GM Ryan Pace made it clear what his stance will be this offseason. “If you’re not getting better, you’re getting worse.” His mission is the same as it has always been. Find a way to make the Chicago Bears better. He did magnificently at that in 2018, turning them into a 12-4 team that won the NFC North for the first time in eight years.
That’s the past now though. Expectations are far higher in 2019. Fans and many in the media see this as a team that’s capable of going to the Super Bowl. They have the best defense in the league, a head coach with a craft offensive scheme and a young quarterback with plenty of talent coming off his first Pro Bowl trip.
However, they still lost in the wild card round. So for as good as they may be, they aren’t good enough. That means there’s obvious urgency to get better. It’s a question of how? That’s the problem. Improving a roster requires resources. In this case money and draft picks. Both of which the Bears currently find themselves in short supply.
In cases such as this, teams have often become more aggressive towards the most unheralded part of the offseason process: undrafted free agency.
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Ryan Pace now knows that Bears are a hot destination for undrafted players
Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune brought up a good point about it. Essentially the Bears are unlikely to add many new faces in either unrestricted free agency or the draft due to having limited cap space and only five picks. This should open up avenues for players who go undrafted to have opportunities.
“Typically, the Bears have looked to sign 12 to 15 undrafted free agents each year. With a shortage of picks this year, they might look for 15 to 18 UDFAs. Given their track record of giving undrafted players a legitimate chance to compete for jobs, they should be an attractive landing spot for some potential diamonds in the rough.”
He’s not wrong. Last year in 2018, the Tennessee Titans made just four picks in the entire draft. To compensate? They signed a staggering 22 undrafted free agents. Several of them ended up making the team and made modest contributions to their season. This is potentially big in regards to the Bears for two reasons.
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– Pace has a history of being quite good at uncovering talented undrafted players
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– The Bears currently have just 48 players under contract
Pace has already added a number of good players from the undrafted ranks including Bryce Callahan, Roy Robertson-Harris, and Cameron Meredith. Not to mention Ben Braunecker to a lesser extent. He has a keen eye for talent. Throw in the fact that the team is currently 42 players away from filling out their needed 90-man roster for training camp and it’s not hard to see why undrafted players might love the chance to join this team.
Not only would they get an actual opportunity to make the roster, but they could also win right away. It’s a no brainer in that regard.
