Chicago Bears: 5 Cut candidates to free up cap space

Jimmy Graham | Tight End

The Bears brought in Jimmy Graham to be their red-zone threat and a great mentor to their rookie tight end Cole Kmet. He fulfilled his duty greatly as he caught eight regular-season touchdowns and one touchdown in the playoffs as well. All season, he showed incredible hands and the ability to win jump balls. Frankly, he isn’t worth his contract though.

The Bears like what they have in Cole Kmet as he saw his snaps increase drastically down the stretch and Graham’s decrease as a result. They are two different tight ends, but Nagy would rather run more 11 personnel in his offense. That makes Graham expendable due to his decent contract he got this offseason.

Cutting Graham would mean the Bears would need to replace him this offseason. They likely will go after a cheap receiving tight end that would save them cap space to allow Kmet to play most of the snaps, if not all of them. Unless Graham restructures or gets extended, he should be cut.

The five-time Pro Bowl tight end had arguably his best season since 2017. He caught 50 passes for 456 yards and eight touchdowns. Clearly, the receiving output wasn’t there, but that was because he just wasn’t used properly near the end of the season. Cutting Graham this offseason would save the Bears $7 million in cap space.