If he feels too disrespected by Pace, it may not matter what he says in front of the microphones. Throw in the fact that he may feel his numbers will never be elite with our QB situation. I'm hoping this is all posturing and a deal is signed soon. But if he's completely over us, then fine, trade him. It just sucks it got to that point and sucks even more that you know any trade for him will mean Pace gets shafted badly.
From the article: Robinson is in the final year of a three-year, $42 million contract, and typically the Bears have been able to complete extensions for their top players before they begin a contract year. Despite that precedent for avoiding in-season negotiations, general manager Ryan Pace said last week he wasn’t opposed to continuing to work toward a deal. He's not opposed? Is this guy on crack or what?
We have to allow the possibility that Robinson has made a demand to be the highest paid, or maybe in the top 3, WR in the league. Thanks to contracts like Robert Quinn and Danny Trevathan, that may not be feasible for us going forward, especially since the salary cap will be most likely be lower next year. If the bridge is really burned, it is time to start shopping him. We need to get back some of the draft capital that Pace has squandered. It's not like we're going to make a deep playoff run any time soon, at least until the QB situation is resolved.
I hadn't considered that some of this is coming from Robinson himself. Without sounding too witless, has Robinson every given any indication that he has made monetary demands?
The only thing he's made clear is he wants an extension. He hasn't publicly said how much money he demands.
Robinson’s deal starts at 4 years 80 mill. If pace didn’t start their he is a fool. This is the classic case of “don’t mistake my kindness for weakness”. Pace probably threw a low ball offer at him and he was like fuck this shit. Now Pace is on notice. Don’t fuck around. Yea Robinson is the rare non diva WR. Doesn’t mean you can take him for granted.
Robinson is making 14 million a year right now. He probably wants in the neighborhood of 18-20 a season. He needs to honor his 14 million a season contract.
Franchise tag means that money comes right off the salary cap. Working out a long term deal now gives the Bears cap maneuverability. With the Cap decreasing going into. Ext season and the Bears already tight with it that really isn’t a good option. Robinson has already lived through the injury in contract year issue. If he is not extended I could see him flat out refusing to play for the Bears ever again.
With the contracts that have been signed at the position this offseason, this deal should make itself. Robinson is right in that same tier as Amari Cooper and Keenan Allen(i have ARob above Cooper but just below Allen), one got $20mil per over 5years, the other got $20mil per over 4. That is the market that has been set. It happened while you sat on your ass and did nothing Pace. Literally deal with it. If Pace does this deal during last season when he should've there's no question it comes in under Michael Thomas' number of $19.25mil per. I suspect somewhere between Mike Evans $16.5per & Odell's $18mil per is where ARob would've come in with prob just over half guaranteed. That would've been the proactive move. As it is if there's a deal(and i still think there will be) it'll end up costing the Bears more money. To rob's specific point about lowballing.... if they're as far apart as has been suggested then 1 of 2 things is most likely true. Either ARob is pushing to get north of 20mil, 22+ perhaps, or Pace came in with a lowball offer trying to get this thing done for approx $15-16mil. Remember, ARob's ACL happened at the worst possible time, the very start of a contract year. He was hot property when that happened and its no stretch to say it prob cost him a good $20mil in fact(4-5year deal). So the question is would he risk that happening again over say $1-2mil a season if Pace has made him a market value offer of around $20mil per? I say unlikely. V unlikely. Its far more likely to me that the holdup is Pace kicking off with a lowball offer. But if he thinks $16mil per would get it done after the deals that've been signed this offseason he's dreaming. $16mil would put ARob on a par with Cooper Kupp as the joint-12th highest paid WR in the league. And that's where the insult part would come in. Hell even $17mil per would only move ARob up to 9th. Again, not happening. And i realise im talking mostly per year money here and not guaranteed which is also an important number, but guaranteed $ is a haggle you have further down the road once you've got the total and per year $ largely sorted out. If reports are true about being far apart then i doubt they've even got to the guarantees etc part yet. The market is set, Pace just needs to stop fucking around and get it done.
I don't think they have as much leverage as you think because of their position with the cap, and because of that, I don't see them exercising the franchise tag next year. The fact that you have a non-diva with exceptional talent that doesn't piss and moan week in and week out should make you want to move heaven and earth to get a contract done, period! Anything else is gross incompetence.
Fair points but now you have to make money start working. The bears walk into this upcoming offseason with 'tighter' cap room. Roughly 8-9 mil in cap space depending on if you look at OvertheCap or Spotrac. Oh and per Spotrac, that will only be 33 guys 'active roster' players. Want to make things worse? If Mitch finishes the season strongly enough that Pace HAS to franchise tag him. Now you gotta fit approximately 26 mil (2020 QB franchise tag amount) PLUS Allen Robinson PLUS a draft/free agency. That's....not looking good financially. Cordarrelle Patterson is also a FA this offseason worth keeping. Thanks to the genius of Pace, Nick Foles is NOT (I stand corrected from a post earlier in this thread) a cut candidate. Pace's "reworked deal" with Foles means he comes with a 10.6 mil dead cap hit (and 6.6 salary so yay back up) next year. He's not a candidate. Hicks, Fuller, and Leno shouldn't be cut candidates (even though they'd save a ton of cap space.) I'd prefer NOT to kick the can down the road with Mack the same way JA/Emery did with Peppers, but that's an option in reworking his deal. Reworking Fuller's deal could be an option to lower his 20 mil cap hit for next year. Of the likely cut candidates, Graham saves 7 mil, Skrine saves 3 and change. Those two plus cap room may not even get you AR if AR's price tag is 20 mil per season. The more I look at it, the more it doesn't look good to keep the guy unless something like a big trade happens or a big cut or two happen. Mitch is the wild card in this. If Mitch shits the bed and the franchise tag is not a viable option and he's shown the door and he's not something you have to worry about cap wise. If Mitch plays just good enough that you have no choice but to tag him...there's a growing chance Robinson is gone. If its the former, the one hope--I did bring up 2022 and how the bear's presently are estimated to have over 100 mil in cap space (subject to change) with decisions to make on Roquan Smith and Anthony Miller extension-wise as 'big money' second contracts. If you can get AR's cap hit to be minor in 2021, you eat a big chunk in 2022 (and should be able to comfortably fit Roquan and/or Miller should you keep one or both).
Another development at the WR position, Robert Woods come on down, 4years $65mil. Les Snead has now locked up Cooper Kupp & Woods in short order while Ryan Pace sits around twiddling his dick. 2 WR's at average annual salary of $32mil and Pace cant lock up one guy for $18-20mil. Pathetic. I get what you guys are saying, but its called cap management for a reason and teams have a variety of ways to make it work. And they do. The Rams now have 7 guys on their roster earning $10mil+ a year yet they make it work. The Saints were meant to be tight up against the cap, next thing you know they're signing Kamara to a $75mil contract. It can be done, they just need to get it done.
That's just it Ev, not one of those guys on the Rams is tagged. If they are to make the cap work to their favor the franchise tag shouldn't even be a consideration.
You've all probably read this article (news is late getting to Canada) but I'll post it for those who haven't. https://bearswire.usatoday.com/2020...m_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=pos1headline
