The Chicago Bears Totally Screwed the Packers in the Kyle Fuller Free Agency

Mdbearz

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I am confused as usual. I mean, last week someone reported a 5/60 deal. All the bears had to do was match that. Instead we get this contract set up for a team going for winning now with cap problems. So it makes more sense that this is the deal the packers offered. They are strapped for cash now so a measly million plus bonus money this year, then tax killer 18 and 19 million in years three and four.

People were crediting Pace for coming up with this mindblowing money scraping deal, where I said, hell, we have the money now, we dont know for sure what we need for the superbowl in 2020, why strap yourself with this deal then? Then he got credit for considering he will restructure this deal and save the cap, which just puts more dead money on the cap when the player is gone. Plus its 4/56 not 5/60. That a year for 4 million dollars!

So the more I think of it, this is Green Bays deal and it will effectively strap us for cash when we need a back, receiver or DL man to put us over the top and as usual, the Pace nut huggers are doing their part.

It was $18M signing bonus, so 4.5M per year on the cap if they cut him, not exactly the end of the world, and the reason for accepting the offer is because you believe he can live up to the contract. The Packers did nothing to hurt the Bears or vice versa, it actually was a good contract that Fuller signed, the Packers offered and the Bears matched.

Nothing to see here.....
 

xer0h0ur

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As usual, people cannot understand that the contract a player signs and the skill of said player are two different things. I think Kyle Fuller is a solid corner but the Bears don't have much flexibility with this contract. If Fuller sucks or gets hurt, he's basically guaranteed the first two years of the deal and the Bears have to pay almost 5% of their 2020 cap ($9 million) just to cut him in that case. If he's good, it will still be hard to justify paying the most money in the NFL for any corner. The only value to the Bears is that this contract generates lower 2018 cap hit that makes it much harder to swallow keeping him in 2020 and 2021. Considering the massive raise in his contract from year 1 to 2 (+7 million) and year two to three (+4 million), it is not like the Bears could use those savings in 2018 and spend them on another player because then you're truly capped.

Oh for the love of god. The salary cap isn't a fixed number. It goes up. As do the contracts for every position each free agency period. No shot that its 5% in 2020 just like no shot that in 2020 that is the highest paid CB contract either.

People, wake the fuck up. Contracts aren't made in a bubble. They are structured knowing the cap changes and that salaries rise every season.
 

DanTown

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Oh for the love of god. The salary cap isn't a fixed number. It goes up. As do the contracts for every position each free agency period. No shot that its 5% in 2020 just like no shot that in 2020 that is the highest paid CB contract either.

People, wake the fuck up. Contracts aren't made in a bubble. They are structured knowing the cap changes and that salaries rise every season.

Xavier Rhodes signed his extension last year. Largest cap hit? $14 million.
AJ Bouye signed last season and his largest cap hit? 15.5 million.
Stephon Gilmore signed last season and his largest cap hit? 15.6 million.
Malcom Butler signed THIS off-season and his largest cap hit? 14.35 million.

It's weird that a bunch of NFL teams have the same salary numbers for future caps as the Bears yet only the Bears are willing to commit that much future cap to a CB, one who a year ago they felt wasn't worthy of a fifth year option.

Trumaine Johnson is the only guy who has a deal that Fuller has in terms of future years and he's shown far more durability and production than Fuller. And that deal is probably going to heavily cost them in the future.
 

xer0h0ur

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Xavier Rhodes signed his extension last year. Largest cap hit? $14 million.
AJ Bouye signed last season and his largest cap hit? 15.5 million.
Stephon Gilmore signed last season and his largest cap hit? 15.6 million.
Malcom Butler signed THIS off-season and his largest cap hit? 14.35 million.

Trumaine Johnson is the only guy who has a deal that Fuller has in terms of future years and he's shown far more durability and production than Fuller.

None of that has anything to do with contracts that will be signed in 2019 and 2020. Which is exactly what I said.
 

dawags

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Usually , a 4/56mil cotract would probably have 28-30 mil guaranteed so this contract actually kinda protects us against devastating injury.
 

Bearly

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It's likely in the range Fuller was willing to sign here and Pace was trying not to do. Fuller wins, Pace keeps his guy at what would have been needed to do it anyway. Like I said. Not much to see here.
 

Rise

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Hey I was finally right about something! Think that’s a first for me!
 

BearFanJohn

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I do not understand the questioning or being upset or critcal of re-signing Fuller. People bitch that the Bears don’t or can’t resign their own players. Or, the less intellectually inclined complain about the Bears being cheap. The Bears finally re-signed a top draft pick. Even if it ends up being an error, there is a tone or a commitment being made. It is what winning organizations do. I can’t really blame some of these haters as they haven’t seen this organization run well (too young) or just can’t wrap their minds around the Bears making moves that other, more successful, organizations make all of the time.

Of course there are also those who just want to bitch.
 

DanTown

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None of that has anything to do with contracts that will be signed in 2019 and 2020. Which is exactly what I said.

So Kyle Fuller's contract cannot be compared to the other contracts that CB's signed in previous years that have payments for the year 2019 and 2020 and he should ONLY be judged by future deals then? Ok, I'll stand by this: Kyle Fuller will be paid a top 5 CB salary in 2019 and 2020 if he stays on the roster. Do you think he's a top 5 CB level player?
 

