The Bears had five days to match Green Bay’s offer sheet to cornerback Kyle Fuller but it only needed a few hours. NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport tweets Chicago has matched the offer to keep Fuller in the “Windy City.” 
The contract is a four-year deal worth $56MM with $18MM in guaranteed money. As Rapoport notes, Fuller had already been guaranteed $13MM after the Bears placed the transition tag on him. It only made sense for the Bears to splurge the extra $5MM to keep him with the team and away from its division rival.
Pro Football Talk reports the deal includes a $1MM base salary in 2018, $500,000 in per-game roster bonuses and a $500,000 workout bonus.
Fuller enjoyed a breakout year in 2017, amassing 68 tackles and ranking as PFF’s No. 22 ranked cornerback. That was in stark contrast, however, to his previous three seasons. The former No. 14 overall selection did well as a rookie in 2014 and followed that up with a decent showing in 2015, but his entire 2016 campaign was lost due to a knee injury. The Bears had the option of keeping Fuller under the fifth-year option for just $8.526MM. In hindsight, it’s a move they regret.
With the move, the team is betting on the 2017 version of Fuller being the new norm. With a team undergoing as much offseason change as Chicago, having a little bit of stability and familiarity in the secondary is sure to help the transition.
[RELATED: Bears Depth Chart]
Well, that whole Packer ‘thing’ came and went in a hurry… Next?
The old Norris Division playing tricks on one another.
Ha! Truly.
not surprised but the packers made the bears pay to keep him
They didn’t make them pay much more. They can move on or trade him if it doesn’t work it later but Fuller will be just fine. It’s something they should have done a while ago anyway.
They were fine with paying him $13m under the transition tag. The AAV is an extra $1m, hardly a significant sum. While the extra $5m in guarantees is something, again it’s hardly much considering the transition tag price and AAV. If the Bears really need to, they can probably get out of the deal after 2-3 years with minimal dead money.
Forget the extra $5 mil in guarantees. The Packers essentially just bought the Bears an extra year of evaluation before they need to make a decision on Fuller.
As it was, they were paying him $13 mil this year, and then needed to make a decision on his long term future next off season.
Now, they can pay him $6.5 mil (cap hit) this year. And He gets the $13.5 million (cap hit) in 2019.
After that, the cap hit sky rockets, but because the cap number ($17.5 million) is significantly more than the remaining prorated bonus money ($9 million), they can walk away from the deal if he doesn’t progress to an elite level.
This is almost embarrassing for the Packers. They used their time and resources to work out what appears to be a very team friendly contract for a rival…
The Packers didn’t make them do anything. The fact they didn’t go after other top CBs tells ya they planned on Fuller the whole way. The Packers, (who rarely overpay), just confirmed the market for them.
Dead on
Only Packers overpay I remember is for
another CB, one of their own players, days before FA:
Sam Shields: four years $39 million with a $12.5 million signing bonus. Packers GM, got served.
Oh sure they really stuck it to the Bears they are smart? Are you for real? Keep dreaming
I’m pretty sure Green Bay isn’t heart broken to get to have their WRs run free against Fuller twice a year like has regularly occurred the last few. Watch the tape, it doesn’t lie.
I would’ve loved fuller in GB. However making him the 4th highest paid CB in the league is an overpay. The packers were willing to do that because of their needs and so were/are the bears. To sit there and say he deserves top 5 CB money is fooling yourself though.
Too soon to say that. The Packers have a need at CB and watched Fuller twice a year for 5 years and apparently think he is worth it. As do the Bears.
What is left at CB packers need to sign some veteran help
Davon House?
Delvin Breaux?
Honey badger is a free agent and both earl Thomas and Kam Chancellor are rumored to be available via trade if gutekunst is serious about upgrading the secondary although all come with injury concerns.
Kam is unlikely to ever play again. He’s almost guaranteed not to pass a physical.
They should of let him walk for 14 mil a year I like fuller but that is way too much.
