Ryan Pace's free agency report cards usually graded out well above his drafts.
At evaluation time, the former Bears GM usually had all of the holes covered with some type of free agent and liked making big splashes early. This always satisfies the critics in social media land or elswehere.
Then they usually flopped on draft day and as so often happens in free agency, many of those players failed. Free agents are usually other teams' unwanted players so of course most of them fail.
New Bears GM Ryan Poles will not be so fortunate as he has undertaken an actual rebuild and did it with a decent amount of salary cap space available but with numerous holes to fill because of the plan's scope.
In the end, Poles' plan could bear fruit because of it's pervasive nature. Rebuilding the very foundation of a franchise prevents crumbling later and this was his intent.
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For now, though, the grades for his first free agency period look as spotty as a Bears roster that has a mix of short-term free agents, players fitted for different systems in a past regime and Justin Fields.
Bears Free Agency Report Card
Direction: A+
There can be no doubt Poles had a plan and stuck to it. In fact, this is by far the most positive aspect of what the Bears did in free agency.
The idea was to get as much done with low-budget players as possible while freeing up cap space for a future run at building the roster. It wasn't going to be possible to do this in 2021 because of the commitments to cap space made by Pace in the past. However, it is possible starting in 2023 and Poles aimed his plan in this direction.
Overthecap.com lists the Bears with $117,671,694 available for 2023, the second most in the league behind Houston. They have $191,964,030 for 2024, much of which will be taken up by the signings they make in 2023 but it would still leave them with a healthy chunk of availability.
The Bears signed 13 free agents at lower costs, none averaging more than $6 million a year and none committed to deals beyond two years. As such these players get to prove themselves worthy of being part of the rebuild going forward.
Poles wanted certain types of players for this: overachievers, underafted or late draft picks for the most part. The goal was to establish a pattern of maximum effort and who better to do it than those whose very existence in the league have been defined by this.
This plan of Poles was to demolish the structure Pace put up first and then build it. The wrecking ball has finished its job and the lot is empty.
Doing something like this was what Pace should have done in 2015 when he took over but he never did. One of the chief reasons for this was the big chunk of cash being eaten up by Jay Cutler, thanks to the foolish gigantic contract extension made by GM Phil Emery.
Flexibility: C
The flexibility displayed comes in the form of options when the chief target is missed.
When the disaster of Larry Ogunjobi failing a physical confronted Poles, he immediately had another option up and completed in Justin Jones. This isn't an ideal option as Jones has only 4 1/2 career sacks and 12 tackles for loss in four years as a defensive tackle who will man the playmaking three technique spot. But Poles at least did have someone in mind and went right there and got the job done. It's the quality that's questionable.
The other disaster occurred when they couldn't get Ryan Bates away from Buffalo as a restricted free agent. They probably could have done the job with more cash, but how much could they really afford to pay Bates when it would have been far more than they actually had already given to veteran Lucas Patrick for another interior offensive line position?
The alternative is they really have no one at that right guard spot. They signed Dakota Dozier, who is a backup type and not really a starter.
It's now another hole they have to cover in the draft.
Wise personnel people and even Pace have said you don't leave holes going into the draft because then you're forced to draft by need rather than by best available player. Teams that do this are forever plugging holes with the draft rather than building a strong franchise with layer upon layer of great young athletes.
Value: C-
Certainly they haven't spent much. They came in with around $36 million of cap space according to Spotrac.com, and have about $13.4 million still available. But what they brought in with what they did spend is the real question.
They wanted to pay out $40.5 million to Ogunjobi, a player Pro Football Focus has suggested isn't worth this much. He's a big-play hunter who takes gambles.
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In the process, the Bears found plenty of players at lesser contracts but the question about them is how many are really even worth the money they were paid.
Center Lucas Patrick appears solid after proving himself two straight years when forced to start for the Packers due to injuries. It's hard to believe they couldn't have come up with a better receiver talent than Equanimeous St. Brown, who was only targeted 30 total times over the last two seasons. They paid $4 million guaranteed to Byron Pringle, a receiver who only once in four years was over 42 receptions. Yet the Packers three weeks later found Sammy Watkins for $4 million over one year. Watkins is still in his 20s, has averaged 14.5 yards a catch over eight years and has had 39 catches or more five times.
Watkins had even been playing ahead of Pringle on the same team for three years.
The defensive line talent brought in didn't require huge expenditures, but for the $10 million spent over two years on Al-Quadin Muhammad the Bears got a player who made only eight total starts his first four seasons and never was a regular starter until last year.
They've collected a group of linebackers at extremely low costs, including Nicholas Morrow at $3 million for a year, but there's not much proof they've added more than a collection of waiver-wire types. Morrow never played more than half his team's snaps until 2019 and didn't even play last year. When a player misses a full season, the consequences are always uncertain. Look at Eddie Goldman last year.
Being thrifty is one thing but there are two parts to that term. One is low cost. The other his talent exceeding the pay. It's here where the Bears look to have done a mediocre job.
Improvement: D
This doesn't include the Khalil Mack move, which was a trade. But it's hard to see how they'll get better production out of their defensive line this year when the answer to losing Akiem Hicks and Bilal Nichols in free agency and cutting Goldman, is to sign Justin Jones and Al-Quadin Muhammad. That's a tremendous net loss.
They lost actual catches with veterans Allen Robinson, Marquise Goodwin, Damiere Byrd and Jakeem Grant leaving. It's true those players weren't really effective last year but replacing them with just Pringle and St. Brown is another huge net loss.
Their offensive line losses included their two best blockers last year according to Pro Football Focus, James Daniels and Jason Peters. Germain Ifedi wasn't a find but had been recycled into an acceptable player. They actually haven't replaced Peters and Daniels. The fill-ins at tackle were players who weren't ready last year and had part-time exposure. Brown's right guard spot has been filled only by a substitute guard, Dozier.
They needed help at two starting cornerback positions to improve the talent and also for depth. They got slot cornerback Tavon Young, who has been injured much of the time but is effective when healthy.
Tight end Jimmy Graham aged out but had 12 touchdown catches the last two years, counting the playoffs. Tight end Ryan Griffin was added and had 12 touchdown catches in his first eight years in the league, before adding two more last year.
Overall: C-
The real improvement at all these positions where veterans left will take place both through this year's draft and next year's free agency.
This year's free agency was more part of the overall demolition process.
No one is going to get high grades for destroying something. Those come when it all looks better in the future.
Poles is playing the long game and this report card is for the short game.
Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven
Bears Free Agency Report Card - Sports Illustrated
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