5 reasons for Chicago Bears fans to be thankful

3. Ryan Poles cleared cap space for Chicago Bears

We all knew that this season was going to be rocky. We should be thankful that Ryan Poles knew that too, and did not blow any cap space. Ryan Pace spent years digging a hole of cap space. He slowly realized the only to get out was to dig deeper and deeper. Then, he decided that someone else could come and deal with the mess.

Ryan Poles is dealing with the mess. Still, he could have chosen two routes. First, he could have done the slow route where he eats away at it, but still spends. The second would be to eat the medicine in one spoonful, clear the cap space, and then have the books clean for the future. Poles chose the latter option.

This is the smart route. Although he looks bad now, and fans are wondering why he did not spend more, he did it for the future. Poles did it so that he can head into this offseason with a combination of cap space and draft equity. That is much better than having bad contracts, or questions with aging veterans, or having to restructure more deals.

Now, Poles can make his own decisions and build the team the way that he wants. He did not have the resources to do that last year, but this spring he will.