Its not way too much. They were paying him $13m this year. Now its $14m per year
How in the world does Ryan Pace still have a job.
Only $18 million guaranteed. He should be given a medal.
Only $8.5M for the 5th year option. Would’ve been smarter to see if he could replicate this past season for at least another year while saving $10M in guarantees. All he did was simply match the Packers offer.
And now he’s paying him $6.5 against the cap this year. Kind of a more cap friendly outcome…
You clearly don’t know how these options work. His 5th year option was declined back in April of 2017. They obviously didn’t know he was going to play that well in 2017, otherwise they obviously would’ve picked it up.
I’m surprised bears didn’t make packers wait almost the whole 5 days at least now packers now can look at the other few cbs
Agreed. Obviously they didn’t hesitate to keep him so holding out for at least another couple of days would’ve tied the Packers’ hands in regards to some of the moves they possibly could’ve made. On the flip side, if the Bears are still looking in free agency, waiting to match the offer sheet also ties up their hands a bit.
Mathieu!
Bear Down
It was a must for the Bears.
That was a Very Smart move. Not sure why they were even in the Transition position because when he was originally signed they had a 5th yr option on him. So that leads me to believe the Bears Declined the option. He has only been in the league 4 years and was hurt one.
Great move by the pack….tie up bear money and also take them off the board for the other CBs now that fb will be after. (Williams and house among others). Getting them to spend more than they wanted was a great move.
“Great move”? Please.The Bears didn’t go after the other top CBs so it was obvious they would sign him either way. The Packers rarely overpay, so the offer is pretty much where the market is. Did you see what the other CBs have signed for? And the contract is only 18 mill guaranteed.
link to espn.com
Whatever you need to justify it in your mind. Pack played you guys like a fiddle.
Apparently you can’t post links here but search for an article by rob demovsky on ESPN and you’ll see what what everyone who isn’t a bears fan saw.
they made a team with the cap space pay for a player that they were intending to pay anyways. the bears got the upper hand over a CB needy team and now the Packers are left with 2nd tier players. if Fuller continues to play like last year this deal will be a steal. if not, the guarantees are only for a year or two. enjoy your cheesy dreams.
So by everyone else you mean a packers reporter…..
Guy below gets it…..dunno why you guys don’t.
Florio: Kyle Fuller gets $4 million more per year than Bears had offered – ProFootballTalk – “The end result is that the Packers negotiated the deal for the Bears, at no cost to Chicago. At a minimum, the Bears should give Abe Froman a call and send a gift basket full of pork products to Green Bay
Ha! Yes, let’s all read what the Packer’s ESPN reporter has to say.
K, homer.
Haha, yeah, this worked out wonderfully for the Bears. I thought the Packers were gonna really put the Bears in a tough spot, not even sort of as it turns out.
I like the part where they call the bears “it.”
The McCaskey’s must have had to stop paying for their name in order to afford Fuller.
time to kick some BEARS but this season
Butt
Haha
Pace is a f**king moron. Could’ve just picked up his 5th year option for $8.5M….. now he’s pissing more money away on unproven/mediocre players to this point in their career. Yes, Fuller had a stellar 2017….. preceded by 3 years of mediocrity at BEST. Picking up the 5th year option, telling Fuller to essentially “prove 2017 wasn’t a fluke” and then if he is legit, pay the man NEXT offseason. Instead you give the dude $14M AAV and hope…. HOPE he pans out. Pretty much ALL their signings this offseason has been that. Big dollars to players they HOPE are legit, top tier talents. Backup TE Burton getting paid top tier TE money….. Robinson with one 1,000 yard season under his belt and who is coming of ACL surgery… ACL!!! $9M AAV to Amukamara…. a CB who hasn’t had an INT since Sept. 24th 2015. Pace is a moron….. people/fellow fans of the Bears are morons for thinking this has been a stellar offseason. If anything it has been a very, VERY risky offseason by Pace, and one in which it could very easily blow up in his face. The fact he failed to sign Andrew Norwell, and now with Pugh signing in Arizona I believe he’s missed out on the two best Guards on the market to replace Sitton on the OL. So that pretty much shows me Pace’s cards for the draft…. he’s hoping OG Nelson falls to him at #8. And if he trades up in the draft – again – to get Nelson…. I’d fire his a$$ on the spot. Before he even gets to make his next draft pick. How many times in his brief tenure would that be him trading up in the draft? Seems like an annual thing….. and there has been very little payoff.
