The Chicago Bears prioritized the linebacker position during the first day of the NFL’s free agent negotiating window, agreeing to a deal with Tremaine Edmunds. The former Buffalo Bills star joined T.J. Edwards at the position, who signed just a few hours prior, as the team’s prized free agent at this point in the offseason.
Edmunds was drafted by the Bills in the first round of the 2018 NFL Draft when they traded up to select him. He’s eclipsed 100 tackles in each of his five seasons in the league and earned Pro Bowl honors in 2019 and 2020. During his final season in Buffalo in 2022, Edmunds notched 102 total tackles, including six for a loss, one sack, one interception, and seven passes defensed.
General manager Ryan Poles made sure to shore up the linebacker position with Edwards and Edmunds, but paid a premium for the latter. Here’s our initial grade of the signing.
Contract details
- 4 years, $72 million ($50 million guaranteed)
Initial grade: B+
Ever since Poles took over as general manager, he’s had a strategy when it comes to free agency: Find young players who can continue to ascend on cost-effective deals. Edmunds is another player who fits that mold at only 24 years old, but this will be Poles’ most lucrative signing yet. Fortunately, the deal is structured in a way that doesn’t handcuff the Bears in later years.
According to Over The Cap, Edmunds’ contract has all the guaranteed money tied up in the first two years. After the 2024 season, the Bears can get out of the deal for just $4.875 million in dead cap. It’s a good deal for Edmunds and it makes sense for the Bears financially while they have the available cap space. The biggest key in all of this will be how he fits into Matt Eberflus’ defense.
The Bears were unwilling to pay Roquan Smith $100 million and guarantee his $20 million. Part of that was due to how Eberflus viewed him and what he brought to the table. He’s looking for long and athletic players who can fly around the field and make plays on the football. That’s Edmunds and he’s still ascending as a professional. He has all the physical tools to play the middle linebacker position in Chicago at a high level. He just needs to do it consistently, which was an issue at times earlier in his career.
The only knock that’s keeping this signing below an A is that the Bears doubled down at the linebacker position after just agreeing to a modest deal with Edwards. For having such a deep group in free agency, did it make sense to go after Edmunds and outbid other teams for his services when there were/are other pressing needs? Regardless, there’s no question the Bears made themselves better on defense with this move and being the team that had the worst record in the last last year, they needed to make a splash.
