Chicago Bears: 3 personnel decisions Ryan Poles must make quickly

The Chicago Bears and Ryan Poles must decide if Bilal Nicholls should stay

When Ryan Poles looks at the Chicago Bears roster, he’s going to realize that they have a solid amount of salary cap space to spend. As of now, the team is predicted to have roughly $34 million in salary cap space before any cuts are made. The problem is, the team will have a very limited number of players under contract. One player the team needs to look into keeping around is Bilal Nicholls.

Ryan Poles does not have any ties to Nichols, which could mean that he will not be extended. For a fifth-round draft pick, he has had a solid career here in Chicago. He struggled a bit his sophomore year but came back strong in year three. This was important since the team had lost Akiem Hicks for a large portion of 2020.

Nichols will only be 26 years old next season, but coming off a solid rookie campaign, the defensive end is going to want to be paid handsomely for his past success. This past season was a bit of a meh year statistically. He finished with three sacks, but also set a single-season record for himself with 51 combined tackles (26 solos).

The big question here is how much will Bilal Nicholls want to stick around. The team saw similar production out of Angelo Blackson who is still under contract for 2022. Blackson is set to earn $3 million in 2022 unless the team decides to cut him to save $2 million. In my opinion, it makes more sense to just keep paying Blackson and waving goodbye to Bilal Nichols, who I am sure will be overpaid by another team.