Analysis of the Bears salary cap: How General Manager Ryan Poles may maximize resources this summer

Chicago Bears president/CEO Kevin Warren spoke to the media days after Matt Eberflus was fired and again a few weeks before Ben Johnson was hired. Both times, he mentioned something the team had that others didn’t — salary-cap space. It was part of his pitch to coaches.

He’s not wrong. The Bears enter the 2025 offseason, which officially begins the Monday after the Super Bowl, with the sixth-most cap space in the league, according to Over the Cap.

With Johnson as head coach and quarterback Caleb Williams entering Year 2, there will be a lot of similarities to the 2018 offseason. Here’s another — that winter, the Bears were also sixth in the league in cap space. They attacked the skill positions by signing wide receivers Allen Robinson and Taylor Gabriel and tight end Trey Burton.

This year, they should be aggressive in improving the offensive and defensive lines.

General manager Ryan Poles has another opportunity to be a major player in free agency and/or the trade market. He has a player who can get an extension before the fall. Ultimately, he has a chance to set this roster up to be competitive in the NFC North, under Johnson’s direction, for the next few seasons.

One of the reasons the Bears are still in a healthy cap situation is that they haven’t handed out many massive contracts. Now, they’d prefer to be in a position to do so, where they have an abundance of deserving players — one of those good problems to have. Maybe that’ll come, but right now, several starters are either on rookie deals or very affordable ones, relative to their positions.

A few core Bears are on rookie contracts, reflected in where their cap charge ranks at their position. That matters a lot at premium positions, like quarterback, wide receiver (Rome Odunze) and offensive tackle (Darnell Wright and Braxton Jones).

One critique of Poles has been the lack of financial investments in the offensive line. Nate Davis was the high-priced signing, but that didn’t work out. This shows a situation where he can go make a splash in free agency (Trey Smith, anyone?). But it also helps explain why the Bears would love the flexibility given to them if Jones is good to go at left tackle and if they believe he can stay healthy and be effective. It’s a massive advantage to have two starters at tackle on those rookie deals.