Bears Sitting Well for Free Agency

The new salary cap figure for 2024 has been released and with it the Bears are better supplied and ready for the start of free agency.

They're also better equipped to handle a Jaylon Johnson contract negotiation.

The new cap figure is $255.4 million per team, which is a whopping $30.6 million more than last year. This is more than what previous projects had been.

The owners can't cry poor, that's for sure.

According to Spotrac.com, the Bears will have $82,943,701 total available in cap space.

The impact on the Bears appears to be positive at first glance, but they already were in good shape. With more cap space available for everyone, teams who would have had trouble signing players will now have a better chance. So in the end there could be no real advantage to all of this.

I don’t see this as a good thing for teams like the #Bears. More money for every team means less guys hitting the market IMO. Also means higher FA contracts. https://t.co/tnrH0KobX8
— Aaron Leming (@AaronLemingNFL) February 23, 2024

Overthecap.com lists teams according to effective cap space, which is to say after their top 51 signed players and also their projected rookie class cap space. This will be bigger in 2024 because the Bears have two first-round picks, including the No. 1 overall, and they obviously require bigger contracts. By their calculation, the Bears have $68,261,422 available.

Whichever method is used, it would look like they have plenty to get a new contract to cornerback Jaylon Johnson and also address lineup holes when free agency begins with the negotiating period on March 11.

Naturally, when players and agents see the pie is suddenly bigger, their demands will be larger.

When demand increases, that $18.8 million figure for franchise tag at cornerback looks much more inviting than a long-term contract.

The Bears have until March 5 to get Johnson a new deal before putting the franchise tag on him.

I have a hard time at this point seeing Jaylon Johnson agree to a deal that doesn’t reset the CB market… which makes things quite interesting.

At the very least, he’s not signing a deal that doesn’t start at $20M per year if I had to guess https://t.co/fay7G67Rmu
— Brad Spielberger, Esq. (@SpielbergerBrad) February 23, 2024

Johnson's previous statements have been that he wants to be the highest-paid cornerback in the league. Green Bay's Jaire Alexander has the highest salary for a cornerback by average annual cost at $21 million, per Spotrac.com.

NFL Salary Cap Year by Year

(Since 2011 CBA)

2011: $120.4 million

2012: $120.6 million

2013: $123 million

2014: $133 million

2015: $143.3 million

2016: $155.3 million

2017: $167 million

2018: $177.2 million

2019: $188.2 million

2020: $198.2 million

2021: $182.5 million

2022: $208 million

2023: $224.8 million

2024: $255.4 million

Top 2024 Bears Cap Hits

DE Montez Sweat $25.8 million

LB Tremaine Edmunds $22.4 million

WR DJ Moore $16.0 million

TE Cole Kmet $11.6 million

G Nate Davis $11.4 million

DE DeMarcus Walker $8.7 million

LB TJ Edwards $7.5 million

QB Justin Fields $6.0 million

T Darnell Wright $4.8 million

K Cairo Santos $4.3 million

Source: Overthecap.com

Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven