3 Bears Who Should Be Cut Before Free Agency Opens

The Chicago Bears have already made some difficult decisions in the 2024 offseason, including cutting veteran safety Eddie Jackson. Already armed with nearly $80 million in salary cap space, do the Bears need to go ahead and cut more players?

Not exactly for financial reasons, but the Bears might want to get rid of some guys currently on the roster for a number of reasons. First of all, the Bears changed coordinators on both sides of the ball. There will obviously be some expectation for those coordinators to maximize the talent of the players already on the roster, but new coordinators almost always mean new player personnel coming as well.

And that means that former big-money free agents or draft picks could end up getting cut in the coming days, even for a team replete with cap space like Chicago. Which names could be next?

1. Justin Fields, QB (trade)

We obviously can't even insinuate that Justin Fields could be "cut" at any point this offseason, but he's going to be one of the next prominent members of the Chicago Bears that is likely letting go.

Even though the Bears will look to trade Fields, moving his contract off the books (unless they pay a significant portion of it) will save the team about $6 million this year.

The Bears haven't officially moved off of Justin Fields as their franchise quarterback. They've been meeting with players at the Scouting Combine over the last week, and they're going to give themselves every opportunity to fall in love with another quarterback. And if you're a team that is interested in trading for Fields, it sounds like you'd better get your best trade offers in quickly.

The Bears don't seem like they're going to let this situation linger at all:

Fields may have only a few days left with the Bears organization, and things are probably moving along behind the scenes faster than anyone realizes.