Bear Digest

What tendering Chris Williams reveals about Bears D-line plans

Analysis: Tendering reserve Chris Williams at a level high enough to retain first-refusal rights seems a clear indicator of the direction they'll go on the line in free agency and the draft.
Gene Chamberlain|
Chris Williams made a dent last year with his interior pass rush and the Bears liked it enough to tender him as a restricted free agent, which might tip off where they're going in free agency.
Chris Williams made a dent last year with his interior pass rush and the Bears liked it enough to tender him as a restricted free agent, which might tip off where they're going in free agency. | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

The Bears may have just tipped off something about what they're doing in free agency, and didn't even use a video to communicate it like they seemed to do Friday with Khalil Mack.

They tendered restricted free agent defensive tackle Chris Williams at the right-of-first refusal level, according to Tom Pelissero of the NFL Network. First-refusal level for Williams, a player acquired in a trade with Cleveland last year, is $3.263 million.

The Bears had sent the Browns the sixth-round pick they got for trading Chase Claypool to Miami and received Williams and a 2025 seventh-round pick.

Williams made strides once he was given the chance with more playing time and may have been the major reason they were putting Zacch Pickens on the inactive list for game day near the end of the season. They were leaving their 2023 third-round pick out of the rotation for a player the Browns didn't need.

Williams made three sacks, seven pressures and seven quarterback hits and also had three quarterback hits in 367 snaps. He did have problems against the run, though, and ranked near the bottom of the league in Pro Football Focus run-stopping grades.

The $3.26 million might not sound like a lot but it is a solid amount for a third or fourth defensive tackle. That's all they're paying for Andrew Billings against their salary cap for this year.

If they are paying this much for him, and have Dexter and Pickens on rookie contracts, they could still add another player at the position but it would seem unlikely they'd dump a boatload of cash on a premium defensive tackle like Milton Williams, who Howie Roseman is allowing to get into free agency after helping win a Super Bowl.

The Bears would seem more like a team interested in drafting a defensive tackle somewhere, possibly in Round 2 or 3 or later, rather than one trying to clear space so they could sign Roseman's expensive defensive tackle.

They're spending their defensive money at another position, and that would be edge rusher.

It looks more like they'd be interested in using money to help out on the other edge, where they might need to bring in two free agents because they only have Austin Booker, Daniel Hardy and Dominique Robinson under contract opposite Montez Sweat.

This all only feeds more fuel to the Khalil Mack fire building for the Bears on the edge, if not someone else just as expensive.

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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.