An Uncomfortable Bears Cap Situation at Receiver

Analysis: Bears salary cap information for free agency is almost entirely in and the cap costs at wide receiver for DJ Moore and Keenan Allen can be an issue.

Dec 31, 2023; Chicago, Illinois, USA; Chicago Bears wide receiver DJ Moore (2) makes a catch over / Mike Dinovo-USA TODAY Sports

Salary cap information for the great majority of Bears moves is in now and it's obvious one of the more interesting situations is at wide receiver after the Keenan Allen acquisition.
The Bears are sitting on two wide receiver contracts worth almost $40 million in cash and only about $5.2 million in bonus money.
It's enough to lead to a very uncomfortable situation.
DJ Moore had 1,300 yards receiving last year and figures to be the No. 1 receiver but is at $15.85 million this year and almost all of it is in salary. Allen is at $23.1 million and $18.1 million in salary. And Allen's contract is in its final year while Moore's doesn't end until after 2025. So if they expect to keep Allen longer than one year he'll be getting a new deal for even more money while the bigger-play receiver, Moore, remains at the same, lower level.
It shapes up easily for some sort of contract extension to be worked out for both receivers if the Bears want to solve this, and they can even get back some salary cap cash this way.
Will the Bears want to extend Allen and keep him in Chicago beyond one year? They could look rather foolish if they don't. A fourth-round pick isn't a huge price but you'd like to think you can get a player for more than a year by giving up the draft pick.
Would they need to get Moore a bigger contract than Allen or at least equal it to do what's right?
The Bears are already down to $10.9 million in cap space for this year per Overthecap.com, tied for 16th. But creating some extra cash by turning some of the cash in those receiver deals into bonus money with extended contracts would let them bring in another free agent should they not find they can fit remaining needs in the draft. It's just that the remaining players in free agency are picked over by now.
The end result of Bears spending in free agency still hasn't made their offense overly funded. According to figures from Warren Sharp, they're 24th in spending on their offense now at 110.1 million. Only the Packerrs in the NFC North spend less on offense. They're at $67.1 million, next to last.
While the effect of free agency spending has been to use up almost all their cap space for this year, it also affected the space for next year.
They've gone from top three in cap space for 2025 to 14th most available at $60.56 million, and that's without a big quarterback contract since their QB starter will be a lower-cost rookie.
Here are the cap hits for 2024 for Bears roster additions via Spotrac.com. Figures for defensive tackle Byron Cowart, tackle Jake Curhan, edge rusher Jake Martin and QB Brett Rypien aren't included yet, but they'd be unlikely to make a big impact on the cap figure for the Bears since they'll barely be over the $985,000 cutoff for the top 51 salaries on the roster.

Cap Figures for New Chicago Bears

WR Keenan Allen $23.1 million, $18.1 million of it salary.
S Kevin Byard $6.47 million, $4.39 million salary.
RB D'Andre Swift $5.83 million, $3.89 million salary
TE Gerald Everett $5.46 million, $4.06 million salary
G/C Ryan Bates $4 million, $3.4 million salary
C Coleman Shelton $3.5 million, $1.8 million salary
S Jonathan Owens $2.25 million, $1.31 million salary
LB Amen Ogbogbemiga $2.07 million, $1.25 million salary
OL Matt Pryor $1.125 million in salary.

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