r/CHIBears • u/Prestigious_Way_738 • 16h ago
Bears highest paid defensive players. This is depressing.
Montez Sweat - $25,088,594, 8.10% cap
Jaylon Johnson - $24,502,380, 7.91% of cap
Grady Jarrett - $18,925,000, 6.11% of cap
Dayo Odeyingbo - $13,500,000, 4.36% of cap
Kyler Gordon - $12,910,000, 4.17% of cap
Overall this is the 3rd most expensive defense in the league. Will likely end up as a bottom 10 defense. Maybe bottom 5.
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u/iPissVelvet Good, Better, Best 16h ago
I mean. Jaylon is a top 5 corner when healthy, it’s a fair contract. Kyler is the top slot corner in the league when healthy. He was healthy until after his second contract — should Poles have guessed that this would have happened?
Montez is like the 12th highest page edge and plays like the 12th best edge in the league. It’s a fair price.
Grady and Dayo are the only problems. Let’s see what they show us this year. But yes it’s no secret that good teams need to consistently draft well and replenish good young players on cheap contracts.
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u/ActFuture1101 16h ago
Yep Grady/Dayo are really the only "bad" contracts. Like you said no one has a crystal ball and could have projected kyler would be injured 24/7. He was worth the $$ he got paid and every bears fan wanted him extended. Its also exhausting to see people blame ryan poles for everything bad(Like dayo, grady) and put no blame on ben and dennis allen. Both of those guys wanted to sign those players as well...this wasn't just all poles. I'm also going to hold my judgement on grady until I see him this year. Supposedly last year he was playing hurt for most of the season
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u/Apoco120 Mack 12h ago
100% agree that Ben and DA SHOULD get blame for Dayo and Grady. Gordon is unfortunate, he was pretty healthy his rookie deal but it just hasn’t worked. Happens in the NFL more often than people think. Sweat is a decent contract. It’s not good, but it’s not terrible either.
But back to Dayo and Grady, I genuinely do not see what anyone in the building saw, especially in Dayo to warrant that. I remember seeing the notification when they signed Dayo and at the time even I felt it was just a terrible signing and overpay. Maybe they felt that they just needed to get someone on the team for that position? Idk
As for Grady, I saw the vision and figured it was just to get a veteran presence. But, that’s a pretty expensive veteran presence, although Grady was better than Dexter who they traded away imo so I suppose in a sense he’s an “upgrade” even if it doesn’t really feel like it
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u/Apoco120 Mack 13h ago
Similar to how the Eagles had a damn good defense in 2022 and went to the SB, but then drafted players like Quinyon Mitchell, Morro Ojomo, Jalen Carter, Cooper DeJean etc who all fueled their SB run 2 years later. They knew they wouldn’t be able to pay all the guys on ‘22 team (Like TJ Edwards), so they looked to the draft and it worked out really well for them. Hitting on picks is simply key if you want to even contend
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u/SonOfNike85 1h ago
The one thing about the bears that I hope regresses is defensive health.
At times we were down to our 5th and 6th LB and 5th and 6th CB.
The defensive line was also banged up most of the year.
If we have half of the injuries on defense that we did last year we will be in a much better spot.
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u/DanceTheCosmicNoir Bears 13h ago
Sweat’s cap hit this year is third in the league for edges, Dayo is 18th. Jarret’s cap hit is 10th for interior.
None of them are good contracts. And two are grievously bad.
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u/ActFuture1101 13h ago
Its structured that way so they can exit the contract if the player doesnt work out. I'm sure you'd prefer the cap hit to be more spread out so you'd have another year to bitch about dayo/jarrett
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u/DanceTheCosmicNoir Bears 4h ago
Dado’s dead cap next year is $11,500,000. Not chump change. Jarrett another 4 million. So, that’s 15 million down the fucking drain when the consensus at the time of signing that they were bad signings.
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u/Fantasynoob2761 16h ago
I would normally say that poles had bad luck with Gordon but he has now paid three guys who didn’t want to play football in some form or fashion being Nate davis, drew Dalman, and Kyler. His judgement of character with how hungry some of these guys are to play football, especially once paid, is questionable.
