One big problem is that the owners aren’t independently wealthy outside of owning the bears. Which creates penny pinching. How may NFL owners bought their franchises with money made outside of football? The Bears have been owned by the same people throughout its existence whose wealth comes from the team. So they tend to be more frugal. Some NFL owners treat their franchise like a shiny toy. The Bears treat it like their lifeblood.
I think cutting Fuller is a good example in how the Bears function. That was a business decision and not a football one. Even if they had to get rid of some guys why Fuller? Why not just cut Jimmy Graham and even Hicks? They chose Fuller because he wouldn’t take a pay cut. I’m also pretty sure they cut him because his cap number was high and it was a quick and easy way to get it down. And the fact that he’s a great player at a premium position meant nothing. It was just a straight up business decision. Clean up the books. “Oh, there’s a big number. We get rid of that and we’re good.” “That’s Kyle Fuller though, he’s one of our best players at a premium position.” “It doesn’t matter. We gotta get these books straight.”That’s the kind of shit the Bengals do. The Jets. Shit franchises with shit ownership. People see the Bears in this big market and think they should have the money to not be frugal. They are though.
Like why in the hell is Jimmy Graham on this team? And I thought he played well last year. But they drafted Kmet. They’re playing him and Graham is hardly even out there. So why the hell didn’t they cut Graham and save like 7 million? They cut Fuller instead who didn’t even have a replacement. They had a replacement for Graham. And corner is more important than TE anyway. So why would you cut Fuller and keep Graham? Because all the accountants who run this franchise see is a number. We cut one guy and save 7 million. We cut the other and save 16. Nevermind that the 16 million dollar guy is way more important that the 7 million dollar guy.