Setting the Bears House in Order

Free agency begins in one month with the legalized tampering period.

In essence, that is the beginning of free agency because March 15 is when signings officially occur but those are formalities. The real talking starts March 13.

Because the Bears have the most money available under the salary cap, it's safe to assume they'll spend more than many teams and certainly more than last year.

The process is the same, though. They already did their assessment of the free agency class.

"The approach is the same," GM Ryan Poles said at season's end. "We're gonna evaluate the players. We're gonna put them in certain value buckets and we're gonna attack it and get as many good players in here as possible."

While tackling this task, teams usually start with their own free agents first. With those, it's the higher priced players who get consideration.

Priority 1: David Montgomery

Their only pending free agent of pressing significance is their starting running back. The fact they haven't signed him at this point indicates a bigger difference between what he sets as his own value and what the team believes is adequate compensation.

Poles has already said he wants Montgomery back but needs to find "common ground," which is an ambiguous term.

For Roquan Smith, there was no common ground in Chicago. Will they find it for Montgomery?

Common ground for running backs is an extremely difficult target to achieve when the supply of potential ball carriers from the draft increases each year and the importance of one single running back seems to decrease so much.

Teams believe in numerous ball carriers now, and those who are versatile are valued most. Load backs mean nothing now.

Only one running back has gained 100 yards in the last eight Super Bowls. That's 16 teams and only one back with 100 yards. He wasn't even the top back on the team's roster when the season started.

It was former Bears running back Damien Williams with 104 yards for the Chiefs in Kansas City's win for the 2019 season over San Francisco. He was a backup for KC.

On Sunday, the leading Super Bowl rusher was Isiah Pacheco with 76 yards. He was a seventh-round draft choice who was supposed to be a back who got a few carries a game in relief of Clyde Edwards-Helaire as the Chiefs started training camp. Now Edwards-Helaire is being talked about in Kansas City as a player who might not even be on the team next year.

The bottom line is this needs to be considered first because it's one of their players but doesn't look like a big priority to resolve immediately. They could otherwise look for a back in the draft or a bargain or wait it out.

Sadly, a player who gives everything to the team like Montgomery is underappreciated but it's the way of the NFL now with backs.

What could happen here is that once the Montgomery issue is prioritized, they'll simply wait it out to see what he is offered elsewhere and then determine whether it's a figure they don't want to match. He would, in effect, become a restricted free agent except without the compensation for losing him.

Priority 2: Offensive Line

Of all the positions where a team can advance most in free agency, the offensive line spots are tops.

A good example is Pro Football Focus' list of the worst five free agent signings of 2022. There were no offensive linemen among the worst signings but PFF did call the $75 million deal left tackle Terron Armstead signed with Miami and the $14 million deal Dolphins center Connor Williams signed as among the best of last offseason.

The offensive line positions often take a few years to work into but once linemen are playing at NFL levels they're pretty interchangable between teams. It doesn't take a long adjustment period to fit into a new scheme like it can with a wide receiver or quarterback.

The wide zone blocking scheme is the wide zone. It's not that much different with another team. Once they know how to do it against NFL defensive players, they know how. Signing talented offensive linemen in free agency is often preferable to drafting them because of the great amount of development time required.

The Bears could upgrade in any of the five line positions but particularly right tackle.

Priority 3: Defensive Line

Defensive line in free agency normally is a little less dependable. Teams can tend to go hunting for sacks and not traits leading to sacks or pressures. Sacks can very greatly from year to year.

Take Robert Quinn, for example: one sack in 2020, 18 1/2 sacks in 2021, one sack in 2022.

Teams need ideal fits for edge players and interior linemen in their systems. There are defensive interior fits as one-gap linemen or two-gappers, as well as with edge rushers. So the chances for mis-judging talent is greater.

Still, it's more plug-and-play than signing quarterback or receivers can be in free agency.

If a new quarterback or receiver isn't working with the offense in OTAs and minicamp or even offseason on their own, it's a real setback in terms of timing and learning the routes against specific defenses.

Linemen on both sides of the ball are not as limited by their roles.

Priority 4: Linebacker

Normally signing one good receiver would rate higher but the Bears are down in numbers for linebackers under contract.

Jack Sanborn is the only one they have who can start and even with him it's debatable whether he is an answer as a starter or as the backup in the middle after just six starts. Plus, he was undrafted.

They can be expected to look at this position in the draft. With Nicholas Morrow a free agent, and not especially elite as an undrafted player himself, the Bears will need to delve into linebacker free agency for quality and possibly quantity.

Priority 5: Receiver

This rates lower than linebacker because they have receivers under contract—perhaps not the ones some people want to see paired with Justin Fields but at least there are people who can play. They have almost no linebackers while using a defense requiring three for the base scheme.

They already retained receiver Equanimeous St. Brown but need someone else as N'Keal Harry, Byron Pringle and Dante Pettis are all unrestricted. It's a lower priority because they could simply decide this is a position to address in the draft since the Chase Claypool trade brought them one of their starters for 2023.

Perhaps a receiver who can return punts would be signed. They're without a punt returner at the moment.

Priority 6: Tight End

Sign tight end help. Anyone. The Ryan Griffin and Trevon Wesco combo behind Cole Kmet didn't work and both are out of contract Their undrafted rookies on the practice squad produced nothing, either.

Priority 7: Cornerback

It's not necessarily a low need but signing free agent cornerbacks can be an extremely expensive proposition and they Bears need to get money to one of their own cornerbacks. Jaylon Johnson is in line for a contract extension. Like with linebacker, receiver and tight end, this could be a position they draft for because the need is there. They do have players who can handle the position like Kindle Vildor, Jaylon Jones and Josh Blackwell but higher draft pedigree could be helpful whether it's through a free agent or the draft itself.

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