The Bears are quite a study in the business of football. They have a 2022 payroll of roughly two-thirds of the NFL salary cap. They are playing with more of a postgraduate team than a professional team, with the vast majority of their players working on fixed and reasonable first contracts. The lack of highly paid players on Chicago’s roster is stark.
The 2022 salary cap is $208 million; the Bears have a payroll of roughly $140 million. To put that in perspective, the Bears’ payroll is:
• $18 million below the league’s second-lowest spending team, the Falcons.
