All offseason, the Chicago Bears have been attached to every big-name edge rusher as someone who could come in and help Montez Sweat out in 2026.
A big reason for that is that this was one of the worst pass-rushing units in the NFL, with just 35 sacks in 2025, which was better than just six teams in the league. That had everyone thinking that after the 11-6 season and nice playoff run, Bears general manager Ryan Poles was going to get aggressive and go after any of the elite edge rushers out there.
Some of the big names they were attached to included Maxx Crosby and Trey Hendrickson, but they seemed to have missed out on both. While Poles admitted that the Bears are checking in on Crosby for a trade, the reality is that Chicago is most likely not going to get anywhere near an elite edge rusher this offseason.
Bears might not end up landing an elite edge rusher
The number one problem that the Bears have, and as ESPN NFL insider Adam Schefter bluntly put it, Chicago doesn't have the cap space. According to Over The Cap, the Bears are currently only working with $6.5 million in cap space.
When a team doesn't have that kind of money, it limits what they can do. The only hope is to try to convince a free agent like Joey Bosa or Cameron Jordan to join Chicago on a cheap deal if they are chasing a Super Bowl title. Otherwise, it's not going to happen.
The only way this dream works is if they make more moves to the roster. Cutting or trading guys like D'Andre Swift and Cole Kmet can still save the team over $15 million while also allowing the team to restructure contracts. Going into the offseason, the Bears had $85.9 million in flexibility to restructure contracts.
Instead, the Bears are most likely going to have to use the 2026 NFL Draft to fill the need at edge rusher. This draft class is not the worst one to use as the edge rushers are all really good, with at least 10 of them being legitimate first or second-round picks.
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It would be awesome for the Bears to figure something out with Crosby, but the fan base might have to settle for a younger, more inexperienced player from the draft. To be clear, that's not a bad thing at all.