Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Kevin Fishbain talks potential salary cap casualties for the Bears

Episode Date: February 17, 2026

Leila Rahimi and Mark Grote were joined by Kevin Fishbain of The Athletic to discuss which Bears could be salary cap casualties and to preview NFL free agency.

Kevin Fishbane, Bears beat rider for the athletic. If Justin Fields is great, he'll be great with Byron Pringle and Darnow Mooney and equated him as St. Brown. You would like better players around him, but I think you'll still be able to find a way to evaluate your quarterback, even if it's not greatness around him. Kevin Fishbane talking bears. Matt Iber, Flew, George McCasky, Ryan Poles, Kevin Fishpain. On Chicago Sports Radio, 1043, the score. Kevin Fishbane is a regular guest here on Rahimi Harris and Grody, and we look. love talking to him in the offseason, too, and he joins us now via our Circaresort and Casino

hotline, circle las Vegas.com. He is one of the senior writers at the athletic covering the bears. He also is a great podcast, breaking in with Kevin Fishbane, a sports media podcast, and he joins us via Twitch, twitch.tv.tv slash the score Chicago. Hey, Kevin, how are you? I'm good, guys. Happy off season. Happy off season, except unfortunately in the very well-written and illustrator. story that you posted with the athletic last week talking about the very realistic issues with the Bears' salary cap problems. It was a nice table that was also illustrated to and showed whether it was money owed or dead cap money or how they would count against the cap.

What were your takeaways from just the research you put together when you wrote that story? This is new territory for Ryan Poles, really, and the Bears. I mean, for the past few years, They've always been up there as having a ton of cap space, great draft capital. And now, you know, this is what happens when you're good. This is what happens when you sign a bunch of veterans and you start making some bigger splashes in the trade market and extending those guys. You're up against the cap. So they've got some decisions to make.

And, you know, I always allude to a conversation I have Ryan Poles a couple years ago where he leaned on his experience at Kansas City. He goes, it gets harder when you are winning football. games because you can't keep everybody. And this is really going to be the first off season that we might see some of the, you know, it's a business, as you guys know, but are tough decisions. If Ryan Poles doesn't resign Jaquan Brisker, that was his second ever draft pick. If the Bears aside to part ways of Tremaine Edmins, that was really his first huge free agent

splash that they made. So Nishon Wright, who was the story of the year, they might not be able to resign him. So these are the things that come with cap restraints and having a bit of a better team and owing other guys some money. But the flip side of that, Leila, is there's only one player, really, that you could talk about getting an extension done now, and that's Darnell right. And by restructuring some of these guys' contracts, you can flip the script and create a lot of cap space, but that also kicks the can down the road a bit. All right. Now you got me stopped at Darnall Wright. If the bears were to engage in an extension or even the talks of an extension with Darnall Wright, what are we looking at here, Kevin, money-wise? It's interesting, Mark, because I talked to a couple agents who do not represent Wright,

just kind of floated it to them. If you were his representation, what are you asking for? One of them said, I'd reset the market. He was second team all pro. You look at his age. you look at the accomplishments. Remember, he did all that last year, most of it with a brace on his arm. You could say, like, hey, we'll go ahead and get the, you know, we'll top Penae Soule, which right now is the top right tackle contract.

Now, remember, I always like to point out that when a guy resets the market, he's only reset the market until the next guy resets the market, right? So, like, you know, and again, this is just one agent's kind of thought process. And now they have the fifth year option at their disposal that buys them some time.

If they don't get a deal done this year, they can apply the franchise tag next year. So there's a lot of tools with their disposal. But talking to people, Mark, you know, you're looking at adding like a third or fourth year, you can be talking, you know, $100 million. You're looking in that $20, $25 million a year range. But the way he played last year,