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u/ccable827 Bear Logo 15h ago
This take is atrocious. Nate davis, sure, whatever. Drew dalman? The guy retired out of nowhere, how the fuck is poles supposed to know that was going to happen. He paid a highly touted center handsomely, and dalman played up to it. Kyler? No one here knows the full story, don't let anyone tell you otherwise. If the rumors are true that Kyler doesnt feel right but the bears health team says he's fine, so be it. That doesn't mean poles has a poor judgement of character. Give me a break.
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u/Fluffy-Trick-4239 16h ago
This is the “draft all offense” tax. It is what it is. Without this we wouldn’t have the offensive weapons we do
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u/randomname3415 14h ago
He spent most of his early draft capital in the first two years as GM on the defense. In the top 100 in his two years:
-Kyler
-Brisker
-Velus
-Darnell
-Dexter
-Stevenson
-PickensThere’s 5 of 7 on the defensive side. He then used another 2nd round pick in the Montez Sweat trade. He invested plenty on the defensive side of the ball in the draft, he has just done so poorly.
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u/BooItsKyle 13h ago
And as recently as 2024, the defense was the strength of the team relatively speaking
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u/rrtk77 Bear Logo 14h ago
he has just done so poorly.
First off, none of those defensive guys are first rounders (Kyler being the closest). A huge boon and issue with Poles strategy is that he's investing entirely in Caleb and the offense with his most premium investments. Theineman is the first defensive player he's taken in the first since he got here.
Second, there are four 2nd round picks there, where he got 2 above average starters through their rookie deals in Gordon and Brisker (one of which got extended and is now in some mysterious PUP state), an average starter in Stevenson, and a slightly below average starter who he recouped some value on in Dexter. The odd man out is Pickens, who is a 3rd rounder where the expectation is about half the guys you draft are total busts. That's pretty much the expected value of those picks.
The most glaring issue is that of his most premium draft capital, Poles has over-invested in the secondary. Safeties are nice, but he's taken 2 in the first two rounds, one in the first, and has taken absolutely 0 edge players. Ultimately, Poles will likely need to flip some of our cheap and extremely valuable offensive talent for actual premium capital and invest in the front seven.
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u/burner69account69420 9h ago
You act like having one of the best offenses in the NFL is a problem, which is a great indicator that you don't belong anywhere in team building lol.
He's choosing a one side at a time philosophy and allowing coaching to develop defensively while contracts clear. The defense was fine enough last year. They will hit it in the draft with high value picks next year.
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u/randomname3415 13h ago
Brisker was not an above average safety. There isn’t a single metric you can point to that suggests that. If he was, he would have got a lot more than a 1yr/$5.5 mil deal and no concussions concerns aren’t why he’s getting paid like a backup safety.
Ultimately he took 5 guys in the top 64 on the defensive side of the ball with 2 of them still on the team and a good chance neither of them are here next year. He both over invested in the secondary and drafted poorly at the same time.
I mean he’s done such a bad job in general on the defensive side of the ball that we’re all talking about a fair possibility we have a top 5 offense and we still might miss the playoffs because the defense is that bad on paper.
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u/BooItsKyle 13h ago
I can't think of a single metric I would trust for safety play. I wasn't a big fan of Brisker, but I just can't think of any metric I would care about to rank safeties.
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u/HopLegion Windy City War Room 12h ago
Poles has spent four top 10 picks on offense. To highlight the value of a single top 10 pick vs day 2 picks, you likely couldn't trade all of those 2nds and 3rds to get a top 10 pick. This draft value eventually evens out in the charts after multiple high 2nds and a 3rd, but there would be a mass premium to get a team to move back on top of it. Saying he spent "early draft capital" doesn't mean a lot when you look at the value of premium picks and day 2 picks.
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u/Go_Go_Godzilla 15h ago
I mean, using a 3rd for TE3 is kind of wild with how bad our defense is. Lots of good corners and fliers on the line still there when we took Roush.
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u/BooItsKyle 14h ago
Which position on defense would be clearly upgraded by your average 3rd rounder in their rookie year?
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u/SaveThemTurdles HITS Principle 14h ago
Edge and corner would be better than a TE3 imo. Ben has earned a lot of trust with last years draft so he obviously has a vision. But it comes at a cost of less talent on defense to be able to develop.
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u/burner69account69420 9h ago
You don't pick players you think fans think you need, lmao. You know quite literally nothing about their plans and they went BPA on their board. TE is very important to Ben's scheme and generally takes time to develop in NFL compared to other positions. When they move on from Kmet they'll have a perfect replacement.
