It’s not a shock that the Chicago Bears re-signed right tackle Bobby Massie early this offseason. They had plenty of incentive to do so. He’s still only 29-years old. He is coming off the best season of his NFL career. One in which he allowed just one sack. Last but not least, the array of replacement options out there looks extremely limited both in free agency and the draft. It was an easy decision.
The biggest concern people had about it was money. The Bears came into 2019 with limited salary cap space and 14 total in-house free agents to handle. Aside from Massie that list also included defensive starters Adrian Amos and Bryce Callahan. So the amount of cap space this new deal ate up would be important.
As it turns out, GM Ryan Pace knows what he’s doing according to Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune. Who knew?
“Right tackle Bobby Massie was the first player to sign a deal with the team this offseason that is not a reserve/future contract. The deal actually includes five new years and has a maximum value of $40 million. It includes option years, which could potentially help the Bears in the future in the formula to determine compensatory draft picks.
It’s a nice pay raise for Massie, 29, who just completed an $18 million, three-year contract. When you boil down the fine details of the contract, it’s essentially a $15.8 million, two-year contract. At that point, the Bears can make decisions on a yearly basis with no remaining money guaranteed.”
Bobby Massie 2019 cap hit will be minimal for the Bears
The breakdown of the contract is fairly simple. Pace structured it to where Massie’s first year takes in a $6.5 million signing bonus. That helps to lower his salary cap hit in 2019 significantly. It will be a modest $3.8 million as compared to the $8.3 million that will follow in 2020. In other words, Pace made it so that the Bears still have enough room to do their business and keep their options open in free agency in this March.
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Also, credit should be given to Massie himself. He easily could’ve played this thing out to the spring and forced the Bears’ hand. Instead he made his intentions to stay clear, got the deal done quickly and out of the way before it ever became an issue. It’s one less distraction to worry about.