People have been saying the Bears have had one of the better offseasons this year. National media “experts” are even saying that, not just Chicago meathead fan media. They’ve graded it about a B+. Me…. personally, I grade it at BEST a C… if not C-. Again, the big additions/retentions this offseason have been – ahem… a WR with a “meh” career stat sheet who is coming off a torn ACL…… a TE who they are paying top tier money too who has been a backup his entire career… and is now getting paid more money than the guy he was backing up…… Then they give a 4 year deal at $6.5M AAV to a 5 foot nothing 170 lb soaking wet WR who has mediocre stats at best in Taylor Gabriel….. and then they give $9M AAV to a CB who is graded at best as an “average” CB in Amukamara who hasn’t had an INT in forever…… and now they cough up top tier money to yet another player who is pretty da** unproven in Fuller… all because he had 1 good season.
Again, that’s a lot of “hoping” that these deals pan out…. and by a lot I mean pretty much EVERY SINGLE signing they’ve made. There is not a single “home run” signing in this group. Norwell could’ve and should’ve been that HR, but I guess overpaying Burton, now Fuller, and giving Amukamara ridiculous money to be average was more important. But let’s not forget Taylor fu**ing Gabriel. A 5’8″ 167 lb wide receiver….. gets $6.5M AAV on a 4 year deal, $14M guaranteed. He must have some Wes Welker like stat sheet… or Julian Edleman-like numbers…. right? Nope. He’s averaged 450 yards a year and 2 TDs….. and that was with Matt Ryan at QB. Apparently Pace’s “genius” evaluation deems that “quality” enough to give legitimate money to….. moron. To put that in perspective… Jordy Nelson signed with Oakland at $7.5M AAV… yeah. Yes, Nelson is older, but his deal is only 2 years, not 4, and significantly less money overall….. and it’s Jordy Nelson, a WR with an actual track record of greatness…. and is on the right side of 5’10” tall…. just 5’10” that’s not asking much from a wide fu**inf receiver. How does Gabriel even get catches? How do you see a midget at 5’8″ running around amongst a bunch of 6’3″+ players most of which have 100 pounds on him. He’s going to be utilized in the slot and as a secondary option to what Tarik Cohen already provided the team. Most of Gabriel’s TDs have come from screen passes, meaning he’s a glorified RB. At $6.5M per season that is a premium price to pay for that. $4M would be more reasonable, but even then… meh.
Damn dude.
What ever, KB. Ur post is 3 times as long as the original article and u still don’t get it.
Give it a rest KB. They did not pick up the 5th year option. Get over it! Now you cry that they cant pay him market value because they could have had him one more year cheaper. Your rationale makes no sense. Then again you never make any sense
Now the Bears need to sign Morgan Burnett and pair him with Jackson and make the Packers cry again. Burnett is just the kind of guy Fangio likes who can move around the Def. Backfield.
When and if he’s healthy. He’s not exactly the poster child for durability. If he was, GB wouldn’t have let him get to free agency. That was the one thing TT actually was pretty good at: locking up his own guys before they hit the street.
It’s been suggested Burnett could land a deal worth in the neighborhood of $9-10 mil/year. If the bears pay anywhere near that for 12 starts a year..3 of which he doesn’t make it to halftime..it’s a major overpay.
Venny Curry plyz
No brainer for Pace and Bears. That offer sheet turned out to be a lot more team friendly than I thought it was gonna be.