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u/okay_throwaway_today 9h ago
Our problem is too many 3rd round equivalent edge and no stars. Roush didn’t replace anything that would have moved the needle on defense
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u/MunchenOnYou 14h ago
Any of the defensive players left at 3rd round would not have moved our defensive needle at all
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u/FattyLumps GSH 11h ago
Not a single defensive player after the first two rounds would move the needle at all for our bottom 5 defense, but a TE3 is a slam dunk to move the needle for actually good offense? Ok. 👌
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u/okay_throwaway_today 9h ago
Yes in Ben’s offense that is extremely TE heavy. There’s not a ceiling for “actually good offense”. TE3 being talented (especially blocking) brings a lot of flexibility in both passing and run game
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u/Fluffy-Trick-4239 14h ago
It was not wild. NFL is moving towards multiple TE sets and Ben Johnson is leading that charge. We lost our blocking TE to free agency, so it makes sense
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u/burner69account69420 9h ago
You are obviously not privy to the team building plans and probably criticized the Loveland pick when it happened. This signals they will be moving on from Kmet sooner than later and went BPA on their board at the time.
They will be rotating to defense for building next year, barring significant injuries or offensive departures. Ground up rebuilds take time and they've built one of the best, young offenses in the league.
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u/happyfave 1h ago
Then people would be complaining that Caleb has no weapons and we would never develop a top flight QB
I'll pay this tax and when Caleb gets fully NFL mature we can then go harder on D
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u/Meatballgravytrain 16h ago
I was psyched for this season to start in less than a week and see what another year with Ben at the helm would bring but now…with this new information you’ve brought to light, I’m thinking they are better off just forfeiting the season.
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u/BlackthorneSamurai 16h ago
Some folks could win the lottery and complain they had to wait a week to get the money.
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u/okay_throwaway_today 9h ago
Yeah this thread is wild lol. People are already crying so much and the season hasn’t even started yet.
Might be time to get off reddit
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u/thesirmarcoletters Sweater Combo 13h ago
Everyone bitched about offense for the last forty years. Now that there’s an offense, you just CAN’T be happy. I really hope some of you stop being Bear fans if they move to Indiana, because there may finally be discourse that isn’t sub-moronic on this sub. None of you could do a better job at GM, and would swing and miss more often than a truly bad professional.
God, the actual games can’t start fast enough…
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u/lopey986 grater 2h ago
Look man, we just want to have the #1 Offense and the #1 Defense I don't really get why that's so hard for everyone to understand!
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u/ButkusHatesNitschke Butkus 16h ago
All we need to do is draft the next Hampton and Tommie Harris.
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u/Capital_Past69 Bears 16h ago
Dayo making this list 😭😭😭
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u/cincoparalinko 16h ago
Being on this list is the reason he’s not motivated
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u/Capital_Past69 Bears 15h ago
Any other team would make him work like 2 or 3 years for that much money. Stupid overpay by Poles.
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u/BpFal3 16h ago
Yeahhhhhhh. Poles hasn’t covered himself in glory with the state of the defense. Ben Johnson is gonna do a lot of lifting his year
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u/Neat_On_The_Rocks Charles Tillman 14h ago
At the end of the day, the offense SHOULD over perform with its qb1, WR1, wr2, TE1 all on rookie deals
The retirement at center is a damn shame because I would feel so much better about this offense with him there. But it is what it is. Thuney and wright are still ++ OL.
The injuries to DB are just gonna cap the ceiling of the defense. Jaylon must stay on the field and be a true lock down cb1 for this d to have a chance to at least be serviceable even.
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u/HopLegion Windy City War Room 12h ago
Poles has spent 4/5 first round picks on offense including every top 10 pick he's had. He wants the core of his team to be from the draft. Of course the offense should do the heavy lifting. It's how the team is built.
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u/okay_throwaway_today 9h ago
He also went out and got the best up and coming offensive mind in football for head coach lol
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u/MikaIsMyDog 13h ago
Doesn't this mean they can free up a ton of space next off season? I think DA is a better D coordinator than Flus and I trust him to find some studs that fit his scheme when given the resources.
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u/Brodie1567 Iceman 🧊 16h ago
This isnt anything new.
Poles is ass at evaluating defensive talent. So much wasted money & draft picks. Will end up capping the ceiling of this team.
