The Chicago Bears lost one of their biggest free-agent names with James Daniels going to the Pittsburgh Steelers. The deal is reportedly a 3-year, $26.5M deal for the right guard.
This name has been a debated topic for Bears fans for a while. On one hand, the team needs offensive line help, and letting a young and talented one out of the door is bad business. On the other hand, they have to improve the line, so can they really do that without making any changes?
The next obvious question is the money. When James Daniels was a free agent, we projected that he may see a 5-year deal that would be worth around $48M. That may have been too high for the Chicago Bears price range, but is not quite what the Steelers paid.
In our projection, Daniels was making $9.6M per year in average salary. On a three-year deal, the average annual salary for Daniels is actually going to be $8.8M. That is pretty close with less than $1M in year salary being the difference.
Still, that one million is cheaper than we thought Daniels would have come. Also, getting Daniels on a three-year deal instead of a five-year speaks to less of a long-term commitment. this is a nice plus because while Daniels is young and his ability is trending up he also has plenty of questions, including a season-ending pectoral injury.
Still, overall James Daniels got about what many expected him to get, if not a touch less. If a team was breaking the bank for James Daniels, it is easy to say the Chicago Bears should not have signed him.
If James Daniels signed for a shockingly low salary, fans would be screaming that the Bears are Insane for not paying. However, now that Daniels got about what is expected, should the Chicago Bears have paid market price for James Daniels?
That is the question now, as they chose not to.