Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Poles has greatly upgraded the team’s roster in recent offseasons. After being one of the bottom-barrel teams in the NFL, they are now a team on the rise in the NFC.
A major reason for that is the presence of Caleb Williams—the No. 1 pick in the 2024 NFL Draft. He has star potential at quarterback and will determine how high the ceiling of this franchise is.
Poles has done a great job making sure that he will have a strong supporting cast around him from the start. The Chicago Bears have loaded up on weapons in free agency, signing running back D’Andre Swift and tight end Gerald Everett.
Wide receiver Keenan Allen was acquired in a trade with the Los Angeles Chargers. He will join D.J. Moore atop the depth chart with No. 9 overall pick Rome Odunze rounding out the top three.
While many of Poles’ moves he should be lauded for, some haven’t panned out as well as the team would have hoped. One of those moves was signing linebacker Tremaine Edmunds during the 2024 offseason.
With ample cap space, the Chicago Bears spent major money on Edmunds and linebacker T.J. Edwards to revamp the defense. Edwards has been excellent, but Edmonds’ performance fell off a cliff.
That makes the former Buffalo Bills standout a trade candidate in the opinion of Gary Davenport of Bleacher Report. With options to replace Edmunds on the lineup, if the Chicago Bears can find a taker, they would benefit greatly.
“Jack Sanborn doesn’t have Edmunds’ reputation or salary, but he has played well when afforded the chance in the past. Edwards has shown in Philly that he can be the leader the Bears hoped to be getting in Edmunds. And the team can shave a cool $20 million off the cap by trading Edmunds.
Now all the Bears have to do is find a trade partner who doesn’t believe that Edmunds is overpaid,” Davenport wrote.
That last part is certainly easier said than done. Linebacker is a position that has been devalued around the league, as teams aren’t committing major assets to it.
But, with attaching draft capital to unwanted contracts becoming popular in the NFL as it is in the NBA, a taker could emerge for Edmunds. The Chicago Bears have plenty of motivation to get a deal done; 20 million reasons to be precise.
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