As the Chicago Bears hit the bye week, it is a good time to look back on the roster and how it was put together. We already graded the Bears draft class and the second-year players. How have the Chicago Bears' new free agents looked? The first year was not a real free agent class because Ryan Poles had no assets, but this year, they were active on the market. How did these players look in their first 12 games with the team?
Tremaine Edmunds, LB
Tremaine Edmunds has a $14.7M cap hit this year, and right now, the Chicago Bears not getting their money's worth. Some of it has to do with injuries and the pieces around him, but he also is simply not playing well. The issues start with him missing a lot of training camp and preseason with injuries. It looked like he was a few steps slow to start the season.
As the season went on, it began to look like he was trying to make too many plays, perhaps overcompensating for the injuries around him. Also, the issues on the defensive line were hurting him at the second level.
Of course, once the secondary gets healthy and Montez Sweat gets added, we see Edmunds miss two games due to an injury. The last two games have been no excuses for Edmunds. He has not been a game changer in either game, but he has also not hurt the team.
Still, for what the Bears paid they have needed so much more than what he is giving them. The hope is that the five games after the bye week will be no excuses for quality play.
Ryan Poles Grade: D
Yannick Ngakoue, Edge,
The Chicago Bears have Yannick Ngakoue with a $10.4M cap hit this year. The good news is that Ngakoue is not attached long-term like Edmunds, whose cap hit shoots up to $22M. The bad news is that the highest two free agents have been duds for the team this year.
Ngakoue will be gone after this year; he provided them with nearly nothing. Bears fans were confident he could get them eight sacks; that is his career-low. With five games to go he has just three sacks. Montez Sweat has been here for four weeks and has 2.5. Sweat is the DJ Moore to the bad decision Chase Claypool, who is Ngakoue.
His win rate has been bottom ten in the NFL, and it somehow got worse with Montez Sweat. He is legitimately one of the worst players in the NFL on a per-dollar basis. This had signs of being a bad idea, and it went just as expected.
Ryan Poles Grade: F
Nate Davis, RG
Nate Davis has just a $6.9M cap hit this year, but that will go up to $11.5M next year. The Bears have no real way to get out of the deal, so they just have to hope that his final five games can provide some confidence. Like Edmunds, there is reason to buy him getting better.
Davis also missed most of the offseason, but he dealt with a family issue. Davis was out for weeks two and three after a bad showing in week one. After a rusty return in week four, we saw the best of him in week five. The Bears put up 40 points on Washington in a win. Of course, he got hurt the following week.
Davis returned in week 11 and was not great, but looked sharp in week 12. Once again, the Bears won. So, Davis had a personal issue, and an injury slowed him down. When he was not coming back from either, and had a game to get accustomed to playing, the Bears went 2-0. The next five games have no issues as well, so we should see similar to week five and week 12, and not the rest.
Ryan Poles Grade: C
DeMarcus Walker, DL
DeMarcus Walker has a $6.4m cap hit. For what he is being paid, he is not that much of an overpay, but the Chicago Bears were definitely asking him to do too much early into his tenure with the team.
Walker was signed to be a depth piece; that is what he is best at. He can defend the run on the edge and slide inside to rush the passer. However, without much depth on the edges, the team was leaning on Walker to start and play a career-high in snaps. The addition of Montez Sweat did two things to Walker.
First, it lowered his snap counts. Second, it got the best out of him. Walker has had nine pressures in the last two weeks. The Bears are able to use him rotationally and line him up in good matchups. Also, he is more rested when he rushes. It is still not a hit of a signing, and the team needed Sweat because Walker was not good enough. Still, the team is at fault for thinking he would be good enough.
Ryan Poles Grade: C
TJ Edwards, LB
T.J. Edwards has a $5M cap hit this year. All of the fans who think the grading has been too harsh so far can finally relax because the Edwards signing was a hit. He is only on the books for $7M next year, and the Bears will have no issues with that.
Edwards started his season slow, but he has really come on lately. First, he was having issues in all areas and was exposed by Aaron Jones in coverage. The coverage was slow to come on, but the Bears started to get him adjusted as a timely blitzer. Then, the run defense improved.
In recent weeks, he has been much better in coverage. The Bears' defense against Jahmyr Gibbs was much better than Aaron Jones ten weeks earlier. Edwards is currently playing his best football for the team.
The only issue with Edwards is why the team felt a need to add Edmunds on top of him. Jack Sanborn could have played the MIKE and Edwards with Sanborn, which would have been a great, cost-efficient duo.
Ryan Poles Grade: A
Andrew Billings, DT
Andrew Billings is the currency on the cap for $3.6M. His deal was so good that the Chicago Bears gave him a two-year $8M extension during the season. The Bears put a lot of resources into the run defense, and it takes a lot to go from 32nd in the NFL against the run to a top-ten unit. Still, Andrew Billings is one of the big reasons that happened.
He plays primarily on run downs, and he plays the nose in most occasions, which does not get much glory, but he has had a huge impact and has helped the development of Edwards against the run.
The fact that the Chicago Bears re-signed him shows that they love the signing, so it is hard to argue against that. It was a great deal, so this gets an A as well.
Ryan Poles grade: A
Robert Tonyan, TE
Marcedes Lewis, TE
Robert Tonyan has a $2.7M cap hit, while Marcedes Lewis is at $2M. However, Lewis is playing 26% of the snaps on offense while Tonyan is 24%. The Bears are getting little from Tonyan as a pass catcher, and Lewis is proving more as a blocker.
Both are low-cost, and neither has long-term impacts, so it is tough to get too mad.
Robert Tonyan signing: C+
Marcedes Lewis signing: B
Rasheem Green, Edge
Rahseem Green has a $2.4 M cap hit. He has played 37% of the defensive snaps this year. That is the lowest rate since his rookie year. For perspective, last year, he played 53% of the snaps.
This signing has not worked, but for those saying that Trevis Gipson is much better, he currently has 39 pass rush snaps, compared to Green, who has 162.
Ryan Poles Grade: C
D’onta Foreman, RB
D’onta Foreman has been a hit. He was inactive from week two through week five but injuries thrust him into the lineup. He currently has 92 rushes for 381 yards. An injury may have ended his chance at starting as Roschon Johnson took over his workload. Still, with a $2M cap hit, the Bears got plenty out of him.
Ryan Poles Grade: A
Travis Homer, RB
Travis Homer has a $1.8M cap hit. He has kept a gameday helmet due to special teams, for which he has 160 snaps. That is good enough for the cost, even though he has six offensive snaps.
Ryan Poles Grade: B+
Dylan Cole, LB
Dylan Cole signed for just over $1M. He has just three defensive snaps, but with 221 special teams snaps and coming in cheaper than Travis Homer, this has to help this be a successful signing.