The Bears are treating free agency like the playoff team they are

Like many Chicago Bears fans, I’ve spent the last day or so refreshing my screen constantly, waiting for confirmation that the Bears have pulled off one of the monstrous moves we’ve been theorizing about all offseason:

A trade for Maxx Crosby? Nope, he’s a Raven now.

Signing Trey Hendrickson? Turns out no one wants to do that.

Jaelan Phillips? Nah, he’s gone, too.

Tyler Linderbaum? Getting paid a lottttt of money to play for the Raiders.

In fact, pretty much every top-tier player on the free agent market

has a home. Meanwhile (at the time of this writing, anyway), the Bears have made just two “big” signings—locking in safety Coby Bryant (three years, $40 million) and linebacker Devin Bush (three years, $30 million)—and one depth addition, signing former Indianapolis Colts defensive tackle Neville Gallimore to a two-year, $12 million deal.

And to fill in their hole at left tackle, they signed…the left tackle they seemingly couldn’t wait to bench last year, Braxton Jones! (Okay, that might not be completely fair, as he was clearly hurt to start the season.)

On one hand, the Bears can say, “See? We got those defensive improvements you asked for!” But we all know they have more work to do, especially up front. Relying on defensive end Dayo Odeyingbo, who did exceedingly little before his Achilles injury last year, to improve while coming off that injury feels optimistic, and Gallimore shouldn’t ideally be more than your fourth defensive tackle.

Plus, the Bears still need a second corner and at least one more safety, and I wouldn’t hate it if they revisited the center position, too. (That ship has probably sailed after the Garrett Bradbury trade.)

And yet, the Bears seem content to plug holes with a bunch of band-aids rather than taking calculated swings at blue-chip players with all that cap space they just opened up. 

Why?

Long story short: because they’re good now. And good teams don’t spend a lot of money in free agency. That’s what bad teams do.

By my count, teams with the 10 worst records in the NFL spent about $130 million in free agency on average the following offseason over the last five years. By contrast, the ten best teams by record spent an average of about $83 million over that same five-year period. That’s about a 57% difference.

The Bears have literally jumped from one side of the line to the other in just one season, as have teams like the New England Patriots (whose fans and media are also freaking out over lack of spending) and Seattle Seahawks, who each spent more than $240 million last offseason.

Going into 2025, the Bears spent a bunch of money and draft capital to fix the offensive line and drafted the likes of Colston Loveland and Luther Burden III to go along with their budding superstar quarterback Caleb Williams. On the other side, they still have cornerback Jaylon Johnson and Montez Sweat, even though a lot of the rest feels chaotic.

In other words, they have a real core of players already, which was evidenced by that playoff appearance they just had. They don’t have to go out and buy one, like the Las Vegas Raiders and Tennessee Titans just did.

That also means they have to be even more strategic with how they spend their money and draft capital. As much as I would’ve enjoyed a Crosby trade or signing Linderbaum, the plain fact is that you can do more to shore up your weak spots by spreading that money around to multiple players in free agency, then using your draft picks to bring in cheap, young talent. (Grabbing that extra second-round pick from the Buffalo Bills in the DJ Moore trade helps almost as much as those lost third-round comp picks for Ian Cunningham would have.)

And let’s not forget the paydays some of their current crop of young talent will soon command. Williams and Darnell Wright, in particular, are going to be very, very expensive. Pushing yourself up against the cap limit when you don’t have to, even in service of winning on Williams’ rookie deal, with that staring you in the face isn’t always wise.

It’s pretty simple: the best teams don’t spend nearly as much in free agency as the bad ones, and the best teams are still the ones who draft best. So freaking out about what the Bears have or haven’t spent in free agency so far is missing the point. 

Ryan Poles and the Bears are learning what consistent winners like the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles consistently navigate: draft well, pay your stars, then stay sustainable. Sure, other teams are improving by trading for or signing talent. But you can’t be worried about keeping up with the Joneses the way they are. The Bears are the Joneses right now, and the constraints of the salary cap mean they have to be more mindful of how they keep this team good for the foreseeable future.

So while it may look like Poles is sitting on his hands just because he’s cheap, he’s actually doing it because he’s smart. These next few waves of free agency as the market cools down could be more interesting, though.