Chicago Bears: Cameron Meredith offer sheet a solid deal for Pace
Chicago Bears wide receiver Cameron Meredith finally signed an offer sheet this week with the New Orleans Saints. But as with Kyle Fuller, this deal ended up right in Ryan Pace’s wheelhouse.
After weeks of suspense on the matter, restricted free agent receiver Cameron Meredith has at last signed an offer sheet with another team. And the Chicago Bears, at last, have a decision to make regarding their recovering pass-catcher.
Interestingly, it was general manager Ryan Pace’s former team, the New Orleans Saints, that made the move.
All in all, the deal will be for two years and worth about $10 million with incentives thrown in. And, though the Bears have incurred some risk in allowing Meredith to test the market somewhat, this deal doesn’t really shake out too badly for Pace and Co.
Let’s take a look.
The #Saints are signing #Bears WR Cam Meredith to a 2-year deal worth $9.6M plus incentives, source said, with $5.4M in guarantees. He gets some guarantees in Year 2. Nice deal for Meredith — whether Chicago matches or not — for a player coming off a torn ACL.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) April 6, 2018
As mentioned here, the guaranteed money sits at about $5.4 million. That’s barely over what the average amount per year would be (somewhere around $5 million).
Therefore, if the Chicago Bears matched this deal, they would essentially be paying for one year of Meredith in full. That gives them a bit of insurance in terms of seeing how he recovers from his ACL injury.
If you want me to be honest, I have a hard time seeing Pace allowing Meredith to walk on this kind of deal.
Sure, it’s a fair bit for a guy that’s coming off a serious knee injury. And whether or not he’ll be ready for the season or will have to start the year on the PUP list remains to be seen.
But I say this again for those that believe Pace simply went into this without a plan: don’t.
Pace knew this would happen. And more than likely, he didn’t sign Meredith to a second-round tender worth under $3 million dollars, even though it would’ve prohibited other teams from negotiating with him, because he had his eyes on the big picture.
Let me ask you all a question: if the Chicago Bears really had Meredith play this season out on a $3 million deal, do you think he would want to stay here after that if he had any kind of decent season?
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I doubt it.
After all, they were going into last season with the notion of using him as their No. 1 receiver before he got hurt. $3 million would probably insult him, injury or no.
And I think that as soon as this season ended, he would go seek his fortune elsewhere rather than play for a team that showed it wasn’t willing to invest in him.
And make no mistake: just like with Kyle Fuller, Pace has had every intention of bringing Meredith back. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have signed him to the original round tender, which essentially amounts to a transition tag.
You seeing the pattern here?
Next: Meredith leaving for Saints?
Bottom line: I expect the Chicago Bears to match this deal for Meredith. It’s a very affordable deal, and if Meredith returns to form, it’s a bargain. In five days, I think Meredith will have officially re-upped with the Bears, bolstering this solid receiving corps.