Schefter: The Bears are broke (and what does that mean)

Chicago Bears fans have been excited about the players the Bears have added to the roster thus far in free agency. And, for the most part, they should be. Most of these players are either better fits or upgrades from those who manned that spot a year ago.

But the one thing the Bears haven’t done this offseason is make a big splash. The players the Bears have signed are good, but none of them are stars. Many fans thought that after such a successful season, the Bears would be more aggressive this offseason, but so far, that has not been the case. At least, not yet.

There is one big fish out there, and that fish is Las Vegas Raiders edge, Maxx Crosby. With many of the other suitors for Crosby bowing out of the race, the Bears are in a unique position to strike. ESPN’s Adam Schefter was on Get Up earlier today, and he doesn’t think the Bears have any chance to land Crosby.

You can listen to Schefter’s clip and listen to his words:

“The Bears don’t have any money right now, Greeny. They’re broke.”

We know nobody is more plugged into the league than Schefter. His words matter. But what do his words mean?

You can absolutely take his words to mean that the Bears are out of salary cap space, and if you believe that’s all he means, absolutely, the Bears can convert base salaries into bonuses from players like Joe Thuney, Jonah Jackson, Montez Sweat, and Jaylon Johnson.

The Bears currently have about $6.5 million in salary cap space. That’s a number they are going to have to pad a little bit before they sign their rookies, but for the most part, the Bears have been able to get back under the cap and sign players without restructuring any contracts, and that part of it is interesting.

Schefter didn’t say the Bears didn’t have any way to make it work under the cap; he said they didn’t have any money.

To me, I think Schefter is saying something completely different. Schefter knows the league. Mountains of people have said how much cap flexibility the Bears have if they choose to restructure contracts. Schefter knows this; to pretend he doesn’t is silly.

Schefter says they are broke. No, of course, that doesn’t mean the Bears are near bankruptcy. But what it most certainly could mean is that the Bears’ player roster budget is near capacity for this offseason.

Most (all?) teams operate with a cash budget for the season. That budget is discussed and determined between football operations and ownership. Could Schefter be saying the Bears are at their cash maximum?

My thought is that he is saying exactly that.

There is a distinct difference between salary cap space and cash. If ownership is willing to spend more cash up front, that’s how teams open up cap space.

For example, Lamar Jackson had a cap number this year of $74 million with a base salary of $51 million. The Ravens converted a huge amount of his salary ($50 million) and converted it to a bonus. That bonus total of $50 million is spread out across the cap over the remaining years of the contract. But it lowered Jackson’s cap hit to $34 million this year. The Ravens opened up $40 million of salary cap space with the move. They used that money to sign Trey Hendrickson.

But here’s the key to that: when you convert salary to bonus, ownership needs to pay that $50 million to Jackson this season. It comes off the cap, converts to cash, and goes to the player. So ownership was willing to spend more cash to open up cap space.

Is George McCaskey willing to do that?

Look, Ryan Poles could sit down with McCaskey and convince him to adjust their budget, and they could go get Maxx Crosby. I am not saying that you should shut the door on it completely. But it would be silly, in my opinion, to think it’s anything but just slightly ajar.

The Bears cannot operate like an independently wealthy owner that was worth $15 billion and decided to spend $5 billion of that on a team and still has $10 billion in free cash available to help his franchise if he chooses.

The McCaskeys certainly aren’t stuck eating ramen noodles, but they don’t have cash available to utilize whenever football operations need it. They absolutely spend money, I’m not saying they are the Tampa Bay Rays. They have signed plenty of people to large contracts, and they are about to do it again. But they do not spend at the rate some other teams in the league do.

That’s a key reason why the Bears want a new stadium that they own. They want the additional revenue streams so they can have more free cash. Soldier Field is owned by the Chicago Park District, and the Bears rent the stadium. They don’t have the same streams available to them as other teams do across the league.

Now, think about this aspect. The Bears are about to give Darnell Wright a large contract. It’s probably going to be a 4-year deal worth around $120 million. The Bears are probably going to give him a sizeable signing bonus and guarantee at least half of that contract. When dollars are guaranteed to a player, that money goes in escrow. The cash needs to be available when the contract is signed, even if it doesn’t all go to the player. Not only is George going to have to have a significant amount of cash available for Wright’s extension this summer, but he is going to have to have even more money available to Caleb Williams for his extension in the summer of 2027.

I am not saying there aren’t any concerns that the Bears can’t afford Caleb Williams, but you best believe that signing two contracts like that in back-to-back seasons is going to impact how the Bears are operating this year.

The Bears have had a very conservative offseason, and with the amount of cap flexibility they have right now, in my opinion, there’s really only one conclusion to make: football operations doesn’t currently have access to enough cash to have a more aggressive offseason.

Maybe things change, the Bears convert cap space, and go get Maxx Crosby. But the way they have operated over the last 10 days, there’s no reason, at the moment, to think that is going to happen.

The Bears are going to add in the draft and try to run it back with this roster.

That’s probably going to disappoint some Bears fans, but that is the reality that we should all operate in unless we see signs that it is actually changing.

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