Multiple sources say the Bears have reworked contracts to free up $ 17 million in cap space.

Does this mean a big move is about to happen?

Ahead of Week 1, Chicago’s front office decided it wanted to have some more cap space at its disposal, which led it to approach offensive lineman Joe Thuney, defensive end Dayo Odeyingbo, and linebacker T.J. Edwards about contract restructures. All three guys signed off on their respective restructures, leading to the Bears freeing up around $17 million in cap space.

“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 of ESPN reported in a post on X.

Hmmm...

45 minutes ago, Pixote said:

Multiple sources say the Bears have reworked contracts to free up $ 17 million in cap space.

Does this mean a big move is about to happen?

They needed 7 million for normal year operations, so that much was in the works.

Adding 10 million more looks like they have a transaction or extension in the works

45 minutes ago, Pixote said:

Multiple sources say the Bears have reworked contracts to free up $ 17 million in cap space.

Does this mean a big move is about to happen?

No, they were technically "over the cap". These moves get them under by about $5M which is typically the operating window for the year.

If the Bears were to work out a trade, they would almost certainly need to include a player and the new player would have to get immediately restructured. To me, I think there is less of a chance something is done before the season. If anything happens, I think it would be at the trade deadline where the cap hit this year can be absorbed.

1 hour ago, adam said:

If the Bears were to work out a trade, they would almost certainly need to include a player and the new player would have to get immediately restructured. To me, I think there is less of a chance something is done before the season. If anything happens, I think it would be at the trade deadline where the cap hit this year can be absorbed.

And last year at the deadline, Ben Johnson told Poles he did not want the Bears trading picks for a DE. I assume it will be the same this year.

Biggs reported in his Q&A earlier today (before these moves were made) that you should expect some moves to come and they are more about getting the cap in good order for flexibility (vs. an indication of a move coming). Doesn't mean a move won't come but its just good hygiene to make sure they have necessary flexibility to navigate during the season. If they don't use it...it just rolls over to next year anyway.

Like Adam said, its just getting the Cap straight for the season. There is no big surprises coming as far as talent. It will be minimum deals when maybe we have another injury adding a vet. They still have some money to gain when they make injury deals with some of the players they put on IR.

I never understood how on one side of the coin, they say it takes time to get to know a system and your teammates (seems totally logical), but then they can trade for a player at the deadline who immediately contributes. What that tells me is individual skills still rule them all. If a guy is struggling because "he is still learning the system" then he probably is not very good to begin with.