What Eddie Jackson Comments Could Say for Bears Safeties

If Jackson is cut before June 1 it gives the Bears $12.56 million in cap savings for the final year of his contract, but costs them $5.58 million in deadcap space. If they cut him with a post-June 1 designation, he'll give them $14.15 million in cap savings and cost them only $3.99 million of dead cap.

So it would seem more likely he will get designated as a post-June 1 cut.

The Bears are projected by Overthecap.com to have $34.7 million in effective cap space, the eighth most. If they cut Jackson it would really boost their coffers.

Another player they likely would looke to get off of their payroll is guard/center Cody Whitehair. By the end of the season, Whitehair had been benched. He doesn't give them as much cap relief but some. His departure is reported by Overthecap.com at $9.15 million in cap savings but $4.1 million in deadcap. If cut with a post-June 1 or simply done June 1, the savings is $10.25 million and $3 million in deadcap.

Jackson enjoyed a rebound season in 2022 despite playing in a new scheme. He had four interceptions in 12 games and was in position to make the Pro Bowl in voting for the first time since he went back-to-back in 2018 and 2019. His passer rating against when targeted was a very strong 66.4, per Sportradar.

Then Jackson, who is 30, suffered a season-ending foot injury.

This past season it went bad for him from Week 2 when he suffered another foot injury. Jackson missed the same number of games, five, and had one interception.

His passer rating against last season climbed back to 120.6, second-worst of his career. According to Sportradar, he missed on eight out of 45 tackle attempts for a percentage of 17.8. It was the highest missed tackle percentage of his career.

It hardly seemed a vote of confidence when GM Ryan Poles addressed his situation after the season.

"Yeah, I know dinged up a little bit there, but I thought where his impact is is really with (Jaquan) Brisker and the communication on the back end," Poles said. "When Eddie was in,

 you could tell Brisker felt really, really comfortable.

"Really that whole group, he really impacts the communication, and you could see that."

Communication is important but not so much that it can allow a team to keep a player in his 30s when he's going to cost them over $10 million in cap space.

"If Jackson were to be a salary cap cut victim, they'll need another safety. Seventh-round pick Elijah Hicks has been a fill-in the past two seasons but it's likely the Bears would look to the draft or to free agency to add help or a replacement at a vital position.