Kahlil Bell didn’t want to make $700,000 from the Bears this year. So instead he’ll make zero from the Bears this year, and hope to make something from some other team.
Bell has been released after he was asked to take a pay cut and refused, according to Vaughn McClure of the Chicago Tribune. Bell had been scheduled to make $1.26 million this season, and the Bears asked him to play for $700,000 instead. Bell didn’t want to take a $560,000 pay cut, and so he asked the Bears to release him, and they did.
Bell, who has been with the Bears since he signed as an undrafted free agent out of UCLA in 2009, is apparently confident that some other team will pay him more than the Bears would have. Bell has shown some promise, including rushing for 121 yards in a Week 16 game against the Packers last season, but he has been ineffective during this year’s preseason.
The competition for the No. 3 running back position in Chicago, behind Matt Forte and Michael Bush, is now down to Lorenzo Booker and Armando Allen.