Chicago Bears Free Agency: 3 more candidates to be cut

2. Return Specialist/Wide Receiver Cordarrelle Patterson

If the Bears wanted to clear a little bit bigger chunk of salary, they could opt to cut Cordarrelle Patterson. His contract pays him a base salary of $4.25 million this year while Patterson carries a cap hit of $5.75 million. If the Bears should cut him, they only leave $1 million in dead cap.

Patterson presents Pace with an intriguing decision to make. Last year, he was a Pro Bowl return man for the third time in his career. He also earned his third career First Team All Pro selection. Patterson also notched his seventh career kickoff return for a touchdown last year in a home game against the New Orleans Saints.

It would seem tough, at first, to release a guy like that, especially knowing where the Bears were before he came on board. Chicago’s kick return game was dead last in the league in 2018, and Patterson certainly helped elevate it more than anyone has done since the days of Devin Hester.

When looking at the grand scheme of things, Patterson was rarely used on offense. When he was given the chance to carry the football, he averaged over six yards per carry and even broke off a 46-yarder at one point. But, having only 17 carries on the year, Patterson’s overall impact on offense was rather insignificant.

For the record, Patterson only caught 11 passes for 83 yards in 2019.

If Pace really wants to have as much room to work with while minimizing damages, Patterson’s departure wouldn’t be all that shocking.