The Chicago Bears are doing whatever they can to improve the roster ahead of a pivotal 2026 season.
They had a relatively quiet offseason with some key additions like Devin Bush, Coby Bryant, and Dillon Thieneman. Beyond that, the Bears didn't want to spend the kind of money they wanted to.
Most of the offseason was spent restructuring contracts and holding off on deals because of limited money. It appears as though Bears general manager Ryan Poles is trying to fix some of those problems.
Bears created cap space entering the 2026 season
ESPN NFL reporter Field Yates reported that the Bears had restructured the contracts of Joe Thuney, Dayo Odeyingbo, and T.J. Edwards. This helped Chicago create about $17 million in cap space. According to Over The Cap, the Bears were $12 million in the hole.
The Bears have restructured the contracts of G Joe Thuney, DE Dayo Odeyingbo and LB TJ Edwards, creating ~$17M in 2026 salary cap space.
— Field Yates (@FieldYates) September 4, 2026
This will help the Bears a lot by putting them in a much better salary cap position. If the math from Over the Cap and Yates is correct, the Bears would have $5 million to work with.
Does this give Poles many options? Not really. Bears fans shouldn't be expecting a Maxx Crosby-type trade to happen anytime soon.
This could open the door for Poles to look in free agency to add more talent, though. There is cap space to sign a decent veteran who can step in and help. It also gives them room to add two or three depth players if they want to go that route.
It would be nice to see Poles make a move to inspire some excitement from the fan base. The reality is that Poles wants to focus more on developing and selecting young players in the NFL Draft. He's moving away from the heavy trades he did early in his career and focusing on building for the future.
Over the last few drafts, the Bears have seen this plan work pretty well. Caleb Williams, Rome Odunze, Colston Loveland, Luther Burden III, Ozzy Trapilo, Kyle Monangai, Dillon Thieneman, and Jordan van den Berg are all examples of guys making an impact early on from the last three drafts.
Read more: Bears fans (again) breathe a sigh of relief over latest injury updates
Bears fans will be eager to see what the team does with the extra money, since at least one move should follow. The question is whether Poles will actually do it. For Bears fans, it should.
Add us as a preferred source on Google