The Chicago Bears have re-signed Aaron Lynch to a one-year contract.
The Chicago Bears have solved their depth problem at edge.
There has been plenty of speculation as to what Ryan Pace and the Bears might do to solve their situation at edge.
In what is a solid move, even if it’s a bit uninspiring, the Bears announced on Twitter that they have their third edge.
https://twitter.com/ChicagoBears/status/1112810414830698498
The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed but there’s no reason to think that Lynch received anything substantially more than his deal last season.
Lynch did a solid job as the team’s third edge last year. There were some rumbles during the offseason that the Bears may look to upgrade that position with the likes of a Terrell Suggs or a Justin Houston.
Either those discussions never got serious or the Bears were simply out-priced on that level player.
The edge pool continues to dwindle as the offseason moved forward and the Bears were running out of options. The move to bring back Lynch is a safe one and an important one.
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Did the Bears shop around for a better edge and settle on Lynch or was he always the plan and the Bears just needed to wait until their financial situation was a little clearer?
That’s a great question and one we will probably never have the answer to based on how Pace runs his front office which is extremely buttoned up.
The Bears edge situation now sits with Khalil Mack and Leonard Floyd starting. Lynch will be the rotational third edge.
Isaiah Irving will be the team’s fourth edge and the current fifth edge is Kylie Fitts. Fitts is no guarantee to make the roster and with 4 ILBs (Roquan Smith, Danny Trevathan, Nick Kwiatkoski, Joel Iyiegbuniwe), you have to assume they won’t keep more than nine total linebackers. That means Fitts will be competing with any rookie they draft or any UDFAs that they bring in.
The Bears roster continues to come together. They still have some small depth pieces to sign prior to the draft but the key components of the roster are now all in place.