Everybody is focused on the NFL draft right now. That can be excused. The Chicago Bears have the #1 overall pick. So many things can happen when this is the case for a team. However, it’s easy to forget the team also has, by far, the most spending money of any club in the NFL. All that work Ryan Poles did in the past 12 months is coming into focus. Chicago currently projects to have $40 million in cap space more than the next closest team on the list. An easier translation is they’re going to do lots of spending.
One forgotten part of the NFL salary structure is that teams must spend at least 90% of their team cash. According to Pro Football Focus salary cap expert Brad Spielberger, the Bears are spending $93 million on their roster. To comply with the league rule, they will have to spend another $142-147 million this off-season to reach that minimum threshold. Translation? GM Ryan Poles will be throwing around plenty of new contracts in the next three months. That means re-signing current free agents, extending others on the roster, and of course, trying to land some of the top unrestricted free agents on the market.
The Chicago Bears could look radically different by May.
Half of their roster will enter free agency this spring. Some will be retained, but more than likely several will be gone. That is the price paid for being on the worst team in the NFL. Poles knows he is in a great position to be aggressive at upgrading his roster. He promised he wouldn’t spend recklessly in free agency. Spielberger pointed out the GM wouldn’t have to. He’d be able to front-load several deals to meet the cash requirements and still maintain loads of cap flexibility in the future. Yet it doesn’t change the fact Chicago will throw some big deals around.
Fans best be prepared. The fun question is who they will target. There are plenty of potential targets they can go after. It looks like a good year for defensive linemen, offensive linemen, and running backs. There are some underrated linebackers as well. The Chicago Bears are virtually sure to land one big name. A calculated guess says he will come in the trenches. Whatever they end up doing, it will set the stage for what should be the most crucial draft this franchise has conducted in a decade.
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