As the Chicago Bears, fans consider the return and breakdown of the ramifications of the Khalil Mack trade, the salary of the player has to be added into the equation. Ryan Pace restructured his contract twice and pushed ahead of money into the last years of his deal. It left the team in a spot where they were paying Mack quarterback money and had to find a way to get out of it.
No matter how you feel about the trade, you can frame the salary cap implications in your favor. If you did not like the trade, you will harp on the realization that the Chicago Bears are eating $24M in dead money for a player who will not provide a single snap for them.
On the flip side, if you like the trade you will talk about the $6M that the Bears saved, creating a chance to sign a player or two on top of the second-round pick.
The reality is that both are true, considering Mack had a salary that was up to $30M. However, in eating $24M now, they not only get to save the quick $6M to free up some space this offseason, but they are also biting the bullet that they had to do at some point, and therefore completely free up all dead cap from Mack in future years.
Mack was going to be on the books for $28.5M in 2023, and $26.2M in 2024. That is not quite $30M, but those are steep salaries as Mack starts to age. Freeing that money in future years is the big draw of the trade, and it could not have been done unless they moved Mack this season.
We do not know exactly how much cap space they will have next year, but with the $28M that just got added to the pile, many expect the team to have over $120Mi in cap space.
According to spotrac, the Bears have a little over $28M in cap space in 2022, but according to over the cap, that number is over $29M. Either way, they have nearly $30M to spend now and will free up some money when they make decisions on players such as Danny Trevathan, Eddie Goldman, and Tarik Cohen.
Fans should remember in their cases that the dead money is already gone, so the cap savings will be added to the $30M without worrying about their dead space. Expect the Chicago Bears to continue to move and push their 2022 cap space over $30M this weekend.