Chicago Bears: Pros and cons of signing J.J. Watt

Chicago Bears signing J.J. Watt: The Verdict

I recently wrote about some risky, out-of-the-box trades the Chicago Bears could make in an attempt to land Deshaun Watson. Without those trades, the Bears really have no shot of convincing the Texans to send them Watson as the team has very little draft capital to offer. Within the final trade, I had the Bears landing J.J. Watt along with Watson. This was because the team had traded away Khalil Mack and needed to recoup a pass-rusher.

Now, this does not mean that I think the team should run out and sign Watt now that he’s a free agent. Although this does look better on paper as he is unlikely to earn those $17.5 million dollars he was scheduled to make this year. Watt could still add more to a pass rush that struggled to be better than average last season.

If Watt was willing to come to Chicago on a cheap, possibly backloaded deal, I would be perfectly fine with Ryan Pace bringing him in. He still has plenty of upside and I like the idea of him swaying others to possibly join the team. The key here is the numbers. What can Ryan Pace and the Chicago Bears do to finagle the salary cap in order to make enough room for Watt?

The Verdict:

The Chicago Bears should sign J.J. Watt, only if they can secure a quarterback (or plan to draft one in the first round) and also add some key pieces (offensive line and wide receiver) to the offense. Watt should not be paid more than $8 million dollars in AAV by the Bears and as I said, it should be a short-term deal that is backloaded to help with cap space in 2021.