. Likely not, but one could dream of a quick OL build.

 

trading Urlacher is rediculous, im sorry

What does everyone think we could get for Url at this point?

I saw that list and got pretty disgusted. We are paying a lot of guys a lot of money to not produce.

 

Harris, Urlacher, Vasher, Omilaye, Pace, Kreutz, and Hester are not performing up to there contracts. Urlacher was hurt so I'll give him that.

It would be nice to be able to get a 2nd for ea of the following: Url, Hester and Harris. At that point I would cut Pace, Omiyale, Kruetz and Vasher. Use those 2nds to draft ROT, ROG and DT. Likely not, but one could dream of a quick OL build.

 

So you trade Urlacher...and replace him with what exactly? We have nothing to repalce Urlacher with, and there is nothing we can draft or get in free agency that will come close to his level of play, declined though it may be from years past. It would be different if we had another young middle linebacker waiting in the wings...but we have nothing. I just don't see the value in trading him to replace him with bad...

I'm also on the "hell no" side of the trading Urlacher idea.

What does everyone think we could get for Url at this point?

I'd be surprised if anyone would trade anything for him, to be honest. He's still a good player, but he's not the elite guy he was, and his contract is still an elite-player contract. Nobody's going to want to pay him what he's slated to earn.

 

If we could renegotiate his deal, maybe he'd bring a 4th/conditional 3rd? He's getting up there in years and he's got some major injury concerns now. Whatever pick he brought back, I'm sure it would be conditional on playing time.

 

I don't see Hester, Harris, or Urlacher being worth the trade. None of them would bring very much (I remember PFW quoted a couple of NFL personnel guys saying that Harris had no trade value whatsoever) and we don't have adequate replacements for any of them yet. I think the only positions we could afford to trade from are DE, TE, and OLB. Or maybe we could deal Danieal Manning to some team that needs a nickel DB/kick returner. Afalava looks like he's settling in at FS, Corey Graham could play nickel for us and Knox can return kicks. Manning probably wouldn't bring much in return, though.