Wholesale Rebuild for Bears Has Drawback
Did Bears GM Ryan Poles do the right thing with his rebuild by gutting the roster to open up cap space well into the future?
There are several ways to rebuild a team and in Minnesota Kwesi Adofo-Mensah took a different approach by losing some veterans and using the rest to form the base for the rebuild.
However, the Vikings had something worth preserving in their passing attack. The Bears had no offense and a defense deteriorating rapidly due to age. So Poles' moves made sense.
Or did they?
Pro Football Focus cap maven Brad Spielberger assessed all the teams' cap situations for the next three years to find out who is best set up for success and his study actually revealed the trade-off made by the Bears, as well as the poor job done by the Ryan Pace regime.
The study shows the Bears are No. 1 in the league now in cap space for the next three years starting with 2022 at $274,609,465.
However, in getting rid of all the talent they had, the Bears rank last in veteran valuation for their top 51 on the roster over the next three years. In short, there's nothng left in the barn.
As a result, the Bears are ranked only 19th overall in their outlook for the three years.
So the trade off obviously for the Bears was made with an eye on the future, if not the long-range future. They have the most ability to pay people but they also have the most people to pay.
"Despite all of these moves, Chicago still ranks 29th in active draft capital after the prior regime traded away picks like they were going out of style," Spielberger wrote.
So the Bears didn't just fail to support Justin Fields for this year by letting Allen Robinson leave while going to a younger and less accomplished line. They also failed to bring in enough talent to back the entire team. It explains the long odds they are said to face this yeare.
Compartively within the NFC North, the Lions are 12th and the Vikings 14th overall while the Packers are 28th based on their cap commitment, largely to Aaron Rodgers.
The Lions will have the 13th most cap spae next year but they also have the 26th best veteran valuation for 2022 and ninth-best in 2023. The Vikings are are 21st in cap space but are 18th and 10th in their valuations over the next two years .
It amounts to a trade-off by the Bears and the bottom line is Poles has bet on himself and the ability of his staff to come up with real talent to replace what was lost, without swinging and missing too many times.
It is in this way they make up for the huge hole Spielberger says exists on their roster.
On the positive side, there is always the hope Poles knows what he is doing and can hit on picks in much the way Pace used to whiff on them.
"There is plenty more work to be done in the Windy City, but the franchise finally has the resources to do it," Spielberger concludes.
Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven
