Aaron Leming Comment about rosters and salary cap

I thought he made an interesting observation. He said two things are true:

(1) every team has multiple starters playing on rookie contracts. The key here is identifying what players are worth that second contract (and hence a pay raise equal to what other starters at his position make--ie a vet G on his second contract is making more than a G on his rookie  contract) and what players/positions can be filled by another rookie contract.

(2) The salary cap is more flexible that we as fans think. There are ways to create space and the future can always be pushed back (until the TV money changes and the cap does down).

Its interesting to me to see how any players the Bears have on rookie contracts and then try and figure out who can be replaced by another rookie contract instead of upgrading to a vet min.

I'm at work so I may miss someone but I see these guys on rookie contracts:

OFF
QB Mitch
RB Howard
RB Cohen
TE Shaneen
WR Miller
G Daniels
C Whitehair

DEF
DL Nichols
OLB Floyd
ILB Smith
FS Jackson
SS Amos

An interesting discussion could be had around projecting who gtrs resigned and who gets replaced by either a draft pick or vet min.We can also add a list of guys making the vet min and seeing if they can be replaced by a rookie contract.