Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
The Bears had no intention of making big splashes in free agency last offseason. They were headed the other way, in fact, and wanted to unload some of their pricier players to make space for future plans.
So general manager Ryan Poles went fishing. He signed 19 players in free agency, including bringing back safety DeAndre Houston-Carson, and traded a seventh-round pick for wide receiver N’Keal Harry. Of those 20 players, 16 are on one-year contracts and three of the two-year signees could be cut with minimal impact on the 2023 salary cap.
The outlier is defensive tackle Justin Jones, who Poles picked up for two years, $12 million when the Larry Ogunjobi deal fell through.