One Step Back for Bears
In this story:
Seeing all of the high-priced free agents signed by other teams, some in the NFC North, while the Bears stood idly by looking for table scraps still eats at many who follow the team.
Social media supplied their sounding board.
By now it must have dawned on those in denial that this truly is a complete rebuild. At least this is what constitutes a complete rebuild in the NFL during the modern free agency period.
Gone is the group of 30-something defensive players who comprise the heart of the 2018 defense. The only one left is Robert Quinn and he probably shouldn't get too comfortable with life in Chicago considering the cap savings the Bears achieve by cutting or trading him—doing either post-June 1 saves $12.9 million in cap space while costing only $4.2 million in dead cap.
They really don't have enough proven outside pass rushers so it wouldn't be out of the question for them to keep Quinn around one more season. However, waiting until next offseason to get rid of his contract will create $3.2 million less cap space and cost twice as much in dead cap.
The great fear, of course, is a team starts rebuilding and just keeps rebuilding without ever improving. The obvious example here is four straight seasons of last-place finishes by the Detroit Lions.
The Bears have become prime candidates for a last-place finish in 2022 as a result.
Someone can make money betting the under on their win total. Somehow Vegas failed to get the message about their rebuild and the early total came in at 7 1/2. No way.
Losing is not necessarily a bad thing. Doing it beyond 2022 would be the bad thing, but not for this one season while Poles plays demolition man and tears down the faulty edifice Pace constructed.
Embrace the bad Bears fans. The 2022 season will be necessarily difficult.
Here is why enduring this year without a really high-priced wide receiver, tackle or cornerback from free agency is necessary and good.
1. The Cap
Oh to have been a fly on the wall when Ryan Poles made his pitch to George McCaskey and said Olin Kreutz was right.
It was Kreutz, the former Bears great at center, who maintained all along as an NBC Sports Chicago analyst that former GM Ryan Pace overspent in free agency on the defensive side while greatly neglecting the offensive line. On a side note, it was Kreutz who also claimed the Bears tried paying him $15 an hour to be an assistant coach but that's irrelevant to this cap discussion. But he did cause McCaskey irritation with this revelation.
Pace overspent on the defensive side to retain or bring in additional help. He did it with Quinn when there were cheaper pass rushers available to replace Leonard Floyd, who they deemed not worth the $13 million he was due. The Rams have found otherwise. Ultimately they paid out the same kind of money for Quinn and the result has been one franchise record during a losing season and a two-sack effort during a wild-card season. Their defensive front seven weighed down the team's cap with bigger deals for Akiem Hicks, Khalil Mack, Quinn, Eddie Goldman and even Danny Trevathan. Then he balanced it out not with a big contract on offense but by giving Eddie Jackson a $58.4 million deal. The cold truth finally slapped Pace in the face when he had to cut another high-priced veteran reaching 30, Kye Fuller.
Pace badly mismanaged the salary cap by spending too much on the defense and by pushing too much payment off into future years with long-term prorated bonuses. Someone had to come in and clean up this financial mess.
According to Spotrac.com, the Bears will be counting dead cap money for 21 people, some still with the team but most no longer here.
2. The Aged
A player or two in their 30s is sufficient. Too many older players is playing with fire. They got burned last year. It's a young man's league.
Hicks missed eight starts. Trevathan missed 16 starts and 12 games. Gipson missed five starts. Mack missed 10 starts and 10 games.
None of those players were going to get younger this year.
3. The Future
This year is all about the future.
Cleaning house now without overspending becomes a huge amount of available cap space in 2023 and then better talent can be sought.
They're also going to need to pay players who deserve it so they can be part of the future. Roquan Smith doesn't even turn 25 until next month and they need to pay a young talent a ton of money without breaking their bank the way Pace was doing it. David Montgomery needs a deal, too, although it's debatable whether they'll actually give it to him considering how cheap teams have become when it comes to running backs. But coach Matt Eberflus recently spoke well of Montgomery in a podcast with Peter King and McCaskey spoke highly of him, so it's safe to assume they'll try to get him paid. They weren't getting either of these accomplished without gutting the roster.
At wide receiver it isn't wise to go out and sign a big-name veteran for more cash, or even a bargain rate. Short-term deals for marginal types makes more sense as the emphasis must be on the younger receivers coming in.
Deals like they've done with Byron Pringle and Equanimeous St. Brown are what they need because those players are not going to keep a draft pick benched. Veterans always command the playing time younger players need and the Bears are going to draft receivers. The point is to bring in a young receiver and develop him by letting him play. It isn't quarterback, where it's often said they benefit by watching for a while. The young receiver needs to be on the field and a stale old free agent receiver—either bargain priced or overpriced—is taking away developmental playing time from the young receiver.
They might bring a paltry win or two more for this season but in the end those reps they take away from the development of a younger receiver is detrimental for the team's future.
Another way Poles' approach is about the future is more draft picks. Signing fewer or lower-level free agents allows them more chances at compensatory draft picks. This is going to be a draft-based rebuild, the only kind that works for very long.
4. Different Approach
Teams get stale if they continue the same approach for too long. The Bears would have been playing that three-man base front with a two-gap style for eight years. Their offense never worked anyway. So they brought in a coach and assistants who were going to do something completely different. You can't do something different and use the same players.
The square pegs don't fit the round holes.
Football is not fantasy football. It isn't played on paper or in cyberspace. It's real athletes who do certain things better than others and are sought for those skills.
The Bears sought those players to implement a particular system and the new coaches and GM decided it ran its course. The new people in charge wanted to take it in a different direction and they were going to need to jettison as many players as possible to get different players suited to new systems.
5. Justin Fields
It really is all about Justin Fields. It's what can any particular player acquired do to help him.
Responsibly signing younger players who can be around a lot longer helps him more going forward.
Also, a quarterback is supposed to be the unquestioned leader of the team. Some veterans tend to usurp the authority of a player who is supposed to be the unquestioned leader in the locker room and on the field.
It's all about helping Fields, whether it's with his arm, legs or with his leadership.
If Fields' talent lets this reconstructed group overachieve and win a few more games than they deserve, then it's only going to reinforce his status as unquestioned leader of the team.
Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven
