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As expectations on the Bears shift during the second season of general manager Ryan Poles’ rebuild, there’s a relatively new emphasis on highly paid talent playing up to its contract.
Every team wants value, but last season the Bears weren’t going anywhere anyway. Did it matter much that defensive end Robert Quinn, with the highest salary-cap number on the team, underperformed? In a teardown year, not really.
That’s quite different now that the Bears are pushing to compete for a playoff spot, something quarterback Justin Fields and others have mentioned throughout the offseason.