How Bout Dem Bears?

Confirmed,it's a front loaded deal. 18 million for the first three years but haven't heard the terms for the remaining four years. Hope it's not to high. Risky move by Emery for a injury prone player.

The tangible impact of the cap hit will be Peppers out the gate this off-season and one of Alshon or Marshall gone next I expect.

With Peppers being so chronic and the noise coming out on Marquess Wilson I think we can sit pretty comfortable there.

I'm happy with this I have to say.

I was fine with $12-$15m, $18m per year for 3 years is nuts imho for 3 reasons - injury history, lack of playoffs made let alone big games won and our defence. Rodgers was out for 6/7 games this year creating a massive opening in the division, one we might not see for a good few years till rodgers retires and we still couldn't make a playoff. Jay played well last Sunday (for once against GB), but he also played pretty poor the week before in Philly.

Anyway I think the main issue that's now $3-$5m dollars we are now short on the defensive side of the ball every year for the next 3 years. So when people moan about our safety play next year remember our FA safety is now invested in our QB. Emery is going to have to make some epic draft picks on the defensive side of the ball to get this defence right (and Shae Mc and Hardin don't inspire confidence)

How will people feel if Jay goes down injured for 3-5 games next year? And I'll be bringing this back up when he does get injured!

I think it's pretty obvious that we overpaid for an injury prone QB when you hear the vast majority of other teams fans delighted with the news.

Aaron Rodgers makes an average of $20.83m per year for his first 3 years, I'm a bears fan but Cutler isn't even close to the same league as Rodgers. Not right imho.

We've basically handicapped our defence for the next few years for a non elite QB.

Jolly Red Giant wrote: »

Wow - serious contract for Cutler - the Bears are pinning their future completely on him.

I think its crazy money - and some of the money being paid for QBs is way out of proportion. The contract Manning signed with Denver a couple of years ago does not seem as outlandish as it did at the time.

Yeah and once cam, kaep, rgiii, and Wilson come up for negotiation, and with probably raised salary caps, Cutler will be getting paid about the middle range again, relative to the league as a whole, and nobody will remember this discussion.

We should have let both McCown and Cutler walk then got Kordell Stewart out of retirement on a vet minimum deal to save money.

Kenny: Do you not believe the Bears can win a Superbowl with Cutler running Trestmans offense? If like the team you believe they can, you DO NOT let him hit free agency. Simple as that.

There is still enough cap room to take care of the D in the draft and free agency. If Peppers is cut, there should be around $20m left after putting money aside for the draft class and estimating the cap hits from Jennings, Slauson and Cutler. Instead of letting Pep go and eating the dead money (think it is around $8m?), you could restructure with a cap hit around that amount if he would agree to it. That would be one less position needed and he could be better in 2014 with another good pass rusher the other side. He was basically the only threat this year and every team knew it.

Edit: According to pro football talk, Cutler just has a base salary and no signing bonus or anything else. So his cap hits don't need to be estimated and are $22.5m, $15m and $16m the next 3 seasons if I understand it right? It's big this year but the next two years are good. I always had confidence that Cliff Stein would make it work for the team.

Interesting article on the Cutler contract here

Ok so we will be tight against the cap this year but i trust Phil Emery to get the job done on defense. The offense is set now bar Garza at centre. I do believe that we overpaid in year one for Cutler but i've been looking at what would happen if we allowed Cutler to reach free agency. He is the best QB in this years free agent class and there are a few QB needy teams so i'd say one of them would have stumped up the cash for him. With Cutler gone then you look at Brandon Marshall, will he stay beyond the final year of his contract or go where Cutler is. I just dont see our offense nowhere near as effective without those two.

This contract will have people on both sides and we will never agree. I'm just glad we still have him. Our offense has been the best i've seen since the 80's and i think we can get better. Its going to be an interesting offseason watching the moves Emery makes

Oat23 wrote: »

We should have let both McCown and Cutler walk then got Kordell Stewart out of retirement on a vet minimum deal to save money.

Kenny: Do you not believe the Bears can win a Superbowl with Cutler running Trestmans offense? If like the team you believe they can, you DO NOT let him hit free agency. Simple as that.

