The Chicago Bears released Danny Trevathan, a move that was expected by many. While the decision was easy, there is a real question of whether they would elect to designate Danny Trevathan a post-June 1 release, or pre-June 1.
The difference does not matter to Trevathan, as he is free to sign whenever he pleases. It does change cap implications for the Chicago Bears, though.
Danny Trevathan is going to have $8.9M in dead money no matter what the Chicago Bears do. Ryan Pace and the Bears paid that money to Trevathan as a bonus to push the cap into future years, so at some point that will have to go onto the cap.
So, the Bears could decide to release him with a pre-June 1 designation, which would mean eating the hit right now. There would be no money pushed to the future, but all $8.9 would be gone, so the team would save no cap space.
This leaves a decision that appears to be more likely, which is the post-June 1 designation. In this scenario, the Chicago Bears would only have $2.43M in dead money and would save over $3.2M.
The downside to this option comes two-fold. They have $2.43M cap hits in 2023 and 2024 as well as a $1.6M cap hit n 2025. It just spaces out what would amount to the $8.9M in cap space that is owed.
The other issue is that the Bears would not clear the $3.2M until after June 1. The league allowed for the players to change teams before that date, but that is the processing date for cap purposes.
The counter to that is that the Chicago Bears will need more than $3.2M this summer to sign their draft class. They can wait until June 1 to sign some rookies and when the money clears they can use the extra space on them.
Beyond that, while small-cap hits every year are now fun, the $2-3M variety is equivalent a backup and special teams player. That is all they lose out on in future years, and if you look hard enough, you can find dead cap from years past on every team’s roster.
So, there is an argument to be made for both, but enough savings at enough ability to forgo the consequences that the Chicacgo Bears may as well designate him a post-June 1 cut.