Bears could cut ties with $72 million starter due to salary cap crunch, reporter says

The Chicago Bears should be very aggressive when it comes to upgrading their roster this offseason after a successful 2025 campaign that saw Chicago make the playoffs and win a playoff game under new head coach Ben Johnson.

The problem for Chicago is that the team doesn't have a good cap space situation. Per Over The Cap, the Bears are projected to be $5.3 million over the cap going into the offseason before making any cuts and/or restructures.

In order to create some cap space, The Athletic's Kevin Fishbain names linebacker Tremaine Edmunds as a cut candidate for the Bears, although Fishbain points out a major problem with such a move: Chicago doesn't have an in-house replacement.

For a team that is currently over the cap, no player has a cleaner “out” in his contract than Edmunds, whose release would create $15 million of cap space while counting as only $2.4 million of dead money. That doesn’t mean it’s an easy decision. Edmunds had four interceptions and nine passes defended last season. He’s only 27. No one on the roster can seamlessly step into his role. The Bears do have some simple restructures they can do to create a bunch of cap space, but it might still be necessary.

Cutting Edmunds and his $72 million contract is not an easy decision by any stretch.

The veteran was productive last season and remains a key member of Chicago's defense. The biggest blemish for Edmunds was that he missed four games.

But the Bears have some key pending free agents and a few big needs on defense at positions that are more valuable than linebacker, so cutting Edmunds remains a realistic possibility.

If Chicago cuts the veteran, it would save a whopping $15 million while incurring a dead-cap charge of just $2.4 million. That is a significant amount of money Chicago will have a hard time passing up on.

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