Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Pace doesn’t have a lot of salary cap space to work with right now.
Salary cap projections have the Bears with around $6 million in space, which won’t be enough on its own to make any real moves in free agency.
The Bears have to keep at least a few million dollars freed up to be able to sign their rookie draft class, and teams tend to keep a few million more just in case they need to sign free agents during the season.
If Pace is even going to re-sign his pending free agents like Adrian Amos or Bryce Callahan, he will have to make some difficult cuts to free up cap space.
Here are five options to clear some salary.
Release Dion Sims
It was forgone conclusion that the bears will release tight end Dion Sims this offseason, and NFL insider Ian Rapoport all but assured it Wednesday afternoon.
Sims appeared in eight games with a minimal role before being placed on injured reserve because of a concussion.
He’s set to earn just over $6 million in 2019, and the Bears can save $6 million in salary cap room by releasing him.
He was barely the number three tight end in the office last year, and it would be really hard to justify bringing him back again at that price point.
Restructure Kyle Long’s contract
Ryan Pace could ask his veteran right guard to take a straight-up pay cut, but Kyle Long would be more likely to agree to a contract restructuring that frees up more salary cap room in 2019 without reducing his pay.
The Bears did this with Julius Peppers’ big contract back in 2013 as a way to shift the salary cap burden into future years.
Basically, Pace would take some of the $6.9 million of base salary Long is owed in 2019 and convert it into a new guaranteed signing bonus, which would stretch the cap hit of that portion and spread it over the remaining years of the contract.
So for example, the Bears could convert $6 million to a bonus, which would split it as a $2 million cap hit over the remaining three years of his contract, bringing his total salary burden this season down from $8.5 million to $4.5 million, while raising each of the next two years’ cap hits.
Long isn’t likely to play out the full duration of his contract anyway, so he would pocket more guaranteed money overall as part of the agreement.
Cut Chase Daniel
The Bears took some criticism when they signed Chase Daniel to his two-year, $10 million contract last off season.
He was brought in more to be a mentor for Mitchell Trubisky while the young quarterback learned Matt Nagy’s offense.
One year later, Trubisky seems to have a good grasp of the system, with room for improvement, and the value of Daniel to Chicago is much less in 2019.
He’s set to cost $6 million against the salary cap, and the Bears could save $3 million by releasing him.
He did enough to get a win while the starting quarterback was hurt, but Daniel still performed as an average backup at best.
If Nagy feels comfortable with Trubisky’s grasp of the office, the Bears could save some money by replacing Daniel with a cheaper veteran backup quarterback — or even a rookie.
Move on from Danny Trevathan
The Bears are undoubtedly a better team when Danny Trevathan is on the field, but when it comes to salary cap space, sometimes you have to make difficult sacrifices.
He’s entering the final year of his contract with a cap hit of $7.65 million.
It wouldn’t seem logical to straight-up release Trevathan after a strong 2018 season, but if the Bears were able to find a trade partner for the veteran linebacker, they could free up nearly $6 million in cap room.
They have Roquan Smith locked in for the middle of their defense, and fourth-round picks Nick Kwiatkoski and Joel Iyiegbuniwe are waiting in the wings.
The decision would come down to sacrificing at one position to bolster another. If moving on from Trevathan cleared up enough cap space to re-sign Adrian Amos or Bryce Callahan, it could be worth the downgrade at linebacker.
Release Sam Acho
If Ryan Pace needs to clear up just a little bit more breathing room for a new contract, he could trim a little fat by releasing outside linebacker Sam Acho.
He signed a two-year, $5.5 million contract last offseason to plug into the outside linebacker rotation, but the addition of Khalil Mack made him much more expendable.
Acho played 27 total snaps on defense, all in just the first three games, and he was placed on injured reserve after Week 4 with a pectoral injury.
He’s been a serviceable edge defender throughout his career, but the Bears would save just over $2 million by releasing him this offseason.