There is still enough cap room to take care of the D in the draft and free agency. If Peppers is cut, there should be around $20m left after putting money aside for the draft class and estimating the cap hits from Jennings, Slauson and Cutler. Instead of letting Pep go and eating the dead money (think it is around $8m?), you could restructure with a cap hit around that amount if he would agree to it. That would be one less position needed and he could be better in 2014 with another good pass rusher the other side. He was basically the only threat this year and every team knew it.

Edit: According to pro football talk, Cutler just has a base salary and no signing bonus or anything else. So his cap hits don't need to be estimated and are $22.5m, $15m and $16m the next 3 seasons if I understand it right? It's big this year but the next two years are good. I always had confidence that Cliff Stein would make it work for the team.

If that's the deal then it's pretty good. He's obviously not worth 22 million but we can absorb that this year with the space we have.

Kenny, I'm not saying by any means that Cutler is an ideal quarter back but we are paying market value. He had his best season so far this year, with a good o line for one. Presumably emery and trest regard his production this year as indicative of his future potential. They may be wrong, I dunno. Personally I think the big gamble here is not on his ability, I think he well get things done and continue to improve. The real risk, and its a big one, is his health. If he can't stay upright fir 16 games or as close as possible, year on year, then we are basically screwed. But his playoff record notwithstanding I agree with the decision.

I actually don't think the bears are sold on the new college hybrid qbs, and want to give it a few years to see if its a fad or if it really can work in the nfl. As a packers fan I'm delighted ye took Cutler on for so long, but can also see the logic of it. Ye did over pay but thats flaccos fault

raze_them_all_ wrote: »

As a packers fan I'm delighted ye took Cutler on for so long, but can also see the logic of it. Ye did over pay but thats flaccos fault

It's basically a 3 year deal. He can be cut loose after that at no cost to the team as there is no signing bonus and all his guaranteed money is in the first 3 years (22.5m + 15.5m + 16m = 54m).

It's a great deal for the team. People can look at the numbers and see $126m and 7 years or whatever, but Cutler agreed to a team friendly deal. His cap hits after this year are right around where most Bears fans said would be acceptable ($15m).

As the article on BR says, it allows the team to analyse the QB draft class over the next few years without forcing them to make a pick (like we would have had to this year without Cutler). If a QB comes along in 2015 or 2016 that they like, roll with him after 2016 and let Cutler go. No cap penalties.

The alternative is Cutler finally shines in this offense and the Bears win a superbowl. Then he will be here for another few years and the cap hits then are team friendly as well:

• 2017: $12.5 million
• 2018: $13.5 million
• 2019: $17.5 million
• 2020: $19.2 million

Very happy with this deal.

Brad Biggs ‏@BradBiggs 4m
#Bears CB Tim Jennings gets a 4-year contract worth $22.4 million with $11.815 guaranteed. Pretty good contract for 30-year-old at position.

5.6 million per would make Jennings the 18th highest paid CB (2013 salaries). 11.8 million guaranteed dollars would put him 16th.

I think that’s fair and, I imagine, he could have garnered more elsewhere.

I'm busy now and for the weekend, but will reply properly if i get a chance (11 week old twins) but I wrote a general response here.

It's not just about Cutler or no Cutler, it's about value - this home town, help the team discount that was spouted went out the window for sure - totally overpaid imho for an injury prone, interception laden and unsucessful in big game QB. Market value? Compared to other failures like Romo and Stafford? At least Flacco did something to deserve his contract.

As I've said before give me McCown for a year, let Trestman work with a drafted QB - if he really is a QB guru we shouldn't have to worry, and give me the extra $13-$15m to spend on defence. If McCown can play like Kurt Warner under Trestman well Cutler better play like Dan Marino next year. Or i'll take Cutler at $14/15m per annum and use the extra $3/4m on a DT, safety or CB. Someone like Artur Jones at DT wouldn't work out at much more than $4m per year for example.

This is like Lovie and JA in reverse, we'll have a good offence and a **** defence for years to come.

Honestly I see no way we can beat out the Packers for the division with Arod around, let alone win a superbowl. So if you're asking me do I think Cutler can win a superbowl the answer is a firm NO! For loads of reasons. If we do I'll be the first one on here to apologise.

As I've said in the linked post - look at the make up of the teams in the playoffs and you'll see where this is going (and last year).

