Bear Digest

Players who provided Bears with best bang for their cap buck

Bargain players were in abundance for the Bears in 2024, and the list of those ranged from a Pro Bowl player to players originally intended to be starters.
Gene Chamberlain|
Kevin Byard drags down Malik Heath in the season finale at Green Bay, a 24-22 Bears victory.
Kevin Byard drags down Malik Heath in the season finale at Green Bay, a 24-22 Bears victory. | William Glasheen USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin via Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

In assessing his team's play this past season, Bears GM Ryan Poles found too much detail being overlooked in an attempt by players to get on with the winning.

The end result was they didn't win.

"I think this year with the excitement of the season, it was very much outcome over process," Pole said. "Winning, expectations, all of those things, which goals are fine, you never want to back down from that, but the detail, the accountability, the competitive poise in critical situations, finding an edge to win games is something that we came up short with."

Not everyone.

Some Bears delivered above and beyond their paygrade.

They were the cash cows for the Bears in the 2024 season as they blended the right technique and focus with their ability to better live up to their contracts.

"I do think we need to challenge our guys more," Poles said.

Here are Bears who met the challenge and lived up to their contracts the best in 2024.

10. P Tory Taylor

For a few bucks less than a million in 2024, Taylor provided field position to back his defense as a rookie. He came up just short of a Bears punting average record at 47.7 and had 34 punts inside the 20, tying for fourth in the league.

9. CB Kyler Gordon

At $2.37 million, Gordon was a huge bargain and a player who will get a good contract extension. He plays one of the game's most difficult positions, in the slot and gradually rose up the PFF grading chart to 30th among 223 NFL cornerbacks. His run support was outstanding but he still needs to pull down his passer rating against below 102.

8. G Matt Pryor

Pryor didn't put on a Pro Bowl performance but considering what his role was intended to be prior to the season, he was very valuable. He was graded the 31st best guard out of 135 by PFF and the eighth-best pass blocker among guards. At $1.03 million, Pryor was vastly underpaid. A free agent, the Bears will need to decide whether to keep him around, most likely as a swing tackle/guard.

7. T Darnell Wright 

The highest paid Bears offensive lineman at $4.76 million and Pro Football Focus would call it money well spent. They graded the second-year right tackle 16th overall among tackles

6. T Braxton Jones

The Bears left tackle absorbs plenty of criticism and his play hasn't been perfect, but as a fifth-round pick playing the difficult left tackle spot for only $1.06 million a year, he counts as a real steal. Jones was graded 18th best overall tackle by PFF and 15th best pass blocker.

5. DT Gervon Dexter

One of their more improved players but he still needs to achieve greater consistency, particularly against the run. Still drastically underpaid at $1.53 million, Dexter had the second-most sacks with five and had 23 pressures. And although he needs to improve against the run, he still made 31 more tackles than last year with 51.

4. LB T.J. Edwards

He wasn't quite the playmaker as last year but did get four sacks and broke up three passes to go with 129 tackles. Edwards led the team with a career-high 12 tackles for loss. His $7.5 million cap cost for last season made him another steal for Poles. It was 2.94% of their cap space but he's making 11.3% of their tackles.

3. CB Jaylon Johnson

Johnson wasn't quite as good as last year but still very strong and his new contract hasn't quite reached the peak high it will later. So they got a bit of a break at $13 million for a two-time Pro Bowl cornerback who had two interceptions, eight pass breakups and was so effective he chased quarterbacks away to the other side repeatedly with their targeting. His 92.6 passer rating against via Stathead is on the high end compared to last year but the result of a few big plays in a very limited number of games and also from playing against the opponent's top receiver.

2. S Kevin Byard

Probably the biggest surprise for the Bears in 2024 because safeties who are 31 years old often are well past the downside at their position. Byard only occupied $6.47 million of cap space and took the team tackles title away from linebacker T.J. Edwards. That's not exactly ideal because the weakside linebacker should get more tackles in a well-functioning scheme like the Bears played. However, Byard was playing with greater responsibility than normal because he was playing alongside subs after early October due to Jaquan Brisker's concussion. Bryard had 130 tackles, five for loss, seven pass breakups, an interception and forced fumble and generally was all over the field playing like someone five years younger.

1. WR DJ Moore

It won't be so easy to pencil Moore in as a bargain player in the future because of his big contract extension, but for this year the paltry $7.2 million of cap space he occupied looked like a small amount well spent. Just two catches away from a second straight 100-catch season even with a rookie quarterback in an offense generally dysfunctional. Moore catches so many different types of passes that the Bears could easily make him into a slot receiver in a new offense if they chose to make Rome Odunze into an "X" receiver.

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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.