Chicago Bears: Offseason needs, targets and possible moves for 2019
Salary cap situation and draft picks
So the Chicago Bears have these decisions they need to make. Before they make those decisions, they need to determine their status in terms of money available for free agents and draft picks to use on prospects. Those situations help decide if they go with a veteran or bring in a prospect. Also, what position they’re trying to shore up helps in how they attack the offseason.
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Free agency (per Over the Cap)
As of now, the Chicago Bears are $19.7 million under the salary cap. There are cuts they can make to add more money. For example, I don’t see them paying tight end Dion Sims more money to sit. If they cut him, they save another $6 million. Additionally, the NFL announced that the salary cap for 2019 will rise to between $187 million to $191.1 million. That’s an extra $9.8 million to $13.9 million.
Add it up, and the Bears can have close to $40 million in salary cap space. That is plenty for the Bears to go after some quality free agents. They won’t go out and splurge, but that amount is great for a team that looks to refine the roster, not rebuild.
Draft
The Bears have five picks in the 2019 NFL Draft, but none in the first two rounds. They have picks in the third, fourth, and fifth rounds, and two picks in the seventh round.
This isn’t too bad for Pace, who has had success in the middle to late rounds in the draft. Of the four All-Pro Bears selected by the NFL, two of them, Jackson and Tarik Cohen, were fourth-round picks. Furthermore, Howard, who was a Pro Bowler, was a fifth-round pick.
Pace can decide to go with the picks he has. However, he’s a general manager who likes to play Let’s Make a Deal. He’s made a trade in each of his four drafts. He’s not afraid to pull the trigger on draft-day deals. He famously traded his first, third, and fourth-round picks, as well as his 2018 third-round pick to move up one spot to draft Mitchell Trubisky. He then made more trades in the 2018 draft to recover some picks. If someone can work draft-day magic, it’s Ryan Pace.