Chicago Bears: 3 Players who won’t be back in 2021

For the Chicago Bears to have a successful offseason, they need to create some salary cap space. To do that, they need to part ways with some players, these three in particular. 

The offseason is in full swing now. Teams are making moves to prepare for the new season that starts on March 17. The Chicago Bears are among those teams. While Chicago hasn’t made their moves just yet, they’ve been involved in a lot of rumors.

After having subpar quarterback play with Mitchell Trubisky, general manager Ryan Pace is desperate to find the right player. His job is on the line so he is in “win now” mode. He wants to keep his job so he’ll scour the NFL world to find a signal-caller.

While that is all fine and good, the Bears have other pressing needs on the roster. If Pace wants to fill some holes he’ll need to find free agents. The problem is that the Bears are currently about $6.1 million over the cap for 2021. They need to free up some space if they want to find any free agents.

Luckily, the team can roll over some of its unused space into the next year. They can use about $7.6 million. That puts them back in the black, but just barely. That means they have to make some roster moves to free up some money.

There are some players the team will ask to restructure their contracts. Look at players like Khalil Mack who can redo their contracts and free up a ton of space. They cannot do that too much, though. That leaves some cuts. There are a few players the team can cut to free cap space. The NFL is a cruel world and teams have to make tough decisions to try to improve the roster.

Here are three players who won’t return in 2021.

Chicago Bears cut candidate No. 3: Charles Leno, OT

One area the Chicago Bears had trouble with was the offensive line. Through most of the season, the line struggled. Late in the season, however, the coaches found a good combination of linemen who did a good job.

That was especially true on the interior part of the line. Moving Cody Whitehair from center to left guard and inserting Sam Mustipher at center and Alex Bars at right guard solidified the interior. Barring something extraordinary, look for those players to get a chance to keep their jobs.

That leaves the edges of the offensive line. Charles Leno and Bobby Massie are cut candidates. Massie was injured in 2020 and missed eight games. When he was on the field, however, he did a pretty good job. He allowed one pressure and committed one penalty (which was declined).

Leno played in every game and every snap in 2020 but he struggled. He looked like a turnstile in pass protection. He also committed seven penalties, a drop from the 13 he committed in 2019, but still not very good.

The Bears will eventually part ways with both tackles, but they likely do it in consecutive offseasons. They’ll drop one in 2021 then again in 2022. The one they’ll cut in 2021 will be Leno.

Leno has become a punching bag for the fans. They’ve lost patience with him and are ready to see him go. With all the vitriol already present due to ownership not getting rid of Pace or team President Ted Phillips, cutting Leno brings some positive news.

In addition to calming the fans down somewhat, cutting Leno with a June 1 designation saves the Bears $9 million. That is a good chunk of cap space for the team to improve the roster.