Chicago Bears: Grading Monday’s free agent signings
The Chicago Bears have had a very interesting off-season so far. They were the worst team in the National Football League in 2022 which awarded them the number one overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft. They have since traded it away for a haul of other assets.
Now, ahead of the draft, GM Ryan Poles will use the cap space that he has (the most in the NFL by a wide margin) to fill out the rest of the roster. He isn’t going to build a Super Bowl contender in one off-season but getting some good players is important for the next step in the rebuild.
On Monday, we saw the team start to load up a little bit. There are three players that the Chicago Bears are going to be sure to sign based on the reports that came out.
It is always interesting to see how a bad team does during this time because it could, if everything goes right, help them take a big step forward.
The Chicago Bears are going to use free agency to their advantage this year.
They agreed to four signings on Monday and this is how they should be graded based on positional need, cost, and fit for the team:
1. T.J, Edwards
T.J. Ewards was the first player signed by the Bears on Monday. He is someone that is really going to help this team’s linebacker core. He is a linebacker coming from the team that just won the NFC and was the Super Bowl runner-up.
That kind of experience on a bargain of a contract is really going to help this Bears defense take a step. That kind of experience can really push a team forward as they build for the future.
The Bears are giving him 19.5 million (12 million guaranteed) over three years which is a good contract for a player of his caliber. He picked a good year, a contract year, to be sixth in the NFL with 99 solo tackles. The Bears needed a guy like this and they got one.