FanPost

Talk About One Year Deals and Last Year Of Contract Effects on Team's Future

Is anyone else really worried 2014 will be a rebuilding year? Emery is quoted as saying he is building a team to win the Superbowl now, or something to that affect. Hence all the one-year deals for FAs. I am not sure how to look up or find all of the Bears players that are on their last-year of contract and/or signed a one-year deal.

If anyone has that info I'd love to see that list. Bears players on one-year deal and/or last-year of contract.

This is what I find doing my own research, please forgive and correct this as needed, those that have access to the info. I have tried to list them in categories of side of the ball, positional importance, and value/depth:

DEFENSE

DT: Henry Melton, Nate Collins, Sedrick Ellis, Kyle Moore, Cheta Ozougwu

DB: Charles Tillman, Tim Jennings, Kelvin Hayden, Sherrick McManis, Tom Nelson, Anthony Waters

DE: Corey Wootton

LB: DJ Williams, James Anderson, Black Costanzo,

FS/SS: Major Wright, Craig Steltz, Zackary Bowman, Tom Zbikowski

OFFENSE

QB: Jay Cutler, Josh McCown

K: Robbie Gould

OT: J'Marcus Webb, Jonathan Scott, Edwin Williams, Cory Brandon

OG: Matt Slauson, Eben Britton

C: Roberto Garza, Taylor Boggs

RB: Harvey Unga

TE: Body Eldridge

LS: Patrick Mannely

KR: Devin Hester

With my research I find upwards of some 20 of our players on defense are on one-year status. 15 players on Offense are on one-year status. That's 35 total players, 15 are starters, add 3 more as important backups. If my count is correct, 18 starters/important backups are in the status of one-year left on contract. That's more than a 3rd of the starting roster. I wonder what percentage of 53 man rosters in the NFL are one-year/last-year of contract. I would think less than 25%. I would love to know that stat if anyone knows how to find it. For the record, I'm worried.

If, and I say IF, we go on to win the Superbowl, do we end up like the Ravens and loose a bunch of talent to pay our QB, and anyone else that showed up and played well will get scooped up in FA by teams needing players in those positions that can offer more than we can. I see that happening even if we only make playoffs and Cutler performs well. I know we are getting older on D and I hate to say it, but I think the Bears would be better off financially and team wise for the future if they had a sub 7-9 season. Better draft pics, better cap space and leverage for resigning all these one-year/last-year players to smaller deals. BY ALL MEANS I DO NOT WANT TO SEE THAT! Nor would I be a proponent for tanking a season. I just do not see how Emery is going to sustain our football team's talent if we have a winning record with playoff appearance/wins. Everyone is going to want to get paid, assuming all these last year of contract players play well, and we will not have the space to keep everyone. I guess that is just how the NFL is, but I want a dynasty. Is that not the real goal, win the Superbowl and keep winning them? Create a winning culture by locking players to contracts that benefit the entire team and its talent for the foreseeable future.

I guess the question I am proposing is; Based on the amount of Bears players on the last-year of their contracts and in one-year contracts, are the Bears better off having a losing season or winning in the post season/winning the Superbowl? Mind you I said are the Bears BETTER OFF, not what you would want to see. I lean towards the losing season as it could provide the necessary cap space for keeping players we know can perform well and or performed well but not having to pay them top dollar. Not to mention draft position for 2014 (draft a QB with potential). I know there is a lot of grey area there as to how much we would resign our players for based on win percentage/stats that have not occured yet, but I'm playing GM here and "planning" for the future, and training camp is taking forever to start! Seriously though, I really am concerned we fall apart in 2014 if we have a winning season/playoff berth/playoff wins.

Please discuss, I'd love to hear your opinions and see any corrections to my list of players that will be FA next season.


This Fanpost was written by a Windy City Gridiron member and does not necessarily reflect the ideas or opinions of its staff or community.