3 Bears That Must Be Cut This Offseason

The Chicago Bears are going to be moving away from the Matt Eberflus era in 2025 but general manager Ryan Poles will enter this offseason firmly on the hot seat. As far as general managers in the NFL entering 2025, I'm not sure there is another under as much pressure as Poles going forward.

Not only does he have to get the head coach decision right, but the Bears obviously need to continue adding the right pieces around second-year quarterback Caleb Williams, who had some great moments in his rookie season but a lot of room for improvement as well.

The Bears have the 6th-most salary cap space in the NFL right now, so they won't be cutting guys based on needing salary cap relief. But the Bears will be making roster cuts to move on from guys who are no longer going to be fits going forward and they will have the added roster and cash flexibility for some of these players.

There's plenty of low-hanging fruit on the roster in terms of cut candidates entering the 2025 offseason, but who are the three most obvious?

3 obvious cut candidates for the Bears in 2025 offseason

1. Ryan Bates, offensive line

Former Buffalo Bills interior offensive lineman Ryan Bates is slated to count $4 million against the Bears' salary cap in 2025 with no dead money attached. Even though reserve offensive linemen are valuable, that $4 million could be better spread elsewhere on the roster and Bates did absolutely nothing last year on an offensive line that probably could have used his help if he could actually contribute.

He played just over 100 snaps offensively and none on special teams, so Bates is the type of guy you look at on the offseason roster with a decently high cap hit and no dead money and figure he's probably not going to be around much longer. You could get similar production for less than half the price elsewhere.