Bears restructure Mack, Jackson, Whitehair contracts to save $23 million

The Bears have cleared up over $23 million in cap space by restructuring the 2021 base salaries of Khalil Mack, Eddie Jackson and Cody Whitehair into signing bonuses, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported on Saturday.

Restructuring contracts of star players is hardly a surprising action for the Bears to take, as Over the Cap had them at $19.3 million in the red before these moves. These moves put fine Bears somewhat around $4 million in cap space, but it is assumed that they will make moves to create cap for this coming offseason.

While the exact financial details of each move are unknown, it is presumed that the reworking of all three contracts will eat into the Bears’ future cap space, of which they currently appear to have plenty of. Given the hot seat Ryan Pace and Matt Nagy find themselves in this offseason, it’s evident that Chicago is planning on going all-in to try and mold their roster into a legitimate contender.

These moves alone will not be enough to afford to take on Russell Wilson’s contract should the Bears trade for him, but it’s a step in the right direction. Regardless of whether they make the trade for the 8-time Pro Bowl quarterback, they have now cleared up some more cap space to try and make some moves during the free agency period.

Other financial moves could be imminent on the horizon for the Bears. Such moves like a contract extension of an impeding 2022 free agent like Kyle Fuller or James Daniels, or either a pay cut or flat-out release of Jimmy Graham stand out as potential moves they could make to open up some cap space.