Chicago Bears: 5 Cut candidates to free up cap space
By Joseph Herff
Now that the Chicago Bears have officially entered the offseason, they already confirmed that general manager Ryan Pace and head coach Matt Nagy are both returning. They both need to save their jobs this offseason and it is going to be hard given the cap space scenario surrounding their team.
It is hard to tell how much cap space teams will have this next season. All it is right now is speculation, but no matter what, the Bears will have limited space. It all varies just how much space they will have. They will have to release some of their expensive veterans that aren’t fulfilling their team needs and restructure/extend players as well.
According to Spotrac, the Chicago Bears are expected to be over the cap space by more than $8 million. This means they cannot even afford to bring in players to fill their entire roster right now unless things change. Because of this, the Bears will have to cut players and save money by looking at cheaper options via the draft, free agency, or in backups currently. Here are some players they can cut to save cap space.
The Chicago Bears need to save some money by cutting these players
Buster Skrine | Slot Cornerback
Buster Skrine is the easiest player to release for the Chicago Bears. Since coming to Chicago, Skrine was expected to replace elite nickel corner Bryce Callahan who followed Vic Fangio to Denver. Skrine has failed at that miserably.
In his two seasons in Chicago, Skrine hasn’t caught a single interception. Specifically this season, Skrine allowed a horrid 78.1% completion and a 125.7 passer rating when targeted according to advanced stats via Pro Football Reference. He additionally struggles with missed tackles as he had a whopping 13 (21.3%) in 2019. It’s safe to say that the Skrine experiment is over.
Next season, the Bears return both Duke Shelley and Tre Roberson. Either one of these guys can fulfill the slot spot better than Skrine did this season because it’s harder to get much worse than that. Cutting Skrine after June 1st would save the Bears nearly $5 million.