Bear Digest

Where NFL Insider Sees Bears Standing in the Maxx Crosby Trade Hunt

There should be no surprise one NFL insider calls the Bears among a large group of teams looking closely at a Max Crosby trade but how realistic is this?
Gene Chamberlain|
Maxx Crosby slips inside of Joe Thuney in the Bears' 25-24 win at Las Vegas last season.
Maxx Crosby slips inside of Joe Thuney in the Bears' 25-24 win at Las Vegas last season. | Stephen R. Sylvanie-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

The mad dash to free agents begins in exactly one week and if last year is any indication, this week could be very interesting.

This is when things line up and even get done on the trade market in advance of free agent negotiations. It was five days before the tampering period last year when the Bears traded for guards Joe Thuney and Jonah Jackson.

Trade rumors revolving around the Bears surfaced at the combine last week but maybe the only with any teeth were those regarding backup quarterback Tyson Bagent, mainly because this is a rumor both GM Ryan Poles and coach Ben Johnson acknowledged.

The widely reported permission given to linebacker Tremaine Edmunds is unlikely to produce anything more than a sixth- or seventh-round pick and most likely nothing because no team wants to wade right into a $15 million cap hit when they can wait until he's cut March 11 and pursue a player with a contract on their own terms.

If Bears fans want a real thrill, they'll read what Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer wrote about Maxx Crosby but they'd better read this carefully at the source and not by looking at some of the social media blurbs taking what he said out of context.

Breer does see the Raiders deciding very soon whether a trade of Crosby occurs, and this is the week when such deals get made or are set up.

"We should know soon enough which path the Raiders are taking, with teams like Dallas, Chicago, Baltimore, Buffalo, New England, Philadelphia and the Rams keeping tabs on his availability," Breer wrote.

He doesn't report the Bears being a favorite, just a team "keeping  tabs," and there can be plenty of those. Breer's Monday Morning Quarterback column details all the reasons the Raiders wouldn't trade Crosby. A reason the Bears would be left out in the cold on this should be obvious easy to find. It's the trade compensation.

"Vegas, to be sure, isn’t going to give Crosby away," Breer wrote.

However, he thinks the idea the Raiders could get two first-round picks and talent like the Packers gave up for Micah Parsons or the kind of deal the Bears made to get Khalil Mack is unlikely because of Crosby's age. He will be 29 when the season begins and in his eighth year. Mack and Parsons were dealt at the end of their fourth seasons.

Even if it's a first, a second and some talent, the Bears appear no more likely to be on of the participants in this hunt for several reasons.

1. Bears needs

Even if they've plugged the need for another edge rusher by getting Crosby in a trade, and are willing to cope with the high cap crunch, they'd be losing their means to obtain premium defensive tackle talent by trading away their first-round draft pick.

Remember Poles' assessment of the talent levels at both defensive line position in this draft.

"But as it sits right now, I think the edge is deeper than the interior," Poles said.

They're going to get weaker defensive tackle talent by waiting until Round 2 or 3. Their defensive tackle situation, especially against the run, was poor.

2. The cap cost

Absorbing a contract like Crosby's, at $30 million for this year alone, would be almost impossible because in the next two years they're going to pay huge deals to both tackle Darnell Wright and then QB Caleb Williams. If they hadn't added players whose contracts can't be easily eliminated, like Grady Jarrett and Dayo Odeyingbo, they've handcuffed themselves for this year for wild cap moves. 

3. The past

Poles saw very well what happened with Khalil Mack when his predecessor made that move. Mack was two years younger than Crosby and came to Chicago, sufferd some injuries, and after on productive season he didn't produce at the same level as he got closer to 30. Age waits for no one and players are more likely to have injuries the older they are.

Remember Poles' general assessment of improving through big moves as the team came out of the playoff loss.

"I think you see it across the league all the time, you panic and you want to do crazy things that everybody else wants you to do and it leads to some situations that you can't get out of," Poles said. "We want to stay flexible. We want to stay open-minded. We want to stay committed to building this team the right way, because I think that's the best way to sustain success."

It doesn't mean they wouldn't trade.

"We're always going to be opportunistic," he said. "We're going to go through opportunities that pop up and talk through them. Is this best for us short term? Is it best for us long term? And then we move from there.”

It's hard to see how it’s opportunistic to trade away two first-rounders or a first, a second, and a player, for someone who will cripple their salary cap situation for the future at defensive end, where they're already spending the eighth most in the league.

When they need to pay a QB and a tackle in the near future it makes it even less likely.

Look, instead, to the teams with cap space, draft picks and need to acquire Crosby.

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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.