As reported by Brad Biggs today the Bears have around 12 million in cap space. We need to make more room...

CUTS/RESTRUCTURES

Step 1: Restructure Tillman - He's set to make 8 million this year. We could extend him 3 years, convert 7 million of that to a signing bonus, and make his cap hit around 3 million saving 5 million.

Cap space now = 17 million

Step 2: Cut Kellen Davis, Matt Spaeth, and Matt Toeina - This saves 5.2 million. Toeina was never active this year, we all know why Davis should be cut, and Spaeth is way overpaid.

Cap space now = 22.2 million

Step 3: Extend Cutler - What happens if Cutler goes on a MVP/Flacco run (which we should all be hoping and expecting), then we're due to pay him 20 mil a year? There aren't any QBs available this year or next year that are better. Cutler is our franchise guy, we need to extend him now while it will still be relatively cheap. 6 years - 68 million, 21 million signing bonus, min salary this year, saving another 5 million

Cap space now = 27.2 million

RE-SIGNINGS

Urlacher - 2 years 8 million - Cap hit 2013 = 4 million

Izzy - 2 years 6 million - Cap hit 2013 = 3 million

Roach - 3 years 10 million - Cap hit 2013 = 2 million

Melton - 6 years 45 million 15 million signing bonus - Cap hit 2013 = 3 million

Louis - 4 years 7 million 2 million signing bonus - Cap hit 2013 = 1 million

Cap Space now = 14.2 million

Sign Branden Albert 6 years 50 million 18 million signing bonus - Cap Hit 2013 = 4 million

Sign Andy Levitre 6 years 40 million 12 million signing bonus - Cap Hit 2013 = 3 million

Sign Dustin Keller 4 years 16 million 6 million signing bonus - Cap Hit 2013 = 2 million

Cap Space = 5.2 million

One Common misconception about cap space...you need a ton of cap space to sign draft picks. FALSE Only your top 51 players count against the cap. So when you draft a guy, you drop someone off of the roster and free up $405,000 (Our botton 10 or 15 players on the roster are making that). So let's look at last year. Shea McClellin's cap hit was 1.5 million and Alshon's was 825,000. Drop 2 guys off the roster which frees up 810,000. So we're basically paying for one guy at 1.5 million. The rest of our picks only cost 215,000 more (Evan Rodrguez at 537,000 + Evan Rodriguez at 502,000= 1,039,000 - 810,000= 229,000), so 1.729 million for draft picks last year. And considering we don't have a third rounder, it should be even less than that this year. This is a lot less than the "5 million" number always thrown around here.

Cap space now = 3.5 million

Same idea with any of potential of our lower tier free agents. They won't be getting paid more than 800,000 tops( and that's over estimating)with a lot getting around the minimum, so every resign will only cost up to 300,000 or 400,000, except for the players taking the place of the 3 players cut. 3.5 million is plenty to sign back 6 or 7 of those guys. (Jonathan Scott, Kelvin Hayden, Nate Collins, Zack Bowman, Josh McCown, Armando Allen, Amobi Okoye).

DRAFT

Round 1: Tavon Austin

Round 2/4: Brian Schwenke/Tyrann Mathieu (I've seen both of these players as high as 2 and they've been there in 4, too, so which ever order I don't care, just get both.)

Round 5: Joseph Fauria

Round 6: Tom Wort

ROSTER

QB - Jay Cutler, Josh Mccown, Matt Blanchard

RB - Matt Forte, Michael Bush, Armando Allen

WR - Brandon Marshall, Alshon Jeffery, Earl Bennett, Tavon Austin, Devin Hester, Eric Weems

TE - Dustin Keller, Joseph Fauria, Evan Rodriguez

FB - UDFA Fullback

LT - Branden Albert, Jonathan Scott

LG - Andy Levitre, James Brown

C - Brian Schwenke

RG - Roberto Garza,Lance Louis(until healthy)

RT - J'Marcus Webb, Gabe Carimi

DE - Julius Peppers, Shea McClellin

DT - Henry Melton, Amobi Okoye

NT - Stephen Paea, Nate Collins

DE - Corey Wooton, Israel Idonije

WLB - Lance Briggs, Blake Costanzo

MLB - Brian Urlacher, Tom Wort, (JT Thomas/FA/or one of the other random linebackers we have on roster)

SLB - Nick Roach, Geno Hayes

SS - Major Wright, Craig Steltz

FS - Chris Conte, Brandon Hardin, (FA safety or Anthony Walters)

CB - Charles Tillman, Kelvin Hayden,

CB - Tim Jennings, (Sherrick McManis or Isaiah Frey or Zackary Bowman)

NCB - Tyrann Mathieu

P - Adam Podlesh

K - Robbie Gould

LS - Patrick Mannelly

So there you go, all these big name free agency signings can be done, all needs filled. We just have to structure the money right. I think this is a superbowl winning roster right?