At the NFL Combine in February, Chicago Bears head coach Matt Eberflus said that his defense couldn’t have enough pass rushers. The Bears salary cap and Chairman George McCaskey’s pocketbook beg to differ.
The Bears have taken several steps to improve the roster this offseason. However, in year three, general manager Ryan Poles has accepted that the trenches are still a work in progress. The Bears are keeping their options open in the preseason for another defensive end.
Bringing back Yannick Ngakoue is one of those potential options. Per Albert Breer with Sports Illustrated, Ngakour’s price is too high for the Bears at this point in training camp.
New York Jets defensive end Haason Reddick has been linked to the Bears after he requested a trade this week. Jets general manager Joe Douglas made the same bet Poles did with Montez Sweat last year, but the trade with no deal in place backfired for New York.
Douglas said this week the Jets have no plans to trade Reddick, but all his message did in reality was drive up the trade price for Reddick before the regular season.
Would the Chicago Bears trade for Haason Reddick?
Brad Biggs with the Chicago Tribune wrote that he doesn’t think the Bears have deep enough pockets to trade for Reddick. The Bears have stretched their cash budget expenditures for the 2024 season after their new deals for Jaylon Johnson, DJ Moore, Caleb Williams, and Rome Odunze. The Bears gave away $78 million in signing bonuses to those four players:
For what it’s worth, Spotrac.com ranks the Bears seventh in the league in active cash total for this season — not cap — at just more than $306 million. That’s more than $27 million above the NFL average, so it’s not like Poles is hiding the McCaskey checkbook in the top drawer of his desk.
The long-term salary cap implications of trading for Reddick
Jan 1, 2023; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia Eagles linebacker Haason Reddick (7) reacts to his defensive stop against the New Orleans Saints during the fourth quarter at Lincoln Financial Field. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports
The Bears must also consider the long-term salary cap reality of extending Reddick. Biggs thinks having 1/5th of their salary cap going to Sweat and Reddick could cause problems for the rest of the roster:
From a practical and roster-building standpoint, do the Bears really want to have two edge rushers near the top of the NFL in pay structure? That could account for roughly 20% of their salary cap and would affect their ability to do other things in the future, when a slew of younger players will be eligible for new contracts…
If your roster of “core” players gets too big — the ones locked down with huge contracts — eventually you have a roster full of highly paid superstars (and you better hope they’re all playing to the level of their contracts) and the rest is players earning the league minimum.
The Bears must address the long-term need on the edge in the 2025 NFL Draft. The Bears will hope rookie Austin Booker can develop into a starter as this season progresses.
Reddick would be a fun addition for the Bears this season, but the cost could come at the expense of other needs during Caleb Williams’ rookie window.
For this season, the Bears will ride with Sweat.
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