Charles Leno may have deserved better but it was time to go
If the Bears were going to cut Kyle Fuller to begin the cleanup of their stifling salary cap issues — which they did to save approximately $11 million — then they had absolutely no choice but to cut Charles Leno Jr. Monday.
Coming out of the draft Sunday, the Bears were somewhere between $850,000, according to Spotrac.com, and $3.4 million, according to OvertheCap.com, over the salary cap depending on which you trust more.
With the need to clear somewhere in the neighborhood of $5 million to sign their rookies and hopefully at least still be in the market for additional upgrades with free agents, somebody had to go.
The player who might offer more relief than Leno and the roughly $9 million his release creates when designated as a post-June 1 cut is Akiem Hicks ($10.5 million). Jimmy Graham ($7 million) is the only other player in the ballpark.
Cutting Hicks is a non-starter if there is any hope of recapturing the defense's 2018 mojo. Graham, in addition to the leadership he brings, is the only U (move or receiving) tight end on the roster, and J.P. Holtz is the only other NFL tight end besides Cole Kmet.
The next best options in terms of “How much can we save?” are James Daniels and Bilal Nichols, who'd each provide $2.2 million in savings but neither is going anywhere.
For the most part the Bears were out of options, and the team had just used its second- and fifth-round picks (and effectively its third in the trade-up) on replacements for Leno and Bobby Massie, who was cut a couple of months ago. The handwriting for Leno's departure wasn't just on the wall, it was plastered all over Halas Hall.
What's really scary is there still has to be more work done to lower the cap. And if it's done with cuts, only small chunks are available from the likes of Anthony Miller and Javon Wims.
The only other options are getting a long-term deal done with Allen Robinson, which could save as much as $8 to 12 million, or extensions for guys like Hicks or Graham.
The Bears can also rework the deals of big hitters like Khalil Mack, Robert Quinn or Eddie Jackson, but that's just pushing the problem down the road.
In fairness to Ryan Pace, Joey Laine, the team's capologist, and others whose purview is the cap, this is mostly not their fault.
Were it not for a worldwide health crisis, pretty much everybody in the league was assuming with great cause this year's cap would have been in the $205 to $210 million range when all of these contracts were done — $23 million to $28 million more than it's proved to be.
Leno will be missed for his character, leadership and presence in the locker room.
He is an outstanding young man and a classic overachiever after being drafted in the seventh round in 2014.
Unlike Fuller, however, who is one of the best players in the league at his position, Leno was a big part of the problem with the offense. They should have been auditioning replacements at least two or three years ago.
While many are projecting he won't be out of work for long, I wouldn't be so sure.
With the likes of Russell Okung, Eric Fisher, Allejandro Villanueva and the 39-year old Jason Peters all available — and all significant upgrades over Leno even though he's still just 29 — it's hard to picture a line at his front door. While he will get a job, it certainly won't be for anything near what the Bears would have had to pay him in this buyer's market.
The NFL is a brutal, cutthroat business. It's easy to feel for Leno. I know I do.
It is good to see the Bears acknowledge he wasn't good enough and taking the painful steps to make the team better.
• Twitter: @Hub_Arkush