Chicago Bears — in restructuring contracts — have created some big cap changes, including the $30.3 million hit Khalil Mack will have in 2022

The Chicago Bears lowered Khalil Mack’s salary from $17.046 million to $1.075 million for the 2021 season in a group of restructurings done to create salary-cap room for this season — a move that will drive the outside linebacker’s cap hit north of $30 million beginning in 2022.

The Bears are pushing cap commitments into future years as they work to create operating space with the league year set to begin at 3 p.m. Wednesday.

The Bears restructured contracts for Mack, free safety Eddie Jackson and Cody Whitehair to create a little more than $23 million in space. These are not pay cuts but math exercises that will create larger cap hits moving forward. The Bears are expected to continue working to free up cap space for the coming season through restructurings or possibly extensions.

The second contract restructuring for Mack in three years dropped his salary-cap hit from $26.646 million to $13,869,200 for this season. In doing so, his cap hit climbs to $30,344,200 in 2022. According to spotrac.com, which has the restructuring details, that is the ninth-highest cap hit in the league for next season and the largest among non-quarterbacks. Mack’s cap hit in 2023 will be $28,694,200 and is scheduled to be $26,444,200 in 2024.

The 30-year-old Mack led the defense with nine sacks last season. The restructuring means there is almost no chance the Bears would include him in any trade talks involving a quarterback this offseason as the dead cap charge would be crippling. The Bears created $10.4 million in cap space in 2019 when they converted Mack’s base salary to bonus money, the first time he was restructured.

Per spotrac.com, Jackson’s base salary was lowered from $8.95 million to $990,000, and that lowered his cap charge for this season from $11.45 million to $5.082 million. In doing so, Jackson’s cap hit in 2022 rises from $13.5 million to $15.092 million. He is scheduled to have a $17.092 cap hit in 2023 and $18.142 million in 2024.

Whitehair’s base salary for this season was reduced from $6.5 million to $990,000, dropping his cap hit from $9.6 million to $5.192 million. His 2022 cap hit rises from $11.2 million to $12.302 million. He will have a cap hit of $14.102 million in 2023 and $13.252 million in 2024.

In essence, the Bears are using a credit card to pay their bills, and that will create cap issues for them in the future as the dip in the salary cap this season has hit some teams hard. The league set the 2021 salary cap at $182.5 million, a drop from $198.2 million in 2020. Considering that teams were operating at this time last year with the belief the cap would be closer to $210 million in 2021, the significant difference has put a squeeze on business at Halas Hall.

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