The first cut is the … one that comes with peculiar timing.
Yeah, that’s how the song goes … right?
The Chicago Bears are a team with a premier first-round draft pick, loads of spending space under the salary cap, and a bunch of holes on the roster. So what’s one more spot to fill?
ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports the Bears are cutting ties with defensive end Al-Quadin Muhammad:
Muhammad, 27, signed as a free agent last offseason and was one of the many ex-Colts following Matt Eberflus from Indianapolis to Chicago. Considering his knowledge and experience in Eberflus’ system, I thought Muhammad would turn into a decent signing. At a minimum, I felt he could help bridge the gap until a later date. One in which the Bears were able to target better players with more upside at the defensive end position. Instead, all Muhammad ended up doing with the Bears was eating up snaps on a team that bottomed out and landed the first overall pick. Thank you for your service, tank commander.
Muhammad was a starter in 9 of 16 games this year, but came up with just 1 sack, 1 tackle-for-loss, and 3 quarterback hits. That’s a big yikes in the production department. And clearly, it wasn’t enough for him to hang around for the second year of a two-year pact he signed last offseason. According to OverTheCap.com’s calculations, cutting Muhammad creates $3,964,706 in salary cap savings. That brings the Bears’ current number under the cap to $98,399,155. And it cost just $500,000 in terms of a dead money hit. In other words, we can easily spin this loss as a win.
I don’t want to look too deeply into this transaction. However, it is of note that this leaves Trevis Gipson and Dominique Robinson as the Bears’ top returning pass rushers. Good thing the team is reportedly set on being active in free agency to address its defensive line needs.