The Chicago Bears handed out some hefty contracts in 2018, but it’s good to know that even after all their expenditures, a little more spending room is on the horizon:
Another sign of the NFL’s continued success and growth. pic.twitter.com/K5Tw7nOnqE
— Brian McCarthy (@NFLprguy) December 11, 2018
The NFL announced their salary cap projections for 2019, which is expected to fall somewhere between $187 million and $191.1 million. Back in March, the league settled on a salary cap number of $177.2 million in 2018. That means we’re looking at an increase of at least $9.8 million or $13.9 million at the most. Hooray for spending space!
According to spotrac, the Bears have $173,653,961 in total contracts and $394,604 in dead cap, which comes out to $174,003,565 in total cap. But because we like to round things up because it makes math easier, we’ll call it $174 million. That means the Bears project to have between $13 million and $17 million in cap space. And that’s before tweaking the roster by restructuring contracts or releasing players to create more spending room.
It’s worth pointing out cornerback Bryce Callahan, safety Adrian Amos, and right tackle Bobby Massie are the only starters not under contract for 2019. The Bears will have difficult decisions to make regarding next year’s roster construction, but at least they’ll have some room in which they can operate.
So while I don’t expect GM Ryan Pace to go as hard in free agency as he has in previous years, there is still enough room to make necessary moves to fill out the few spots on a first-place roster that need to be addressed.