I think the Bears would feel good about that. That'd be their guy, right? That was the first, first round pick of the Ryan Pols era. you'd have to be happy to even be having this conversation. I guess, Kevin, if your choices as the general manager of the Bears are either, let your guy at Wright tackle, Darnel Wright, reset the market, or franchise tag, if that comes up, not obviously of this year problem, then you probably would rather a franchise tag, for example,

but when those are your options, they're both very expensive discussions that you would have to have. And even a fifth-year option is another one where they can extend. But either way, you're looking at pricey scenarios for a guy who frankly deserves all of the respect that has gotten to him. Yeah, it's an interesting conversation too lately because you talk about like the cap number, right? Like he's going to be a very relatively cheap player this year if he continues to play under that rookie contract. Right. If you give him the franchise tag, that's a huge cap hit for that one year that he has the tag. The fifth year option is a big hit for that specific year. If you can work out a contract now, you can kind of massage those cap hits so they get,

they get higher. We haven't even talked about the left tackle possibility, right? Do the bears want to try him out over there this season? If you're his representation, you know, I think right tackle versus left tackle is not what it used to be, but, you know, you could have some money conversations there. So, again, I think a lot of these things are in the category of good problems to have. Like, it is good that their first round pick from 20, 23, has played up to the point where we can have these conversations.

And as you said, they're not in a rush. But the one thing to think about for them, when you talk about cash flow, is, you know, after the 2026 season, you start talking about guys that you drafted in 2024, and that includes the quarterback. So, you know, these are all things that they have to think about. Obviously, they want to think about what can we do to be competitive this year, but you also have to keep in mind stuff that's going to be floating down the line. Yep, this is the real part of the NFL every year.

And it is nice that the Bears have pulled up in this place where they do have to get creative because they were good. Talking to Kevin Fishbane, Bears beat writer for the Athletic on Rahimi Harrison Grotie here on the score. What about contract restructuring? Because that always feels much more gentle than having to release contributors. What are the possibilities there? who would be the top candidates for restructuring? Yeah, so your big ones there are Grady Jarrett, DJ Moore, Montez Sweat. I talked to one league source who did the math for me.

I was really good at math guys in elementary school, like really good. And then just went off a cliff. One plus one is two. You know what I'm saying? I mean, that's what we're talking about. I mean, those times tables, those multiplication tables, I ran through them pretty quickly. 33 million they could create. I mean, DJ Moore's contract alone could create $17.5 million.

But remember, when you're restructuring a contract, which essentially in layman's terms, you are turning a salary into a bonus. I'm not doing a great job with those layman terms, but that allows the cap number to come down for that year. They get the cash up front. But that cap number then grows moving forward. So at some point, you have to deal with them. The New Orleans Saints, you never want to be the Saints because they had a problem

where they were restriction guys left and right and just continued to have a lot of cap challenges. So those are some of the guys, Joe Tuny you could do something with as well. So all those players, they're going to be here next year. Now, I guess I paused there with DJ Moore because we could have a separate conversation about that.

But Grady Jarrett's going to be on the team. Montes-Sweb's going to be on the team. You know, Jonah Jackson, Joe Tuny. So you can do these restructures with these guys and lower their cap hits for this year. Give yourself some more cap space. And, you know, worry about their 2027 cap hit what is 2027?

Yeah, I think it's fair. That's part of the issue is how, for how long can you keep doing this? You mentioned the Saints, Kevin. The Eagles come to mind. You know, at some point they're going to have to pay that as well just because of the deal they did with Jalen Hertz. So it is something where at some point you are going to have to address it. I guess there's really no precedent set when it comes to how far all long.

But in the meantime, I also think about there's no knock on, signing a guy to a contract and then having to restructure a year in. But do you think the Bears might want to stay away from that when it comes to the guys, like who they just signed a deals like Grady Jared or like a Joe Tuny or a Dio O'Donbo or somebody along the lines that has that high money but still has years left? Yeah, and that's that short-term, long-term conversation, right? Like it's like, well, you know, shoot, we really think we could make a deep run this year. We still have the quarterback on the rookie contract.

let's just figure out how much space we can get now to make the signings we want to make now. Now the other conversation to have about this is who are you using that money for? Right? Because we've learned in the past, certainly last year, and I think this has happening more and more, that if you want to go get better in March,

that's the trade market more so than free agency. So are there guys in free agency that they're going to circle and want to bring in like they did with Drew Dalman? Of course. are there guys they want to trade for, and they need to have that cap space ready for that player or two as well, especially, again, if you're kind of not going all in, but you want to be aggressive for this year. So, yeah, with some of those guys, it's going to be a balancing act.

