The Chicago Bears General Manager Ryan Poles is not a fan of what Ryan Pace turned this roster into. It does not take someone with strong sources or direct knowledge to realize that. All you would have to do is look at how free agency has gone.
When the Chicago Bears entered free agency, the team was expected to be active, considering they had so many holes. One of the biggest debates was going to be whether or not they would bring back some of their own young free agents. We quickly learned that would not be the case.
James Daniels signed with the Pittsburgh Steelers and Bilal Nichols signed with the Las Vegas Raiders. You could argue that given their age and production these two may have been the most likely to be kept in Chicago.
Ryan Poles not only let them walk, both of them saw a lower salary than the market would have predicted. In the case of James Daniels, he got paid about what was expected, but Bilal Nichols went for much cheaper than anticipated.
In both cases, it appears as though Poles was not even in the conversation. The Chicago Bears traded a draft pick that Poles will not get to use for Jakeem Grant, but that did not make Poles feel as though he needed to keep the weapon. He let him walk, and sign elsewhere. The same can be said for Artie Burns, who showed a little flash in his few appearances last season.
Burns followed Sean Desai to Seattle. Allen Robinson and Akiem Hicks are givens to be going to another team, while names such as Deon Bush and DeAndre Houston-Carson will have to find new rosters for the first time in their careers.
The reality is that Ryan Poles looked at the roster and said to let everyone who was going to get offered more than the minimum go. Sam Mustipher, Lachavious Simmons, and Jesper Horsted were kept for a minimum. A long list of free agents has not been signed, but everything Poles has done says that they will not be back in Chicago.
The other interesting note is that Poles is okay eating plenty of dead caps to let some of these names go as well. Danny Trevathan, Eddie Goldman, and Tarik Cohen all saw dead money flushed away.
It appears that Poles want to wipe the team clean this year and start things with a fresh cap and plenty of draft picks next year.