Ryan Poles has never had a better pathway to cutting Bears' biggest 2025 mistake

Despite how great the 2025 season was for the Chicago Bears, there were some mistakes by general manager Ryan Poles that he would like to have back.

One of those mistakes was giving defensive end Dayo Odeyingbo a three-year, $48 million contract to start on the opposite end of the line from Montez Sweat. That ended up being a horrible bust of a move for Poles, as Odeyingbo was bad, with just 10 pressures, seven hurries, and one sack in eight games before his season-ending injury.

Windy City Gridiron's Bill Zimmerman published an article in which he jotted down notes based on conversations he had at the Super Bowl about the Bears. Zimmerman gave an interesting update on Odeyingbo that might help Poles decide whether to move on from him.

"I think if the Bears can get an injury settlement with Dayo Odeyingbo, they will do that and get him off the roster. He didn’t play well last year. Who knows how much he’s going to play in 2026? Whatever he does play, he’s going to be compromised coming off that injury, and he has no guaranteed money in 2027. It makes very little sense to keep him, but that depends on what they can accomplish, since he has plenty of guaranteed money coming his way in 2026."

Bears should just move on from Dayo Odeyingbo

Everyone in the fan base didn't love the Bears' signing Odeyingbo from the beginning. He had one season with eight sacks in 2023, but his other four seasons combined for just 9.5 sacks, so he's never been known for getting to the quarterback.

After Odeyingbo's injury, Austin Booker had just returned from injury and played pretty well to the point where he was the full-time starter the rest of the season and showed promise. It still left the Bears with a massive hole with pass rushers, as the team only had 35 sacks on the season, and Sweat contributed to 10 of those.

Chicago might take a financial hit with paying Odeyingbo an injury settlement, but with him not having any guaranteed money in 2027, it's better to just rip the band-aid off now and move on. That might kill Bears fans' hopes of landing a top edge rusher like Trey Hendrickson or Maxx Crosby in the offseason, but the draft has plenty of talent they can select to be in the rotation and develop as a starter.

This is one mistake the Bears fan base wants to put behind them, so Poles should try to make something happen with Odeyingbo and move on.