https://www.nfl.com/news/lions-wr-amon-ra-st-brown-on-bears-offseason-they-have-unlimited-money
“I feel like the Bears have unlimited f—ing money,” St. Brown said. “This s— is crazy. They’re just signing new s— for like $40-50 million. Joe Thuney, boom. Jonah Jackson, bang. Drew Dalman, bang. Dayo Odeyingbo, another crazy amount of money. Grady Jarrett, bang. They’re just breaking everybody off. They have unlimited money. What the f— is this? … Ben is just making moves left and right.”
Different GM in works. Might work or it fail bad
QB on a rookie contract stuff
But he’s swinging for the fences. I remember when Russ Thomas was GM. It was a nightmare every year. Winning wasn’t a priority.
I’ll be honest. I wouldn’t feel bad if Z was resigned. Turn him loose while Hutch is double teamed.
That helps but it’s way more than that.
Sure, takes a certain sort of mindset (that hasn’t really worked out). But the reason they have “unlimited f-ing money” is the QB costs peanuts.
How many Poles does it take to blow up a cap surplus?
How much is their highest paid reciever getting?
From the article:
Chicago did enter the offseason with a hoard of cap space, partly due to its quarterback, Caleb Williams, being on a rookie contract and partly because the team has whiffed on its draft picks in recent years, rarely giving out second, big-money deals.
Whereas the Lions inked St. Brown, a fourth-round pick in 2021, to a four-year, $120.01 million extension, the Bears have exactly zero players left on their roster from that draft year.
Most of Chicago’s big-money players were acquired via trade (Montez Sweat, DJ Moore, Thuney, Jackson) or free agency (Tremaine Edmunds, D’Andre Swift). Jaylon Johnson and Cole Kmet are the key home-grown talents given long-term deals.
I mean, right? If you don’t have to re-sign any of the players you drafted (because they are not very good), you have more money for free agents. And you need them, desperately.
I’m reminded of Jacksonville a couple of years ago:
https://www.jaguars.com/news/free-agency-22-aggressive-bold-beginning
Started well… In 2022 they went 9-7. 2023? 10-8. 2024? 4-13.
I just don’t think the big free agent splash method works very well. Maybe the Bears will be the exception THIS TIME. We’ll see, I guess.
I can’t recall but didn’t they start 4-1 last year? They will be a handful this year.They picked up some pretty good players.I see them finishing 2nd in the north.
Every year a few teams make a bunch of FA signings and think they have built a contender. But until those guys play together and figure it out you really have no idea how it will translate to the field. I mean, every year with the Bears its another Poles “master class”!
I’ll take the under on that. Or would that be the over? They’ll be much better and the last place schedule will help them some but that seems pretty optimistic.
Even when they hit on draft picks they don’t tend to resign them. They let Roquan Smith walk…then paid essentially the same money to Trumaine Edmunds to replace him. They let David Montgomery walk…then paid Swift the same money to replace him.
Brad and Dan have created a culture where we resign our own guys and celebrate them the same way as the “shiny new objects” from another team. Howie Roseman will tell you that paying your own is one of the most important things you can do as a franchise. He learned that from the “dream team” days. Once a team has established that they pay their own, it helps the locker room accept the new players more favorably. The Bears are definitely going in a different direction.
I think so to, but Ol Bennie is trying to slap together a team in Chi Town.
Dan and Brad also emphasize culture, and that’s easier if they have mostly home grown talent. Ben might have a challenge building chemistry there. Maybe they click, maybe they implode.
Chicago did enter the offseason with a hoard of cap space, partly due to its quarterback, Caleb Williams, being on a rookie contract
One thing that just occurred to me is that we’ve never had a cheap rookie QB build. Stafford was drafted in the second worst pre-rookie-cap year, and he kept us running until Jared swapped in.
You have a GM who is 15-24, a team that’s trying to get a stadium built, and a QB on a rookie contract. All of that adds up to going all in.
Going all in is fine, but you have to do it intelligently. I don’t believe the Bears’ moves are particularly intelligent. They are just throwing money at their problems.
They are spending a lot… But most of those guys are older than they’ve ever been. 
What the Lions did in free agency was fine. D.J. Reed was a very good signing, and came at a much lower cost than some of the other top cornerbacks on the market. They brought back Derrick Barnes, Marcus Davenport and Levi Onwuzurike to help the defense. They didn’t have the type of salary cap flexibility to make many other huge additions. It’s already a loaded roster.
The problem isn’t the Lions’ moves. It’s the moves elsewhere in their division. The Vikings and Bears were two clear winners in free agency, with both teams adding a lot to the offensive and defensive lines. The Packers added to their line too, signing guard Aaron Banks, and they had the youngest roster in the NFL last season.
The Lions are a very good team, but the rest of the division all got better. That will make it a lot harder to get the No. 1 seed in the NFC playoffs again, as they did last season.
Some of the posters here have been making the same argument