LAKE FOREST, ILLINOIS - JULY 22: General manager Ryan Poles of the Chicago Bears speaks to the media ahead of the start of Chicago Bears Training Camp at Halas Hall on July 22, 2025 in Lake Forest, Illinois. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images) Getty
The Chicago Bears are ready to roll for the 2026 campaign, and all eyes will be on them as they attempt to successfully follow up their breakout season in 2025. While the Bears did lose several key players from their team last year, they still have a solid core group of guys intact who are more than capable of leading this team forward.
For the most part, Chicago's roster is set, but there will be times throughout the season when the front office needs to tinker with the group of players it has at its disposal. In order to do that, the Bears are going to need cap space, which recently led the team to restructure the contracts of three key players, freeing up $17 million in the process.
Chicago had a busy offseason, as it struggled to deal with teams across the league looking to find a way to steal some pieces from their successful 2025 campaign. Ben Johnson's coaching staff suffered several losses, and a handful of players departed in free agency. As a result, the Bears are going to have to adapt on the fly early in 2026 in order to remain in the hunt in what is expected to be a competitive NFC North division.
Having cap space will allow the team to address its needs as they pop up throughout the season. An easy way for front offices to create cap space involves restructuring big-money contracts. By converting a player's base salary into a signing bonus, immediate cap space can be created, so long as the players involved are willing to make such a move.
Ahead of Week 1, Chicago's front office decided it wanted to have some more cap space at its disposal, which led it to approach offensive lineman Joe Thuney, defensive end Dayo Odeyingbo, and linebacker T.J. Edwards about contract restructures. All three guys signed off on their respective restructures, leading to the Bears freeing up around $17 million in cap space.
"The Bears have restructured the contracts of G Joe Thuney, DE Dayo Odeyingbo and LB TJ Edwards, creating ~$17M in 2026 salary cap space," Field Yates of ESPN reported in a post on X.
GettyLAKE FOREST, ILLINOIS – JULY 22: General manager Ryan Poles of the Chicago Bears speaks to the media ahead of the start of Chicago Bears Training Camp at Halas Hall on July 22, 2025 in Lake Forest, Illinois. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images)
Anytime a team frees up this amount of cap space, fans are going to naturally wonder whether a big move could be following in the near future. The week or so left leading up to the start of the regular season is often used as a time to make some final splashy roster moves, so maybe Chicago has a deal it is working on that it needs cap space for.
The more likely answer is that the Bears simply want to have some flexibility to maneuver as necessary throughout the season, but the team is officially on trade watch now that it has created a significant amount of cap space. Chicago will open the 2026 campaign with a Week 1 matchup against the Carolina Panthers on Sep. 13.
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