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u/OMG_Bear_Is_Driving 12h ago
I'd like to think that Poles has and will continue to learn from mistakes and get better, just as I believe Year Two Caleb is not the best we'll see of him in the future. Poles has had some misfires, but that doesn't mean that's all he is and ever will be. He has learned and will continue to learn, and hopefully have more good luck and less bad luck and hopefully have more of those great moves he has pulled off, and be a better GM tomorrow than he was yesterday.
By the way, do those numbers reflect the restructure Dayo just did that was more team friendly and actually more risky to him? Until we see otherwise I'm banking on a Motivated Dayo, whether that's actually a Motivated Dayo or others that develop and take leaps forward.
So annoying to see people think you build a winning team by magically drafting five future hall of famers in the first round and trading away everything to get one single player every year. It takes a plan for the future, doing a lot right (which includes learning from mistakes and growing).
Poles has absolutely been making player contract choices with a gameplan in mind towards the future so they can afford to pay Caleb and hopefully still be in position to pay what they need for a Super Bowl run, not last year or this year, but year 3 or 4 of Ben Johnson. A lot of guys with lopsided contracts that may look bad now won't be around by then and will set the stage for hopefully other/more productive Super Bowl winning players.
The 2016 Cubs won a year or two earlier than they were built to do, and that would be great if the Bears did so too. But the plan is to build towards the next few years, not last year or this year.
As much as I love having Joe Thuney, and as much as I hope they make a run this year...the realistic timeline for the plan Poles has been trying to implement would find Thuney likely retired before they win it all. Even if Grady Jarrett doesn't perform better this year after getting healthy, that plan was to have him contribute as much in the locker room as on the field now, hopefully rubbing off on others, and then likely be retired when the team wins a Super Bowl.
Of those names listed in this post, and the money spent I'm only concerned if Gordon doesn't get healthy and if Johnson can't return to form after last year's injury. Who cares if they overpaid Montez or Dayo for years past if some young player emerges this year or next and those contracts are gone? Who cares if they overpaid for a once great Grady Jarrett if there are dudes in the lockerroom two years from now talking about how much Jarrett taught them about being a pro while Ben Johnson is ripping his shirt off and spraying champagne in the background? Jarrett will never be a dominate full time player for the Bears like he used to be for Atlanta, but the Bears will get their money's worth with him in all areas considered, and his contract will be gone by the time they win.
They need Johnson back to form and Gordon to return period, return to form, and become dependable...but both contracts will be adjusted in the next year or two either way. Same with Dayo, Grady and Montez.
All those numbers do is prove to me Poles' plan wasn't for the Bears to win this year and only this year, it's to do the best he can to build for the future. It takes time.
You have to overpay in today's NFL to sign any starting free agents, and you have to develop young talent to have any hopes of competing, it's ugly and hard to watch till it works, but that's how the sausage is made. If Dayo and Montez are slightly improved this year, some young players develop, and next year Poles drafts a real game changing edge rusher, do you really care how much either of those guys was paid today?
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u/NoThanksImGoodG 23 14h ago
Kyler is top 3 at his position. Jaylon is top 7. Sweat is a damn good player, just not elite. The other two ass. The bottom 3 players will also be gone years end. Not like we’re stuck with them.
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u/caxlmao Ben’s Johnson 16h ago
Is it safe to say Ben and Caleb saved Poles job?
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u/BooItsKyle 15h ago
Maybe, but given that getting coach and QB right are by far the two biggest responsibilities of a GM, it's hard to be too mad about it.
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u/SilkyJohnson72 16h ago
100%
This sub is full of Poles defenders but he's been a joke outside of 1 good trade
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u/External-Mammoth678 16h ago
The top 2 guys are being paid what they’re worth.
Grady and Dayo need to show us they are worth their contract, I think Grady will.
Gordon is just very disappointing.
I think they’ll be able to move off every single one of these players next offseason if they desire. I’d expect only maybe Sweat to be back, JJ is very clearly money driven and will likely get a larger payday somewhere else
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u/WhiteDogSh1t 🧸 I feel better 16h ago
I was pretty happy about the way last year played out.
I feel pretty good about our safeties for a while, pending health.
Might have found a decent DT in VB late in the draft.
We are pretty loaded on offensive skill guys for a while. OL should be fine.
Top tier offensive player caller and coach, and franchise QB in place.
