Chicago Bears: Expect A New Approach To The Offseason

The NFL offseason will be in full swing soon. The new league year begins on March 15th. With that, free agency begins. Then, on April 27th, the NFL Draft starts. Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Poles is hoping to start the rebuild in earnest after laying the foundation in 2022.

Last offseason, Poles shed a lot of salary by cutting or trading away some of the most popular veterans. He then proceeded to sign lower-quality and young, unproven players.

As a result, the Bears finished the season 3-14. In the process, though, Poles accumulated about $94.6 million in salary cap space. That is, by a wide margin, the largest space in the league. He also has the number one overall pick.

For the past three or four decades the Chicago Bears have basically been irrelevant. Sure, there were some good seasons here and there, but they were too few and far between. They have not been consistent playoff contenders and other teams leapfrogged over them.

Now the Bears are known as a has-been franchise. A team with a great past but nothing else.

Poles wants to change things around Halas Hall

Poles came over last year and wants to change all of that. He wants to build a full roster that contends for years to come. He hopes to return the Chicago Bears to relevancy.

Poles keeps emphasizing how important it is to build through the draft. He wants to have as many picks as possible. We saw that when he took the five picks he had in last year’s draft and turned them into 11. With the top overall pick, he looks to acquire not only more picks in this draft but also in the upcoming drafts.

Poles feels comfortable that he can acquire first-round picks in 2024 and 2025. That means he’ll have four first-round picks in the next two seasons to work with. That is quite a change for a team that had four first-round picks in the past seven drafts. This is what he said about the pick.

No one’s gonna rush me. I know I can get a ’24 one and a ’25 one. You’re telling me for the next two years I’ll have two ones? That’s either four really good players, or if we’re cruising, we can still trade back.

That was interesting. By saying he feels he can get 2024 and 2025 ones it means he likely already has that on the table. It will be an interesting draft, to say the least.

Draft isn’t the end-all, be-all

While Poles emphasizes the draft, free agency is important as well. Slashing salaries and having the largest space is an example of how important free agency is.

It is critical that the team has some veterans who could fit into the roster. The veterans already have an idea of playing in the NFL. They could help the rookies get into the NFL life. The free agents add instant help. Most of the rookies need seasoning before they become key contributors.

With all of the money Poles has to work with, he can hasten the rebuild. He can fill multiple spots. Additionally, he can go in on any free agent he feels is a “must-have” player.

Don’t expect a wild spending spree, however. The Bears have holes all over the roster. In addition to finding quality starters, they need quality backups as well. That is a tall order.

One of the reasons the Chicago Bears have been irrelevant is the previous general managers’ attempts to make big, splashy signings. They weren’t shy about spending big money on big names.

That approach didn’t work, however. While they had a couple of big names on the roster, the rest of it lacked talent. We’ve seen teams with superstars who led them into the playoffs, but only sporadically.

In the past three decades, the Bears made only eight playoff appearances. In those, they won just four games. Half of those wins came during their Super Bowl run in 2006. As I said, irrelevant.

Poles wants to build a consistent winning team so we shouldn’t expect a huge amount of spending in the first wave of free agency. That approach isn’t working. Expect him to sign a lot of second-level type of players who might not be superstars but who are big contributors.

Poles might not make the big splash signing, but he will make a large number of secondary signings that will strengthen the roster. The roster will be more complete instead of spotty with a couple of stars.

Some of the fans will be disappointed with this offseason. They see all the available money and the top pick in the draft and have high expectations. Some of those expectations are unrealistic. Yes, Poles can turn this team into a playoff contender in 2023 as the Jacksonville Jaguars did.

Last year, the Jaguars had the most salary cap space available and the number one pick as well. They then went on and won the AFC South. They even won their first-round game in dramatic fashion. This year, however, they find themselves $17.9 million over the salary cap.

Poles wants to have the success Jacksonville had without having to go through the hardship they face just one year later. The Jaguars went with big signings in 2022 and it worked but to a point. They now have to part ways with some of the players who helped them win.

Poles wants a more sensible approach so that he could sign and keep players for a few seasons and have drafted players who could step up and take over.

This is an impactful offseason. Poles wants to create a new era of consistently winning football product in Chicago. We’ll see the first steps in about a week.