Chicago Bears and NFL Player Salaries
by Mike Mueller on Dec 30, 2009 10:52 AM CST
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The Bears have the 5th highest payroll in the NFL at $120,672,110. Are the Bears getting proper value for the money spent? Obviously not, but why?
Well for starters, Frank Omiyale made $6.3 million and Orlando Pace made $6 million respectively, good for 3rd and 6th place on the Bears.
In fact, those salary figures are the 15th and 18th highest in the entire NFL for Offensive Linemen. Wow.
Helmet tip to celerysalt for posting this in the Den comments.
Other intersting nuggets from the salary database:
Devin Hester is the 15th highest salaried wide receiver.
Jay Cutler is the 5th highest salaried quarterback.
Urlacher and Briggs are 13th & 14th among linebackers.
Tommie Harris is 4th among all NFL defensive tackles.
Philip Rivers is the highest paid NFL player at $25.556 million; Jay Cutler is 11th in the NFL. 7 of the top 15 are quarterbacks.
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They aren't afraid to spend...
they just spend on the wrong guys.
Miles Austin, Brandon Marshall, Vincent Jackson, Kevin Walter… to name a few
"You win because of the quarterback. We have to get that position stabilized. We're fixated on that." -- Jerry Angelo (12.30.2008)
Jerry Angelo trades for Jay Cutler! (4.2.2009)
.
I wish
Franchise, Franchise, Franchise, and Transition tagged imo.
by Mike Mueller on Dec 30, 2009 11:27 AM CST up reply actions
I could maybe see Jackson going.
But yeah, I’d tag the hell out of them.
I'm a firm believer in the philosophy of a ruling class. Especially since I rule. -Randal Graves
I want and/or need followers. http://www.twitter.com/kdoggers
And that is if the uncapped vrs. capped year doesn't play into it
In an uncapped year, a player would need at least six years in the NFL, up from the current minimum of four years in the league, to be an unrestricted free agent able to sign with any team.
good names
sadly the best will either be franchised or locked up by their teams.
by frenchbears113 on Dec 30, 2009 4:15 PM CST up reply actions
A quick note
The figures on that USAToday site, while interesting, are kind of misleading.
The ‘other bonus’ figure typically represents achievement clauses without differentiation between what’s possible for the player to earn and what they actually earn.
For example, Omiyale’s contract might state he’s eligible for the full amount of the ‘other bonus’ if he takes 90% of the offensive snaps and leads the team in special teams tackles.
(These are not the actual terms of the contract, we don’t know those. But they are a good starting point for realizing how ridiculous some of the contracts actually are if you break them down.)
Obviously Omiyale will probably only clear MAYBE $1 million of that 6.3 if he stays on the roster for the full year. And of course, most contracts in the NFL do not feature guaranteed money, so if people are cut, they will only get paid a portion of their base and probably no bonuses for not making performance.
So it looks bad, but it might not be as bad as it looks in reality.
by NobodySpecial on Dec 30, 2009 11:45 AM CST reply actions 2 recs
That's not entirely accurate.
Omiyale leading the team in special teams tackles is a Not Likely to be Earned Bonus, which does not effect the salary cap.
Incentive bonuses require a team to pay a player additional money if he achieves a certain goal. For the purposes of the salary cap, bonuses are classified as either “likely to be earned”, which requires the amount of the bonus to count against the team’s salary cap, or “not likely to be earned”, which is not counted. A team’s salary cap is adjusted downward for NLTBE bonuses that were earned in the previous year but not counted against that year’s cap. It is adjusted upward for LTBE bonuses that were not earned in the previous year but were counted against that year’s cap.
He is highly paid and has already earned 15/16ths of the $6.3 million. LINK
by Mike Mueller on Dec 30, 2009 4:06 PM CST up reply actions
Thanks for the additional information.
Note how they actually make the contract look good after that initial roster bonus – more than 2/3 of the cap hit came this year, and essentailly you have a lineman now with a 3 year contract that pays essentially $2m/year.
by NobodySpecial on Dec 31, 2009 6:43 AM CST up reply actions
The contract is now a pretty good one.
The Bears had lots of cap space going into this season. They front loaded this contract and Pace’s because they had the room. They also made sure they got Cutler’s extension done to use up most of the remaining cap space this season. In this respect the Bears’ management has done well over the years managing cap space. Hopefully they shell out some big bucks this offseason on a guard and a top safety at the minimum.
by Mike Mueller on Dec 31, 2009 9:42 AM CST up reply actions
What a shame..
Olin only makes 3.133 mil and Garza only makes 820,000, and those are our 2 best O lineman based on consistency and reliability..
by Patriotbball5460 on Dec 30, 2009 12:10 PM CST reply actions
And Forte is at 388k, the 3rd lowest on the team.
by Patriotbball5460 on Dec 30, 2009 12:15 PM CST up reply actions
I know he's been underachieving this season..
But seriously.. A team that believes in rewarding it’s own players, he should have had SOME kind of bump last year. Even if it just raised his contract to 1 million per year.
hindsight
It’s easy to second guess some of these salary deals, but at the time they were made they seemed to be positive to most fans. I would guess that Angelo and Bigfoot Phillips have the final say on salaries, so as far as getting value for money paid, they might have miscalculated.
"I am not an animal!" - Merrick
From the outside looking in---- Tommie Harris and Devin Hester
Although Harris is a good player, he has injury issues that keep him off the field. Is he worth the contract he got the other year? Hester has done nothing since his rookie year. Is he worth the 10 million a year that he gets?
-Packer fan
yes, and no
i agree with what you’re getting at, but his sophomore year was better than his rookie year. he signed the contract after that season when expectations were at an all time high. he should be a well-paid return man, not a receiver. but, receivers make a lot more than return men, so maybe his agent had a hand in this.
harris’ issues aren’t just injuries. sometimes he just doesn’t want to play.
Repeat this Article
This article should be repeated weekly for the entire year. Perhaps it would put an end to all the idiots who keep posting articles on this site and others claiming that the problem with the Bears is that they’re cheap. That’s the least of their problems.
hester's deal
has heavy receiving-based escalators. he’s got two years left on it. i know it’s possible to restructure contracts, but i don’t know the rules to do so. it would be nice to have knox only receive, and use manning and hester as return guys. who knows though, maybe his days are past. i just can’t believe lovie and angelo ruined him. he was one of the biggest assets a team could ask for.
How much does Hester's current replacement make?
I have no idea, but probably zilch. So is Hester worth it after you look at top – flight receivers around the league? Does he achieve separation and run good routes, and does he extend those routes when his QB’s on the run? One more year of this experiment and then they’re going to have to seriously consider other alternatives – I know he stretches the field, but come on.
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