DanTown

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I do not understand the questioning or being upset or critcal of re-signing Fuller. People bitch that the Bears don’t or can’t resign their own players. Or, the less intellectually inclined complain about the Bears being cheap. The Bears finally re-signed a top draft pick. Even if it ends up being an error, there is a tone or a commitment being made. It is what winning organizations do. I can’t really blame some of these haters as they haven’t seen this organization run well (too young) or just can’t wrap their minds around the Bears making moves that other, more successful, organizations make all of the time.

Of course there are also those who just want to bitch.

If the Bears signed Kyle Fuller to a 4 year / 100 million deal, could I complain then? What dollar amount allows me to complain about the deal and conversely, what dollar amount for a CB should I not complain?
 

tgmxd

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Interesting article.

I thought the Bears matched it so quickly because they thought Green Bay could rescind the offer and were afraid that would happen after everybody was laughing at them

Looks like rescinding it wasn't an option now though after Fuller agreed to it
 

xer0h0ur

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So Kyle Fuller's contract cannot be compared to the other contracts that CB's signed in previous years that have payments for the year 2019 and 2020 and he should ONLY be judged by future deals then? Ok, I'll stand by this: Kyle Fuller will be paid a top 5 CB salary in 2019 and 2020 if he stays on the roster. Do you think he's a top 5 CB level player?

You might very well be correct in saying that in 2020 he could still be one of the top 5 highest paid cornerbacks in the league. As it stands right now he is one of the league's top cornerbacks but just a tick under elite. So he's more like on the bottom end of top 10 cornerbacks as it stands in terms of coverage. Except coverage is only one of the many things he brings to the table. He's among the best at tackling, defending passes and limiting yards after contact.

You do realize that NFL contracts for young players like a Kyle Fuller are almost always paid based on potential / future performance more so than current performance, right?
 

xer0h0ur

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Look, the only thing that matters ultimately is that Kyle Fuller is locked down for the foreseeable future as our top starting cornerback and we can easily afford his contract even in the coming years where it becomes more of a cap burden. The only real complaint to be had would be if his contract hindered us going forward for future free agent acquisitions and/or put us into CAP hell. Neither is the case. So it amounts to crying over spoiled spilled milk. A non-factor.
 

anotheridiot

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You might very well be correct in saying that in 2020 he could still be one of the top 5 highest paid cornerbacks in the league. As it stands right now he is one of the league's top cornerbacks but just a tick under elite. So he's more like on the bottom end of top 10 cornerbacks as it stands in terms of coverage. Except coverage is only one of the many things he brings to the table. He's among the best at tackling, defending passes and limiting yards after contact.

You do realize that NFL contracts for young players like a Kyle Fuller are almost always paid based on potential / future performance more so than current performance, right?

He played elite for 14 games last year, two games, whether it was the scheme that was called or something, he was falling down and playing terrible.

My only point was this type of a deal was put together for a cap strapped team with holes they needed to fill and no money to do it. As far as only He and AR are big dollars at that point, well, our Long is getting 10 million, Leno is getting close to 10 million and neither may be on the team in two years, all dead money. We definitely need a new right tackle by then, still need a center, hicks just got 12 million, Eddie Goldman might be looking for a suh deal. it does not take long to get to 10 guys making 10 million to have cap problems trying to fill the other 40 positions to get there for a million a piece.
 

xer0h0ur

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Long for better or worse is likely going to see the end of his contract. Whether or not he gets another deal is the only question there. I don't even know why you're doing Leno the disservice of lumping him with Long because Leno is literally a top 10 left tackle in the NFL and his contract is super friendly considering his performance. In fact if Pace had not extended him he would be commanding a larger contract right now. Pace made some really smart decisions in extending both Leno and Hicks before their contracts would have been pushed into the elite echelon.

Long story short, look at it this way. Pace is on borrowed time right now. He has Trubisky for cheap for 3 more years and the 5th year option in his pocket. That gives him 3 years to make a push for a SB run and in that time frame allocating that cap space on other players. Assuming Trubisky turns out to be that franchise quarterback after all then we will have to pay him and it will force players off the roster. Unless the salary cap has risen enough in those 3-4 years that it won't cause much of a burden to re-sign Mitch.
 

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Not a surprised, since they fucked him with that brutally structured contract.
 

BearFanJohn

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If the Bears signed Kyle Fuller to a 4 year / 100 million deal, could I complain then? What dollar amount allows me to complain about the deal and conversely, what dollar amount for a CB should I not complain?

Be reasonable. The contract isn’t hideous. The Bears needed to make this work or it would be the AJ “letting good players go” scenario all over again. I don’t love the amount of money but I am glad they kept their #1 CB and didn’t create another hole.
 

r1terrell23

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I'm pretty sure the Packers knew this would happen since we were talking about it the day he signed the offer sheet. Teams are smarter than they are given credit for.
 

Visionman

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As always, guaranteed money is what truly makes a contract. Most top FA contracts have 40% or More guaranteed. Fuller has only about a quarter. That is a GREAT deal for the Bears, no matter how you try to spin it...
 

Asswipe Johnson

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Common practice. Far from sneaky.

Exactly what I was thinking. In fact, last week when this was going all going down, it seemed like the Bears matched the offer a little too quickly, within mere hours of it being made. At the time I thought, gee that's kinda dumb, why not sit on it for a few days so the Packers brass has to sweat it out? Glad to hear the front office has a basic, functioning level of general competence.
 

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