Matt Feinstein's the VP of Football Administration, you know, this is what he's there for, he's there to handle kind of these things. And the bears are generally in a, like, it's weird to say this because if you go look at, you know, cap space, they're at the bottom of the league or near the bottom compared to past years. but they are, he has put themselves in a healthy situation where it is not hard for them to get cap space. But it then just makes things trickier year after year after year if you have to keep doing this. But again, guys, I know I'm harping on this, but you would much rather be talking about it in these terms than they're being like, well, the bears have $90 million in cap space. They went four and 13 last year and they have to sign four free agents and hope that all of them hit to even be competitive next year.

this might be like a more, you know, monotonous conversation. It's about cap space and restructuring and salary cap hits and all those things. But it means that the team is in a better spot with the talent on the field. Yeah, and it's important for people to know that, yes, even though you hear things like the bears are in the red, they're under the cap, all that stuff or they're out of money. They're not really as long as they get creative and that's why we're having you on. Also, if I may, Kevin Fishman, I would like to make you an offer. or actually, I will let you fill in the blank, how much money do you want for that 1984

Chicago Cubs World Series pennant I'm seeing in your background on Twitch? Is that what I'm seeing? Maybe I need to look at your background more often. I didn't even know they made those. Because it never happened, kids. The Cubs were supposed to go to the World Series in 1984 against the Tigers,

but they got stunned by Tony Gwyn and the Padres. Tell me more about that pennant, fishy business. You know what, Grotie, you found the Easter egg. So maybe because you spotted it, you should just get it. I should just give it to you. I would love to own that. That is. I was at, this is six plus years ago.

I should know the date actually was my wedding at the gift table. You know, you're collecting the gifts, and there was a pennant just sitting on the gift table. That's one of my parents' friends. had laying around their basement. They thought it'd be funny. Just throw it on the wedding gift table. And I put it up, and I kid you not, I did not realize what it said at first.

I thought it was, I thought it just said, you know, I didn't realize it said national league champions. I put it up and had it in my office. And then one day somebody pointed out to me like, hey, that didn't happen. They didn't actually win the National League. I was like, oh, you know what? I feel even better about having it up right now

so that I can have moments like this where one Mark Grody can spot that Easter egg. I felt for it. Yep, I got the Easter egg. That's tremendous. If you want to see it, it is on Twitch.tv slash the Score Chicago. And one of Kevin Fishbane's National Sports Media Association, Writers of the Year is also on there as well.

Just all over the place. We also, by the way, have a 2018 Memorial Day 10-U baseball tournament championship trophy up there. Wow. Fantastic. I think it's time for you to have like a little yard sale or garage sale just to get away all your, or sell all your stuff. Don't give it away. Swaporama.

Swaporama. I need to know the value of these things. Yeah. I wonder what. The trophy for the, listen, that trophy is priceless to me. That was one of my greatest coaching performances of all time. I'm not sure how much it's going to get on the open market. Antiques Road Show.

That's all I have to say. Who's a better coach? You were a Weeder. Weederer talks a big game. He really, I don't know if you're figuring that out about Weedsie, but he does like to pat himself on the back as a coach. I mean, Dan, this might surprise you.

I think Dan might be a little bit more emotional out there than I was. But Dan's a fantastic coach. I have gone to see some of his son's games. I am out of the coaching profession for a while. I did it for a long time, and it was so much fun. So I like to go see my friends coaching their kids. And, yeah, Dan does a phenomenal job. And I love the passion, right?

When he's sending me videos of, you know, himself running out to home plate to high-five a player, those are great. Those are pretty special. Do you think he's ever said to one of the kids at some point in time you're going to have to do your job? Do you think he would say that? Because he might have said that in the Bears' Media Room at some point in time. in his life. I'm going to leave it ambiguous. He might have. He might have. I don't know. I don't know.

Okay. Listen, my four baseball players will tell you that, you know, every once in a while I'd have to get after them, right? You have to, you know, not, not, did I have a practice every once a while where I was doing my best, Herb Brook suppression? Again, again, you know, but we had some good times out there on the diamond. And now we've got to find out who Dan Weirer said that to. Kevin Fishpane, this has been a lot of fun. Thanks as always for coming on.

Thank you, guys. Bye. That's Kevin Fishbane, joining us via the Circus Sports Illinois Hotline. Download the Circus Sports app today. You went to a pep rally. I did. Or was it? I will let you know.

I was in Arlington Heights last week, where there were a lot of lot of people, desirous of the Bears, building that stadium at a St. Arlington racetrack. So I'll tell you what I found out. Next.