There aren't many happy Chicago Bears fans entering the final weekend before the new 2026 league year gets underway.
First off, the Bears might have found their Drew Dalman replacement in Garrett Bradbury after trading a 2027 fifth-round pick to the New England Patriots when fans were hoping to be in the running for Tyler Linderbaum. It was capped by edge rusher Maxx Crosby, a guy the Bears were favored to land, who ended up getting traded to the Baltimore Ravens in exchange for two first-round picks.
This has left many Bears fans wondering what the plan is for this free agency to address the edge-rusher position and what else the team is doing to improve the roster. All of a sudden, after getting so much praise for the DJ Moore trade to the Buffalo Bills, Bears general manager Ryan Poles is feeling the heat a bit.
Ryan Poles has a lot of work to do for Bears with new league year beginning
Chicago showed all the signs that they were ready to be aggressive and set themselves up for some big moves. The Bears traded more to add not only a second-round pick in this year's draft, but also saved the team over $15 million. Poles also saved roughly the same amount of money by releasing linebacker Tremaine Edmunds, as the total amount of $44 million was saved from the Bears.
Poles had done everything right to get the Bears in line to help Montez Sweat out on the defensive line and potentially get an elite center to block in front of Caleb Williams. So what happened? How did the Bears miss out on arguably the best available defensive player and offensive lineman in the offseason?
The reality is that the two first-round picks being asked were just too high a price for the Bears to give up for Crosby, even if he is a five-time Pro Bowler. Chicago had four draft picks in 2025 that made a massive impact on the team, so it's hard to give those picks up, given the Bears' strong hit rate.
As for targeting a player like Linderbaum, his reported $25 million-per-year contract was way too much to ask. The Bears have multiple positions to fill, and dropping it all on a center was not feasible for Poles to take a chance on after getting burned on Dalman being there one year.
Read more: Bears just lost their best Drew Dalman replacement before free agency starts
Poles obviously has some kind of plan for him to make the kind of cuts and trades he has, but he'd better act quickly. Patience in Chicago is being blown away quickly and living up to the Windy City nickname.