Windy City Gridiron
Following another busy offseason with an unusual amount of spending from the new regime, it’s time to take a checks and balances of the Chicago Bears current state of the cap.
With the chaos of the 2025 NFL offseason winding down, most teams are entering their final preparations before the start of training camp. Once again, the Chicago Bears were one of the busier teams this offseason. The process began in January, following the replacement of Matt Eberflus, and continued until the conclusion of the late April draft.
In total, Chicago signed 18 veteran free agents, made eight draft picks, and signed another 11 undrafted free agents. Due to General Manager Ryan Poles’ vigorous activity in overhauling the roster since taking the reins in 2022, there are just three players on the 91-man roster who are holdovers from the Ryan Pace era. In that time, Poles’ teams have won just 15 games in three years, but appear primed to take off in 2025. That is thanks in large part to his aggressive approach this offseason, which extends far beyond the player acquisition portion of the offseason. They were able to land arguably the most attractive head coaching candidate, Ben Johnson, who assembled one of the best coaching staffs this franchise has seen in decades.
Now that the majority of the offseason smoke has cleared, it’s time to take a deeper dive into the Bears’ current cap situation for 2025 and examine some possibilities moving forward before Week 1 and during the season.
Heading into the offseason, the Bears had 31 free agents, including five restricted and five exclusive rights categories. Typically, exclusive rights free agents are a virtual lock to be extended a tender, barring a surprise. Due to the rising cap, restricted free agent tenders have become less common; hence, only one player received a First Right of Refusal tender. Finally, of the 21 unrestricted free agents, the Bears have only re-signed seven so far. Over Poles’ first four years, this hasn’t been an overly active period for him, despite the roster being full of players he has brought in. I suppose that’s what happens when a team wins 15 games over three years and constantly shuffles the bottom end of its roster.
DT Chris Williams one year, $3.263 million (First Right of Refusal Restricted Free Agent Tender)
CB Josh Blackwell two years, $5 million ($2.45 million guaranteed)
LB Amen Ogbongbemiga two years, $4.97 million ($2.45 million guaranteed)
RB Travis Homer one year, $1.75 million ($1 million guaranteed)
LS Scott Daly one year, $1.338 million ($167,500 guaranteed)
S Tarvarius Moore one year, $1.17 million
DT Jonathan Ford one year, $1.03 million (Exclusive Rights Free Agent Tender)
DE Daniel Hardy one year, $1.03 million (Exclusive Rights Free Agent Tender)
iOL Bill Murray one year, $1.03 million (Exclusive Rights Free Agent Tender)
CB Ameer Speed one year, $1.03 million (Exclusive Rights Free Agent Tender)
TE Stephen Carlson one year, $1.03 million
C Doug Kramer one year, $1.03 million...
