NEWSLETTER
The NFL Draft is this week – HAVE YOU NOTICED?!?!? ARE YOU AS EXCITED AS I AM FOR NEW SPORTS THINGSSSS?!?!
Ehr hrm. Deep breath. Sorry.
The Draft’s arrival serves as a checkpoint in the offseason for all the obvious reasons, but also marks a point after which you’ll see teams trying to make some final maneuvers in the remainder of free agency, depending on what they accomplished on draft weekend, and depending on any other moves they make in tandem with the draft.
Thus, it’s useful to know where teams stand relative to the salary cap at this moment in time:
Official cap space by team entering the draft (1-11):
1. CLE: $37,547,510
2. DET: $29,488,200
3. PHI: $27,145,824
4. NYJ: $25,164,780
5. WAS: $24,943,685
6. DEN: $24,173,954
7. IND: $23,926,469
8. MIA: $22,682,552
9. TEN: $21,896,801
10. LAC: $20,994,933
11. BUF: $20,596,199— Field Yates (@FieldYates) April 21, 2020
Cap space by team entering the draft (23-32):
23. ARI: $8,933,375
24. LV: $7,690,618
25. CIN: $7,454,685
26. CAR: $7,008,210
27. PIT: $5,767,814
28. NO: $4,067,357
29. ATL: $2,232,688
30. KC: $1,475,171
31. LAR: $1,382,085
32. NE: $1,076,775— Field Yates (@FieldYates) April 21, 2020
And for good measure, OverTheCap.com’s Jason Fitzgerald estimates the Bears will have $9,460,611 in post-draft cap space. So it’s not as if the Draft would alter Chicago’s cap situation.
In any case, for the Bears, you can see that they’re going to have a fair bit of flexibility even after the draft (especially if they make any additional cuts (Adam Shaheen comes to mind)). If they want to add an offensive skill player (Marqise Lee, anybody?) or maybe another lineman or a corner? They’re going to have the ability to do it if they don’t wind up with players for those roles out of the draft.
After the draft and any related trades/cuts, we’ll check back in on the cap situation before the Bears get into that final bit of free agency.
