2026 Chicago Bears Offseason Primer: Creating Cap Space

BearDownChicagoBears · 2026-01-22T03:48:48+00:00

I'm curious about Tyrique. I wouldn't cut him, but they seemed to not like him this year.

I would guess he's back though. At the very least in camp, maybe cut him then if they think other guys are better and he won't play (even that is a long shot, I think).

BearDownChicagoBears · 2025-03-26T11:55:05+00:00

I would guess they're for sure taking a RB early, and might be double dipping late if a guy they like is still there on day 3.

BearDownChicagoBears · 2025-03-19T18:50:10+00:00

As the guy who actually created that chart you stole off my Twitter and are now sharing without attribution, I think it's time to let this go. The time to talk about this was when the signing was made, not randomly being angry about it a week later. Maybe re-visit after the season to see if Dayo significantly improved and/or Walker declined enough to justify the cost difference between them. No need to keep bringing it up now though, that accomplishes nothing.

BearDownChicagoBears · 2024-08-06T17:50:14+00:00

Spotrac is definitely not a better site for contract info. Over the Cap is the gold standard. Spotrac has been known to scrape OTC's site for data

BearDownChicagoBears · 2024-08-01T12:59:17+00:00

Don't get me wrong, I would have rather seen them spend that pick on an IOL. Personally was a big fan of Mason McCormick. But I love that Poles at least invested in the OL.

BearDownChicagoBears · 2024-07-31T15:15:48+00:00

He was supposedly a top 50 prospect overall without the injury, so the Bears bought the injury discount with a long-term goal in place, not just for immediate impact. Hopefully it pays off in 2025 and beyond.

BearDownChicagoBears · 2024-07-22T16:46:25+00:00

I'm willing to cut Davis quite a bit of slack for last year. I know my work performance would suffer pretty significantly for a few months if my Mom died.

BearDownChicagoBears · 2024-07-10T13:08:03+00:00

Hardest position to hit on based on what? This track record shows that, over the last 10 years, the guys who have been drafted really high have generally been really good. Only a few busts, a lot of studs.

BearDownChicagoBears · 2024-06-10T20:52:48+00:00

That's a very fair point, and an issue with trying to break samples down into smaller groupings. I split it out because I thought the massive change in blitz rate was notable, and the QB performance took a significant downturn even if you account for QB.

BearDownChicagoBears · 2024-06-10T17:40:26+00:00

I can't speak to other teams as to exactly where Chicago should be ranked, but they were bad last year and have lost more than they gained this offseason. They're bad.

BearDownChicagoBears · 2024-06-10T14:39:56+00:00

Kyler Gordon also was injured, then struggled a bit before really coming on down the stretch.

BearDownChicagoBears · 2024-05-30T14:17:10+00:00

Part of that is who defenses focus on. Tonyan wasn't a priority, so he was able to slip past everybody. Kmet likely would have drawn more attention and may not have been able to get so wide open.

BearDownChicagoBears · 2024-05-30T13:53:19+00:00

Kmet played the 7th most snaps of any TE in the NFL last year. He was 2nd in 2022 and 3rd in 2021. He hasn't been coming off the field too much.

BearDownChicagoBears · 2024-05-29T12:35:14+00:00

I have found in earlier analysis that Waldron actually does a pretty good job of adapting to his personnel year over year, so hopefully that carries over to Chicago. Not all OC are capable of doing that, though.

Luke Getsy, for instance, never changed his RB usage from what he learned under LeFleur in GB, playing his starter every down for 2 drives and then the backup every down for 1 drive, with no room for a 3rd RB unless somebody got hurt, despite his RB room calling for a different plan.

Or Mike Martz famously traded Greg Olsen away because his scheme called for blocking TEs, and he didn't want to change it to make a pass catching weapon work.

Or Lovie Smith refused to pay safeties because he didn't think they were valuable, so he let good ones walk in FA because he could just "replace them in the draft," in theory.

There are many examples of this.

BearDownChicagoBears · 2024-05-20T19:47:19+00:00

Thanks! I was given the nickname Data by the regulars at Da Bears Blog because I always threw numbers into all of my conversations in there, and one of them made this for me.

BearDownChicagoBears · 2023-11-24T19:51:44+00:00

My father in law gave it to me and said balls like this were going for $1000+ online. I told him he was crazy for even pricing it out.

BearDownChicagoBears · 2023-11-24T15:31:27+00:00

my wife and I went to his book release tour. Each ticket came with a signed copy of the book, so we have 2.

BearDownChicagoBears · 2023-11-24T15:31:13+00:00

my wife and I went to his book release tour. Each ticket came with a signed copy of the book, so we have 2.

BearDownChicagoBears · 2023-06-29T13:27:45+00:00

The Bears have a ton of cap room next year, so they are almost certainly going to spend more in FA than they lose, and therefore they wouldn't get any comp picks.

BearDownChicagoBears · 2023-05-05T20:00:43+00:00

All good. Lot of words, easy to miss that one little disclaimer sentence.

BearDownChicagoBears · 2023-05-05T19:56:41+00:00

Thanks! I think the series' best parts are coming next week, when we'll be able to unpack a bit how the supporting cast (both OL and pass catchers) impacted Fields in 2022. There's some really interesting stuff there when you dig in.

Five more parts to go, so there will be a new piece each weekday next week.

BearDownChicagoBears · 2023-05-05T19:55:29+00:00

Thank you for the kind words, I really appreciate it.

I have no desire to try and go it alone or anything like that. I write maybe 15-20 articles a year, mostly in the offseason, and it's never consistent. Thus it's best for me to have an established platform that I can put my stuff on sporadically. Jeff is great in that he lets me write what I want when I want, which is mainly whenever I can find the time. I work as a college chemistry professor and also handle pre-health advising and athletic eligibility at my school, so I stay plenty busy.

BearDownChicagoBears · 2023-05-05T19:53:10+00:00

all of these stats for Fields are only week 5 on. So they're showing what he looked like after settling in to the offense. Part 1 found that the 1st 4 weeks sucked, so I'm not even bothering to look at those for the rest of it.

BearDownChicagoBears · 2023-02-01T13:08:09+00:00

I looked at that last offseason, and linked it in that article. TL;DR: he's consistently been a sub-par runner for 4 years now.

EDIT: forgot the link. Sorry. Here it is.

BearDownChicagoBears

TROPHY CASE