Bears’ most productive linebacker will likely be a cap casualty

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Rahimi & Grote Show 14 min 3 speakers 5 chapters transcribed

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What are the implications of Tremaine Edmunds being a cap casualty?

Leila Rahimi 0:01

Layla Rahimi, Marshall Harris, Mark Grody, Rahimi, Harrison, Grody on 104.3 The Score. Flacco on first down, over the middle, and it's intercepted! Off the deflection, it's Tremaine Edmonds. Edmonds on the move. Flacco trying to make the stop. He can't do it, and Edmonds is in with a pick six. He had his third interception of the year last week. His fourth puts six on the board and gives the Bears the lead.

Mark Grody 0:34

That is courtesy of Fox. This is Rahimi Harris and Brody on 104.3 The Score and Tremaine Edmonds despite being on injured reserve. Still did work. He still had the most tackles of any Bear this season in the regular season, despite being on injured reserve. 112 combined tackles, hit 61 solo tackles, 51 assists. That's how you get to the number. The four interceptions, as we've mentioned. Tremaine Edmonds had the season that I think a lot of us thought the Bears would get out of him. With the Matt Eberflus defense, it ended up happening with Dennis Allens.

Marshall Harris 1:12

I want to say, Tremaine Edmond surprised me this year.

Mark Grody 1:16

Yeah.

Marshall Harris 1:17

Because I kind of cast him off as a guy who's just, you know, underperforming based on the contract. And then, obviously, you connect him directly with Roquan Smith and understand this is an all-pro player in Baltimore that you're comparing him to. And at some point, you're like, well, why didn't they just give Roquan the money to stay?

Mark Grody 1:32

We're not going to move up to draft and all the off-ball linebackers yet.

Marshall Harris 1:37

Yeah, but to see him actually come through and look like the guy for the 13, I know he missed four games, but for the 13 games to look like the guy that you thought that they were acquiring, that was good news for the Bears and a stabilizing force, remember, on a Bears team that had a secondary and serious flux.

Mark Grody 1:56

And not just a secondary in serious flux. There's a reason we're calling him one of the most productive Bears and the most productive linebacker for sure. T.J. Edwards was plagued by injury this year. Unfortunately, the most scary-looking one happened during the playoffs, as we saw, with a broken leg. Noah Sewell ended up going out for the rest of the year with the Achilles. There were so many bad injuries that the linebackers suffered as well. And for Tremaine Edmonds to step up and also have the season that, again, I think that's why the Bears wanted him. You know, he flourished and he didn't say much when it came to why he wasn't producing before. But alluded, I think, in very subtle ways to being put in a better position to succeed this time around.

Mark Grody 2:44

And Kevin Fishbane, our friend from The Athletic, Did a story on the Bears' tough spot that they're in under the salary cap. I know it's more flexible now. And I know it's going north of $300 million, which is a great thing for everyone. But the Bears still have so much money committed to players that there are very likely some cap casualties that are going to have to occur. Edmonds is possibly one of them. According to Over the Cap, the Bears rank 24th in available cap space and are $5 million currently in the red. So there are going to have to be some tough decisions that are made. Edmonds making $17.44 million in the cap hit just this last season.

How did Tremaine Edmunds perform despite being on injured reserve?

Mark Grody 3:30

And it makes you wonder what's going to happen.

Marshall Harris 3:32

It's the fact that you look at where he is compared to other linebackers at his specific position. He's the fourth highest paid one. And so you have to weigh what you got out of Tremaine Edmonds this season. against the value of what you're paying compared to what other teams are paying that same position. I know the salaries are going to go up, as you mentioned, because of the salary cap, but you still have to look at what are our priorities as an organization position-wise because we know what's going on with the secondary, specifically the safety position, and where can we – Shave some money off. And I'm sorry, but he's the most obvious candidate just because of where we are in his contract, the timing, and the structure of the contract.

Mark Grody 4:12

Yeah, it's the difference between that cap savings and the dead money.