The Bears have come up with a more creative and less expensive way of keeping free-agent cornerback Kyle Fuller.
They placed the rarely used transition tag on Fuller just hours before the Tuesday deadline, rather than using the more expensive franchise tag or letting one of their most valuable defensive players leave as an unrestricted free agent.
The transition tag guarantees Fuller $12.971 million in 2018 (the average of the top 10 CB salaries), and it gives the Bears time to work out a long-term deal with their best cornerback from 2017. Other teams can pursue Fuller with long-term deals, but the Bears retain the right to match any offer and keep Fuller, which they would certainly do, provided the offer wasn’t exorbitant.