Bear Digest

The Lesson for Bears About Cap Spending from Two Super Bowl Teams

The way the Bears spent their money this year didn't look as wise as the way the Patriots and Seahawks did, even though they had much more to spend.
Gene Chamberlain|
Running back Zach Charbonnet of Seattle carries against the Bears defense in 2024.
Running back Zach Charbonnet of Seattle carries against the Bears defense in 2024. | Daniel Bartel-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

You get what you pay for is an expression not entirely accurate, and especially in the NFL.

There is no official salary cap for life, but there is for NFL teams. They spend on what they need in order to be successful.

The Bears and GM Ryan Pols decided to spend in their own distinctive way and reached the divisional playoffs. Seattle and New England, like the Bears, are very early in their coaching regimes but spent differently. Much of the spending was determined long before Ben Johnson became coach.

Here's how the Bear spent their cap money in the 2025 season compared to the two Super Bowl teams based on Spotrac.com figures.

Apparently those teams knew a little more about what kind of talent it takes, how to get more out of the players and how much to pay for it. They also distributed the cost into the future better than the Bears.

The QBs

Team spending in the NFL usually is greatly determined by how much a team must spend on one position. That's quarterback, of course. Veteran QBs eat so much cap space. This Super Bowl is a rare cheapo QB battle. The Bears are like these teams in this way, for now.

All three teams paid relatively little for players at this position. Caleb Williams and Drake Maye have a way to go yet for that big pay day. Seattle went a different way by bringing in a rehab project in Sam Darnold. Although he got paid, he's not going to be in the same category as the highly paid vets and less of his contract could count against the cap in Year 1.

QB tally: Seahawks $17.8 million, Bears $12.8 million, Patriots $12.3 million.

Big Bears offensive emphasis

The Bears spent much more for wide receivers. This was mainly because DJ Moore's veteran deal stands out, although the Patriots do have Stefon Diggs. However, here is where the way the cap can be twisted with new acquisitions became a factor. Diggs' contract counted only $10.5 million in cap space this season, but then balloons to the range of Moore's next year.  It was the same way for the Bears with Joe Thuney's deal as he counted only $8 million in cap hit in 2025 but it will be $21.5 million next season.

The Bears spent the most of the three teams at tight end because of Cole Kmet's extension.

Their extensive offensive line turnover this year pushed them far past the Seahawks and Patriots for costs.

New England's Rhamondre Stevenson didn't quite reach the level of D'Andre Swift but the Patriots' second back was a second-round draft pick, TreVyon Henderson, while the Bears' was seventh-rounder Kyle Monangai. Seventh-round picks usually get little respect and always little money.

Seattle's youth on the offensive line meant an expenditure of only $25.2 million, while the Patriots came in nearly at the Bears' level, just $7.6 million less but almost double Seattle's tally. Just wait until Darnell Wright's contract extension. The Bears already were at $54 million and change for 2026 just between Jonah Jackson, Thuney and Drew Dalman, and then in the near future will have the cost of a big ticket tackle.

It becomes easy to see their solution with Ozzy Trapilo out for this year at left tackle will need to be either Joe Thuney, Kiran Amegadjie or a pick from later in the draft where cost is cheaper.

RB tally: Patriots $14.3 million, Bears $13.6 million, Seahawks $6.7 million.

WR tally: Bears $35.5 million, Seahawks $19.0 million, Patriots $17 million.

TE tally: Bears $18.9 million, Patriots $17.8 million, Seahawks $7.0 million.

OL tally: Bears $54.2 million, Patriot $47.2 million, Seahawks $25.2 million

Defensive Line

It looks like the Bears got what they paid for in relation to the Seahawks and Patriots on the interior of the defensive line. That is to say, they spent little and their reward was one of the league's worst run defenses.

However, it was more a case of spending a lot overall and getting little in return. Grady Jarrett only cost $7 million against the 2025 cap. Gervon Dexter was still in his first contract. Jarrett's total balloons to almost $19 million in 2026.

New England will tend to spend more in relation to interior defensive line just because it's a five-man front in their base. It requires more interior linemen and backups.

The Bears' $36.7 million spent on the edge was so much more than Seattle's and New England's totals because of  big-ticket items in Montez Sweat and Dayo Odeyingbo. Sweat produced. Odeyingbo didn't, and then was done for the year due to injury. The Seahawks tied for seventh in sacks with 47. Only six teams had less than the 35 sacks the Bears and Patriots made. The Bears were 27th stopping the run, the Patriots sixth and Seahawks third.

Edge tally: Bears $36.7 million, Seahawks $25.6 million, Patriots $19.3 million

DT tally: Patriots $34.5 million, Seahawks $27.1 millon, Bears $16.7 million

Costly leftover

Signing Tremaine Edmunds took a lot out of the Bears' cap when Matt Eberflus was coach in 2023 and they continued to pay the price. There's no denying he made plays, but the Bears will need to decide now how essential it is to have a playmaker at that cost in that position.

The Seahawks did just fine on defense without the cost. The Patriots paid plenty  for their linebackers but had better results.

Linebacker tally: Bears $28.4 million, Patriots $22.4 million, Seahawks $8.8 million

Secondary a primary cost

The Bears determined they needed two highly paid players and another veteran in Kevin Byard who also took up a good cap hit. They led the NFL in interceptions and takeaways, but their overall return was a pass defense ranked 22nd and one 17th in passer rating against while playing a new scheme. An asterisk loomed large here. You don't pay big costs and get big production when your two most highly paid players—Jaylon Johnson and Kyler Gordon—both miss more than half the season.

Cornerback tally: Bears $26.8 million, Patriots $22.6 million, Seahawks $17.1 million

Safety tally: Bears $16.2 million, Seahawks $13.4 million, Patriots $6.7 million

Summary

The Bears had already committed to bigger spending for players like Edmunds, Sweat, Jaylon Johnson and Moore before Ben Johnson’s arrival as coach. It’s safe to wonder how much value they would have placed on spending on those players if Ben Johnson had been coach prior to 2025.

The really interesting aspect of 2025 spending between the Bears and the two Super Bowl teams was dead cap.

It is the reason the Bears spent much more in most cases. They had it to spend. The Bears had the smallest amount of dead cap in the NFL at less than $1 million thanks to their efforts back in 2022-23 to restore fiscal responsibility.

Meanwhile, the Seahawks had the least amount to spend in the NFL because they had $86.1 million in dead cap space sitting on the books, and the Patriots were also top 10 (ninth) in dead cap at $50.6 million, but those teams still managed to make the Super Bowl. It's scary to think what Seattle can do in the future because in 2026 they'll have the fifth smallest amount of dead cap and were already spending what little they had available so wisely.

The Bears needed to learn to spend all of that cap space they have more wisely.

Two teams near the top for dead cap space making it to the Super Bowl should have shown the Bears this, but being over the cap already for 2026 with so little in dead cap on their books says they've got more waste to get rid of and more to learn.

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.