With no 1st round pick in 2022, the Chicago Bears will have to get creative if they wish to upgrade their roster. Their best hope might be free agency. This probably isn’t the ideal solution since older teams tend not to do great when forced to spend significant amounts of money year after year. Yet that doesn’t change the facts. Unless the organization is willing to bite the bullet and play it cheap for a year, this is likely where they can be the most aggressive.
The big question many have is what sort of cash will teams be working with? That depends on the likely salary cap ceiling the NFL will set. The higher, the better. Chicago’s payroll problems began this year due to COVID-19 slamming league pockets because of empty stadiums. That dropped the overall cap by $16 million. This forced the Bears into some tough decisions, headlined by their releases of Kyle Fuller and Charles Leno Jr. Thankfully it seems things are on the rebound according to Ian Rapoport of NFL.com.
“The NFL’s salary cap is set to get back on track in 2022 — and spending should be back as well, with another anticipated jump in the cap for 2023.
Sources say next season’s cap is expected to reach the $208.2 million maximum agreed upon by the NFL and NFL Players Association in May. The final number has not been officially announced, but it’s expected to be revealed at the NFL’s annual labor seminar next week.”
This is a significant development.
Presuming this holds true, it means the Bears will be looking at somewhere in the vicinity of $42 million in cap space at the start of the league year next March. The 11th most in the league based on Overthecap.com projections. It will come down to whether they try to create more before that. This could prove challenging. As of now, Chicago is projected to have no fewer than 25 unrestricted free agents next offseason. Allen Robinson and Akiem Hicks are among them.
Combine this with likely extensions they’ll need to hand out to Roquan Smith, James Daniels, and Bilal Nichols? The amount of spending money could dry up fast before the market even opens. Cutting or trading somebody else on the roster to create more sounds logical, but it would also just open another hole that will need filling.
Subscribe to the BFR podcast and ride shotgun with Dave and Ficky as they break down Bears football like nobody else.
Chicago Bears may have to be a bit thrifty
That means shopping in the bargain section next offseason. While everybody is no doubt hoping for a big splash or two, the reality is this team isn’t in a position to do so. GM Ryan Pace spent the past two years trying to cover up previous mistakes with big free agent swings and blockbuster trades. Now the Bears are the second oldest team in football with a payroll that is significantly hindered by dead cap hits.
For example, trading Khalil Mack seems like a fine idea. Except if they did so it would slap their books with $27 million in dead money. That isn’t happening. The same goes for Robert Quinn who would bring $12.7 million in dead money. Outside of maybe Eddie Goldman, they just don’t have many assets they can unload for a decent cap space return and passable dead money hit.
This is the price they’re paying for COVID and Pace’s reckless spending.
A lot of this will come down to whether Pace is the GM that tries to navigate it. Recent rumors suggest that may not be the case. A new GM might prove considerably different in thought process. Both in which players to keep and what sort of spending (if any) the team will do come the spring.