Chicago Bears move on from Josh Sitton
The Chicago Bears got a lot younger on Tuesday, as they moved on from veterans Josh Sitton and Jerrell Freeman
As the Chicago Bears get ready to make their contract negotiations and sign players for the 2018 season, first they need to get their salary cap situated so that they know exactly what they have to spend. This means the tough roster decisions in terms of cuts and club options.
Today, the Chicago Bears cleared over $10 million in cap space with the releasing of Jerrell Freeman, and the decision to decline a player option for Josh Sitton.
The #Bears have now cleared north of $10M in 2018 cap space by releasing LB Jerrell Freeman & OG Josh Sitton; hold a projected $51M heading toward free agency. https://t.co/ho8MPubMyl
— Spotrac (@spotrac) February 20, 2018
For Jerrell Freeman, this move was extremely anticipated. Freeman is now over the age of 30. He has been suspended multiple times for PED usage. To add into all of that he is coming off of a season ending surgery. There is just no way a team is going to pay him multiple millions of dollars for next season.
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Josh Sitton came at a heftier salary savings, but was a bit more surprising of a move. Sitton was not the beacon of health, but he was able to start in 25 games over the past two seasons. He was healthier than Kyle Long, and productive despite his age. While there is no long term future with Sitton, there was an argument he could stick around for one more go.
This now puts the Chicago Bears in prime speculation mode for Quenton Nelson in the 2018 NFL draft. It can be argued that Nelson is the top player in the NFL draft, but due to positional value, he will fall into the lower half of the top ten.
With his former offensive line coach on the staff, it would not be a surprise that he gave the final recommendation to cut Sitton and hope to land Quenton Nelson at pick eight.