Chicago Bears: 6 players who might not return in 2021

Kyle Fuller, CB

Are you starting to see a trend yet? The pandemic could lead to the complete explosion of the current Chicago Bears roster. I have to believe this was not the intention of Ryan Pace when he set out to shake up this roster in 2016 and 2017. Go take a look at the roster when Pace took over versus what the team has now. Despite only one playoff appearance and only one winning season, the talent level on the team is greatly improved.

Kyle Fuller has been one of the more dominant corners in the NFL over the last two years. After a solid rookie season, Fuller struggled mightily until Vic Fangio got ahold of him. Fuller was on the bubble of even remaining on the roster heading into 2017. He had a solid year but broke out in 2018 with seven interceptions. He followed that up with only three last year.

Fuller is set to make $20 million dollars in 2021 after earning $18 million in 2019 and will earn another $11.5 million this season. That is a lot of money to throw at Fuller when others also need to be paid. Fuller already restructured his contract and the Bears will not be able to do it again. If Pace cuts Fuller after the 2020 season, the team will only have a dead cap hit of $9 million meaning an $11 million dollar cap savings.

Now, that is a large amount of money to just throw away. If not for the pandemic potentially limiting revenue this year I do not believe Fuller would see himself receiving a pink slip, but these are strange times we are living in now.