Easily the most pressing free agent decision ahead for the Chicago Bears is with one of their own players. They’ve already locked up Bobby Massie to a new extension, so now focus shifts to the defense. It’s there they have two key players coming out of contract. One being slot corner Bryce Callahan and the other starting safety Adrian Amos.
Amos, being 25-years old and far more reliable from a health perspective would seem to be the bigger of the two fish. The problem is what it always ends up being: price. Amos is coming off the best season of his career playing on the best defense in the NFL. He had two interceptions, nine pass deflections, 73 tackles, and a sack.
It’s little surprise that Amos’ camp would come out demanding a big payday. The question is where will his price be set according to the market. The Bears were given a significantly clearer picture of that when the Carolina Panthers extended 2018 free agent signing Eric Reid with a new three-year deal.
The #Panthers are giving starting S Eric Reid a 3-year contract worth more than $22M, per @MikeSilver. His story on Reid is posting now on https://t.co/iLSuC0HswN.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) February 11, 2019
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Adrian Amos likely to demand more from Bears than what Reid got
Based on that information, Reid will make more than $7.3 million per year in his new deal. It’s likely somewhere in the vicinity of $7.5 million. Keep in mind despite no training camp and coming in after three games of the season being played, Reid still had 71 tackles, a sack, five passes defended and an interception. Those are comparable numbers to Amos who played three more games.
So by rights he should get a similar deal, correct? Odds are the Bears think so but Amos and his agents do not. They are likely pressing for something closer to the $8-9 million range. His age, durability and peaking production warrant it. Just ask Pro Football Focus who have been his biggest advocate for the past two years.
There a few problems with this though. Amos was actually benched in 2017 and was fortunate to get his job back only after Quintin Demps was injured. He remains a passive presence in coverage with all of his interceptions coming with an assist from teammates. He’s a solid role player who is trying to pass himself off as a budding star.
Do the Bears really want to hand $8 million per year to that sort of player or do they feel they can do better? Odds are it will be the latter.
