The Bears finished the 2022 NFL regular season as the official worst team in professional football.
After starting 2-1, Chicago went 1-13 down the stretch, eventually losing an astonishing 10 straight games to close the season. Under normal circumstances, even if they just had a top draft pick after an incredible “Mini Mary”, the Bears would be your run-of-the-mill awful squad trying and failing to pick up the offseason.
But this is no normal offseason for the Bears, nor do they seem like your average hopeless bottom-feeder. After finishing off the perfect tank job to set up a monumental spring, Chicago is in an ideal position to catapult itself into long-term relevance and glory over the next few months. What’s more, is they can act as a seamless facilitator to anyone else who wants to build something special down the line.
Here are three reasons why the Bears are the most interesting (and perhaps most important?) team of the 2023 NFL offseason.
They own the No. 1 overall pick in a quality QB draft ripe for a trade down
When it comes to top-level assets in the NFL, the only thing that might possibly compare to having a star quarterback is owning the No. 1 overall pick. With the draft’s top pick in tow (thanks to the fighting Texans!), the world is that team’s oyster, granting them a world of possibilities and quite literally letting them pick whoever they like. Now, if that team already has a promising quarterback in place, as the Bears do with Justin Fields, their prospects for using that pick becomes much more intriguing.
The last time an NFL team already had a promising signal-caller in tow while possessing the No. 1 overall pick was … the Jaguars in 2022 with Trevor Lawrence. Unfortunately for Jacksonville, who likely would’ve loved a trade-down for more high draft capital, the 2022 draft was a weak one for quarterbacks — typically the only position a reasonable franchise would trade up for.
In 2023, Bryce Young and C.J. Stroud might not necessarily be a “generational” top-two (whatever that means), but they’re certainly one of the better pairings of potential franchise passers in recent memory. That makes the Bears at No. 1 overall, with Fields as their future, QB kingmakers for anyone who wants to make a deal. There is a limited precedent for teams actually trading the draft’s top pick. But anything short of a minimum of the value of three first-rounders — should the Bears successfully swing a trade — would be surprising.
For a rebuilding squad that holds all the cards, that sort of king’s ransom haul would be an immediate boon for the Bears’ future.
They have the most salary cap space, and almost double the next team's amount
Chicago GM Ryan Poles entered his debut season with the Bears with one clear mission: Tear down a past-its-prime roster to the studs. After offloading former defensive talismans like Khalil Mack and Akiem Hicks while deliberately making little long-term commitments in free agency on both sides of the ball, Poles’ mission leaves the Bears with roughly $118 million in cap space at the start of their offseason, per Over The Cap. The next closest team is the Falcons … with $69.8 million.
Uh, yeah. Let’s just say the Bears have the flexibility to offer any deal they want in free agency or even just to extend their own players. And when you have this much salary cap space, you can easily absorb the contracts of potential stars added in any blockbuster trade. After winning only three games, the Bears might find it challenging to attract free agents for a time, let alone retain their players.
But money talks and no one has more than Chicago. By far.
Justin Fields' continued ascent
Understandably, some are still skeptical about Fields’ long-term prospects as a game-changing starter in the NFL. But when you consider he had the Bears absolutely humming along for almost half the season while working with a supporting cast of carpenters and guys just happy to be there, you realize how special he can be.
Honestly, Fields was a one-man big-play machine in 2022. He turned himself into the league’s most dynamic rushing quarterback on a whim just so he could survive. And he happened to do it at the expense of defenses who never quite found an answer for his electric, multifaceted skill set.
It makes you wonder what Fields could do should he have an offensive roster befitting his incredible gifts. You know, like an offensive line that can actually block or receivers who can get open outside of scripted play design. You get this young man both, and he’s likened to cook with gas on a legitimate playoff contender.
The Bears aren’t the most interesting team of the 2023 offseason because they have the No. 1 overall pick and the most cap space of any other squad. They’re the most interesting team of the 2023 offseason because they have both of those feathers in their cap while already being led by one of the game’s premier playmakers under center. Fields opens up a world of possibility for the Bears to become a force overnight with all the flexibility they have.
Fields is the ultimate trump card in this team-building dynamic and gives Chicago real hope in the second main portion of the football calendar.
