The Chicago Bears have invested heavily in their offense over the past couple of years. Now, GM Ryan Poles will probably have to do the same with the defense. The Bears need to bolster the defensive line, and they will likely have to add another safety as well.
Ironically, they might need to move on from one of their veteran defenders to help that unit. It's not a matter of addition by subtraction or due to subpar play. It's all because of money, and moving on from Tremaine Edmunds would save this team a ton of it.
The Bears May Have to Part Ways with Tremaine Edmunds
Edmunds arrived in the Windy City as a former Pro Bowler. They gave him a four-year, $72 million deal before the 2023 season, and he's fared well so far. Nevertheless, he carries a cap hit of $17.4 million next season. With the Bears currently $5.3 million over the salary cap (per Over The Cap), he's their most obvious cut candidate right now.
Moving on from Edmunds would free up $15 million for this team in the offseason, a significant amount of money. He's a valuable player who can hold his own against stronger, bigger tight ends, and he's also much better at forcing turnovers than the average player at this spot. That said, there's not enough money to spread around, and the Bears might rather fill this void with the No. 25 or No. 57 picks in the NFL draft.
Edmunds is coming off posting 112 tackles in just 13 games. He also had nine passes defended, four picks, three tackles for loss, and one fumble recovery. Even so, the Bears need the money to keep other defensive studs on the team, such as Kevin Byard, Montez Sweat, and Nahshon Wright. It's not a matter of him not being good, but the salary cap forces teams to make tough decisions at times.
Defensive coordinator Dennis Allen will need more resources to take a defense that gave up 24.4 points per game (23rd in the league) last season to the next level. This team relied on late-game heroics and comebacks way too often last season, which the Kansas City Chiefs will tell you is not a dependable scenario to bank on two years in a row.
In an ideal world, Chicago would figure out a way to keep Edmunds around by restructuring other deals, in addition to making cap-cutting decisions like trading D.J. Moore. But even if they do so, cutting him would save them the most money.