With Fields now in the fold, here is how I would approach the rest of the offseason.
1. Extend Arob - New deal 4 years 81m with 16m SB. Base salaries are 8m, 17m, 20m and 20m with first 2 years guaranteed so 41m guaranteed in total. Cap hit for 2021 is 12m saving us 5.8m in cap space. With Fields in the fold give him a reliable No 1 target thru the first 4 years of his contract as he is developing. ARob gets his 20m a year so he can shut up and more importantly 41m in first 2 years of the deal after which he can be could while saving 12m against 2023 cap or 16 million against 2024. Win win for everyone.
2.Cut Graham - I have no idea why he is still around. He is not part of the future with Fields and offers very little outside of the red zone. For those concerned about TE, I have a solution further below. 7m saved
3. Cut/Trade Hicks - He is on the last year of his deal and the money could be put to better use. We can also recoup a late round pick next year which Pace does well with. I am thinking a 5th-6th rounder or so. Hicks is still good when healthy but he hasn't been healthy the last few years and he has also been responsible for a lot of silly penalties. Nichols is also in his last year and I think we need to give him the keys in terms of letting him play Hicks role to see what we have in him. We also have some decent guys to play the other DE spot and Goldman returning at NT. 11.5m saved
4. Cut/Trade Miller - I don't think he is part of the future as too inconsistent and we have several slot options to replace him. I don't see him worth signing to a contract beyond this year so see if you can get a 5th-6th rounder for him. I think the future for the Bears is ARob, Mooney, Newsome, Kmet as the starters with my TE solution below operating in 2 TE sets. 1.5m saved.
These moves get you to about 31 million in cap space. Signing the draft class takes about 5 million so that leaves you 26m in cap space. Now here is where it gets fun.
5. Sign Eric Fisher - 3 years 30 million, 15m SB with base salaries of 3m, 7.5m, 7.5m. A bit of a gamble given the achilles injury but this is a signing that perhaps happens closer to August once we have better medicals. That would give us a line of Fisher, Whitehair, Mustipher Ifedi and Jenkins which would be much improved from last year IMO with guys like Borom, Bars, Simmons, waiting in the wings to provide depth. I have left out Daniels because of the following.
6. Trade Daniels to the Falcons for Hayden Hurst - The Falcons drafted Pitts and then did not pick up the 5th year option for Hurst. So his time with the Falcons is coming to an end. We are unlikely to resign Daniels as if Ifedi is worth 5m, Daniels can probably get 5-10m on the open market in 2022. We also still have Bars, Borom, Simmons, etc. as depth and quite frankly should be drafting OL every year so I think getting a move TE like Hurst to pair with Kmet and replace Graham is worth Daniels. I think long term the best OL is going to be Fisher, Whitehair, Mustipher, Borom and Jenkins.
7. Sign Bashaud Breeland - 3 years 18 million, 9m SB with base salaries of 2m, 3m and 4m - Veteran signing that can provide cover while the young CBs continue to develop.
The above still leaves about 15 million of cap space that can be used during the year or rolled over to the 2022 cap if not used.