Realt Dearg Sec wrote: »

If that's the deal then it's pretty good. He's obviously not worth 22 million but we can absorb that this year with the space we have.

Kenny, I'm not saying by any means that Cutler is an ideal quarter back but we are paying market value. He had his best season so far this year, with a good o line for one. Presumably emery and trest regard his production this year as indicative of his future potential. They may be wrong, I dunno. Personally I think the big gamble here is not on his ability, I think he well get things done and continue to improve. The real risk, and its a big one, is his health. If he can't stay upright fir 16 games or as close as possible, year on year, then we are basically screwed. But his playoff record notwithstanding I agree with the decision.

So apart from the injuries and play off record your happy with the decision?Oh and the fact you reckon they've overpaid by $3m per year? just because the Titans or Tampa might be interested.

And we don't have the cap space - not if we don't want to break more 50 year defensive records for being incredibly shi't.

Lets remember we've to sign (re-sign) at least 3/4 DT's unless we plan to go into the season with 2 guys coming off ACL's, Ratliff (who I really want to keep) who has an injury history. If we keep Ratliff and Paea you need 3 other DT's minimum - one could be Collins or Melton but you can't go with both, and if you go with Ratliff, Paea and Melton you need 2 others who you'll certain will be fit. We also need a safety (really 2), a CB, two defensive ends, a MLB, possibly at least one other LB.

The draft isn't going to fix all those needs certain not with players that can perform year 1 (Bostic, Greene anyone?) so we need a lot of FA signings.

We'll be getting quantity rather than quality imho. Emery is going to have to work magic.

I love Emery and his attitude and really think he could hit on a few players but he isn't god - he's drafted some bad players and will continue to do so (like all GM's), has made mistakes - going into the season with 3DT's and us ending up with an UDFA DT (Minter) and Cohen off the street both who performed hopelessly and having way too many receivers on the roster (Bennett, Wilson, Weems and Anderson at one point all behind BMarsh and Jeffrey when we usually only have 2 on the field most of the time), wasting stupid money on Michael Bush who isn't used much.

If someone who thinks this cap situation is fine after Cutler getting $22m this year wants to do up a mock re-signings, free agency and draft and then Roster with realistic cap hit figures I'd like to see how they'll structure it.

Again looking at the Jennings contract too and I can see what Emery is trying to do - front load the older players so we don't end up with a Peppers situation, but with Cutler and Jennings getting so much in year one ($30m combined) we are going to be restricted in FA for sure.

Oat23 wrote: »

Instead of letting Pep go and eating the dead money (think it is around $8m?), you could restructure with a cap hit around that amount if he would agree to it. That would be one less position needed and he could be better in 2014 with another good pass rusher the other side. He was basically the only threat this year and every team knew it.

Edit: According to pro football talk, Cutler just has a base salary and no signing bonus or anything else. So his cap hits don't need to be estimated and are $22.5m, $15m and $16m the next 3 seasons if I understand it right? It's big this year but the next two years are good. I always had confidence that Cliff Stein would make it work for the team.

Think I addressed most of your other points in my posts - as I said I'd like Peppers to stay and get a 'free' player but no way can you rely on him as an every down every game player now. He declined massively this year and age is not on his side. There is no evidence to suggest he can bounce back - you simply can't take this chance and end up short a DE. And yes he was the only threat till Ratliff arrived but if you do the video analysis plenty of time he was 1 on 1 and couldn't beat his man - the whole he was double teamed all the time is a fable. He didn't show up for many a game end of.

And yes year 2 and 3 are better on Cutler's contract, big hit this year but that doesn't help the 'rebuild the defence, win now situation' this year and I'd imagine year 2 and 3 are built like that as Bmarsh has to be extended, Briggs too and Jeffrey will be due to get paid in year 3 no? The overall number is still the same and we need a defence now and the $22.5m in the current year kind of further strengthens what i'm getting at.

Bottom line - expect one decent FA signing defensively and a bunch of journeymen. Hope Tucker isn't left to work with them. Pray Emery has a knock out draft (we'll need it).

kennyb3 wrote: »

The bottom line of the previous post did. anyway off out - enough of my moaning:)

Sorry my mistake, what I meant was I don't regard his playoff record as very telling because of the teams he was with.

Anyway this is like the mccown debate insofar as we're unlikely to agree.