Chicago Bears: 3 reasons adding Khalil Mack must happen

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Alright, so the headline may be lame but the point behind it is critical. In the NFL, because of the level of parity, it seems like new teams are entering the playoff mix every year. While the New England Patriots are an anomaly, the conditions don’t seem to exist in the NFL for a sustained dynasty.

As a result, teams need to take advantage of their competitive window and maximize their opportunities when it opens. The Bears find themselves on the cusp of entering that window. From a salary cap perspective, it almost feels like the stars have aligned.

The Bears have an estimated salary cap space of just under $27 million for this season. Mitch Trubisky is under his rookie deal of 4 years/$29 million, with a fifth-year option where he will make virtually peanuts. Jordan Howard still has two years remaining on his rookie deal where he will make a total of less than $2 million over that time, and Anthony Miller just signed his four-year deal which will pay him just over $5 million in total.

As it relates to the free agents Ryan Pace signed this offseason, he did his best to sign them to deals (three or four years) that align them with Trubisky’s timeline so that guys like Allen Robinson, Trey Burton, and Taylor Gabriel will grow alongside him.

That wasn’t a coincidence. Pace did that because he understands that having your starting running back and quarterback still under rookie contracts gives the Bears an insane amount of financial flexibility. It allows him to deploy valuable financial resources to other areas of need. In this instance, those resources would be wisely spent on arguably the best defensive player in the game.

Doing so would elevate the Bears’ defense from above average to elite and would go a long way to optimize the Bears chances of winning in this particular window of time.