A year or two of draft picks can fix a lot of holes on defense side of the ball.
Not every draft pick and FA will be home runs. Hit on the right ones and the other holes wont seem so bad.
Not a lotta of teams have it perfect, and still
Win.
Be happy buddy. This is about as good as we’ve had it in a long time. Focus on the positive.
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u/galacticskunk 16h ago
OP, I have another way for you to think of this thats not nearly as depressing.
Heading into the ‘27 season, Chicago can free up $65M in Cap space if they decide to part ways with all of these guys.
From a practical standpoint, it’s likely that at least a couple of these guys will be back if their performances merit keeping them on the roster.
Let’s just hope for the best from these guys this year and know that anyone that doesnt perform is probably gone which will allow Chicago to free up significant cap space to sign impact defenders next year.
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u/MochrieType2Diabetes 15h ago
And almost all of that will go straight to Caleb
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u/Afraid_Ad5606 3h ago
You really don't understand how rookie contracts or the cap work at all do you?
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u/galacticskunk 15h ago
Wrong. It’s clearly evident that Caleb isn’t going to force them into a shitty contact situation. He’s almost certainly going to take a page out of the Tom Brady book and will help to make things work for the team.
Dude wants to win. The money will take care of itself
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u/Tony_Stank6 14h ago
Lol you do not know that whatsoever
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u/galacticskunk 14h ago
There’s been plenty of circumstantial info out there that indicates thats the situation.
If you are paying attention
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u/randomname3415 14h ago
Even in Caleb doesn’t take the max amount he can get, his pay is going to jump at least into the mid $50 million range (guarantee it’ll be more if he plays well, which we should want). That’s a huge increase from what he currently makes. On the low end, he’ll be getting $45mil more than he currently gets per year.
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u/whyamihere2473527 Bears 16h ago
Well thats issue with doing huge contracts for guys oft injured or in response to a contract year surge in performance
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u/BooItsKyle 14h ago
This wasn't even a bottom 5 defense last year when they had a lot more injuries.
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u/Amonfire1776 13h ago
Lol...like any of you guys would have done any better...this defense has a lot of young talent which we needed and I like the younger core we have. Lets see how this plays out...frankly with all the super teams this year I'm not thinking SB or bust
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u/Aromatic-Dog-Breath 13h ago
Let’s hope these guys bring it and we all feel silly for even questioning the finances.
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u/happyfave 1h ago
3 of those are gone next year, and potentially up to all 5. (Unlikely but.. not outside the realm of possibilities)
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u/pyledriver21 15h ago
We have a bottom 3 GM in the sport being carried by an amazing coach and QB
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u/Afraid_Ad5606 3h ago
Bottom 3 who's hit on EVERY single 1st rounder, lol. I'm not the biggest fan of poles but the idea that all GMs hit on their 1st rounders is delusional. The meatballs on this sub are hilarious.
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u/Emotion-Turbulent 15h ago
I can’t believe people were happy when the Graddy Jarret deal was announced after Falcons told him to go away 🤦♂️
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u/limp-bisquick-345 16h ago
I don't really mind the first two people on this, but the next 3 are rough especially with Kyler being out with another mystery injury
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u/qdawgg17 13h ago
And this is why I keep saying. Ryan poles is not THAT far off from Ryan pace. He’s made a lot of bad decisions. Imagine if he had actually attempted to revamp the OL earlier and then made better decisions on the DL and at LB.
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u/BooItsKyle 12h ago
Using three first picks and getting zero franchise qbs seems pretty far off from using net zero to get one.
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u/toolate83 12h ago
Thanks for bringing this to everyone’s attention. This is definitely not the first time I have heard this.
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u/Dry_Emphasis62 Sweetness 15h ago
I dont mean this as a shot at any of them, but the only one I expect on the team next year is Jaylon. And I expect at least 3 of the listed to be gone by April.
I love our offense generally, but I think our defense gets a lot of investment this upcoming season between FA and the Draft
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u/sad_bear_noises 18 15h ago
The good news is the only with significant guarantees in 2027 is Kyler Gordon. I think we'd all like to extend Jaylon Johnson, but other than that I don't expect Dayo, Grady, or Montez to be back next year.
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u/Dunt_Cestroyer 16h ago
This is what happens when you don't draft on one side of the ball all that well. You overpay for okay players