Bear Digest

Where the Bears failed to get their money's worth

Analysis: Highly paid Bears failed in 2024 to produce at the level of their contracts, while others produced very little regardless of how much cap space they occupied.

Gene Chamberlain

Tyrique Stevenson's second year paycheck wasn't high but the damage done by his 2024 mistakes took a heavy toll.
Tyrique Stevenson's second year paycheck wasn't high but the damage done by his 2024 mistakes took a heavy toll. / Dan Powers/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin via Imagn Images
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Every season on every team there are cash cows and cash drains.

A cash cow delivers and keeps delivering while costing the team comparatively very little.

The cash drain is fairly self-explanatory and the Bears had their share of them in 2024. They won't always be a drain but they were this season.

GM Ryan Poles expects things to get better in terms of production per cash spent.

"I’m hard on myself and even looking at the situation for what we walked into and how much in the red we were to where we are today, I think as a front office we can take a lot of pride in that," Poles said. "Are we gonna hit on everything? No. Have we missed some things? Absolutely.

"I do take pride in the fact that we are learning from those misses and we continue to improve. So I think from a roster standpoint we continue to get better."

It's not always a cash drain's fault. Sometimes extenuating circumstances limit their production while they make a lot of money. An injury might limit production. Another player's lack of production might affect theirs. Regardless, the production didn't keep up with the money spent.

For example, a quarterback's efforts can limit a receiver. Linemen can limit a quarterback or running back.

The bottom line, however, is they lacked the numbers to justify their larger portion of the team's salary cap.

Here were the biggest Bears cash drains for 2024 season.

10. QB Caleb Williams

He might have been a bargain for a starting QB at $7.179 million and throws better than any Bears QB since Sid Luckman, other than Jay Cutler. However, both DJ Moore and Cole Kmet had better production in last season's offense when they didn't have a rookie passer. And Williams' passing statistics in tie games or close games were sub-par. He'll no doubt move off this list next year.

"Looking at Caleb, I thought he did some really good things but I also know that there’s so much more left in him, in his game and his skillset," Poles said.

9. WR Keenan Allen

He had 43 first-down receptions but only 70 catches for just 744 yards and that's on the low end for his career. The seven TD catches were about average. An injury and the rookie QB held down his production but at $23 million for the second-biggest Bears cap hit and also costing the Bears a fourth-round draft pick, Allen definitely ranks on the drain list. The Bears could have simply paid Darnell Mooney. He had 248 more yards, although Allen had two more TDs and made six more catches. But Mooney would have cost $13 million, not $23 million. And they wouldn't have traded away a draft pick.

8. G Ryan Bates

It's only $4 million but Ryan Poles gave up a fifth-round pick for him and got back only three games played because of a few different injuries. They'll hope for more in his second Bears season.

7. CB Tyrique Stevenson

At a cost of only $1.46 million, and with two interceptions, a forced fumble, 78 tackles and an 87.5 passer rating against when targeted, Stevenson's numbers don't say anything uncomplimentary. However, the defensive-high six penalties for a team-high 72 yards that he committed and some other bad mistakes weighed against him. The most telling issue, of course, was how he decided to be a cheer leader when the Hail Mary play began, before rushing in and knocking the ball back to the man he was supposed to cover. The play was the bottomless pit to the Bears season

6. DE Montez Sweat

For $25.085 million, Sweat is easily the dominant player on the defensive line. As their highest paid player, and accounting for 9.12% of their cap space, they need more than 5 1/2 sacks. That's a half sack less than he had for the Bears last year in nine games and he had the 5 1/2 sacks in 16 games this year. They need to help him by taking away some of the chip blockers but there were 53 players who had more than 5 1/2 sacks and they had to cope with chip blocks.

"I know he’s disappointed in himself and wants to get better," Poles said. "I know and he knows he’s capable of much more. Also as we continue to build the defensive line, adding more talent on it that will help."

5. LB Tremaine Edmunds

The second year of his contract occupied 8.79% of cap space and cost the Bears $22.44 million of cap space. There are questions now whether Matt Eberflus actually made the best use of him. Three tackles for loss, one sack, an interception, a forced fumble and 110 tackles seem a bit low for this price range. Edmunds had four picks last year. He did break up eight passes this season, but in Buffalo he had two seasons with more than this.

4. G Cody Whitehair

What? He wasn't on the team. You're right, but his dead cap space of $4.1 million represented 1.6% of this year's overall cap space and they got nothing in return for that cash in terms of production after they made him a pre-free agency cap victim.

3. TE Gerald Everett

For $5.46 million and 2.14% of the cap, they got eight receptions, 36 yards and 13 targets for a full 17 games. Because it was a tremendous drop from every one of his previous six seasons, it would seem to have been more of the fault of their system, coordinator and also Williams. However, eight catches? It might be more the result of circumstances but it doesn't make for less of a waste of cash.

2. S Eddie Jackson

His dead cap space was $5.58 million and 2.18% of their cap. In the 11 games he played for the Ravens and Chargers, Jackson had 30 tackles. Of course, he had none for the Bears and therein lies the cap waste.

1. G Nate Davis

The king of the Bears cap drain. Davis occupied 4.36% of their cap space, cost $11.147 million of space, and Pro Football Focus graded his performance 101st of 135 NFL guards. That's pretty low but the real problem is he played 142 snaps and had no real damaging injuries. It's safe to say there were questions about his willingness to work. Davis not only absorbed $11.147 million of cap space this year, he's going to cost them $2 million more next year.

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

BearDigest.com publisher Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.