Why the Bears Won't Be Wheeling and Dealing

It's two weeks until the trade deadline so Bears social media will begin firing up with demands they deal for a wide receiver, any wide receiver.

They don't need a deadline to demand this or even the possibility of a trade, as pleas for the Bears to sign one of the unsigned wide receivers floating about have been common since last summer.

Expect nothing from them in this regard, even if it seems Justin Fields doesn't have open receivers often enough.

The reasons are obvious.

1. Receivers on the Roster

The reason the Bears haven't had sufficient production from wide receivers aside from Darnell Mooney is only partly due to a lack of quality at the positon. They haven't had the opportunity.

The emphasis at initially was on the running game and no one was getting receptions. Then they began to pass more but there hasn't been enough throws yet to see what all of the receivers are capable of, but these are only a small part of the issues to hit the passing game.

The main reason they wouldn't go after another receiver is they haven't even begun to find out what they have from the receivers on the roster.

Byron Pringle had two catches before a calf injury and he was supposed to be the No. 2 receiver. He'll eventually be back from the calf problem.

N'Keal Harry was their trade at receiver and the ankle injury robbed them of his services. It's going to take some time to get him involved in the offense. He wasn't even active the past two games when he was available. It could happen against his old team, the Patriots.

Then, Velus Jones Jr. has only begun to get involved in the passing game after he missed the first three games with a hamstring injury and had only a limited role as a rookie receiver since he began to play.

Why would they go out and make a deal for a receiver when there are three who really have yet to be involved.

For those who want the #Bears to trade for Robbie Anderson… idk man. https://t.co/ZlIyVwEt8M
— Aaron Leming (@AaronLemingNFL) October 16, 2022

2. Cap Situation

Trading for an established receiver comes with salary cap concerns on both sides, the player's prorated bonus coming immediately due against the cap for the trading team and if he's a decent player then the big salary being taken on by the Bears, who have $6.97 million in cap space available now according to Spotrac.com. The prorated bonus situation is the reason many trades don't come about.

A player many saw as a possible fit for the Bears in a deal was Kenny Golladay. He has been terrible with the Giants, has a knee injury now and costs too much. Any team trading more than a seventh-round pick for him would be taking a risk and then the cash situation of a $13.25 million salary for this season and even more in years to come makes a deal extremely unlikely, if not grounds for a GM firing.

The Giants seem to have a number of receivers who had become available but now Darius Slayton is finding purpose with a winning team, especially after the season-ending injury to Sterling Shepard.

Cap situations need to line up both ways for deals.

3. The Future

This team is all about the future in a rebuild.

GM Ryan Poles covets draft picks for next year. He had to settle for three picks between rounds two and three this year and a group of picks fifth round or later.

They already are without a sixth-round pick for 2023, having traded it away for two seventh-round picks this year.

They're not dealing away draft picks for receivers someone else wants to discard, unless it's a talented player on his first contract. If that's the case, no one is trading the player anyway.

They can find their own receiver next spring and not have to make a trade.

This team is all about the future. They're not making rash moves to try to win a game or two more this year when they can bring in talent without throwing away the future in the next draft.

4. Other Means Available

The are other ways to get a receiver without trading away draft picks if they felt this was a pressing problem. It's obvious they don't because they haven't made such a signing.

Specifically, there are a handful of unsigned veteran receivers who would want money that would push their cap situation near zero available.

The big name among those is Odell Beckham Jr. Coming off knee surgery and in physical shape no one can be certain about right now, he'd want big money they won't have until next year, and also wouldn't want to come to Chicago anyway. His idea is joining a contender this year to try and win another Super Bowl. He doesn't want to participate in a ground-floor rebuild.

Other veterans like T.Y. Hilton and Will Fuller are unsigned and will remain so by the Bears because if they really wanted those players they could have brought them in any time but haven't. They're flawed.

So what it boils down to is they covet the draft picks, don't want to deal them away and obviously don't want to spend money for one of the veterans available because they don't fit the Bears' ground-floor rebuild scenario or are deemed players not worth paying out cash to acquire.

5. Doesn't Fit the Program

Some veteran players who might be available and fit cap-wise just wouldn't suit what the Bears are trying to accomplish either because of their type of skills or their attitude.

Robbie Anderson is a player often mentioned as trade bait by Carolina but he'll be 30 years old next season, doesn't block and that's a requirement for Bears receivers, plus he has problems now doing what the coaching staff asks. Imagine him trying to adhere to the HITS principle.

So save yourself the tweets. None of it is happening.

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