{"id":756896,"date":"2026-02-16T22:44:25","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T22:44:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/756896\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T22:44:25","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T22:44:25","slug":"kirk-cousins-alvin-kamara-among-notable-nfc-cut-candidates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/756896\/","title":{"rendered":"Kirk Cousins, Alvin Kamara among notable NFC cut candidates"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Johnson played five solid years for the Bears, earning consecutive Pro Bowl selections in 2023 and 2024, before missing the majority of the 2025 campaign with a severe groin injury. He was largely considered a top-10 cornerback entering last season &#8212; though his contract lands just outside that range, with his $19 million average annual value ranking 13th at the position. So, why is he a cut candidate? Well, there are surprising cuts every offseason, and they usually come down to money. Johnson carries a $24.5 million cap hit in 2026, and the Bears could save $15.5 million by designating him as a post-June 1 release (their most lucrative option for that designation). Also, Johnson\u2019s 58.7 overall defensive grade from PFF ranked 64th out of 98 corners with 400+ snaps in 2025, and his 12.2 yards allowed per target was seventh-most among corners with 20+ targets. He is still young (27 years old in April), but Chicago could do a lot with that cap space if GM Ryan Poles decides Johnson\u2019s not worth the price tag anymore.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Johnson played five solid years for the Bears, earning consecutive Pro Bowl selections in 2023 and 2024, before&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":756897,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2076],"tags":[6912,2825,90,390,254,4752,5305,6731,391,3744,257,4753,6709,15906,7,345,757,16149,5394,294,7185,1241,259,896,55,2572,2571,6,609,109,397,252,9250,7401,111],"class_list":{"0":"post-756896","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-orleans-saints","8":"tag-aaron-jones","9":"tag-alvin-kamara","10":"tag-analysis","11":"tag-arizona-cardinals","12":"tag-atlanta-falcons","13":"tag-bilal-nichols","14":"tag-brandon-aiyuk","15":"tag-bryce-huff","16":"tag-chicago-bears","17":"tag-cole-kmet","18":"tag-dallas-cowboys","19":"tag-dalvin-tomlinson","20":"tag-darnell-mooney","21":"tag-elgton-jenkins","22":"tag-football","23":"tag-green-bay-packers","24":"tag-james-conner","25":"tag-jaylon-johnson","26":"tag-kenny-clark","27":"tag-kirk-cousins","28":"tag-marshon-lattimore","29":"tag-michael-carter-ii","30":"tag-minnesota-vikings","31":"tag-new-orleans","32":"tag-new-orleans-saints","33":"tag-neworleans","34":"tag-neworleanssaints","35":"tag-nfl","36":"tag-no-minute","37":"tag-philadelphia-eagles","38":"tag-saints","39":"tag-san-francisco-49ers","40":"tag-t-j-hockenson","41":"tag-tremaine-edmunds","42":"tag-washington-commanders"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/756896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=756896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/756896\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/756897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=756896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=756896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=756896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}