This is a bad move. Not horrible, but bad.
I believe in the better to cut ties a year early than a year late. The problem is this is probably 2-3 years early. I would rather cut ties a year late than 3 years early.
They did not offer him anything. If he would have taken ~3 years at 3 per that is very reasonable. They still need another RB. They can spend 1.5 million on some garbage and pray they catch lightning in a bottle. They can spend another 4th on a RB. They have too many glaring issues to waste another pick on a RB. Forte and his home town discount would have given a better production to cost than the scrap heap guy they bring in for ~1.5 million.
They have a bunch of cap space so the extra 1-2 million or Forte this season is not going to hurt their ability to bring in talent.
All this move did is make a bad team worse. It did not help them going forward. They still have to spend resources on a RB. It is not saving cap space for some sud they are going to bring in.
This reeks of a move where people are basically clueless about resource allocation.
Two seasons most would have said the Bears best 5 players on offense were: Marshall, AJ, Forte, Long, and either Bennett or Cutler.
No Marshall is gone. Forte is gone. Long is coming off a bad season at RT. Bennett may be cut. Yeah that is not getting better. They have not replaced the talent they are letting walk away.
I am disappointing in this team. Of a player has a couple of year left, and is willing to play under market value that is a good thing. That is how you get better. You sign players who have value to under market value contracts. Letting guys walk so you can spend similar resources on worse talent is about the worse thing you can do.
