No one is insinuating that the Bears aren't going to be able to fill out their roster. The question is are they going to be able to rebuild their defense with anything but one-year contract 30-year-old veterans and a few draft picks and some UDFAs. Where is the money going to come from to get at least two solid starters on the defense and re-sign the players we need to re-sign?
The Bears clear out cap space, hooray...but there's still a disaster that exists on the front seven and as TeddyKGB rightly points out the Bears are likely going to watch their two best players on defense leave via free agency.
Who are the best players that play on the front seven that will be back for certain? Stephen Paea (not many people on this board like him thanks to Windy City) and Jon Bostic?
Who are the two best players on defense? Are we talking Peppers and Tillman? If so Peppers will save 14 million if he is designated as a June 1st cut. Guess what, I can sign a good DE for say 7 million a year and a good CB like Jennings for 5 million a year and have 2 million left over for a decent SLB. That's 3 players paid for by Peppers. That's without dipping into any of my cap money.
Next, we have say 4 million set aside for rookies. Ok, let's say the expectation is that my 1st and 2nd round picks start. Let's say I get a DE and DT with those picks. I am up to 5 starters now. Now lets say the 4 and 5 round picks are for depth. That's 7 spots filled with 4 million of cap space out of the supposed 12.8 and out of the 14 million I get for cutting Peppers.
I still have 8.8 million of cap space left and I haven't even cut Bennett, Bush, Weems, Briggs or extended Marshall or restructured Cutler. So not sure what the problem is dude.