Chicago Tribune<\/a> they don\u2019t see it happening. It is necessarily because the Bears can\u2019t afford it. There are always ways to find the money. This is more about the reality that this 2026 crop of veteran players isn\u2019t worth what it would take to sign them.<\/p>\nThe Bears are more likely to search for bargains and focus on the draft.<\/p>\n
When I say nothing would surprise me, some will interpret that as code for a splash move in the weeks and months to come. Trade for a marquee defensive lineman? Make a power-play move in free agency? Don\u2019t rule anything out, but I\u2019d probably set odds against both\u2026<\/p>\n
\u2026It also wouldn\u2019t surprise me if the Bears pick their spots in free agency \u2014 there isn\u2019t an overwhelming crop of star players who will be available \u2014 and focus on adding another strong draft class.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot a great year for free agency,\u201d one general manager said Tuesday as he walked into Whitney Hancock Stadium for practice. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t want to count on turning around my team with guys you\u2019re going to wind up having to overpay to sign.\u201d<\/p>\n
Added an assistant GM: \u201cThis is really what free agency has kind of become. Look back over the past couple years. The guys that are actually available, it\u2019s really never a list that\u2019s going to blow you away. It\u2019s the old deal where you\u2019re better off with the devil you know than the devil you don\u2019t. So teams are re-signing their own guys and there just aren\u2019t many guys in their prime, healthy and coming off productive seasons that are even out there.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen you have to pay such a premium to have a chance for the guys that might fit that profile and are really good players that haven\u2019t reached (age) 30. That\u2019s why most teams, the good ones that have a clue what the hell they are doing, they really pick and choose.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Chicago Bears are finally positioned to maximize their drafts.<\/p>\n
Part of the problem in recent years has been their inability to develop young players properly. A regular succession of underqualified head coaches played a big part in that. Only since Johnson arrived have things begun to turn. Colston Loveland, Luther Burden, and Kyle Monangai were instant hits as rookies. Ozzy Trapilo looked like a starter as well before his knee injury. That is already looking like the best draft class the Bears have produced in the past decade. If they can keep up the momentum with another strong one this April, they\u2019ll be well-positioned for a run.<\/p>\n
The obvious challenge is draft position. Unlike previous years, the Chicago Bears will be picking in the later part of every round. That means Poles, his scouts, and the coaches must do some of their best evaluating to find good players. The last time they picked in the final third of the 1st round, they ended up with Gabe Carimi. While not the sole reason for the Bears\u2019 eventual decline in the mid-2010s, that accelerated it. If this team wants to clear the final hurdle, they must secure two or three good players in this upcoming class.<\/p>\n
\ud83d\udd25 Subscribe to the Untold Chicago YouTube channel<\/a> to hear Chicago legends tell stories you\u2019ve never seen in headlines \u2014 real moments, real experiences, straight from the athletes themselves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Chicago Bears are closed. They were maybe 15-20 yards away from reaching the NFC Championship this season.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":329362,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2070],"tags":[374,692,391,2493,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-718440","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-bears","8":"tag-bears","9":"tag-chicago","10":"tag-chicago-bears","11":"tag-chicagobears","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115988288445482960","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/718440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=718440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/718440\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/329362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=718440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=718440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=718440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}